KDE Plasma 6

KDE Plasma 6 is the sixth generation of the KDE Plasma desktop environment. It is the successor of KDE Plasma 5 and was first released on 28 February 2024.^[1]

The KDE Plasma 6 desktop
Developer(s)	KDE
Initial release	28 February 2024; 2 months ago (2024-02-28)^[1]
Stable release	6.0.4^[2]  / 16 April 2024
Preview release	n/a
Written in	C++, QML
Operating system	Unix-like
Platform	FreeBSD and Linux
Predecessor	KDE Plasma 5
Type	Desktop environment
License	GPL 2.0 or later^[3]
Website	kde.org/plasma-desktop

Overview

KDE Plasma 6 was designed to not be a very large departure from KDE Plasma 5, instead being a series of improvements.^[4] KDE Plasma 6 is built using Qt 6, KDE Frameworks 6 and KDE Gear. In addition, support for the Wayland protocol was mainstreamed as the default graphical session, with X11 support made secondary.^[5] It introduces a new sound theme, Ocean, replacing Oxygen's sound theme as the default. Plasma 6 on Wayland has partial support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) and color blindness correction filters.^[1][6][7] The Discover app and settings were also improved and the 3D cube desktop effect was brought back.^[8]

Desktop features

• The panel floats by default. Panels can be configured using auto-hide mode and be resized, including being turned into a dock.^[8]
• Plasma Search allows for customizing the ordering of search results, and allows for conversion between timezones.
• Support for the Astronomical and Umm al-Qura Calendars in the calendar applet.
• Support for use of both password and fingerprint authentication at the same time.
• Support for sound themes.

History

The first Technology Preview of Plasma 6 was released on 28 February 2024.^[1]

Releases

See also: KDE Software Compilation § Release cycle

Releases of new versions are planned every 4 months (3 times a year) initially. Though it may move to 2 releases a year in the future.^[9]

Normal releases will stop receiving bugfixes as soon as the following release is available. The exception to this rule are LTS releases.

Plasma 6 releases
Version	Date	Key features
Old version, no longer maintained: 6.0^[1]	28 Feb 2024	First release of KDE MegaRelease 6
Old version, no longer maintained: 6.0.1^[9]	5 Mar 2024	First bugfix release for KDE Plasma 6.0
Old version, no longer maintained: 6.0.2 ^[10]	12 Mar 2024	Second bugfix release for KDE Plasma 6.0
Current stable version: 6.0.3 ^[11]	26 Mar 2024	Third bugfix release for KDE Plasma 6.0
Future release: 6.1	18 Jun 2024
Future release: 6.1.1	25 Jun 2024
Legend: Old version Older version, still maintained Latest version Latest preview version Future release

References

1. "KDE MegaRelease 6". KDE. 28 February 2024. from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
2. "KDE Plasma 6.0.4, Bugfix Release for April". 16 April 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
3. "Copying of Plasma Workspace". KDE Invent. from the original on 4 May 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
4. Wallen, Jack (11 September 2023). "I tested KDE Plasma 6 and found it very familiar. Here's why that's a good thing". ZDNET. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
5. Wallen, Jack (14 February 2024). "The first Linux distribution to deliver a pure KDE Plasma 6 environment is here". ZDNET. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
6. Sneddon, Joey (28 February 2024). "KDE Plasma 6.0 Has Arrived, This is What's New". OMG! Ubuntu. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
7. Davenport, Corbin (28 February 2024). "KDE 6 Update Arrives With Big Plasma Desktop Updates for Linux". How-To Geek. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
8. Rudra, Sourav (28 February 2024). "KDE Plasma 6: The Big Release is Here!". It's FOSS News. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
9. "KDE Plasma 6.0.1, Bugfix Release for March". announcements.kde.org. 5 March 2024. from the original on 6 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
10. . 12 March 2024. Archived from the original on 27 March 2024.
11. . 26 March 2024. Archived from the original on 27 March 2024.