KDE Productivity & Usability: Week 74. Some little step back in the meantime

This Week we have published an article in which we echoed all the news and improvements that have been achieved thanks to the initiative KDE Productivity & Usability. If you thought that was it, you were wrong. This is a freight train that won't stop anymore. This week is 74 and in it they tell us about a small change that I do not know if Plasma users will like it. One step back or forward?

When reading the this week's entryLooking for something to add to the headline of this article, what has caught my attention the most is what you see in the lower right part of the header image: this Tuesday, with the arrival of Plasma 5.16, the desktop icon on the tray will become black and white so that it does not clash with the rest of the icons. Currently, the icon is in color if it reaches a certain size, but it changes to the monochrome version if we reduce the size of the bar.

What's new in week 74 of KDE Productivity & Usability

Improvements in the user's interface

• The text of the calculator widget gets bigger or smaller depending on the size of the widget (Plasma 5.16).
• The behavior of the central click of the task manager now matches that of Windows 10: a central click on a task in an app will open a new instance, while doing it on its thumbnail will close that instance.
• The Advanced tab of the login screen system settings page has been redesigned to better match the rest of the system and be easier to use (Plasma 5.17).
• The Help / Donate menu now shows currency icons (KDE Frameworks 5.60).
• The file open / save dialog now saves any visual changes we made in view mode when switching to another mode (KDE Frameworks 5.60).
• The mode selection button on the Eyepiece 1.8.0 toolbar displays the Text Selection tool by default, opens it in a pop-up window when we click its arrow, and uses consistent naming for all items.
• Okular 1.8.0's text selection tool uses the same icon everywhere it appears.
• Okular 1.8.0's search tool shows the correct grabbing hand icon.
• The Samba share creation window has a button to display the monitor (KDE Applications 19.08.0).

Performance fixes and improvements

• Trash and icon widgets show shadows behind their label text that matches those of files and folders (KDE Plasma 5.12.9).
• Fixes in the notification system (Plasma 5.16):
  • The circular number on the tray is more centered.
  • Image notifications have a better distribution of spaces between text and images.
• The cover art image in the media widget no longer overflows its limits under certain circumstances (Plasma 5.16).
• The DrKonqi bug report wizard no longer always has the "Report bug" button disabled in certain circumstances (Plasma 5.16).
• The SDDM login theme now looks better by default on 5K screens, while using less memory for all other cases (Plasma 5.16).
• By changing color schemes, all controls in the user interface of KDE applications change color without having to close and open them (Plasma 5.16.1).
• The network widget tray pop-up can be closed with the Escape key after having opened the search bar at least once (Plasma 5.16.1).
• Maximized windows on a screen in multiscreen settings can no longer be resized from their edges if they touch any other screen (Plasma 5.17).
• Connecting an external keyboard no longer resets the keyboard layer list when the file ~ / .config / kxkbrc does not exist (Plasma 5.17).
• Baloo file indexing service consumes less resources on battery-powered computers, no longer closes upon finding a file that was deleted while scanning and indexing, and indexes files faster by not unnecessarily browsing mimetypes files until they are need and avoiding other factors (KDE Frameworks 5.60).
• Gwenview 19.08.0 correctly displays thumbnails created with Sony cameras.
• Spectacle shows the correct filename and location in the save dialog the first time we use it to save an image. This is a function of Gwenview 19.08.0.

The first changes will arrive next Tuesday

The only new feature that we're talking about in this week 74 of KDE Productivity & Usability is that the Open / Save dialogs on the toolbar now have buttons to change the different view styles in Dolphin, which will come with KDE. Frameworks 5.60. The first changes will arrive next Tuesday, June 11 from Plasma 5.16, while Plasma 5.17 will be released on October 15.

To be able to enjoy all these news, two things must be taken into account:

• The official launch is Tuesday, but it will take a few more days to be available via repository.
• We have to add the KDE Backports repository.

As for the KDE Applications, deducing when they will arrive is "easier", in quotation marks. The first number, in this case 19, is the year, the second being the month in which it should be released. KDE Applications 19.04 should have arrived in April 2019, but it did not happen. The May version is not v19.05, but v19.04.1, with June v19.04.2 and July v19.04.3. These three versions will be more maintenance than adding features. The next most important version is the August version, the one that matches KDE Applications 19.08.0

What function would you like to test in your operating system?