Plasma 6.5
kde.org
KDE is on the verge of making it big for the general public

How do you make a great desktop into a fantastic desktop? Easy — chip away at the rough bits, polish the good stuff, and add awesomeness. After 29 years of development, KDE’s got the foundation nailed down. Plasma 6.5 is all about fine-tuning, fresh features, and a making everything smooth and sleek for everyone.

Ready to see what’s new? Let’s dive into Plasma 6.5!

Highlights:

  • Automatic Theme Transitions: Configure when your theme will transition from light to dark and back.
  • Caret Text Navigation: Zoom now swoops in to where you type
  • KRunner Fuzzy Search: Even if you type it wrong, KRunner will find it!
  • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
    31·
    1 month ago

    I just moved to Plasma from XFCE and my first thought was wow, this runs fine on old hardware, why have I been suffering through the 2010 experience when I could have had features all this time!?

    • audaxdreik@pawb.socialEnglish
      20·
      1 month ago

      Aww, I will always love XFCE and save a place for it in my heart … but I moved to Plasma 2 years ago and haven’t really looked back either >_>

      • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
        11·
        1 month ago

        XFCE is fine, it seems to largely behave and while it doesn’t have any bells and whistles it can do everything it tries to do fine. Gnome on the other hand… everything I wanted it to do required a plugin which had since been broken by a new version. Plasma seems great so far!

        • audaxdreik@pawb.socialEnglish
          6·
          1 month ago

          Agreed. I was actually afraid to modify my KDE desktop for months because of the trauma sustained from just trying to customize Gnome a bit. My configuration is still pretty vanilla, but it’s got enough personal flair to it that it feels uniquely mine and I’m the happiest I’ve been.

          • Kay Ohtie@pawb.socialEnglish
            2·
            1 month ago

            Including the limitations of options, albeit worse than Apple. I really don’t understand the hubris of that team.

      • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        1 month ago

        I’ve only been a Linux user for a couple of years though so I’ve got no excuse!

  • melfie@lemy.lol
    24·
    1 month ago

    Automatic Theme Transitions: Configure when your theme will transition from light to dark and back

    Neurodivergent people when it automatically switches to light mode:

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      happens to me on random websites and it wakes me tf up when i’m surfing just before bed. lol

  • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
    10·
    1 month ago

    What a banger release! Last time they focused on bug hunting, this time its about features. This ping pong focused development is very nice.

    • KRunner Fuzzy Search: Not earth shattering, but welcome. I hope there is a way to dynamically force to enable or disable it. Sometimes fuzzy search can be in the way (I know it from other fuzzy search tools). My recommendation is ~ character to toggle the functionality: "~file" to enable fuzzy in example, if its disabled by default. I may even make a suggestion in the issue tracker, but I don’t know what options they integrated into it yet.
  • mogoh@lemmy.ml
    5·
    1 month ago

    Every time I try KDE I get burned by some bugs. How is stability?

    Baloo for example was some source of pain for me. And if I look at the bug tracker I do not get confidant. https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=CONFIRMED&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&field0-0-0=product&field0-0-1=component&field0-0-2=alias&field0-0-3=short_desc&field0-0-4=status_whiteboard&field0-0-5=content&order=changeddate+DESC%2Cbug_status%2Cpriority%2Cassigned_to%2Cbug_id&query_format=advanced&type0-0-0=substring&type0-0-1=substring&type0-0-2=substring&type0-0-3=substring&type0-0-4=substring&type0-0-5=matches&value0-0-0=baloo&value0-0-1=baloo&value0-0-2=baloo&value0-0-3=baloo&value0-0-4=baloo&value0-0-5="baloo"

    • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 month ago

      Same. I always try it out and run into some critical bug causing me to abandon it.

      My Linux Mint install with Cinnamon “just works”, so I’ve been sticking with that and hoping Wayland support goes stable soon, because I hate X Server.

    • rozodru@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      the only issues I had with KDE when I was recently using it all revolved around the panel. Random crashes with “too much” interaction. Adding widgets for the panel or desktop is still to this day hit or miss. clicking the “get new widget” option is a roll of the dice if it will actually work or not or even find the thing you want. It’s still horrible at loading stuff in there. and installing whatever, again, is a roll of the dice if it will actually do it or not.

      I like KDE, it’s a good and solid DE but man do they really need to focus on fixing the panels and the installation/discovery of widgets. The alternative is using the pling store and that’s just a headache on it’s own.

  • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
    52·
    1 month ago

    Am I the only one who thinks it looks ugly? Don’t get me wrong, they are improving it in many ways and it’s going in the right direction, plus a ton of features and customizability, but when I look at Gnome I don’t doubt for a second where I want to be.

    • Kami@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      13·
      1 month ago

      They are two opposite styles of UI.

      However, KDE has a fuckton of customization possibilities that I have always been dreaming of in GNOME.

      And I’m saying this as a GNOME guy, absolutely zero fanboyism here.

      • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
        2·
        1 month ago

        I don’t think anyone would think you were a fanboy, just beacuse KDE has ton of configuration and customization. That’s the opposite of GNOME. I always think of GNOME like Apple, who decides what you can and cannot do, what you are allowed to. I used GNOME 2, then Unity, then GNOME 3 all the way from Ubuntu 2008 to what, 2020 (I forget when I switched to different distro for the first time).

    • Domi@lemmy.secnd.me
      4·
      1 month ago

      I also think Gnome is much prettier than KDE but KDE is a fully working desktop environment that does not need extensions to get it to a working state so here I am.

      (Although I would not call KDE ugly)

    • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
      3·
      1 month ago

      You are not the only one. Its a taste. I personally like the KDE look the most, its beautiful to me. No other desktop environment looks this good.

    • Jumuta@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      1 month ago

      kde is pretty enough, it’s not exactly trendy but I feel they’re going the best they could do while keeping information density

  • Uairhahs@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 month ago

    I guess KDE remembering your previous monitor layout after temporarily switching to built in only for laptops is still too big an ask. Related merge has work done but is indefinitely closed and shelves. What a shame.

  • TechLich@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 month ago

    And Debian Sid is still stuck on 6.3.6 :(

    Hopefully they figure out the qt update thing and get the new version packaged soon?

  • DiamondOrthodox@lemmy.mlEnglish
    116·
    1 month ago

    Unfortunately, KDE is quantity over quality. I like the look and feel for the most part, but out of all the mainstream DEs, I’d say it’s the buggiest. GNOME with too many extensions is absolutely less stable, but vanilla KDE is embarrassing for stability, even on Linux Approved hardware.

    • muhyb@programming.dev
      7·
      1 month ago

      If you knew/remember the first days of KDE 5, it was the buggiest DE ever invented at that time. However nowadays I barely even see any bug in KDE, at least for my use cases. And I’m a WM guy who use KDE out of laziness.