14 DAY TRIAL // KDE developer Nathaniel Graham reports on one of the biggest changes coming to the KDE Plasma 5.13 desktop environment release this summer, namely the revamp of the lock and login screens.
By default, the upcoming KDE Plasma 5.13 desktop environment will present users with new, overhauled lock and login screens that would act quite different from what they used until now. For example, the lock screen will now function more like a screensaver, keeping the password field and controls hidden until you press a button, move the mouse, or touch the screen.
You can even set an image slideshow, an animated effect, or a solid color as the background. Moreover, every time you update to a new major KDE Plasma release, both the lock and login screens will automatically use the default wallpaper of that specific release if you don't mess with the default settings. Also, the clock and date widget now has a subtle drop shadow effect applied to be visible always.
"We’ve overhauled the lock and login screens to provide better usability and aesthetics, and more features," says Nathaniel Graham. "The lock screen now displays the default Plasma wallpaper and behaves more like a screensaver: only the clock and date are displayed at first [...] and after moving the mouse, typing on the keyboard, or tapping the touchscreen, the image is darkened and blurred, and the controls become visible."
KDE Plasma 5.13 coming June 12 with more new features and improvements
Of course, there are more improvements and new features in the upcoming KDE Plasma 5.13 desktop environment release than the overhauled lock and login screens. Among some of them, we can mention that the Open and Save dialogs now display previews for various file types that are also supported by the Dolphin file manager, and grid spacing now allows for more content to be displayed while in the Icon View mode.
It will also be possible to configure the System Monitor Plasmoid with a custom update interval, as well as to resize images in Gwenview by percentage. In addition, the Gwenview image viewer now displays a count of the total number of images and videos, along with the position of the currently-viewed media. There are also several other bug fixes and UI improvements you should be aware of, as detailed in Nathaniel Graham's latest weekly report.
