It may have been expected a little later, but it is normal for KDE to publish its releases at this time. The project has announced today the release and availability of plasma 6.3, a major update that, as such, offers new features, but has also taken advantage of the moment to fix pending bugs. What we will publish here are the most notable new features, and among them there are no bugs mentioned, but there are refinements.
This version has arrived four months after the previous series. Although there are new features, its developers say that they have taken advantage of the year since Plasma 6.0 to make fine adjustments and eliminate bugs. Let's go with the most outstanding news from Plasma 6.3.
Plasma 6.3 Highlights
In the notes from this release You can see some videos, like one that shows that now panels can be cloned, as well as a zoom in KWin and improvements to drawing tablets.
In Plasma 6.3, the System Preferences page for tablets of this type has been improved with separate sections. Among other things, it is now possible to:
- Map an area of a drawing tablet's surface to the entire screen area.
- The tablet calibration feature has been refined to produce more accurate calibrations.
- The pen check function displays information about tilt and pressure.
- The pressure curve and range of a pen can be customized to eliminate high and/or low points.
- The functions of the pen buttons can also be reassigned or swapped.
On the graphics side, fractional scaling has been improved. KWin makes things look better, even when zoomed in. Colors are also more accurate when using Night Light. One nice touch that came with this update is that desktop widgets are a bit translucent.
System Monitor and Tools
The System Monitor now measures CPU usage more accurately while consuming significantly fewer resources. There is good news for Plasma 6.3 users on FreeBSD: both the System Monitor application and widgets can now display GPU statistics on their rig. Additionally, the Info Center offers more detailed data, including information about all of your GPUs and the number of charge cycles on your batteries.
As for tools, searches in KRunner and in tools that use it now allow you to change categories with the keys Page Up/Page Down or with Ctrl+Up/Down. Discover incorporates a security enhancement that highlights sandboxed applications (sandbox) whose permissions will change after an update, allowing you to review any suspicious modifications. And if you like weather forecasts from German Weather ServicePlasma 6.3 now allows using this source to get weather information.
Usability in Plasma 6.3
plasma 6.3 Improves comfort without sacrificing customization options. Now you can configure the touchpad on your laptop so that it automatically turns off when you use a mouse, avoiding interruptions while typing. Plus, if you turn your device into a Wi-Fi hotspot, the system will generate a random password for you, saving you the work of creating one.
It has also Optimized navigation within PlasmaA new “Help” section has been added to the launcher (the menu usually found on the left side of the panel), while the Settings category has been removed and its options have been reorganized within the System section, offering a more intuitive structure.
Personalization.
Panels can be cloned and it's also possible to use scripts to change the opacity of widgets. And if you ever lose a widget during the customization process, Plasma 6.3's new Widget Explorer lets you delete all instances of a widget, including those you've missed that are only present on disconnected screens.
Plasma 6.3 has been announced a few minutes ago, and its source code is now available. It will soon be coming to KDE neon, the operating system that KDE controls the most, then to some Rolling Release distributions like Arch Linux and later to the rest, in a time frame that will depend on the philosophy of each distribution.