Release AnnouncementsPlasma 5.9.95

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KDE Plasma 5.10 Beta

Monday, 15 May 2017. Today KDE has made a testing release of our desktop Plasma 5.10 with new features across the suite to give users an experience which lives up to our tagline: simple by default, powerful when needed.

Panel Task Manager

[WebM Video not supported] Middle Mouse Click to Group

Task Manager, the list of applications in the panel, has gained options for middle mouse click such as grouping and ungrouping applications.

Several other improvements here include:

Places jump list actions in File manager launchers (e.g. pinned Dolphin in Task Manager now lists user places)

The icon size in vertical Task Managers is now configurable to support more common vertical panel usage patterns

Improved app identification and pinning in Task Manager for apps that rely on StartupWMClass, perl-SDL-based apps and more

Folder View Is the New Default Desktop

Folder on the Desktop by Default

After some years shunning icons on the desktop we have accepted the inevitable and changed to Folder View as the default desktop which brings some icons by default and allows users to put whatever files or folders they want easy access to. Many other improvements have been made to the Folder View include:

Spring Loading in Folder View making drag and drop of files powerful and quick

More space-saving/tighter icon grid in Folder View based on much user feedback

Improved mouse behavior / ergonomics in Folder View for icon dnd (less surprising drop/insert location), rectangle selection (easier, less fiddly) and hover (same)

Revamped rename user interface in Folder View (better keyboard and mouse behavior e.g. closing the editor by clicking outside, RTL fixed, etc.)

Massively improved performance in Folder View for initial listing and scrolling large folders, reduced memory usage

Many other bug fixes and UI improvements in Folder View, e.g. better back button history, Undo shortcut support, clickable location in the headings, etc.

Unified drop menu in Folder View, showing both file (Copy/Move/Link) and widget (creating a Picture widget from an image drop, etc.) drop actions

It is now possible to resize widgets in the desktop by dragging on their edges and moving them with Alt+left-click, just like regular windows

New Features Everywhere

Lock Screen Now Has Music Controls Software Centre Plasma Search offers to install apps Audio Volume Device Menu

There are so many other improvements throughout the desktop, here's a sample:

Media controls on lock screen

Pause music on suspend

Software Centre Plasma Search (KRunner) suggests to install non-installed apps

File copying notifications have a context menu on previews giving access to actions such as open containing folder, copy, open with etc

Improved plasma-windowed (enforces applet default/minimum sizes etc)

'desktop edit mode', when opening toolbox reveals applet handles

Performance optimizations in Pager and Task Manager

'Often used' docs and apps in app launchers in addition to 'Recently used'

Panel icons (buttons for popup applets, launcher applets) now follow the Icons -> Advanced -> Panel size setting in System Settings again, so they won't take up too much space, particularly useful for wide vertical panels

Revamped password dialogs for network authentication

The security of the lock screen architecture got reworked and simplified to ensure that your system is secured when the screen is locked. On Linux systems the lock screen is put into a sandbox through the seccomp technology.

Plasma's window manager support for hung processes got improved. When a window is not responding any more it gets darkened to indicate that one cannot interact with it any more.

Support for locking and unlocking the shell from the startup script, useful especially for distributions and enterprise setups

Audio Volume applet has a handy menu on each device which you can use to set is as default or switch output to headphones.

Improved touch screen support

Virtual keyboard on Log In and Lock Screen

Virtual Keyboard in lock screen

Virtual Keyboard in the login screen

Touch screen edge swipe gestures

Left screen edge defaults to window switching

Show auto-hiding panels through edge swipe gesture

Working for the Future with Wayland

We have put a lot of work into porting to new graphics layer Wayland, the switch is coming but we won't recommend it until it is completely transparent to the user. There will be improved features too such as KWin now supports scaling displays by different levels if you have a HiDPI monitor and a normal DPI screen.

Keyboard layout support in Wayland now has all the features of X11:

Layout switcher in the system tray

Per layout global shortcut

Switch layout based on a policy, either global, virtual desktop, application or per window

IPC interface added, so that other applications can change layout.

Plymouth Boot Splash Selection

Plymouth KControl Module

A new System Settings module lets you download and select boot time splashes.

Bundle Packages

Flatpak integration with xdg-desktop-portal-kde: selecting a file using file chooser portal, invoking openURI portal and notification portal

Experimental support for forthcoming new bundle package formats has been implemented. Discover software centre has gained provisional backends for Flatpak and Snappy. New plugin xdg-desktop-portal-kde has added KDE integration into Flatpak packaged applications.

Support for GNOME’s Open Desktop Ratings, replacing old Ubuntu popularity contest with tons of already existing reviews and comments.

Supporting KDE

KDE is a Free Software community that exists and grows only because of the help of many volunteers that donate their time and effort. KDE is always looking for new volunteers and contributions, whether it is help with coding, bug fixing or reporting, writing documentation, translations, promotion, money, etc. All contributions are gratefully appreciated and eagerly accepted. Please read through the Supporting KDE page for further information or become a KDE e.V. supporting member programme.

About KDE

KDE is an international technology team that creates free and open source software for desktop and portable computing. Among KDE's products are a modern desktop system for Linux and UNIX platforms, comprehensive office productivity and groupware suites and hundreds of software titles in many categories including Internet and web applications, multimedia, entertainment, educational, graphics and software development. KDE software is translated into more than 60 languages and is built with ease of use and modern accessibility principles in mind. KDE's full-featured applications run natively on Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows and macOS.

Trademark Notices. KDE® and the K Desktop Environment® logo are registered trademarks of KDE e.V. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.

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