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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.

4 of 43 comments (clear)

  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. 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: 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.

  3. 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.