KDE Plasma 6.6 released
(kde.org)
Jure Repinc to 
Linux
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43288310
In KDE Plasma 6.6 Spectacle can read texts from screenshots, a new on-screen keybord is available for testing, a first-time wizard was added, current theme can be saved as a new global theme, emoji selector got a new easier skin tone selection, you can now connect to a Wi-Fi network via a QR code, application sound volume can be changed by scrolling over a taskbar button via mouse, and there is much more.
Oh boy, feature freeze for Ubuntu 26.04 is on Thursday. Hopefully, they still include this update.
My work laptop unfortunately comes with Kubuntu LTS and I desperately want the virtual-desktops-only-on-the-primary-screen feature on there. Currently, I'm the guy that actively disables all but one screen, because my workflow does not work at all with the secondary screen switching in sync with the primary screen.
my workflow does not work at all with the secondary screen switching in sync with the primary screen
Same here. My workaround so far has been to put the windows that belong on the secondary to the "Keep Window on All Desktops" mode.
The volume slider with a scroll wheel over the taskbar icons is such a clever little addition. It makes so much sense. I can’t believe nobody else thought of this.
I haven't updated to 6.6 yet, and I can definitely do that.
I'm on 6.5.5. Probably gonna update now
edit: nevermind, Just saw the video below. Def a new feature.
Wait, do other DEs not have this? I believe even Windows has this.
Are you thinking of the volume icon in the systray? For that, it's pretty standard that scrolling changes the volume, yeah. @muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works is talking about the volume of each individual application, though:
(I have hardly used Windows for the past decade, so no idea, if it has it.)
KDE is awesome. Congrats to all people involved with it.
KDE absolutely ridiculing Windows yet again
Meanwhile Microsoft broke the fucking Notepad
Spectacle OCR is fantastic news. That is really going to simplify one of my current workflows.
As long as it can be turned off and does not use any non-local services for OCR it’s a good addition. As much as convenience is nice, privacy still has to come first.
The OCR is offline, using Tesseract, there is nothing online about it.
It only activates when you press a button, so there is nothing to turn off either.
The ability to have virtual desktops only on the primary screen
sigh. I guess. I think I just need to settle on the fact KDE is never going to allow dedicated virtual desktops per monitor. I really want to use Plasma but this is a deal breaker for me.
I mean, this looks like a step towards that direction, no?
I still wouldn't assume it to actually go further than that. It's a limitation of the EWMH standard, which is used for controlling the placement of windows.
I don't have in-depth knowledge of the standard, but I assume, it can only represent 1 desktop as the active desktop and stuff like that.
Maybe you could try to be clever by e.g. always reporting the active desktop of the active screen and stuff like that, but yeah, no idea if you can do that for all aspects of the standard, and whether applications will still behave as expected.
You can also filter windows out of a screencast by choosing a special option from the pop-up menu that appears when right-clicking a window’s title bar:
An option to hide windows from Spectacle, when recording a screencast. Admittedly I am not much of a screencast person, but its good to know in case I need it as I have some future plans. So I could have some notes or the web browser open in same virtual desktop I am recording from.
I am so happy we have such a good desktop option, they are constantly putting out great features :D
I'm still sticking to Gnome but I love these features and how more polished KDE looks with every update (even though I still think they need to perfect some details). It makes me really happy to know we have these really important projects being libre.
How about Plasma Login Manager?
It's mentioned as the second point in "But that's not all...":
An optional new login manager for Plasma
it's already available? CachyOS for example switched to using it as the default like a month or two ago. It's already out there.
Seems like it's part of the 6.6.0 release. Arch has it in testing at version 6.6.0 at least.
Damn, I just love KDE, but my Linux Mint doesn’t support it anymore so I have to satisfy Cinnamon.
Just another reason not to use Mint.
What else should I use? It just works and I don’t want to mess with my computer anymore.
fedora KDE has been pretty painless for me, and if you want something that’s still ubuntu based, kubuntu looks good too
A distribution with first class KDE support, obviously 😛
CachyOS, Nobara, Bazzite, there’s a lot of good options.
Nice. KDE is looking schmick. Congrats to the KDE team.
