Plasma, the desktop for the KDE project, has just received a massive update and is now at version 5.3 Beta. It's still under development, but users can already see the amount of work that has been done.

Plasma 5.x is the branch that provided a major upgrade to the famous desktop of the KDE project. It's the most visible aspect of KDE, so people are definitely going to take notice when it's being modified. This is the reason why changes to KDE Plasma are immediately visible and they tend to get the most publicity.

The KDE project has recently changed the way it is organized, and all the working parts have been split into Plasma, Frameworks, and Applications. This allows developers to push updates out the door much faster than you would expect, but it also means that they will have different version numbers from one another. It might create some small complications along the way, but users will probably adapt.

This is more than just a pretty update

If we take a look at the latest KDE Plasma 5.3 Beta, it will be difficult to determine the main new features, but the most interesting seems to be the new Tech Preview for the Plasma Media Center, which makes its debut.

"Plasma Media Center is added as a tech preview in this beta. It is fully stable but misses a few features compared to version 1. You can log directly into a Plasma Media Center session if you want to use it on a media device such as a television or projector or you can run it from Plasma Desktop. It will scan for videos, music and pictures on your computer to let you browse and play them," reads the official announcement.

The developers also explain that Power Management has been refined, the Bluetooth capabilities have been expanded a great deal, the beloved Plasma widgets are now much better, and important steps have been taken towards supporting Wayland.

You can also download the latest KDE Plasma 5.3 Beta source packages from Softpedia, but please keep in mind that it's work in progress and it's not stable.