A major release of KDE's flagship desktop is coming soon
Exploring Plasma 6
For many users, Plasma 6 will look like a run-of-the-mill upgrade. But the moment you start digging, KDE being KDE, you will discover a world of new features and enhancements.
Plasma [1], the desktop environment many refer to incorrectly as "KDE," is going through an overhaul. (Plasma is actually the desktop component of the expansive KDE toolset.) When Qt [2], the set of libraries, frameworks, and tools KDE developers base most of their software on, was upgraded from version 5 to 6 in 2020, the process of migrating Plasma, as well as KDE's apps and frameworks, suddenly became a priority.
Developers were aware that a time would come when Qt, the company, would stop supporting the free 5.x branch of their software. The free version of Qt is the backbone that KDE is built on, and basing your products on an unsupported framework is a really bad idea.
Indeed, the Qt Group stopped supporting Qt 5.15 for free software projects in December 2020, the moment Qt 6.0 was released. It's worth noting that the Qt Group did maintain the support for the commercial proprietary version of Qt 5.15 until May 2023.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.