The popular Linux desktop KDE Plasma 5.25 is out! See what’s new in this highly customizable desktop environment.
For laptop or other devices with touchpad, the Plasma desktop finally has out-of-the-box support for 3 and 4 finger touchpad gestures! User may now use following gestures to speed up workflow:
- 4-finger pinch to open the overview.
- 3-finger swipe (any direction) to switch desktops.
- 4-finger swipe down to open present windows.
- And 4-finger upwards to activate the desktop grid.
And on touchscreen, you can swipe from the screen edge to open Overview, Desktop Grid, Present Windows, and Show Desktop
KDE Plasma 5.25 introduced Overview mode, which looks a bit like the GNOME’s Activities overview. User can either press Super (“Windows”) + w key combination or use the 4-finger pinch gesture mentioned above to open it.
In overview screen, it allows to manager all opened windows, virtual desktops, as well as searching for apps, documents, browser tabs with KRunner.
Other cool new features in Plasma 25 include:
- Sync the accent color with your wallpaper.
- Activate Touch Mode by detaching the screen, or rotating 360°
- Floating panel, which automatically go back normal when app maximized.
- Containment Management window, allows to move entire desktop from one monitor to another.
- Global Theme settings page allows to pick and choose which parts to apply
- Navigate Plasma panels via keyboard and assign custom shortcuts to focus individual panels.
How to Get KDE Plasma 5.25:
The KDE website provides live images and source tarballs for downloading in the bottom of announcement page.
For Arch Linux, it provides the latest stable KDE Frameworks, Plasma and Applications packages in system repository.
For (K)Ubuntu 22.04, the new desktop will soon made into Kubuntu backports PPA. Just add the PPA via the command in that page, then install all available updates when they are landed in PPA will bring you KDE Plasma 5.25.