14 DAY TRIAL // As expected, the KDE Project announced today the official availability of the final release of the KDE Plasma 5.10 desktop environment for GNU/Linux operating systems willing to adopt it for their users.
When the Beta milestone launched two weeks ago, KDE also unveiled all the features they managed to implement in this major release, which will soon make its way into the software repositories of your favorite operating system in the coming weeks, so you should already have an idea about what's new.
If not, let us tell you that KDE Plasma 5.10 packs Folder View as default desktop interface instead of the Folder Widget that was used until now. Folder View features spring loading functionality which you can see in action in the gallery below, space-saving icon grid, unified drop menu, and better mouse behavior.
"After some years shunning icons on the desktop we have accepted the inevitable and changed to Folder View as the default desktop which brings some icons by default and allows users to put whatever files or folders they want easy access to," reads today's release announcement.
There are many other performance improvements implemented in the Folder View to make it ready for use in production environments, along with various enhancements, such as the ability to resize widgets on the desktop, better back button history, Undo shortcut support, and clickable location in the headings.
Support for Snap and Flatpak apps, new Plymouth Splash Screen module
KDE Plasma 5.10 also comes with integration of Snappy and Flatpak technologies in the Plasma Discover package manager, allowing users to easily install these universal binary apps on their systems. Plasma Discover now supports GNOME’s Open Desktop Ratings Service (ODRS) for reviews and comments of KDE apps, too.
The Task Manager has been enhanced as well with support for grouping and ungrouping apps via middle mouse click, there's a new Plymouth Splash Screen module in System Settings so you can more easily choose a boot splash for your operating system running KDE Plasma 5.10, and touchscreen support got a lot better.
A built-in virtual keyboard is present on both the lock and login screens, left screen edge now defaults to window switching, and touchscreen edge swipe gestures are now supported, allowing users to display auto-hiding panels. These changes come along with the extra work the KDE team did for porting KDE Plasma to Wayland.
Among some Wayland improvements included in KDE Plasma 5.10, we can mention the ability for the KWin window manager to support scaling of displays by different levels on setups where both a HiDPI monitor and a normal DPI screen exist, better keyboard layout support, per layout global shortcut, and policy-based layout switching.
There are numerous other small, yet important improvements shipping with today's KDE Plasma 5.10 desktop environment, but we'll let you guys discover them once you mange to upgrade your existing KDE Plasma 5.9.5 installations. The KDE Plasma 5.10 source packages are available now for OS integrators.
KDE Plasma 5.10 is a normal update supported until August 22, 2017, with a total of five stability and bugfix point releases. The first one, KDE Plasma 5.10.1, is scheduled for next week, June 6, followed closely by the second one, KDE Plasma 5.10.2, on June 13. KDE Plasma 5.10.3 will be released on June 27 and KDE Plasma 5.10.4 on July 18.
The end of life will be reached with the last point release, namely KDE Plasma 5.10.5, which is currently scheduled to hit the streets on August 22, 2017. Check out the featured video and screenshot gallery below for more details, as well as the official announcement.
