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KDE Plasma 5.4 Released

Posted by timothy on from the don't-you-wish-they-called-it-kraken-desktop-environment? dept.

jrepin writes: KDE have announced the release of Plasma 5.4 desktop. This release of Plasma brings many nice touches for our users such as new fullscreen application launcher, much improved high DPI support, KRunner auto-completion and many new beautiful Breeze icons. It also lays the ground for the future with a tech preview of Wayland session available. We're shipping a few new components such as an Audio Volume Plasma Widget, monitor calibration tool and the User Manager tool comes out beta.

43 comments

  1. pfffff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Full screen application launcher? What a waste.

    1. Re:pfffff by jrepin · · Score: 2

      For you it might be waste for someone else it might be gold.

      --
      Live long and propser!
    2. Re:pfffff by Archtech · · Score: 0

      Love ling ond prapser!

      FTFY

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    3. Re: pfffff by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The world reacted to Windows 8 in a unified voice, and they said "We fucking HATE full screen application launchers!"

      And KDE built one.

      What's next, a "Virtual Trip to the Dentist" application?

      --
      -1 Uncomfortable Truth
    4. Re: pfffff by morgauxo · · Score: 1

      Have you ever tried to get anything other than your distro's default configuration out of PulseAudio?

      Virtual dentist trip would be a breeze!

    5. Re: pfffff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was not a unified voice, unless you're counting the one on the Internet where people, believing they'll be heard, love to piss and moan about anything. In my own expedience, people had little to no trouble with Windows 8.

  2. New fullscreen application launcher! by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just the Windows feature that everybody has been lauding! Can we get forced data siphoning next, pretty please?

    --
    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    1. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by jrepin · · Score: 4, Informative

      In Plasma that is just one of the new options available and you can easily switch back to Kickoff launcher (which is still default) or a plain simple menu like launcher. Or you can completely remove the launcer and just use keyboard based KRunner.

      --
      Live long and propser!
    2. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by Archtech · · Score: 1, Funny

      "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong".

      So, applying elementary logic... it's dangerous to be right.

      Makes sense to me.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    3. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can get that with Ubuntu, but they always half-ass the KDE packages.

    4. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by dotancohen · · Score: 0

      I'm sure that I could continue just using the Lancelot menu, but the point is that the fullscreen application launcher has already been tried and proven wrong.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    5. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by Vyse+of+Arcadia · · Score: 1

      "Proven" wrong in what sense? Do you have any hard data to back that up? Note that "hated" and "wrong" are not the same thing. People just hate change.

      I'm convinced that the only reason fullscreen launchers on desktop are hated is because they're different. If Windows had a fullscreen start menu back in Win95, then everyone would have been bitching about Win8's tiny start menu that doesn't display enough applications at once, Win10 would have gone back to the fullscreen launcher by default, and KDE would only just now have a non-fullscreen application launcher.

      For that matter, do you have an android phone handy? Pull up your applications menu. Oh, look! A fullscreen application launcher!

    6. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In my opinion, fullscreen application launchers on a multitasking OS are not the ideal solution to presenting the user with a list of applications to run because the idea of fullscreen implies that it is itself another application. Id est, it blocks the currently running application. The 'start menu' type launchers that we are familiar with do not _apparently_ block the running application (even though they often block keyboard input). Thus, the user feels that the menu is part of the environment and not anoth application that has replaced the application that he is running. I accept the premise on my Android phone because on that device I expect to only run a single application at a time. No matter what memory-management does behind the scenes (and I am familiar with onPause() onStart() onRestart() and onResume()) it appears to the user that he is running a single app at a time. Empirically, pick up the average user's phone and look at the running applications. On Android (and iOs, and Windows Phone) people typically return to the Home screen and start another application without ever closing the original applications: that is indicative of the mindset that only one application is ever "in use" at a time.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    7. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by Sun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the main problem with full screen applications as done by Windows 8 is the lack of user choice. Some applications are full screen. Other applications are windowed. You want to mix them? Sorry, no. You want to run a Metro (or whatever they ended up calling it) application in a window? Sorry, not an option. You want to run a "legacy" application full screen? Tough.

      Choosing to run a specific application in full screen may be something positive, if so warranted by circumstances.

      Shachar

    8. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Windows 8 full screen start menu on a 2500x1440 27" display showed less 'launchers' than the Windows 95 simple menu on a 800x600 15" display. Full screen is bad, but it is even worse when you can't see all programs on such a large surface.
       
      Not being able to just show a list or a detailed list is not just a change it is a removal of features. Just imagine if they had removed the list and details view from the file manager and you had to find your files in a grid with 64x64 pixel icons where only 8 characters of the names are shown before they are cut off with three dots. This is just bad design.
       
      Having to scroll in a horizontal way makes it even worse. Yes it is change, but not a good one. I don't know one real life list example were people have to scroll sideways. Just imagine that your daily news paper was printed in landscape and that the articles were written in one column that are as wide as the current length for the newspaper. That's how I feel when I look at the start full screen from Windows 8. It was not bad because it was a change, it was bad because it was bad.

    9. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, OK, then Android is obviously a failure for having used a full-screen launcher since day 0.

      Hint: Not all use cases are the same and you are being intentionally dense if you think that the OPTION to have a full-screen launcher is the same thing as a REQUIREMENT to ONLY have a full-screen launcher.

    10. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, that's just not a valid issue. If you're looking to start a program, nothing else matters except looking at other programs to choose from. I and 6 others I know personally (real life, not on the Internet) have ZERO problems with Windows 8 Start Screen. Mind you, these people vary from an early assembly programmer working on a TI 99/4a to a soccer player who generally doesn't like technology.

    11. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "People just hate change"

      It's not change. It was change when windows 8 first came out. How old is windows 8 now? So very many people switched to windows 8 and couldn't get used to the fullscreen start menu. How much hard data do you need? How much hard data is there to "prove" that the fullscreen start menu is superior to the old start screen? For everyone? The old start menu is far less intrusive. It doesn't make as bold a statement about what I wanted. There's change, and then there's painting a picture over someone's sunglasses and telling them they're a fagot for not liking your art.

      "do you have an android phone handy? Pull up your applications menu. Oh, look! A fullscreen application launcher!"

      Do you have a washing machine? start a wash cycle. Oh, look! a numeric LED with 5 buttons and a dial!
      Desktops tend to have more screen real estate than phones (physically, if not by pixel count), and aren't primarily used to make phone calls. I fucking hate my (Android) mobile phone's UI, but since I don't use it to do much more than answer calls and play solitaire, I can live with it. Also, I use my fat fingers to navigate the phone UI, so small on-screen targets are just not practical. My desktop, however, has a large screen and a mouse with pixel-point accuracy. That allows me to be far, far more expressive in telling the machine what I want. Phones and PCs both have CPUs, screens, drives, OSs etc., so people can be forgiven for thinking they have something in common. It's more helpful to think that they don't have anything in common and work from there, because all the tricky low-level stuff (where the similarities lie) has already been sorted. Conversation has moved on to things that are affected by what these devices are used for, and in that context, they are as dissimilar as a washing machine and an automobile.

    12. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      Indeed, Plasma is configurable, so if you want to run it as a tablet you CAN. Or feel free to ignore it...

      Win 8 was designed to compete with touch screen platforms such as iOS and Android which both display rows of icons full screen. The mistake MS made was inflicting this on traditional mouse/keyboard desktop users, which wasn't that the whole point of the Windows 10 makeover...

    13. Re:New fullscreen application launcher! by jbo5112 · · Score: 1

      I have my icons on home screens arranged in folders. It's faster that way, and the larger icons (compared to my computer start menu & quick launch) are good for my imprecise thumb. Your benchmark on a desktop being good is that is provides the same level of productivity as a poorly configured phone?

      Problem 1: It's a single-tasking UI (not even my phone is as limited as Win8)
      Problem 2: The icons are not well organized (I expect KDE will fix this, where Microsoft never has)
      Problem 3: It requires more clicks/touches/actions to launch common programs vs my quick launch, which makes it objectively worse than my quick launch (hard data here!)
      Hard Data 2: Windows 3.1 had something close (or at least much closer) to a full screen launcher, Program Manager which was a full window launcher. The transition away went MUCH more smoothly. In fact, Windows 95 still supported the Program Manager from 3.1, but I don't remember hearing of anyone using it or wanting it back.
      Hard Data 3: You can get a start menu style program launcher for Android. Apparently people do want it back, even on a mobile screen.

  3. KDE looks pretty neat by juanfgs · · Score: 1

    I've been always a Gnome user until the 3.x fiasco. I must say KDE now looks extremely nice. It seems that they finally managed to streamline the user experience while retaining all that configurability.

    I'll stick to i3 however, but it's nice to see that there is still a sane desktop experience out there.

    Kudos to the KDE team.

  4. Does it remember size and location of windows? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 3, Informative
    So far, all of the previous versions of KDE that I have used do not remember the size and location of windows when I change those attributes by moving and resizing the window.

    .
    I've looked but have not been able to find a global parameter (i.e. affecting all windows) that says, in effect, ~remember window size and location when the window is closed~.

    Has such a parameter finally been added to KDE?

    1. Re:Does it remember size and location of windows? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think so? I feel pretty confident about it. I remember having the same problem many years ago and suddenly don't have it anymore. I'm not on KDE right now, but I know that when I open a terminal window, it's always the exact size as last time, and whenever I open Firefox, it's always full screen like last time.

    2. Re:Does it remember size and location of windows? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 2

      I think so? I feel pretty confident about it

      I'll do my usual of installing the new version to see if the KDE developers have finally come to their senses. To be honest, I don't hold high hopes, as I have seen comments from the developers in the past indicating they were opposed to implementing this simple concept because it made it difficult for them when implementing the [comparatively] little-used feature of going to sleep on one device and waking up on another device. I have trouble imagining the need for that capability, and I have even more trouble seeing why that would be justification to not implement the "remember windows size/position on closure" feature.

      .
      So I really hope the KDE developers have come to their senses on this.

    3. Re:Does it remember size and location of windows? by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      I also wish that they had that feature, but if they do, I haven't seen it yet. As far as I know, you still have to set Remember Size / Position individually for each window.

    4. Re:Does it remember size and location of windows? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      So far, all of the previous versions of KDE that I have used do not remember the size and location of windows when I change those attributes by moving and resizing the window.

      Let me guess, you must run a multi-display setup, right? Technically, remembering window size and position has been a standard thing for every Qt or KDE application for as long as KDE4 has existed, but there's a multi-monitor bug with some part of KDE that can completely break it.

      Specifically, if your desktop uses multiple displays of different resolutions (e.g. 1920x1080 and 1680x1050 displays), the config file setting that's used to restore last window size and position ends up being considered invalid and ignored, making those applications do strange things instead. You can even check the config file and see where it will have multiple size/position settings saved because it keeps fucking up and storing new ones.

      This has been a pain in my ass for years now, for practically the entire life of KDE4. Hopefully 5 fixes it, but I'm not expecting it.

      The workaround, if you're using kwin, is to use kwin's window-specific settings to override any misbehaving application's behavior. Not all do it, but for the ones that do, use the corner icon (accessible by alt+F3 as well) in the window decoration and choose "Special window settings" under the "more actions" submenu. There's a tab for "size and position" that has the settings you want. Check the boxes next to "Position" and "Size" and change the dropdowns to "Remember". For most apps, this is all you need. If an application still misbehaves you can also check "Ignore requested geometry" and set it to "Force" and the "yes" radio button to make kwin ignore the app's desires completely.

      You can also access all these window- and app-specific overrides in System Settings, under the "Window Behavior" section. It's slightly annoying to have to do this, but at least it's an option thanks to kwin. Kwin's great for this; I've been using it to work around all sorts of bugs and odd behavior in other applications, as well as setting things like transparency or changing window types, for years.

  5. Re:Too soon by jrepin · · Score: 2

    Yup, it works much better than 3.5 and 4.x. but that's just me. You have your own requirements and you will have to try it and see for yourself.

    --
    Live long and propser!
  6. Re:Too soon by i_ate_god · · Score: 2

    I personally find KDE5 to be superior in most ways.

    --
    I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
  7. and where is it available? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    links/description from the kde page:
    packages:
    fedora: plasma-desktop 5.3.1-1.fc22
    kubuntu: plasma-desktop 4:5.3.2-0ubuntu4~ubuntu15.04~ppa1
    opensuse: plasma-framework-5.12.0-72.1.x86_64.rpm
    (5.12? some have 5.13 ... confusing)

    live images:
    Fedora-Live-KDE-x86_64-22-3.iso 2015-May-22 04:12:15
    Kubuntu 15.04 comes with Plasma 5.2.
    openSUSE Leap ships Plasma 5 but there are no live media for Leap, yet.

    update the repos and/or documentation _before_ you announce it.

  8. That wallpaper though, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If there is one think that absolutely sucks is their choices in wallpaper.

  9. Plasma 5 breaks a lot of stuff by Nexus7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I vastly prefer KDE to everything else, however don't go wiping your PCs and installing KDE/Plasma 5 because of the eye-candy. A bunch of stuff is still not ready, relative to KDE 4. Example, few workspace widgets, for example, no Quick Launch, only 1 weather widget. Widgets not resizeable. The wi-fi/network connection app something thinks it is connecting, when is already is connected. Sign-in screen doesn't know to use your pic/avatar. No way to use Emerald themes (Smaragd was usable in KDE 4). And so on.

    Very usable, but a big drop in functionality as things are worked on. Yeah, I know it is a more elegant framework, etc. etc.

    1. Re:Plasma 5 breaks a lot of stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many weather widgets do you need?!

    2. Re:Plasma 5 breaks a lot of stuff by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      One! In basic black, of course.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    3. Re:Plasma 5 breaks a lot of stuff by fufufang · · Score: 2

      The worst thing in KDE 5 is that they are dropping the support for traditional tray icons.

      http://blog.martin-graesslin.c...

    4. Re:Plasma 5 breaks a lot of stuff by mythix · · Score: 1

      only 1 weather widget

      Ooh no, how will I know what the skies will look like outside of my cave?

  10. I feel that KDE Plasma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is the most current, modern, and grown up desktop for Linux.

  11. Ugh, why, oh WHY is everyone by chmod+a+x+mojo · · Score: 1

    Ugh, why, oh WHY is everyone going to the butt ugly super flat look with kindergarten color icons that seem to only have 6 different colors over the whole color scheme?
    A desktop doesn't have to be 100% eye candy, but going to 100% stripped bare with no real recognizable differentiation between elements is just as bad.

    --
    To err is human; effective mayhem requires the root password!
    1. Re:Ugh, why, oh WHY is everyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      KDE5 brings "improvements" in looks, which nobody needs. While KDE5 may have brought in some needed fixes (compositor?) that could not be fixed in KDE4, I had no problem with KDE4. It was everything I wanted. Together with GCC5 transition the upgrades have been a terror. Switching back to KDE4 is impossible?
      The KDE team does not think that the user needs a choice between 4 or 5.
      I use NONE of the visual "enhancements" KDE5, all that Breeze stuff I avoid. The KDE team does not need to cram their style into everybody’s faces.

    2. Re:Ugh, why, oh WHY is everyone by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      that whine sounds like the one some people had with KDE3 to KDE4 transition...... its amazing just how things move on but stay the same

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    3. Re:Ugh, why, oh WHY is everyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. I would love to see some designers focus on clarity and legibility - on the assumption that we don't want our systems to look like Apple products!
      For example. let's have sharp borders back between UI elements. KDE 3.5 is much better in this respect.

  12. Launcher looks better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Launcher seems nicer than 4. I like the full screen layout of it (apes Gnome 3 which I currently use.)

    I've always disliked KDE but I could see giving this version a spin in a VM at least.