14 DAY TRIAL // The KDE Project developers have unveiled the first Beta of the next-generation Plasma workspace, bringing it a little closer to the final version.
Plasma Next has been built to eventually replace the current KDE Plasma Platform, which seems to have run its course. The current Plasma project is still being maintained and new versions will still be released, but the new Plasma Next project is the future.
To make things more manageable for the developers, the project has been separated in a few smaller ones that in the end will come together in a single, bigger product. This is not only a change of name, but a true evolution of the KDE Plasma.
Just like the new Ubuntu Touch and Unity, Plasma Next is built using QML and runs on top of a fully hardware-accelerated graphics stack using Qt 5, QtQuick 2, and an OpenGL(-ES) scenegraph.
“For the first time KDE is shipping its own font. Oxygen Font is designed to be optimised for the FreeType font rendering system and works well in all graphical user interfaces, desktops and devices. For the first time KDE is shipping its own font. Oxygen Font is designed to be optimised for the FreeType font rendering system and works well in all graphical user interfaces, desktops and devices.”
“The workspace demonstrated in this pre-release is Plasma Desktop. It represents an evolution of known desktop and laptop paradigms. Plasma Next keeps existing workflows intact, while providing incremental visual and interactive improvements,” reads the official announcement.
The KDE developers have invited everyone to come and test the new Plasma experience, even if it's not stable. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the devs are committed to shipping a stable release in a little under two months, in July.
There are a number of ways of testing the new Beta release of Plasma Next. Some distributions have already integrated it in the repositories, but a live OS image update with the latest builds straight from source, called Neon5 ISO, is also available for download.
The Live image is based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and it can help users see what the new desktop environment actually looks like.
More details about this build and the changes in the Plasma Next branch can be found in the official announcement. Also, you can download the latest Plasma Next sources right now from the website.
Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.