Throughout this week, KDE has been doing what it always does: preparing for future features and fixing what's already in hand. What's in the hands of some users is the Plasma 6.5 beta, which is just around the corner, and already seems to be in good shape for its release. But no less important is that the list of high-priority bugs has been reduced to zero. They'll probably discover new ones, but at this point, none of the most important ones are missing.
The previous two points overshadow the rest, such as an improvement to the "Application Dashboard" that, to be honest, I was unaware of, and I really like Plasma. In any case, what follows is the list with the news they have published this week, not including the many bug fixes. Those looking for more information should visit the original article, which we'll link to at the end of this post.
Notable New Features Coming to KDE
plasma 6.6.0
- The Dashboard widget can now be configured to match the color scheme, though it's still dark by default. This panel hasn't received any visual improvements in years; if anyone thinks it looks lackluster, KDE agrees and would welcome any input.
- It's now possible to resize the area between the Favorites and Apps sections of the App Drawer widget, allowing one or the other to take up more space.
- Klipper actions can now be disabled without having to delete them.
KDE Interface Highlights
Now available
- The Plasma Browser Integration plugin settings window now has a dark background when the browser is using dark mode.
plasma 6.5.0
- KWin's inactive window dimming effect is now limited to intensity levels between 10% and 90%, as values ​​outside that range are meaningless and can produce erroneous results.
- If the firmware updater systemd service (fwupd) has been deliberately disabled, Discover no longer considers this an error or displays unnecessary warnings.
plasma 6.6.0
- Main menu item highlights now have slightly rounded edges.
- When using the Bing Picture of the Day wallpaper provider, the thumbnail now reflects the actual aspect ratio of the background (landscape or portrait) instead of always showing a vertical version.
- Wi-Fi network passwords are now stored globally by default (in a root-owned location, so not everyone can see them), rather than per-user. This provides several benefits:
- No more KWallet pop-ups on misconfigured systems.
- New user accounts on the same system do not need to manually log in again to common Wi-Fi networks.
- Login screen features, such as accessing LDAP accounts that require an internet connection, now work out of the box.
Framework 6.20
- KRunner's search results no longer dynamically change priority based on usage frequency. While this was a clever feature, it made it impossible to provide a consistent default order, as it varied between users. By removing this, the order of results becomes predictable and therefore easier to learn.
Featured in KDE Performance and Technical Aspects
plasma 6.5.0
- Improvements have been made to nested KWin sessions, including improved performance and disabling global shortcuts outside of the nested environment.
plasma 6.6.0
- The command
kcmahell6 --listnow sort your output alphabetically.
Coming soon to your KDE distribution
As for bugs, there are none left with high priority and the 15-minute bugs have increased from 29 to 31.
KDE Plasma 6.5 stable is expected to arrive next Tuesday, October 21st, and Frameworks 6.20 on November 14th. The release date for Plasma 6.6 is now known: February 17th, 2026. No announcement has been made yet, so we expect there to continue to be three versions of Plasma throughout at least 2026.
VÃa: KDE Blog.