- Mar 1, 2024
- 1,060
A new major update to the KDE Plasma desktop has been released, and it’s jam-packed with new features, enhancements, and performance-focused improvements.
Serving as the third release in the new 6.x series, KDE Plasma 6.2 builds on the foundations introduced in earlier this year in KDE Plasma 6.0 and KDE Plasma 6.1 (the latter being the version of KDE shipping out-of-the-box in the new Kubuntu 24.10 release).
KDE developers say of the new update:
“Plasma 6 has come into its own over the last two releases. The wrinkles that always come with a major migration have been ironed out, and it’s time to start delivering on the promises of the new Qt 6 and Wayland technology platforms that Plasma is built on top of.”
Let’s take a closer look.
KDE Plasma 6.2: Key Features
Creativity
Support for graphic/drawing tablets is hugely improved in KDE Plasma 6.2. New configuration options, calibration wizard and test mode, and intuitive re-binding of stylus/pen buttons to different mouse clicks are among the enhancements on offer.
Those running this version of KDE with a drawing tablet attached — the Linux 6.11 kernel adds support a number of popular, low-cost drawing tablets — can leverage the new features from the Drawing Tablet section in the System Settings utility.
Better Power Management
Power profiles easier to access in KDE Plasma 6.2
Laptop users gain additional controls over power management in KDE Plasma 6.2 with new options to override apps which prevent the system sleeping or screen lock kicking in.
Additionally, the default battery applet now lets you switch power profile (power save, normal, performance) and offers a new keyboard shortcut – super + b to cycle through them. A leaf icon is appended to the battery icon in power save mode, and a rocket for performance mode.
Want to adjust the brightness of each display in a multi-monitor setup separately? With this release, you can.
Visual Improvements
Symbolic icons in the application menu
Visual changes are aplenty are included, although many of them are subtle or minor buffs rather than shiny new bling.
The most noticeable (to me anyway) is that the app menu now uses symbolic icons for categories rather than full-colour icons. Subconsciously, this means category icons don’t compete for attention with app icons (which is what most of us are looking for).
KDE also say accent colours have been ‘tweaked’, the Widget Explorer has been ‘reworked’, and dialog and pop-up windows ‘unified’ in look and layout.
Other changes
Colour blind? Accessibility can help you out
Other notable changes and new features in KDE Plasma 6.2 include:
Oodles of bug fixes also feature, along with the usual package, framework, library, and tooling uplifts that go along with a new major release. You can see a complete overview of every change in KDE Plasma 6.2 in the raw change-log.
- Wayland color management protocol enabled by default
- Brightness handling for HDR and ICC profiles is improved
- New tone mapping feature added to the KWin compositor
- Option to shut down after applying an offline system update in Discover
- Colour blindness filters added to Accessibility settings
- Cropping tool available when setting new user avatar
- Weather Report applet now shows “feels like” temperature
- Double-click on .ovpn VPN profile files to configure new VPN
- Clipboard widget reliably shows preview of the image copied to clipboard
- Place files in ~/Templates to access from Create New… context menu
KDE Plasma 6.2 Released, This is What's New - OMG! Ubuntu
A new major update to the KDE Plasma desktop has been released, and it's jam-packed with new features, enhancements, and performance-focused improvements.
www.omgubuntu.co.uk
