Back in 2024, the KDE team jettisoned both the Oxygen and Air themes from the desktop. Oxygen was what most people considered the true classic look for the KDE desktop and had been so for years.

The only official explanation for that removal was from developer David Edmundson, who claimed that shipping a first-party theme introduced a lot of technical debt and had become a maintenance burden.

According to this post by developer Filip Fila, "I would like to preface the improvements by saying I’m extremely glad to have seen such an overwhelmingly positive outpouring of messages regarding Oxygen recently." Fila continues, "It seems many want this theme to still thrive, and not just that – it also seems there’s generally a sizable crowd that’s hungry for non-flat looks."

For many Linux users who cut their teeth on non-flat looks and themes, this is a welcome re-addition. This is especially true since KDE Plasma has become one of the most beautiful desktops on the market. Getting both Oxygen and Air back will move that needle even further.

As well, the developers have decided that Air needs a bit more modernization, so they're adding a dash of transparency to it, which could bring it up to the level of Apple's Liquid Glass theme.

Fila says of the transparency, "...the version of Air that was removed from Plasma a few years ago was lacking the transparency levels that would make it true to not just its original, but really the whole design idea behind it."

One can only hope the developers deliver on these promises.