KDE Frameworks 5.3 and Plasma 2.1 – First Impressions

jones_supa writes Ken Vermette has done a write-up on his experience with the new KDE desktop encompassing Frameworks 5.3 and Plasma 2.1. For starters, some patience is still needed for apps to be ported to KF5, and most of them will be KF4-based for now. Many of the widgets you may have used don't exist yet either, but the good news is that the Plasma goodies which do make an appearance are universally improved. The new search widget is shockingly fast and the notifications tray has been reworked. Visual outlook of desktop has been simplified and things don't feel so tightly packed together anymore. The system settings application has been completely regrouped more by goal than underlying mechanics. Unfortunately the desktop stability leaves a lot to desire: there was several crashes and Plasma had at one point managed to forget colour and wallpaper settings. However the developers seem to be knowing what they are doing, and there's a real feeling that this software will reach rock-solid stability very quickly given the state of it as it stands.

Comments

Re:Jesus. I'll stick to Win7, thanks.

[Dr.Dubious DDQ]

If it's not clear to you, KF5 is the "next generation" stuff, not the current release (which is still KDE4). Also note that KDE Frameworks 5.6 is actually the current one. The improvement since the older 5.3 release in the article has been substantial, in my experience. (Ubuntu always seems to be a few releases behind everything, unless you intentionally install from a more up-to-date 3rd-party PPA.)

KDE4's apps still work under it, too. I'm using it fine, though I'm missing the "IM Presence" widget for kde-telepathy.

I actually haven't been seeing crashes or other serious problems so far since about the last couple of releeases (KF5.4), just missing "KF5-native" features from KDE4.