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<\/center><\/p>\nKey changes in KDE Plasma 6.8:<\/p>\n
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- Support for the X11 protocol-based session has been discontinued. Only the session for working with the Wayland protocol remains, with the ability to run X11 applications facilitated by the XWayland DDX server. The discontinuation of X11 support affects only the KDE Plasma desktop environment and does not concern the ability to run KDE applications in environments based on the X server (there are currently no plans to discontinue X11 support in KDE applications). For those who require X11, support for this protocol has been retained in various components of the desktop environment where possible, along with additional changes to improve compatibility when running applications on XWayland.\n
Among the reasons for the discontinuation of X11 support are the overall stagnation of X server development and the desire not to disperse the limited resources of developers on parallel support for two display systems and session types. It has been stated that in the long term, eliminating X11 will provide new opportunities for expanding functionality, enhancing stability, optimizing code, and accelerating the development process.<\/p>\n
- The kup backup system has been integrated into the main Plasma suite, allowing users to create versioned backups of user data and save them to external USB drives or to server<\/a>. Automatic saving of changes since the last backup is possible when connecting the backup device to the computer.
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<\/center><\/p>\n- A new utility, kscreenctl, has replaced kscreen-doctor, offering a more familiar and structured command-line interface for output management. Supported operations include identifying available output devices, enabling\/disabling output devices, and modifying settings.\n
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<\/center><\/p>\n- The KWin compositor has been enhanced with automatic redrawing capabilities on the side. server<\/a> shadows and window contours, as well as the application of rounded corner effects for applications using client-side decoration (CSD) that do not support the specified decorative elements. This change has allowed applications like Steam and Discord, which were previously rendered without shadows, frames, and rounding, to acquire a look typical for KDE.\n
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<\/center><\/p>\nA new rule for overriding application window attributes (KWin Window Rules) has been implemented to activate shadows \u2014 'Window manager draws titlebar, frame, and shadows'. Shadows are automatically added to X11 applications that do not use server-side decoration and do not render shadows on the client side. <\/p>\n
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<\/center><\/p>\n- Performance has significantly improved when using external graphics cards. Due to the fact that, under the Wayland protocol, linux-dmabuf v5, the compositor could only work with one graphics card, frames had to be constantly copied through RAM when rendering on a different GPU (e.g., a discrete graphics card instead of an integrated one). In the new version of the linux-dmabuf v6 protocol, this issue has been resolved, allowing KWin to eliminate unnecessary buffer copying. In tests with a graphics card connected via USB-C, FPS in vkcube increased from 5 to 120, and in Cyberpunk 2077 with the 'low' preset, FPS improved from 27 to 50 when using linux-dmabuf v6.\n
- Support for triple buffering output has been enabled on systems with NVIDIA GPUs (KWin automatically enables triple buffering if the graphics card cannot complete rendering in time). Triple buffering uses three screen buffers \u2014 the first is used for rendering, the second for displaying the output, and the third continues the continuous rendering process if the first buffer is filled before the vertical blanking (vblank) is complete. The application of the third additional buffer allows for the elimination of stuttering that can occur with double buffering when switching between rendering and output buffers cannot complete before the vertical blanking is finished. This output organization allows for increased frame rates on less powerful devices at the cost of increased output latency.\n
- In KWin, support for the desktop graphics API OpenGL has been discontinued in favor of using only OpenGL ES. OpenGL ES support is required to work on some older GPUs and, as it turned out, OpenGL ES is sufficient for all KWin needs, so it has been retained as the base internal API, at least until Vulkan support becomes sufficiently developed. Leaving only OpenGL ES has eliminated intermittent issues caused by incompatibilities between OpenGL and OpenGL ES (code written and tested with one API would lead to rendering issues or crashes when using the other API).\n
- KWin has implemented support for the new version of the Emulated Input system 1.6 (libei), which is used for input emulation in Wayland-based environments.\n
- A beta version of the unified style engine, Union, has been proposed for testing, allowing various styling technologies available in KDE to be used. By default, the new engine utilizes the CSS format instead of the previously used SVG. The Union engine consists of three layers: The Input layer \u2014 parses input file formats with styles (SVG or CSS) and transforms them into an abstract description for rendering. The Intermediate layer \u2014 implements the data model and methods for applying styles to each element. The Output layer \u2014 is responsible for converting the universal style into rendering commands specific to the graphical stack (QtQuick or Qt Widgets). To enable the new engine, install the union package and activate the 'Breeze (Union)' theme in the settings (System Settings \u2192 Colors & Themes \u2192 Application Style).\n
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<\/center><\/p>\n- Expanded capabilities for remote desktop connections. Improved image quality and reduced latency when working on slow networks or when frequently updating content on the screen. Bi-directional clipboard synchronization has been ensured. An exclusive mode has been added, which includes screen locking on the server side and provides the client with a virtual screen that exactly reproduces window sizes. The settings page has been optimized for display in small windows.\n
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<\/center><\/p>\n<\/li>\n- Spectacle has added an option to record audio during screencast creation (it can use microphone input and save sound played by applications in the system). The video quality when recording screencasts has been improved. A blur effect has been implemented that works without using OpenCV, thus removing this library from dependencies. Support for resizing and changing the resolution of the virtual screen created for screencasts has been added (previously, the size was fixed at 1920×1080).\n<\/li>\n
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<\/center><\/p>\n<\/li>\n- The configurator has added settings for managing the appearance of the alternative symbols dialog after holding down keys. The ability to search for languages by locale code as well as by name in the native or English languages has been implemented (i.e., the Russian language can be found by 'ru', '\u0440\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439', and 'russian').
\nThe network settings page has added options for using EAP-TTLS authentication in StrongSwan. VPN<\/a>Added the ability to enable and disable application autostart without deleting and recreating entries.<\/p>\nWhen setting up screen layouts, pixel-by-pixel adjustment of elements is possible using the arrow keys.<\/p>\n
\n - A new utility, kscreenctl, has replaced kscreen-doctor, offering a more familiar and structured command-line interface for output management. Supported operations include identifying available output devices, enabling\/disabling output devices, and modifying settings.\n