KDE Plasma 6.0, and KDE Gear 24.02 released
Today the KDE Community is announcing a new najor release of Plasma 6.0, and Gear 24.02. KDE Plasma is a modern, feature-rich desktop environment for Linux-based operating systems. Known for its sleek design, customizable interface, and extensive set of applications, it is also open source, devoid of ads, and makes protecting your privacy and personal data a priority.
With Plasma 6, the technology stack has undergone two major upgrades: a transition to the latest version of the application framework, Qt 6, and a migration to the modern Linux graphics platform, Wayland. They will continue providing support for the legacy X11 session for users who prefer to stick with it for now. The new version brings the new windows and desktop overview, improved colour management, a cleaner theme, more effects, better overall performance, and much more.
I love KDE. Been using it for 10 years
One question i've always had though... Does anyone actually use the default KDE software like konqueror, kmail, kontacts, etc? Why not just focus on the desktop environment?
That software played a much bigger role back in the day (i.e Konqueror's. KHTML was forked by both Apple and later Google for Safari and Chrome), so it's kind of a proud legacy. Konqueror is deprecated though. The other apps are useful for KDE mobile.
But the real reason people work on them is "cause they wanna"
Konsole is fantastic.
KDE's weakness to GNOME is definitely the range and quality of its homegrown apps, but the 'core' apps like Kate, Kalculator, Konsole are really solid.
A bunch of them: Kate, Konsole, Dolphin, KCalc, Kdenlive, Okular, Gwenview, Ark, Spectacle, KDEconnect, Elisa and probably a couple more I missed.
I used okular and loved Kate
Yeah I use a lot of KDE software, main reason because it fits so nicely with the desktop and it also integrates functions with Plasma so usage is even smoother. One of the main applications I do not use from KDE are browser, I use LibreWolf (the desktop integration package+plugin does quite a nice job for integration here), and LibreOffice,
Yes, using them is probably the closest one can get to the macos ecosystem on Linux.
I'd argue GNOME has a better native app ecosystem. they have the resources to maintain a massive selection of "official" apps
I don't know, I used gnome for a while and I just felt like I was using toy apps. But I think that comes down to personal preference. KDE definitly has the bigger apps like Kdenlive and Krita.
The default software was one of the main reasons KDE was created. The original creator didn't like that every app on their system seemed to use a different UI toolkit, and wanted a consistent appearance across everything.