14 DAY TRIAL // Work on the next major release of the open-source KDE Plasma Desktop environment for Linux-based operating systems kicked off a few months ago, promising numerous new features and enhancements.
With the KDE Plasma 5.17 release out the door last month, it's time to take a closer look at the new features and improvements coming to KDE Plasma 5.18, which will be released early next year as the next LTS (Long Term Support) version of open-source desktop environment designed to run on GNU/Linux distributions.
Among the enhancements of the KDE Plasma 5.18 LTS desktop environment, we can mention the ability to select and remove multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously, support for KSysGuard to display stats for Nvidia graphics hardware, and a new "Home" button in System Settings that will take users back to the main page.
Several pages in System Settings have been updated as well, including the General Behavior page, which now has a global animation speed slider for controlling the speed of all animations or for turning them off, and the the "Defaults" button in the System Settings' Fonts page was improved to work as expected.
Furthermore, the System Settings' Baloo file search page has been rewritten and it now features a brand-new QML-based user interface that paves the way to more enhancements, and the cursor now changes its appearance in System Settings to match what's beneath it and offers users a preview of the cursor's animated effect.
Improved full-screen windows on X11 and Wayland
KDE Plasma 5.18 LTS also promises improvements when moving or resizing full-screen windows on X11 and Wayland, a more streamlined display style and look of Plasma Audio Volume's applet and its respective System Settings page, as well as the ability to search for widgets and add-ons from Discover's main Features page again.
Among other improvements, we can mention that the Weather widget was updated as well to be able to display pressure in "millimeters of mercury," Digital Clock's settings window now displays an inline preview for the configured time format, and the Touchpad system tray applet will no longer stay open after losing focus.
KDE Plasma 5.18 LTS will also allow users to hide the clock on the lockscreen until the password prompt appears, implement support in Discover for repairing the host operating system when an update operating fails during offline updates, and make the left- and right-clicking behaviour on System Tray icons after hiding and showing them more reliable.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that selected desktop items will now subtly change their appearance to become an inactive highlight when something else gains focus in KDE Plasma 5.18 LTS, which will be available for beta testing starting January 16th, 2020. KDE Plasma 5.18 LTS is expected to be released on February 11th, 2020, and will be supported until 2022.
