KDE is preparing many new features for Plasma 6.6 and Frameworks 6.21

  • KDE is focused on the development of Plasma 6.6.
  • Many changes are on the way, several of them cosmetic.
  • Bugs in Plasma 6.5 are still being fixed.
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Fixing bugs in KDE Plasma 6.5

We currently have Plasma 6.5 in our hands, the latest stable series of the desktop environment. KDEAnd in about two months, Plasma 6.6 will arrive. If we pay attention to what we read week after week, the next release will also be important, especially if it includes the new features coming with Frameworks 6.21. But we don't have to live waiting; we have to take advantage of the moment we're living in, something KDE knows, which is why it continues to refine the 6.5 series.

The following is the list with the most outstanding news KDE has released this week. Many of the updates involve interface tweaks, while others deal with bugs that we don't usually include in these articles to avoid making them too long. Anyone wanting more information should read the original article, which we'll link to at the end of this post.

Notable New Features Coming to KDE

plasma 6.6.0

  • There are now global actions to skip forward or backward 5 or 30 seconds in the currently playing media. These work as long as the current player allows other applications to control playback using MPRIS. These actions don't have default keyboard shortcuts, but you can configure them yourself.
  • Now we can configure the Window List widget to show its menu when hovering over it, or to hide the icon and only show the name of the active window.
  • Now we can configure the order of the icons displayed in the Lock/Log Out widget.

Notable improvements to the KDE interface

plasma 6.6.0

  • They've continued to refine the XDG portal's dialogs. This time, the screen and window selection dialog has been simplified and improved.
  • Canceling a file paste on the Plasma desktop no longer produces an unnecessary error notification.
  • Docking buttons have been added to the Web Browser and Audio Volume widgets so that, if we have them independently on a panel, we can keep their pop-up windows open while we continue using them.
  • The search usability in the Kickoff App Launcher widget has been improved: you can now use the arrow keys to return from the results panel to the search field, and delayed results no longer cause selection jumps.
  • The appearance and usability of the disks displayed on the SMART status page of the Information Center have been improved.
  • When clearing the clipboard while displaying a QR code related to a deleted item, the QR code now also closes.
  • The Kicker App Menu widget no longer briefly displays the message “No matches found” right after searching for something.
  • The experience of quickly moving the pointer over main menu items in the Kicker Apps widget has been improved; submenus now appear the same as in other app menus.
  • When using the Kicker App Menu widget in a right-edge panel, the sub-submenus now open to the left of the parent menu, preventing them from obscuring the main menu. This also works correctly with RTL languages ​​and a left-edge panel.

KDE Frameworks 6.21, with the full effect in Plasma 6.6.0

  • The headers of Kirigami-based applications now have the same height as those of QtWidgets-based applications. The padding of highlighted list items has also been standardized and made consistent with the external padding of header elements.
  • The Fifteen Puzzle widget now has a new icon and uses a symbolic icon when placed on a panel.

Framework 6.21

  • A change that hid .desktop files with NoDisplay=false in the “Open with” menus of applications has been reverted, as its negative effects outweighed its advantages.

Featured in KDE performance and technical aspects

plasma 6.6.0

  • XRandr emulation support has been implemented in KWin, enabling consistent behavior with XWayland applications that use X11 APIs to change resolution and require horizontal or vertical bands.
  • The performance of the selection box that we drag on the desktop to select items has been improved.
  • Support has been implemented for the standard "reduce motion" setting, which tells apps that you prefer to minimize animations. It is now automatically enabled when you disable animations in System Preferences.

plasma 6.5.4

  • A memory leak in Plasma has been fixed.

Coming soon to your KDE distribution

Regarding bugs, the number of high-priority bugs has increased from 4 to 5, and the number of 15-minute bugs has increased from 31 to 36.

KDE Plasma 6.5.4 is expected to arrive on December 9th, and Frameworks 6.21 three days later, on the 12th of the same month. Plasma 6.6 will take a little longer: the chosen date is February 17th, 2026. No official announcement has been made yet, so it is expected that there will continue to be three Plasma versions throughout at least 2026.

Vía: KDE Blog.