KDE Plasma 6 overview

KDE Plasma 6 is on the way and it is packed with exciting improvements and new features that we are going to summarize.

KDE Plasma 6 features

The KDE community has highlighted new features and changes that are set to be implemented in Plasma 6, the next major release of the KDE Plasma desktop environment.

• Double click

The default setting for opening files and folders will be double-click rather than single-click.

• Wayland

Wayland is the default session type for Plasma 6, with the X11 session still being available as an option. The team has reviewed the “Wayland showstoppers” and refined them, and progress is being made to resolve the issues.

• Floating panel

In Plasma 6, the panel will now float by default. This change is due to Microsoft copying KDE’s design in Windows 11, and the team wants to provide immediate visual differentiation.

• Accent color header

The header areas will be lightly tinted with your current accent color to fix the issue of users finding it difficult to distinguish the active window at a glance.

• Task Switcher

The new default Task Switcher now uses the “Thumbnail Grid” and is better suited for people who navigate primarily by looking at app icons rather than thumbnails or text.

Lastly is the ability to click in the scrollbar track to jump to a location, making it easy to scroll to a specific location without dragging the scrollbar, which could result in repetitive motion injuries.

View all the Plasma 6 proposals and issues.