A new version of the KDE Plasma 5.19 graphical environment has been released. The main priority of this release was the development of the design of widgets and desktop elements, namely a more consistent appearance. The user will have more control and options to customize the system, and usability improvements will make using Plasma even easier and more enjoyable!
Of the main changes:
Desktop and Widgets:
- Improved panel separator. Now it allows you to automatically center widgets.
- Improved title area design in system tray applets and notifications (see below). screenshot).
- The system monitor widget has been rewritten from scratch (see below). screenshot).
- Updated appearance of tray media playback and task manager tooltips applet.
- There is a new set of photographic avatars (see below). screenshot).
- Selecting desktop wallpapers now displays the names of their authors.
- Improved "Notes" widget (sticky notes).
- Improved visual display of large on-screen menus.
- GTK3 applications instantly apply the selected color scheme.
- Fixed incorrect display of colors in GTK2 applications.
- Increased fixed width font size from 9 to 10.
- Improved interface of volume control widget. Now it's easier to switch between audio devices (see below). screenshot).
System parameters:
- The settings windows for Default Applications, Internet Accounts, Global Keyboard Shortcuts, Window Manager and background services have been redesigned (see below). screenshot).
- When launching "System Settings" through KRunner or the application launcher, it became possible to open the settings with the desired subsection (see below). video).
- The screen settings page now displays the aspect ratio for all available screen resolutions.
- There are more options for setting the animation speed of Plasma.
- Added file indexing setting for individual directories. Now you can disable indexing for hidden files.
- Added option to adjust mouse and touchpad scroll speed in Wayland.
- Added many minor improvements to the font settings.
System information:
- Changed the design of the System Information app to better match the look and feel of System Settings (see screenshot). screenshot).
- Detailed information about the graph is now displayed.
KWin window manager:
- Wayland has significantly reduced flicker in many applications.
- Icons in application titles are now recolored for better visibility to match the color scheme (see below). screenshot).
- The screen rotation feature for tablets and convertible laptops now works on Wayland.
Discover Program Center:
- Implemented easier deletion of Flatpak repositories (see below). screenshot).
- App reviews now show the version of the app.
- Improved interface and usability.
System Monitor:
- System Monitor has been adapted for systems with 12 or more processor cores.
Source: linux.org.ru