KDE team announced today the general availability of the KDE Plasma 5.25 desktop environment for download.
The 27th release of KDE Plasma desktop – KDE Plasma 5.25 is here, followed by the prior 5.24 LTS release. Coming after almost five months, this release is significant because for the first time, you get the dynamic accent colour which changes based on the wallpaper. In addition, you can also take advantage of the floating panel, more gesture support for touch-based devices, a massive list of bug fixes and many under-the-hood changes.
KDE Plasma 5.25 Release – What’s New
First and foremost, KDE Plasma 5.25 brings the latest KDE Framework and KDE Applications. This version is based on Qt 5.15.2 and KDE Frameworks 5.94.
Accent Colour and Floating Panel
Secondly, the entire desktop accent colour (such as highlights, many selections etc.) changes based on the wallpaper’s major colour hint. The option is present in Appearance > Global Theme > Colours. Here’s a sample of the desktop how looks when applied.
In addition, the accent colour change to the title bar was also implemented in the Breeze Classic theme and made it more consistent across the desktop.
Another significant change that KDE Plasma 5.25 brings is the floating panel. The default bottom panel or any panel can not float (or appear floating) when enabled by the option. The option is available in the Edit Panel > Additional Settings.
Here’s a quick demo video 📺 which we created exclusively for you, about how the above two features look in Plasma 5.25:
In addition to the above changes, power profiles menu in system tray now has icons with their names in the tooltip.
The login and logout screen see a small UI change to display avatar and profile name with longer user names.
Another significant change includes the Digital Clock “Copy to Clipboard” menu is not more refined as the duplicate entries are removed. Moreover, a fix to the Plasma Desktop prevents widgets from retaining position when resolution changes back from the full-screen gaming.
KWin and Application Updates
KWin lands some important changes in KDE Plasma 5.25. Firstly, an option to hide the minimized windows is introduced. Also, it’s now possible to switch between display-specific resolutions which are not visible to the OS in the Wayland display server. The change adds the libcvxt dependency in Kwin to achieve this.
Finally, the switching blend between dark and light mode is more smooth and animated, thanks to the required changes.
The application page of Discover is now complete with more focused details at the top with Application metadata and images. The spacing of the app name, ratings and developer with the image at the header section with the summary in the middle. And rest at the bottom.
One tiny yet impactful change in Discover related to Flatpak apps. Discover now shows a message with an action button to clean Flatpak data for uninstalled apps.
Moreover, the Open With Dialog of XGD Portal sees a complete UI rework. The top section label is merged into one single information line for better clarity. Also, the search field is now visible for all modes, and the Show More button is moved up beside Search with better clarity. You can look at the below image (Credit KDE Team) for this change.
Finally, a new stunning and vibrant wallpaper to grace this desktop environment.
A detailed new feature coverage is present here if you wish to read more:
How to Download
You can download the KDE Neon User edition from the below link. You can install it in a physical system or a virtual machine.
If you are using KDE Neon with earlier 5.24, open a terminal prompt to get the latest updates.
sudo apt update
sudo pkcon update
You can also visit our detailed upgrade guide here.
Fedora 36 and Kubuntu 22.04 LTS users?
If you are a Fedora 36 user, please wait until the first point release, which is planned for July, to get this version.
For Kubuntu 22.04 LTS users, you must wait until the KDE backports PPA is refreshed with this version. And then, you can install this version. Stay tuned as we will publish a post about installation once the PPA update is complete with KDE Plasma 5.25.
Or, you can use Discover to fetch the latest version and install it.
Via the official announcement.
