Nate Graham has published a few hours ago a new entry in pointieststick of those that (I think) we like the users of Kubuntu, KDE neon and any operating system that uses KDE software in general. It's about the KDE Usability & Productivity week 82, where they tell us about a few new features, 4 to be exact, bug fixes, and performance and user interface improvements. Most will arrive in Plasma 5.17, which makes us think that the next release will be as important as v5.16 of the KDE graphical environment.
Although they mention interesting news / changes, there is another thing that stands out more: in the introduction paragraph of the article on the week 82 of KDE Usability & Productivity, Nate says that «We have some important features in development - I think one of them will be very popular and I look forward to announcing it next week.«. Reading the above, we can affirm that the most important thing that they have mentioned this week is ... something they haven't mentioned. But they did mention a lot and you have it all below.
New features mentioned this week in KDE Usability & Productivity
Before explaining what is to come, we have to do as in some last week and put what is already available. That is, there are features and improvements that are mentioned late, since Plasma 5.16.4 has already been released:
- Krunner's dictionary plugin really works (Plasma 5.16.4).
- It is now possible to type a number in the selection box on the Virtual Desktops page of System Preferences.
New functions
- Krunner can convert fractional units (Plasma 5.17).
- The "move your cursor with the keyboard" accessibility feature that was lost with the Libinput mouse driver support is back (Plasma 5.17).
- A page has been included in System Preferences that shows basic information about our operating system. As they explain, it is not the Information Center, but it does show us the same as its main window (Plasma 5.17).
- Applications with toolbars now allow us to add spacers, which allows us, for example, to center the buttons (Frameworks 5.61).
Fixes
- When connecting a second display, it is now stretched and mirrored correctly by default and the ISD selector no longer appears uselessly at startup for displays already connected (Plasma 5.17).
- KWin's Maximize and Size & Position rules now work in Wayland (Plasma 5.17).
- Pages of articles listed in Desktop Effects and Virtual Desktops in System Preferences no longer overflow the boundaries of their frames (Frameworks 5.61).
- When activating a new profile in Konsole 19.08, the application reopens a new tab instead of applying the changes to the current tab.
- The built-in Konsole panel in Dolphin 19.08 now switches to the active directory as expected when a process is running and the user navigates to another path in the file view.
- Dolphin 19.12's group by name feature now works with Cyrillic characters.
- When opening a background tab in Dolphin 19.12 and switching to it, it now focuses on the file view instead of the URL bar.
Interface improvements
- The Energy page in the Information Center now uses the more precise term "Remaining Energy" to express how much energy our battery has left (Plasma 5.17).
- The number within the notifications in the systray looks better (Plasma 5.16.5).
- The startup animation page in System Preferences now has a more modern look, which also fixes various bugs (Plasma 5.17).
- The Desktop Effects page in System Preferences has received design improvements and several bugs have been fixed (Plasma 5.17).
- "Remove from favorites" in Kickoff now shows a more appropriate icon (Plasma 5.17).
- The tab bars on the audio volume and window decoration pages in System Preferences now look better with the Breeze (Plasma 5.17) theme.
- Checkboxes and radio buttons in GTK3 apps now disappear when clicked, just as they do in KDE apps (Plasma 5.17).
- The icons in the special permission editor are now the same as the icons in the active theme, so they look better in DPI mode and in all color schemes (Frameworks 5.62).
When will it arrive what is explained this week in KDE Usability & Productivity
As in past weeks, we end this article remembering when everything explained here will arrive:
- KDE Applications 19.08 will arrive in mid-August, while 19.12 will arrive in mid-December.
- Plasma 5.16.5 will be released on September 3, while the most important release, Plasma 5.17, will occur on October 15.
- Frameworks 5.61 will arrive on August 10. Frameworks 5.62 will be released on September 14.
And now we have the doubt: what will be the important novelty that they have prepared for us?
