KDE Plasma 5.26 arrives with an improved experience, modern features, accessibility and app updates.
The 28th version of the KDE Plasma desktop environment was released today, named Plasma 5.26, with many user-centric features and goodies.
Coming up since the prior release early this year, KDE Plasma 5.26 is based upon Qt framework 5.15.2 and KDE Framework 5.98, which brings the latest suite of KDE technology and application.
Let’s take a look at the new features of Plasma 5.26.
KDE Plasma 5.26 feature highlights in brief
The KDE Plasma desktop brings animated wallpaper support out of the box for the first time. You don’t need any additional plugins from KDE Store or anywhere for your dynamic wallpaper. Here’s how it looks.
In addition to that, KDE now supports avif and heif images via the “Set as wallpaper” function. Also, the default breeze theme can switch light and dark wallpaper based on your theme type.
The main kick-off menu gets alphabet-based navigation with a new page. This feature is definitely going to boost your productivity for faster access to your applications.
Furthermore, the world’s best desktop launcher – KRunner, gets more friendly with the intelligent search with your intent. Another “kool” feature enables you to customize the application icon text to anything you want.
Other noteworthy changes include the Calendar now available with an alternate date and multi-locale. all the tray menu pop up become resizable and show alternatives now save the settings.
The font of the default panel clock was not configurable for a long time. This changes now. This release introduces customization of the clock font in the KDE Plasma desktop, including font face and size.
In addition to the above changes, Discover, Settings, and native apps get a vast amount of new features, which you can read in detail in my KDE Plasma 5.26 feature guide.
How to download
To experience this brand new Plasma, you can download the KDE Neon user edition from the below page.
Click on the User edition on the below page.
If you are using Kubuntu, you should get this version when Kubuntu 22.10 releases on October 20, 2022. Fedora users need to wait for the final Fedora 37 release next week (Oct 18-20).
Arch Linux users should get this in the next two weeks. Keep an eye on this page.
Upgrade
If you are using the KDE Neon or any other KDE-based distro, read my exclusive upgrade guide to Plasma 5.26.
Via announcement | changelog
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