I suppose it's because I don't usually buy expensive computers with bright screens, but the latest news of the week has still surprised me. KDEYes, this will be the last post of the year, as they'll be taking a break for Christmas, and the next one won't be until 2026. Nata Graham wishes us all happy holidays, and while we're at it, we'd like to take this opportunity to do the same for our readers.
And going back to the subject of bright screens, I mentioned it because one has been added function to support devices with ambient light sensor This allows the operating system to adjust the screen brightness based on the ambient light. This feature is more common in mobile devices, and KDE users will soon be able to enjoy it on computers with this type of sensor.
Notable New Features Coming to KDE
plasma 6.6.0
- Compatibility with automatic brightness adjustment was implemented on devices with ambient light sensors.
KDE interface improvements
plasma 6.5.5
- KRunner's search matching algorithms have been improved to prioritize partial matches at the beginning of app names, descriptions, and keywords. This corrects issues such as searching for "ala" and getting "KAlarm" as the top result instead of "Alacritty".
plasma 6.6.0
- A workaround was added for Windows games with HDR support, ensuring that colors still look correct when running in WINE or Proton.
- Spectacle notifications about screenshots now include an "Open Containing Folder" button and remain in the history if not manually closed, making it easy to keep track of where the screenshots were saved.
- A problem in Spectacle that caused the bottom toolbar in rectangular region mode to be clipped when the selected region was near the bottom of the screen in certain configurations was fixed.
- The Wi-Fi & Networks page in System Preferences now displays information about connected Wi-Fi networks, just like the system tray dropdown.
- Discover now displays available updates within the app with a more polished visual presentation.
KDE Performance and Technical
plasma 6.5.5
- Fixed an issue that prevented KWin from using direct scanning when the Battle.net launcher was open.
plasma 6.6.0
- Frame loss was reduced on monitors with extremely high refresh rates.
- The ability was implemented for portal-based applications to actively inhibit session closure, for example when there are unsaved documents open.
Coming soon to your KDE distribution
Regarding bugs, the 5 high-priority bugs have been maintained, and the 15-minute bugs have been increased from 55 to 59.
KDE Plasma 6.5.5 is expected to arrive on January 13th, and Frameworks 6.22 on January 9th. 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.