It was scheduled for today and here we have it. Well, at least that's how they have announced it and its launch is official, but we will still have to wait some time to see the new packages as an update. Those who least will have to wait to enjoy the just released Plasma 5.21 They will be the users of KDE neon, the operating system that most controls the KDE project, and later it will reach other distributions, like some of those that use the Rolling Release development model.
Plasma 5.21 comes with many new features, but the ones that stand out the most are those that we can see with the naked eye. In this sense, I think that what we are going to notice the most is that Kickoff, that is, the app launcher and other stuff, has been redesigned, now showing more information and, as a personal opinion, reminding a little more of what we see in Windows 10, bridging the (great) distances. Below you have the list of the most outstanding news that KDE has published in the release note.
Plasma 5.21 Highlights
- New application launcher. Now it is faster to find and access applications. Also, it supports more languages. It is important to mention that, if we don't like it, the previous version is available at store.kde.org.
- Improvements in the theme of applications. The default theme has changed the color scheme and everything is more consistent.
- New Breeze Twilight, something reminiscent of the mixed theme that Ubuntu already includes: dark theme for the environment, but applications in their light version.
- Plasma SystemMonitor replaces KSysGuard.
- KWin works best on Wayland.
- New settings page for Plasma firewall in System Preferences.
- System Preferences has improved the image of many of its pages.
- Improvements in many Applets, such as the music player or that we can now manage the audio input / output from the sound applet that is in the system tray.
- Complete list of changes to this link. Screenshots available on the release note.
As we have already mentioned, the launch is already official, but we will have to wait to see how the new packages appear in our Linux distribution. For the Kubuntu + Backports users, remember that this version will not reach Groovy Gorilla (20.10), since it depends on a version of Qt that is not available in that version. So be patient, or make the leap to KDE neon.