KDE Plasma 5.14 Released (kde.org)

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KDE Plasma 5.14 Released (kde.org)

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 9, 2018 @11:30AM from the come-and-get-it dept.

jrepin writes: KDE has released Plasma 5.14 desktop. Among many other things, Plasma 5.14 simplifies managing multiple displays thanks to its new Display Configuration widget; Global Menus a la macOS now work also with GTK applications like GIMP; a new safeguard feature warns you if other users are logged in when you log out; and Discover now lets you install Snaps from all available channels (not just the default), orders software by release date, and shows package dependencies. Downloads can be found here.

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Multi monitor support by maglor_83 · 2018-10-09 11:52 · Score: 1

Does it support different scalings for different monitors yet? It's currently pretty much unusable connecting a 4K monitor to my laptop.
1. Re:Multi monitor support by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 13:00 · Score: 0
  
  xrandr should allow you to do that.
  I'm more concerned with this:
  > Discover, our software and add-on installer, has more features and improves its look and feel.
  > Discover gained fwupd support, allowing it to upgrade your computer's firmware.
  What in the world for and which "firmware"?
  > It gained support for Snap channels.
  > When Discover is asked to install a standalone Flatpak file but the Flatpak backend is not installed, it now offers to first install the backend for you.
  Seems rather odd considering most users will have no idea what either of those are. Bit of a backend way to push both those little policy agendas. It's the distribution's job to install such things not the desktop environment.
2. Re:Multi monitor support by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 13:22 · Score: 0
  
  yup, it does
3. Re:Multi monitor support by MancunianMaskMan · 2018-10-09 19:26 · Score: 1
  
  fwupd has a repository to handle firmware updates for laptops, mothgerboards, gadgets like usb dongles for a wireless mouse, basically everything that has firmware.
  It requires collaboration from the maker of the hardware/software.
  It's secure as can be through cryptographic keys etc.
  It means you don't have to boot Windows because your gadget's firmware's newly fixed security hole/bug is only installable with the vendor-supported Windows application.
  Nothing scary, keep your hat on. Fwupd comes from the Gnome side of the fence but because it's properly designed, KDE people can integrate it too.
4. Re:Multi monitor support by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-10 03:06 · Score: 0
  
  That isn't the responsibility of Plasma.
5. Re:Multi monitor support by samwichse · 2018-10-10 07:23 · Score: 1
  
  Doing it isn't, but configuring it from within Plasma (or whatever DE you're in) sure should be.
6. Re:Multi monitor support by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-10 09:07 · Score: 0
  
  The Wayland session does.
KDE without compromise by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 12:08 · Score: 2, Interesting

KDEvuan ... in case you like your KDE without systemd.
1. Re:KDE without compromise by youngone · 2018-10-09 13:13 · Score: 2
  
  Meh. Thanks anyway. I'd much rather have systemd.
Plasma? Old skool. Time for name change. Pronto. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 12:10 · Score: 0

I would cordially invite you to subscribe to my podcast but I do not have a podcast. I don't even had a pod. Or a cast. How could I have a podcast?
Re:Safer now... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 12:15 · Score: 0

never heard of him, is Mr. Hoo that chinese fella?
Is it problematic? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 12:17 · Score: 0, Flamebait

Is this project problematic?
How many women are involved?
How many LGBTQIAPKDE+?
What's their Kode of Konduct?
1. Re: Is it problematic? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 14:26 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  If you have a problem with people who aren't white/male/straight/christian calling for the kind of basic decorum - not being insulted, harassed, belittled or threatened because of their skin color, religion, gender or sexual orientation - that white guys have taken absolutely 100% for granted as a birthright in America since day one, YOU are the problem.
2. Re: Is it problematic? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 21:06 · Score: 0
  
  Oooh, good one! You almost had a comeback to their valid point.
3. Re: Is it problematic? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 21:14 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah it's my birthright cause I bust face anyone else. Have for 2000 years and intend to continue. Fuck your Trotsky-slut gaffot azzwhole.
4. Re: Is it problematic? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-10 06:52 · Score: 0
  
  Shut the fuck up, you weak piece of crap.
Re:Plasma? Old skool. Time for name change. Pronto by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 12:22 · Score: 0

you need pod seeds then you can grow one.
Eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 12:29 · Score: 0

"a new safeguard feature warns you if other users are logged in when you log out"
Is this the 1960s? Are we using shared mainframes?
1. Re:Eh? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-10 15:27 · Score: 0
  
  This can occasionally be useful even for a single person who has logged in as multiple users.
Windows Refugees Out Now by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 12:51 · Score: 0

> a new safeguard feature warns you if other users are logged in when you log out;
Take me down to Windows city, desktop Linux is going straight in the garbage dump.
1. Re:Windows Refugees Out Now by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 21:08 · Score: 0
  
  What a bizarre thing for you to be upset about.
What I would like to read: "1024 bugs fixed" by ntropia · 2018-10-09 12:59 · Score: 1

Come on, make users happy and do what a dot-14 version should do.

I'm not even picky, you guys can choose them from any of these lists:

KWin

Plasma Frameworks

PlasmaShell

But what TFA has to say about?

Blurred backgrounds behind desktop context menus are no longer visually corrupted.

It's no longer possible to accidentally drag-and-drop task manager buttons into app windows.

Yeah!.... I guess?
[DISCLAIMER: I am indeed a KDE user]
1. Re:What I would like to read: "1024 bugs fixed" by ntropia · 2018-10-09 13:13 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  To be fair, I found a more detailed changelog that mentions a few more bugs, but it's just lot of papercut fixes: tons of warnings removed, Unicode quircks corrected, UI changes... but nothing about high CPU usage, instability, and other major issues.
  
  It's still possible to see the desktop and all the windows on it every time the system resumes on a laptop, before the KScreenLocker kicks asking for the password... but, hey, now it compiles with "strict" compile flags, and finally exports the install location for DBUS interfaces via CMake.
  
  "Shake it, baby!"
2. Re:What I would like to read: "1024 bugs fixed" by tap · 2018-10-09 14:32 · Score: 2
  
  but, hey, now it compiles with "strict" compile flags, and finally exports the install location for DBUS interfaces via CMake.
  Isn't that something dbus should do? The dbus-glib pkgconfig file has a partial set with interfaces_dir, system_bus_services_dir and session_bus_services_dir. The flaw is really with the kitware cmake module for dbus, which doesn't bother to expose any of those.
3. Re:What I would like to read: "1024 bugs fixed" by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 15:08 · Score: 0
  
  New features are shiny, but nobody fixes bugs. They should just have a feature freeze until *everything* is fixed, but the morons won't ever do that.
4. Re:What I would like to read: "1024 bugs fixed" by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 20:47 · Score: 0
  
  It's still possible to see the desktop and all the windows on it every time the system resumes on a laptop, before the KScreenLocker kicks asking for the password...
  Must be something with your setup. I haven't seen this in years.
  I personally have an almost bug-free KDE experience. I say almost because fscking baloo really hates my french ebook collection so I had to block that entire directory. But other than that I can't think of any bugs that aren't directly related to 3rd party widgets. ;)
5. Re:What I would like to read: "1024 bugs fixed" by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-10 13:22 · Score: 0
  
  if it happens on some computers, it happens on some computers. which is a bug.
6. Re:What I would like to read: "1024 bugs fixed" by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-10 20:50 · Score: 0
  
  In fact, they have fixed much more than 1024 bugs.
  You can check some of the fixes in (in)stability, CPU usage and speed in the blog series "This week in usability and productivity"
  The last entry:
  https://pointieststick.wordpress.com/2018/10/06/this-week-in-usability-productivity-part-39/
So nothing new? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 14:16 · Score: 0

Sounds like a pretty lame release. I'll stick to xfce tho. 100x lighter and more stable. No contest really...
1. Re:So nothing new? by Gavagai80 · 2018-10-09 15:40 · Score: 1
  
  On what kind of machine is KDE slow? It's perfect on my 8 year old low end used PC I spent $150 on. Stable too, though I admit that stops being true for years when they launch a major version like KDE 4 or Plasma 5.
  
  --
  This space intentionally left blank
Re:Safer now... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-09 16:17 · Score: 0

According to Slashdot, you don't exist!
features by DrYak · 2018-10-09 22:02 · Score: 1

What in the world for and which "firmware"?
In addition to MancunianMaskMan's excellent answer :
fwupd itself is a command line tool.
Gnome has a nice GTK UI to make firmware update user-friendly.
KDE has probably added a similar tool, based on QT and KDElibs

Seems rather odd considering most users will have no idea what either of those are. Bit of a backend way to push both those little policy agendas. It's the distribution's job to install such things not the desktop environment.
The *whole raison d'être* of Flatpak, Snaps, etc. is to make end-user installable software that is *independent of the distribution*, somewhat reminiscent of Windows' SETUP.EXE. (as opposed to 3rd party package repositories, like Opensuse's OBS, Ubuntu's PPA, Gentoo's overlays and whatever the hell they are called with Fedora/Redhat).
Thus it needs a different GUI than the one used for distro-package.
Hence KDE providing a GUI for Flatpacks.
(And as an added touch could ask the distro package management to ask missing dependencies to get Flat up. Probably over some standard scheme like PackageKit or something)
I won't probably be using either tools (being mostly CLI), but it's still a nice touch.

--
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Re:Safer now... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-10 01:52 · Score: 0

KDE Plasma puts both the Windows and Mac OS desktops to shame. It's one of the open source projects that is actually better than the commercial offerings.
It's Been A While Since I Looked by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-10 03:15 · Score: 0

It's been a while since I looked at KDE. Has this new release reached feature parity with KDE 3.5?
Jesus, has it already been 10 years?
Re: Safer now... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-10 04:46 · Score: 0

Good day Sir, can I interest you in a great bulk deal on shoehorns?
Que the nostalgia posts! by ausekilis · 2018-10-10 08:17 · Score: 1

Something, something, 3 was the only true KDE!
Pry 4.whatever from my cold, dead hands!
more configuration by Anonymous Coward · 2018-10-10 10:15 · Score: 0

is it still a jungle of 95% ui controls used for configuration options, with 5% ui controls aimed at being used for doing work?