Every article tag can be clicked to get a list of all articles in that category. Every article tag also has an RSS feed! You can customize an RSS feed too!
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

KDE Plasma 5.25 is out now, here's some of what's new

By - | Views: 38,937

Ready to get the latest and greatest from the KDE team? The awesome Plasma 5.25 release is officially out now. This is the desktop environment used on the Steam Deck when in Desktop Mode! Hopefully Valve will update it at some point.

One of the big new additions is the extension of what you can customize. Accent colours for example, can be automatically picked based on your background making everything fit nicely together. It's optional of course, you can set the colouring however you like. You can also now have floating panels, that will gracefully stop floating when you maximise a window and it looks pretty slick.

Switching between windows and workspaces is now a breeze, thanks to the new Overview affect that's shipped. This gives you a good look at everything you have open, allowing you to also search through apps, documents, and browser tabs with KRunner and the Application Launcher.

There's also masses of upgrades and new additions to touchscreen input and gestures on a touchpad. Oh, and the Discover Software app had the application pages redesigned to give you access to more and better info on what you're downloading and plenty of upgrades to their Flatpak handling.

See their flashy release trailer below:

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

There's also absolutely loads (hundreds!) of improvements and fixes for Wayland support too.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
24 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
54 comments
Page: 1/6»
  Go to:

itscalledreality Jun 14, 2022
Er…we’re halfway through the year and there’s very little about fixing multimonitor support, one of the biggest hurdles for those switching to Linux. I’m hoping that suggested promise earlier in the year is actually met. The stitched-together giant desktop just doesn’t work well.

It’s great they learned about color detection so they can apply accent colors and other vanity features but who does that really help?


Last edited by itscalledreality on 14 June 2022 at 1:54 pm UTC
wolfyrion Jun 14, 2022
I have some problems with it

Applications do not autostart somehow...

Quotejournalctl --user -b  17:00:20
Jun 14 16:42:05 xWx systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[1322]: /home/wolfyrion/.config/autostart/org.kde.latte-dock.desktop:9: Unknown key name 'InitialPreference' in section 'Desktop Entry', ignoring.
Jun 14 16:42:05 xWx systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[1322]: /home/wolfyrion/.config/autostart/org.kde.latte-dock.desktop:17: Unknown key name 'TerminalOptions' in section 'Desktop Entry', ignoring.
Jun 14 16:42:05 xWx systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[1322]: Configuration file /home/wolfyrion/.config/autostart/xdotool.desktop is marked executable. Please remove executable permission bits. Proceeding anyway.
Jun 14 16:42:05 xWx systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[1322]: /home/wolfyrion/.config/autostart/xdotool.desktop:15: Unknown key name 'TerminalOptions' in section 'Desktop Entry', ignoring.
Jun 14 16:42:05 xWx systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[1322]: /home/wolfyrion/.config/autostart/cadence.desktop:1: Unknown section 'Carla Shortcut Group'. Ignoring.
Jun 14 16:42:05 xWx systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[1322]: /home/wolfyrion/.config/autostart/cadence.desktop:6: Unknown section 'CarlaControl Shortcut Group'. Ignoring.
Jun 14 16:42:05 xWx systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[1322]: /home/wolfyrion/.config/autostart/cadence.desktop:11: Unknown section 'Catia Shortcut Group'. Ignoring.
Jun 14 16:42:05 xWx systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[1322]: /home/wolfyrion/.config/autostart/cadence.desktop:16: Unknown section 'Claudia Shortcut Group'. Ignoring.
Jun 14 16:42:05 xWx systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[1322]: /home/wolfyrion/.config/autostart/cadence.desktop:21: Unknown section 'ClaudiaLauncher Shortcut Group'. Ignoring


Last edited by wolfyrion on 14 June 2022 at 2:09 pm UTC
StalePopcorn Jun 14, 2022
I really hope they've fixed major Wayland issues. 5.24.5 in the Manjaro KDE Testing Branch is unusable with Wayland—imagine waiting 20 seconds for Dolphin to launch or close…or KSysGuard, even clicking on a System Tray icon
TheSHEEEP Jun 14, 2022
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: itscalledrealityEr…we’re halfway through the year and there’s very little about fixing multimonitor support, one of the biggest hurdles for those switching to Linux.
Huh?
I don't think I ever had a problem with multiple monitors on Linux.

Some games do have issues with multiple monitors on Linux, but that's the games' fault, not really on Linux or any certain distro.
kemra102 Jun 14, 2022
Quoting: StalePopcornI really hope they've fixed major Wayland issues. 5.24.5 in the Manjaro KDE Testing Branch is unusable with Wayland—imagine waiting 20 seconds for Dolphin to launch or close…or KSysGuard, even clicking on a System Tray icon

I run Plasma 5.24.5 on Fedora with Wayland and everything launches just fine. perhaps that's a Manajro specific issue or even a bug local to you.
StalePopcorn Jun 14, 2022
Quoting: kemra102
Quoting: StalePopcornI really hope they've fixed major Wayland issues. 5.24.5 in the Manjaro KDE Testing Branch is unusable with Wayland—imagine waiting 20 seconds for Dolphin to launch or close…or KSysGuard, even clicking on a System Tray icon

I run Plasma 5.24.5 on Fedora with Wayland and everything launches just fine. perhaps that's a Manajro specific issue or even a bug local to you.

It's likely, but I can't imagine what's causing it. I spent hours troubleshooting but I'm going to wait until Manjaro update their branch release.
itscalledreality Jun 14, 2022
Quoting: TheSHEEEP
Quoting: itscalledrealityEr…we’re halfway through the year and there’s very little about fixing multimonitor support, one of the biggest hurdles for those switching to Linux.
Huh?
I don't think I ever had a problem with multiple monitors on Linux.

Some games do have issues with multiple monitors on Linux, but that's the games' fault, not really on Linux or any certain distro.

Nope it's not games, it's definitely how KDE handles multimonitors. When my computer sleeps then wakes again, it does not properly restore my desktop and monitors to their previous state. When it does on-the-off-chance restore my monitors correctly, the windows do not restore to their previous monitor. Why are monitors stitched together as one giant desktop? These issues extend from my older Gen 1 Sandybridge i7 all the way to my current gen laptop. This doesn't even touch the Wayland support. These issues aren't uncommon and the Plasma team acknowledge as much about widespread issues related to multimonitor support earlier in the year. They also indicated this year they would try to address these problems. The fact that I have to go into the `/etc/X11/...` config files at all is a sign that multimonitor support isn't there yet.
slaapliedje Jun 14, 2022
Quoting: itscalledrealityEr…we’re halfway through the year and there’s very little about fixing multimonitor support, one of the biggest hurdles for those switching to Linux. I’m hoping that suggested promise earlier in the year is actually met. The stitched-together giant desktop just doesn’t work well.

It’s great they learned about color detection so they can apply accent colors and other vanity features but who does that really help?

Was talking to a colleague about this yesterday. Windows still has shit multimonitor support as well. Funny enough, the last time I remember really great multimonitor support was when I had a Matrox card...

Quoting: itscalledrealityNope it's not games, it's definitely how KDE handles multimonitors. When my computer sleeps then wakes again, it does not properly restore my desktop and monitors to their previous state

I don't think sleeping works as well as it should in general, never mind waking up... oh wait, you're talking about computers... my comment still stands.
scaine Jun 14, 2022
View PC info
  • Contributing Editor
  • Mega Supporter
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: itscalledrealityEr…we’re halfway through the year and there’s very little about fixing multimonitor support, one of the biggest hurdles for those switching to Linux. I’m hoping that suggested promise earlier in the year is actually met. The stitched-together giant desktop just doesn’t work well.

It’s great they learned about color detection so they can apply accent colors and other vanity features but who does that really help?

Was talking to a colleague about this yesterday. Windows still has shit multimonitor support as well. Funny enough, the last time I remember really great multimonitor support was when I had a Matrox card...

Quoting: itscalledrealityNope it's not games, it's definitely how KDE handles multimonitors. When my computer sleeps then wakes again, it does not properly restore my desktop and monitors to their previous state

I don't think sleeping works as well as it should in general, never mind waking up... oh wait, you're talking about computers... my comment still stands.

What issues does Windows have with multimonitor support? I havent seen any

I use multimonitor at work on Windows - it's not exactly a shit-show, but it's not any better than what I had under gnome when I last used multi-monitor, about 2 years ago. Maybe a bit worse - Windows frequently (well, a couple of times a week) just doesn't detect the monitor when it's plugged in. App windows frequently (all the time) start on the wrong window too, Windows seems to prefer the primary (laptop) monitor for just about everything, which just gets a bit annoying. A few times a week, I can plug in my external monitor and Chrome is just... gone. Technically it's still running, but it's shot off into the ether - somewhere miles up to the top-left, I think? I have to close it down and restart it for it to re-appear. Biggest pain though is that when I sit at a new hot-desk at work, there's an identical Dell monitor for me to plug into, but despite that, Windows treats it like it's never heard of such a thing before, and I have to reposition it over to the left of my laptop again. God knows how many of those "monitor position" profiles my registry has stored now. I bet it's HK_LOCAL_MACHINE too, so I'll lose them all when I get a new laptop and I'll have to re-train them all again...

But multi-monitor support is incredibly complex. For example, if you have your apps all laid out nicely across two monitors, then unplug your hub/monitor, all your apps squeeze onto one monitor, which is expected. Then plug the external monitor back in again, everything just stays on that squeezed up screen and you have to lay them all out again, which is a pain. But is that expected? Or should they re-position back to the multi-monitor layout? I know I'd like them to, but I bet there are plenty of use-cases out there where that's a bad idea.

How about when modals pop up - should they use the primary monitor, the monitor of the window creating the modal, or the monitor which has the mouse pointer (what about multiple mouse pointers...)? What about notifications, where do they pop up? What about alt-tab, or Overview?

What about when to resize window contents when dragging a window between two monitors with different DPI settings?

What about multiple refresh rates. Or freesync?

I mean, it's all solvable, and it's frustrating that it's still NOT solved, but it feels like both Windows and all the various Linux DEs still have to figure this stuff out.
Raaben Jun 14, 2022
Awesome job, KDE team! Those floating panels are sexy.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.