The beta version of the Plasma 5.22 custom shell is available for testing. You can test the new release through a live build from the openSUSE project and a build from the KDE Neon Testing edition project. Packages for various distributions can be found on this page. The release is expected on June 8th.
Key improvements:
- The mode of adaptive setting of the transparency of the panel and widgets placed on the panel has been implemented, which automatically turns off transparency if there is at least one window maximized to the entire visible area. In the panel options, you can disable this behavior and enable permanent transparency or opacity.
- Significantly improved Wayland support. When using Wayland, the ability to work with rooms (activity) and support for searching through menu items in an applet with the implementation of a global menu is provided. The work of vertical and horizontal maximization of windows has been adjusted, and the possibility of using the βPresent Windowsβ effect has been implemented.
The KWin window manager uses the Wayland protocol to optimize performance by using direct scan-out of full-screen windows on non-NVIDIA GPUs. When using Wayland, support for FreeSync technology has been added, which allows the video card to change the refresh rate of the monitor in order to ensure smooth and stutter-free images during games. Added support for GPU hot plugging and the ability to configure overscan values.
- In multi-monitor configurations, the default is to open windows on the screen that the cursor is currently on.
- To track changes in system parameters (memory consumption, CPU load, network activity, running applications, etc.), the Plasma System Monitor interface is used by default, which replaced KSysGuard.
- The new Kickoff menu eliminates annoying delays before switching categories, and also solves the problem with random category switching when moving the cursor.
- The default behavior of the window highlighting mode has been changed in the task manager, which now only fires when the mouse cursor is over the window thumbnail.
- The correct operation of global hot keys affecting not only Latin characters on keyboards has been ensured.
- The sticky notes widget provides the ability to change the text size.
- When launching the configurator, a new quick settings page is now displayed by default, which contains the most requested settings by users in one place, as well as a link to change the desktop wallpaper. A parameter has been added to control the activity of the offline update installation mode, bypassing the default settings offered in distributions. Improved support for accessibility tools and keyboard navigation.
- Work has been done to unify the system tray applet interface. Changed the design of the pop-up dialog of the clock applet and added the ability to customize the display of the date in one line with the time. The volume control applet provides the ability to select a profile for sound devices.
- Added keyboard shortcut Meta+V to show the history of placing data on the clipboard.
- The system for displaying notifications for downloaded or moved files provides a display of applications that will be opened when you click the βopenβ link. File download notifications now inform the user that the download process is blocked and needs to initiate action to start or continue the download. Do not disturb mode is automatically activated to block notifications during screen sharing or screencast recording.
- The program search interface (KRunner) implements the display of multi-line search results, which, for example, makes it more convenient to display definitions. Added filtering of duplicates found by different handlers (for example, searching for "firefox" no longer offers equivalent options for launching the firefox application and running the firefox command on the command line).
Additionally, the May update (21.04.1) of applications developed by the KDE project and published under the name KDE Gear can be noted. In total, releases of 225 programs, libraries and plug-ins were published as part of the May update. The update is corrective in nature and includes mostly bug fixes.
Source: opennet.ru