Plasma 5.26 is a major release as it includes a new large screen user interface, "Plasma Bigscreen"
The launch of the new version of KDE Plasma 5.26 which stands out for presenting the environment for big TV screens, "Plasma Bigscreen", which incorporates a voice assistant.
The voice assistant of is based on the developments of the Mycroft project and uses the Selene voice interface for control, and the Google STT or Mozilla DeepSpeech engine for voice recognition. In addition to KDE programs, Mycroft multimedia applications are supported.
The composition also includes various components developed by the Bigscreen project:
- To control via remote controls, the set Plasma Remote Controllers, which translates specialized input device events into keyboard and mouse events. It supports both the use of conventional television infrared remote controls (support is implemented using the libCEC library) and game consoles with a Bluetooth interface, such as the Nintendo Wiimote and Wii Plus.
- To navigate the global network, use the Aura web browser based on the Chromium engine. The browser offers a simple interface optimized for browsing websites using the TV's remote control. There is support for tabs, bookmarks and browsing history.
- To listen to music and watch videos, the Plank Player media player is being developed, which allows you to play files from a local file system.
Regarding the specific changes for the environment, it is highlighted that added KPipewire componentto allow you to use the Flatpak package with the PipeWire media server in Plasma.
The continuous improvement of the session based on the Wayland protocol, for implemented ability to disable pasting from clipboard with the middle mouse button and set the mapping of the input area of the graphics tablet to the coordinates of the screen. To avoid blurring, a choice is given: scale the app using the composite manager or the app itself. Improved window scaling quality for applications launched with XWayland
In Discover, a content rating display for apps has been implemented and added a «Share» button to transfer information about the application, as well as provided the ability to configure the frequency of notifications about the availability of updates. When submitting a review, you are allowed to choose a different username.
The size of the plasmoids on the panel can now be changed by analogy with ordinary windows when stretching over the edge or corner. The changed size is remembered. Many plasmoids have improved support for people with disabilities.
In addition, it is noted that the ability to add user-created widgets was provided. For example, the Control Center widget is bookmarked, providing an interface for quick access to popular settings and services, such as controlling volume and playing media files, calling up KDE Connect, and so on.
Kickoff has a new compact mode (not used by default) that allows displaying more menu items at the same time. By placing the menu in a horizontal panel, it is possible to display only text without icons. In the general list of all applications, support has been added to filter applications by the first letter of the name.
Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:
- Simplified desktop wallpaper preview in configurator (clicking on wallpapers in the list now temporarily displays them instead of the current wallpaper).
- Added support for wallpapers with different images for dark and light color schemes, as well as the ability to apply animated images to wallpapers and display a series of images in the form of a slideshow
- The clock has a setting to change the font size.
The volume control widget now has the ability to adjust the volume change step. - The number of applets that support keyboard navigation has been expanded.
- When you start typing in overview mode, using the entered text as a mask for filtering windows is implemented.
- Added the ability to redefine buttons for multi-button mice.
- Added support for quickly closing pop-up notifications with a click of the middle mouse button.
- Added the ability to force activation of the virtual keyboard when working in any application.
Implemented a warning that is displayed when trying to open executable files.
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