The new branch will receive a total of three point releases

Oct 23, 2016 21:50 GMT  ·  By

KDE Plasma's KDE Applications 16.08 software suite series will receive just one more point release, namely KDE Applications 16.08.3, which lands November 10, so it's time for the next major branch.

If you haven't guessed already, we're talking about the KDE Applications 16.12, whose development cycle appears to have started and an initial release schedule was published on the official website, suggesting that the Dependency Freeze is also tagged for November 10, right after KDE Applications 16.08 reaches end of life.

But it looks like you'll need to enjoy the KDE Applications 16.08.3 release on your GNU/Linux distribution a little longer, as the Beta of KDE Applications 16.12 lands for public beta testers on November 17, followed two weeks later by the Release Candidate (RC) build, on the first day of December.

KDE Applications 16.12 launches December 15 with up-to-date KDE apps

After that, the release schedule suggests December 15 as the official release date of the KDE Application 16.12 software suite, just in time for the fifth and last maintenance 2016 update to the long-term supported KDE Plasma 5.8 desktop environment, on December 27.

As usual, the new KDE Applications branch will get a total of three point releases, the first one, KDE Applications 16.12.1, hitting the streets next year, on January 12. The second maintenance update, KDE Applications 16.12.2, arrives on February 9, and the branch reaches end of life on March 9, 2017, with the KDE Applications 16.12.3 release.

By then, users will receive another update for their KDE Plasma 5.8 LTS desktop environments, version 5.8.6, due for release on February 21, as well as the short-lived KDE Plasma 5.9 desktop, which launches officially on January 31, 2017. More details can be found in our in-depth article about the next KDE Plasma releases.