KDE Plasma 6.7 Launch: More Performance, Features, and UI Polish

Just on time, following the recent beta launch, which saw the addition of the new KDE Plasma Bigscreen view, KDE Plasma 6.7 has officially launched for public download and is now available from the KDE site. Unlike many previous versions, version 6.7 of the Plasma desktop environment for Linux doesn’t have any real ground-breaking features, instead delivering a host of small changes that elevate the desktop environment to new heights and enable more versatile use cases. One such example is improved support for simultaneous HDR and ICC color profiles, making managing a desktop that pulls double duty as a media creation and consumption machine simpler. It also has expanded support for the Wayland protocol and its portals, and the new per-screen virtual desktop switching system has also been implemented. There are also performance improvements at hand across the board, with a focus on power usage and systems with Intel iGPUs.

Perhaps the only major change is the new Union theming system, which is still in its infancy but allows for easier theming of Plasma, QtQuick apps and QtWidget theming via CSS document editing. A much-awaited update to the Oxygen theme also makes its debut in KDE Plasma 6.7. On the UI side, Plasma 6.7 now has a toggle to switch the global theme to and from night mode from the control panel. The Application Menu, Dashboard, and Launcher widgets now also feature drag and drop to add apps to favorites; a system tray update now shows how many jobs are in the print queue on hover, and there is now support for more apps in the Background Apps system tray entry; the built-in calendar widget shows the time difference between the different time zones configured in the widget. For a full list of the tweaks and changes, check out the full changelog on the KDE site or the KDE Wiki.