KDE Plasma is one of the most popular desktop environments on Linux computers, taking inspiration from Windows and macOS and adding countless customization options on top. There’s now a new release that makes it even better.
Just in time for Free Software Day, the KDE community has released Plasma 5.27, the latest version of the desktop environment used in operating systems like Kubuntu, KDE Neon, openSUSE, and Fedora KDE. The best improvement might be the new tiling system, which allows you to set up custom tile layouts and resize adjacent windows simultaneously. It’s much more powerful than the window tiling features in Windows, but the feature is “still in its infancy” and might not work well for everyone.
This release also cleans up the System Settings app, improving organization and moving some options around. Customization has been a focus with KDE for years, but the massive collection of options can be intimidating for newcomers, so it’s nice to see some improvements there. The Discover app, which functions as the default app store and software manager, has also received a visual overhaul. There’s a new homepage design, the search is a bit better, and Steam Deck owners can now run system updates from the desktop.
There are many other improvements in Plasma 5.27, covering system widgets, the KRunner utility, the panel, multi-monitor support, and improvements to Wayland compositor support.
If you’re using a rolling-release Linux distribution, like KDE Plasma, you should get the new Plasma desktop as an update sometime soon. Other distributions, such as Kubuntu or Fedora, will likely wait until the next OS release to roll it out. For example, Kubuntu already has testing packages available for Plasma 5.27, and there’s a good chance that Kubuntu 23.04 Luna Lobster will ship with the update when it arrives in April.
Source: KDE
