Los Rebeldes have already sung it: "Everything that begins has an end." It is not something that they discovered nor are they the only ones who say something like that, but it is what came to mind when reading the entry about the KDE Usability & Productivity week 87, an initiative that has given us so many joys and that is now coming to an end. But Nate Graham wants to make it clear that KDE software is not going to stop improving and among his next goals is migrate to Wayland.
From now on, they will continue to post blog posts about what is to come, but under another name that will be related to "Goals", without this meaning that they will start something like "Goals, week 1". Among what people voted that KDE Community should do in the future we have full support for Wayland, that the user interface is consistent and, for me the most interesting, will focus on improving KDE Applications.
New KDE Goals: Wayland, UI Consistency, and Better Apps
But that will be in the future in the medium-long term. In the nearest future we have news, corrections and improvements in Plasma, Frameworks and applications such as the following:
- When we try to open an executable file that cannot be executed, that is, as an AppImage that we have to indicate "is executable" from its properties, a pop-up window will appear like the one in the following image in which we read "This will start the X program If you don't trust this program, click Cancel ».
- When the Dolphin 19.12 information panel is configured not to auto-play media files, we can play the files by clicking on their thumbnail. This also adds a pause button.
Performance fixes and improvements
- The function to test the speakers on the audio settings page is working again (now available, Plasma 5.16.5.).
- Fixed a case where KWin could crash after setting certain options (Plasma 5.17).
- KWin's "switch to left / right window" action now works correctly when more than one window is full or maximized (Plasma 5.17).
- The main KInfoCenter window is now the same minimum size, so we no longer have to resize it (Plasma 5.17).
- Undo when we have trashed something from the desktop works again (Frameworks 5.62).
- Dolphin no longer exits when copying a large number of files to a location that already has a sub-package of those files and we choose to skip the existing file (Frameworks 5.62).
- Fixed a bug where Spectacle could cause the app to keep running in the background, preventing the global shortcut from working (Spectable 19.08.2).
- Spectable 19.08.2's Rectangular Region mode again covers the panel in Wayland.
- When sorting by tags in Dolphine 19.12, tagged files and folders are displayed before untagged ones.
User interface improvements
- In the Kicker and Kickoff application launcher menus, the «Manage» context has better text and icon to know what this menu is for (Plasma 5.17).
- The floating "Select" and "Open" buttons for files and folders on the desktop are now larger (Plasma 5.17).
- Large versions of the trash can now look like a trash can (Frameworks 5.62).
- Small monochrome versions of the Trash now appear full instead of red (Frameworks 5.62).
- Selecting the trash now shows the correct text and icon in the Dolphin info panel (Frameworks 5.62).
- The notifications icon now uses the outline style like the rest of the systray icons (Frameworks 5.62).
- The search button on the Dolphin 19.12 toolbar is now a toggle button that closes the search panel when we make a second click.
- Dolphin 19.12's "Add to Places" action is available from the "File" menu as well.
- Dolphin 19.12's "Terminal" action now uses a more appropriate monochrome icon.
- The icons category in the Dolphin 19.12 settings sidebar is now full of colors.
- Fixed a bug in Konsole where under certain circumstances it could crash when trying to restore the session, leaving a blank window (Konsole 19.12).
When will these enhancements and full support for Wayland arrive?
With Plasma 5.16.5 already among us, the next update will already be a Plasma 5.17.0 which will be one of the most important updates in years. It will arrive on October 15. What also looks like it will be a major update will be Frameworks 5.62, which will arrive on September 14 and probably Kubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine. As for the applications, KDE Applications 19.08.2 will arrive on October 10 and this version will arrive at Discover because it is the second maintenance version of the August series. In mid-November and December we will have v19.08.3 and v19.12 respectively.
As for Wayland, they still have a lot of work ahead of them. From what I have read, the migration will be gradual and will not be completed until within at least two years. Be that as it may, there is nothing to fear; KDE will continue to improve as before or more.