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KDE Plasma 5.7 Released (neowin.net)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Neowin: Earlier today, the KDE project released KDE Plasma 5.7, its popular Linux desktop environment. The update brings improved workflows, better kiosk support, a new system tray and task manager, and further steps towards Wayland windowing system. New live images of KDE Neon have been spun which feature the all-new Plasma 5.7, and other distributions will get the new software sometime in the future based on their release model. Plasma 5.7 builds on the jump List Actions that were introduced in Plasma 5.6, which allowed users to use certain tasks within the application; now the feature has been extended and those actions are present in Krunner. Another change which improves workflow is the return of the agenda view in the calendar, providing users with a quick and easily accessible overview of upcoming appointments and holidays. The volume control applet in the system tray is now able to control volume on a per-application basis; it even allows the user to move application sound output between devices by just drag and dropping. The Wayland window manager -- which has been kicking around for at least half a decade -- still isn't the default window manager on many Linux distributions, mainly because desktop environment (DE) developers are still making their DE work properly with it. With KDE Plasma 5.7, support for the windowing system is greatly improved, especially when it comes to tear-free and flicker-free rendering, as well as security. The image can be found here via KDE.

3 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. KDE has long looked like a widget factory exploded by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I haven't even looked at the latest stuff, so I'm not commenting on KDE of today. But for many releases (including 3 for sure) see topic, it just looked like someone sneezed out all the widgets into every dialog. I'm all for settings, but I don't just want them thrown at the pages to see what sticks, and have it turn out to be all of them.

    GNOME was the clear default choice for years because KDE was a blizzard. But then GNOME went too far in the candy-coated direction and started taking things away...

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Re:New Desktop - Same Work by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When they say "new workflows" it means they've moved/hidden something you use all the time.

    Unless we're talking about Gnome or Firefox. Then it means they've deleted it completely.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  3. Re:But when will we get any decent programs ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You missed his point entirely without really giving details on your own. He was saying that redefining well established workflows in vain attempts to simplify already simple things (eg file management) is a plague that's been dogging the entire industry for the last decade or so. Needed functionality and intuitive controls (and even hotkeys) are being stripped away to bottom out the learning curve. This is done intentionally to make the desktop as dependent on 'web services' as mobile devices.

    Corporates don't want to have to retrain their employees on remedial computer skills. This is one of the main reasons windows 8 bombed, and why there's still resistance on windows 10 (hint: it's not just about the start menu).

    As far as apis for games go, it's really not that hard, especially with SDL. Even if not, ALSA, opengl, and keyboard/mouse/pad input are well understood. Wayland may upgrade the graphics stack to something more modern, but that shouldn't affect games much unless it adds an exclusive fullscreen mode.