First news in Plasma 5.19 beta and other improvements coming to KDE

KDE Plasma 5.19 beta

Last Thursday May 14, KDE He launched the first beta of Plasma 5.19. From the looks of it, it won't be a big feature release, but it will include enhancements to refine the famous graphical environment. Today, like every week, Nate Graham has returned to publish one of those posts in which he tells us about what the team he works for is preparing, and many of those news will arrive in the next version of Plasma.

This time, Graham has told us about six new features, including some in the Plasma version that is currently available as v5.18.90. Among them we have that the system monitor widgets have been completely redesigned and rewritten from scratch to make them more functional, versatile and attractive. Below you have all the list that have advanced this week.

New features coming to the KDE desktop

  • Konsole tabs can now be assigned colors (Konsole 20.08.0).
  • Dolphin now has new actions to quickly move or copy selected files in a split view pane to a file or another pane (Dolphin 20.08.0).
  • The system monitor widgets have been completely redesigned and rewritten from scratch to be more functional, versatile and attractive (Plasma 5.19.0).
  • Windows can be dragged and dropped in the Activities section to quickly assign them to other activities (Plasma 5.19.0).
  • The "Tools" button present on the keyboard of some laptops now launches the System Preferences (Plasma 5.19.0).
  • Plasma Vaults can now use GoCryptFS as an encryption backend (Plasma 5.19.0).

Bug fixes and performance and interface improvements

  • KMail and other Kontact applications can once again connect to Google services, as Google has finally authorized access again. They do not mention when, but it is a bug that is already fixed and should be available, if not already, in the next update.
  • When multiple Spectacle windows are open and set to "Active Window" mode, taking a screenshot in one of the windows no longer places the screenshot in all open Spectacle windows (Now available in Spectacle 20.04.1).
  • Fixed a bug that could cause file copies to SFTP servers to fail (Dolphin 20.04.2).
  • Internal links in Markdown docs now work correctly in Okular (Okular 1.11.0).
  • Notification pop-ups are no longer partially visible on the lock screen in Wayland (Plasma 5.18.6).
  • Applications whose desktop files end in .desktop (such as Telegram) now display their icons in Wayland (Plasma 5.19).
  • Copying files to a location accessed via a symbolic link now works again (Frameworks 5.71).
  • Running an executable script in Konsole from Dolphin and other applications now works again (Frameworks 5.71).
  • When copying files to remote locations, the amount of available free space is now checked before transfer begins so that you don't run out of space and crash (Frameworks 5.71).
  • Error messages displayed in Get New [Item] windows can now be read with dark themes and otherwise arbitrary color schemes (Frameworks 5.71).
  • Okular now allows you to zoom in beyond 1600%, now reaching 10.000% (Okular 1.11.0).
  • The selection of available user avatars has been greatly improved by including a variety of attractive photographic images (Plasma 5.19.0).
  • When opening the System Preferences pages from KRunner (or other launchers), they now open in System Preferences instead of small isolated standalone windows (Plasma 5.19.0).
  • The "Low Battery" notification now automatically disappears when the "Battery is very low" notification appears (Plasma 5.19.0).
  • When the Notifications applet has been opened, it no longer closes when you delete all notifications (Plasma 5.19.0).
  • The clipboard applet now closes automatically (if it wasn't open) when you manually delete all items or delete the last item (Plasma 5.19.0).
  • There are now 48 pixel versions of Breeze's Places icons, which means that folders now look pixel perfect in Dolphin when using a 48 pixel size (Frameworks 5.71).

When will all this come

plasma 5.19.0 will arrive on June 9. As v5.18 is an LTS, it will have more than 5 maintenance releases, and Plasma 5.18.6 will arrive on September 29. On the other hand, KDE Applications 20.04.2 will arrive on June 11, but the release date of 20.08.0 remains unconfirmed. KDE Frameworks 5.71 will be released on June 13.

We remember that in order to enjoy everything mentioned here as soon as it is available we have to have added the Backports repository from KDE or use an operating system with special repositories like KDE neon.


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