KDE Plasma is one of the best desktop environments for Linux, and it’s used in Kubuntu, KDE Neon, Fedora KDE, and other distributions.Now, Plasma 6.6 has arrived with some new features and usability improvements.First, Plasma is continuing its push as a highly-customizable desktop with custom global themes.
If you modify the colors of your desktop and applications, you can now save your changes as a new global theme, which can then be applied as the day or night theme.Plasma also has new display filters to address four different types of colorblindness.The built-in screenshot tool, Spectacle, can now recognize and extract text from captured images.
For example, you can take a screenshot of a scanned PDF, and copy the text to your clipboard in one click.The ability to select text from images is one of my favorite features in the Preview app on macOS, and it’s great to see KDE finally get similar functionality.Plasma 6.6 also includes a revamped on-screen keyboard, known as Plasma Keyboard.
This is mostly helpful for tablets, 2-in-1 laptops, and other devices that might not always have a physical keyboard attached.The next time you set up a new computer with Plasma, you’ll probably see the new Plasma Setup tool.It walks you through steps like setting up an account, connecting to a network, and selecting a timezone, instead of those steps happening during operating system installation.
That way, the base operating system can be installed first (either by the computer’s manufacturer, yourself, or someone else), and the personal settings can be configured afterwards.KDE says the new setup tool is mainly helpful for companies shipping computers with Plasma installed, or “businesses or charity organizations refurbishing computers with Plasma to give them new life.” Windows, macOS, and some other Linux environments already work the same way.Plasma 6.6 also includes a new Plasma Login Manager, which you might see on some distributions when logging into your computer.
It requires a Linux distribution with systemd, which briefly caused a controversy about Plasma supposedly dropping support for systems without systemd, such as FreeBSD and some Linux distributions.The KDE team quickly shut that down in a series of posts on Mastodon, explaining that there are several other login managers that will continue to work, and no core components of KDE apps or the Plasma desktop will require systemd.The KDE team said, “There are sad people who will do anything for attention and clicks, will spread FUD and fake controversies to obtain them, including decontextualising comments on merge requests, stating as facts and official communications what are personal opinions, and finally straight up lying.” There are many other smaller improvements in this release.
Automatic screen brightness is now an option for devices with ambient light sensors, fonts can be installed from the Discover software center, and animations are now smoother on high refresh rate screens.There’s also a new skin tone selector in the emoji panel (Windows+Period keyboard shortcut), and you can now scan QR codes to connect to Wi-Fi networks.How-To Geek Report: Subscribe and never miss what matters Unlock your tech-savvy potential and master the digital world with How-To Geek.
Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.You can unsubscribe anytime.If you have a rolling-release distribution like KDE Neon, Arch Linux, openSUSE Tumbleweed, or NixOS, the Plasma 6.6 update should be available within the next few days.
Kubuntu 26.04 will include Plasma 6.6 when it arrives in March 2025.Source: KDE.org, KDE on Mastodon
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