The KDE Plasma 5.27 custom shell release is available, built using the KDE Frameworks 5 and the Qt 5 library using OpenGL/OpenGL ES for faster rendering. You can evaluate the work of the new version through a Live build from the openSUSE project and a build from the KDE Neon User Edition project. Packages for various distributions can be found on this page. Release 5.27 will be the last release before the formation of the KDE Plasma 6.0 branch, built on top of Qt 6.
Key improvements:
- Plasma Welcome is an introductory application that introduces users to the basic features of the desktop and allows you to perform basic configuration of basic settings, such as linking to online services.
- The KWin window manager has expanded the possibilities of tiling windows. In addition to the previously available options for snapping windows to the right or left, full control of window tiling is now available through an interface invoked by pressing Meta+T. When moving a window while holding down the Shift key, the window is now automatically placed using the tiled layout.
- The restructuring of the configurator (System Settings) was carried out, aimed at reducing the pages with settings and moving small options to other sections. For example, the cursor animation setting on application launch has been moved to the Cursors page, the changed settings highlight button has been moved to the hamburger menu, and all global volume settings have been moved to the Sound Volume page and are no longer separately provided in the volume change widget. Improved settings for touch screens and tablets.
- A new module has been added to the configurator for setting the permissions of Flatpak packages. By default, Flatpak packages are not granted access to the rest of the system, and through the proposed interface, you can selectively grant each package the necessary permissions, such as access to parts of the main FS, hardware devices, network connections, the audio subsystem, and printing.
- The widget for setting screen layouts in multi-monitor configurations has been redesigned. Significantly improved tools for managing the connection of three or more monitors.
- The Program Control Center (Discover) has a new design for the main page, which presents dynamically updated categories with popular applications, as well as a set of recommended programs. The search capabilities have been expanded, if there are no matches in the current category, a search is provided in all categories. For users of the Steam Deck game console, the ability to install system updates has been implemented.
- The program search interface (KRunner) now supports showing the current time taking into account the time zone in other places (you need to type βtimeβ in the search and a country, city or time zone code separated by a space). The most relevant search results are displayed at the top of the list. If nothing is found during the local search, a rollback to the search in the Web is implemented. Added "define" key, which can be used to get the dictionary definition of the following word.
- The clock widget provides the ability to display the Jewish lunisolar calendar.
- The widget with a media player has the ability to control gestures (shift up, down, right or left to change the volume or change the position in the stream).
- The Color Picker widget provides a preview of up to 9 colors, the ability to determine the average color of an image, and added support for placing a color code on the clipboard.
- In the network settings widget, when setting up a VPN, the system detects the presence of the necessary packages and displays a suggestion for installing them if they are not in the system.
- Simplified monitoring of the system using widgets. The Bluetooth widget now displays the battery level of connected devices. Added NVIDIA GPU power consumption data to System Monitor.
- Continued improvement of the session based on the Wayland protocol. Added support for smooth scrolling with high-resolution wheel mice. Drawing applications such as Krita now have the ability to track pen tilt and rotation on tablets. Added support for configuring global hotkeys. Provided automatic selection of the zoom level for the screen.
- Provided support for defining global keyboard shortcuts for running individual commands in the terminal.
- Added the ability to enable Do Not Disturb from the command line (kde-inhibit --notifications).
- Added support for moving or copying windows to rooms (Activities) by right-clicking on the title bar and selecting an action.
- While in screen lock mode, pressing the Esc key now turns off the screen image and puts it in power saving mode.
- A separate field has been added to the menu editor for defining environment variables set when opening programs.
Source: opennet.ru