KDE

2024: KDE 6

On February 28, 2024, it became known that after a year of development, the release of the KDE Plasma 6 desktop environment, KDE Frameworks 6 libraries and the KDE Gear 24.02 application collection were published. To evaluate the performance of KDE 6, you can use assemblies from the KDE Neon project.

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As reported, the main changes affected the following:

• A transition was made to the use of the Qt 6 library.
• By default, a session using the Wayland protocol is proposed. Work using X11 has been converted to options. If desired, users and distributions can return to using an X11-based session, but Wayland is now presented as an officially recommended protocol.
• The floating panel display mode is enabled, in which there are visible indents between the panel and the screen borders, giving the user environment a distinctive look (after the appearance of a panel similar to the old KDE panel in Windows 11, some users believe that KDE copies the Windows design, although in KDE a similar panel was proposed long before Windows 11). The interface is optimized to customize the panel parameters, which allows you to customize the appearance of the panel according to your preferences. A smart mode has been added to automatically hide the panel, retracting the panel when the application window enters the panel placement area.
• A combined interface for switching between tasks and virtual desktops is proposed, which combines the capabilities of Overview mode and Desktop Grid mode, and is distinguished by flexible capabilities for managing using a touchpad.
• An additional style of switching between Thumbnail Grid tasks is involved, which allows you to immediately see all available windows, without the need to waste time scrolling. In the updated interface, in addition to window sketches, application icons are shown, which optimizes navigation for those who are used to identifying programs by their icons, and not by text name. In addition, the task switch is unlocked from the global theme, which allows you to change the topic without fear that the task switch will be replaced with it.
• Returned a visual effect representing desktop content in the form of a rotating cube. The blur effect has been completely redone.
• Many small optimizations have been made to the Breeze theme. For example, the updated version reduces the use of frames for dividing widgets and redesigns the indentation between elements. The title area of the active window is now highlighted by the color used in the selected theme to highlight the active elements (accent), which solved problems with the visual separation of the active window from the inactive ones. Instead of the "Oxygen" sound theme, an updated set of "Ocean" sounds is offered.
• An updated set of Oxygen 6 icons has been proposed, designed for delivery to KDE 6.

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• The KWin composite manager has added support for Wayland protocol extensions responsible for color management. The Wayland-based KDE Plasma 6 session provides separate color management for each screen. Users can now assign their ICC profiles to each screen, and applications using Wayland will ensure correct color reproduction. Applications are still limited to the use of sRGB, but in the future they promise to add support for other color spaces. HDR support is partially implemented for monitors that support an extended brightness range. For people with vision defects that do not allow them to perceive certain colors, support for corrective color filters has been added.
• Opening files and directories by default now requires double-clicking rather than single-clicking as before, which optimizes customization in an updated user environment from other systems. If necessary, the old behavior can be returned in the settings.
• By default, the ability to quickly change the position in the window by clicking on the scroll area is enabled, which allows you to avoid dragging the scroll bar with the mouse.
• Virtual desktop switching is disabled by default when attempting to scroll on the desktop. This feature was confusing for many users, especially if the switch was made to the desktop with open windows and scrolling could no longer turn back. For those who are used to this mode, it can be returned in the settings.
• In a Wayland-based environment, the tap-to-click mode is enabled by default to simulate a mouse click by touching the touchpad.
• Added the ability to unlock the screen using smart cards either a fingerprint, without disabling unlocking (password previously you could use either a fingerprint or a password, but not together).
• The sections of the configurator were reorganized, in which there are fewer nested pages. To unify the appearance with other applications and free up screen space for settings in many sections of the configurator, the buttons are transferred to the toolbar. An interface has been added to customize the sound theme. Optimized application binding as handlers for certain file types.
• The interface for searching for files and programs has been upgraded. Added the ability to customize the sorting of search results. Handlers have been added that allow through the search system to calculate offsets between time zones, initiate a transition to hybrid sleep mode and search in the Codeberg and PyPi repositories. When choosing a language other than English in the system, simultaneous accounting is provided when searching for system and English languages. Optimized search for settings and applications. Search in recently opened documents is optimized by 200%, and search for applications by 60%. Reduced CPU load during search by 30%.
• Kontact's Personal Information Manager, which covers applications such as mail client, scheduler calendar, certificate manager, and address book, has added changes aimed at enhancing security and privacy. In the KMail mail client, when viewing letters, advertising and code are cut out to track the opening of letters. The writing interface implements the display of the trust level and the status of the addressee's OpenPGP keys. The KOrganizer scheduler calendar has added the ability to send encrypted and digitally signed invitations. Kleopatra, a graphical interface to GnuPG, adds support for viewing encrypted emails downloaded through Web clients that do not support OpenPGP (for example, through Gmail).
• KMail has a built-in, but disabled by default, system for translating text from one language to another, running on the user's local system without accessing external cloud services and based on the open source Bergamot engine, which is also used in Firefox. The vosk-api package implements the ability to convert speech into text.
• The capabilities of the KItinerary travel assistant have been expanded. The training applications KHangMan, Kiten, KWordQuiz and Kalzium have been transferred to use Qt 6.
• The Kdenlive video editor has the ability to replace sound or video in the clip on the stage, which, for example, allows you to extract sound from the clip, edit it in another application and return the edited version to the clip. Added the ability to integrate several subtitles into one track (for different languages). An interface for exporting and importing subtitles has been added. Recently opened clips are displayed. Buttons have been added to the stage to quickly turn on/off and replace effects. A setting is provided to select an interpolation method for scaling. The dialog displayed when the project opens with missing clips has been redone.
• The design of the Dolphin file manager has been changed and its settings have been reorganized. Added the ability to control from the keyboard the activation of buttons in the toolbar and status bar. An item has been added to the context menu displayed when you right-click the catalog to open the content in two-panel mode.
• Spectacle, a program for taking screenshots, has added capture modes for only the active window, the window over which the cursor is located or an arbitrary area of ​ ​ the screen. An option has been added to disable shadows in the saved screenshot. During screencast recording, the system tray icon is enabled to track the recording duration or to quickly stop recording. To save screenshots and screencasts, the directories ~/Pictures/Screenshots and ~/Videos/Screenencasts are used by default. Added support for VP9 video recording and recording quality settings. The ability to control the creation of screenshots from the command line has been implemented.
• A start screen has been added to the Neochat messaging program using the Matrix protocol, allowing you to select an account. Added the ability to register or delete an account directly from the application. A summary page with all notifications has been added. Support for the transfer of contacts through a QR code has been implemented. A button has been added to ignore users. A section with security settings has been added. Added support for grouping and partitioning different chats.
• The PlasmaTube video player, which allows you to view videos from YouTube, has support for synchronizing view history with an account in the Invisible service and searching for channels and playlists. The picture-in-picture mode has been added to view the video in a window fixed over other windows. Added initial support for watching videos with Peertube and Piped. Added support for the MPRIS2 standard, which defines tools for remote management of media players. The initial version for Android has been implemented.
• Tokodon, an application with a client implementation to the decentralized microblogging platform Mastodon, has redesigned the first launch interface and profile pages. It is possible to hide responses in the main tape. We have optimized the submission of complaints and enabled the ignoring of participants.
• The Kate text editor uses the faster RapidJSON JSON parser and has expanded support for LSP servers. Added a function for reading text using a speech synthesizer. Automatic configuration of LSP servers for CSS, SCSS, LESS, XML, Julia and PHP, as well as configuration of DAP (Debug Adapter Protocol) for Dart and Flutter are implemented.

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• The Konsole and Yakuake terminal emulators have redesigned the configuration interface. Konsole has made optimizations that increase the rendering speed and reduce the number of memory allocation operations by 50%. Each Konsole tab in a separate cgroup is isolated.
• The Discover application manager honed the interface: the background color was changed, the alignment of application maps was optimized, the sidebar behavior during search was modernized, the display of screenshots of programs was optimized, an indicator for access to the sound subsystem was added for programs in Flatpak format.
• In KClock, when the alarm is triggered, the rest of the sounds are muted.
• KDE Connect has added support for connecting to other devices via Bluetooth, not just Wi-Fi. Added support for determining the presence of devices on the local network using mDNS.
• The Kast podcast player has accelerated the analysis of RSS feeds.
• The Elisa music player has the ability to configure the initial catalog or disc. Metadata-related dialogs are adapted for mobile systems. Stacking mode for accessing history during navigation is enabled.

The following features have been removed:

• The system of global keyboard combinations KHotKeys ("Custom Shortcuts" in the configurator) - unaccompanied for more than 7 years, uses non-standard formats, does not work with Wayland. KDE 6 uses the KGlobalAccel subsystem to control hot keys, which implements the necessary functionality and will add support for mouse control gestures in the future.
• Window widgets for KRunner (widgets that appear in search results and are placed on the desktop in the form of windows) - are limited in functionality and create false impressions of KDE among users who confuse them with full-fledged programs.
• Task switches (Alt + Tab handlers) "Grid," "Informative," "Small Icons," "Text Only" and "Thumbnails" - removed due to poor implementation quality and the presence of more worthy alternatives.
• Setting of forced installation of DPI fonts (System Settings > Appearance > Fonts > Force Font DPI) for Wayland and global settings of icon size (System Settings > Appearance > Icons) - it is decided to support only the scaling system, which allows you to set your parameters for each screen (configured through System Settings display > Display and Monitor). By removing support for these settings, you can optimize scaling control and avoid problems with global part resizing.
• The Air theme is an old set of styles left unaccompanied and has long-standing problems. It was decided that it makes no sense to keep an additional theme in the composition, when it is better to use a catalog for alternative topics store.kde.org.
• Ability to set energy consumption settings in relation to rooms (Activities) - few people use this, the implementation is too complicated and there are problems that need to be fixed. It was decided that resources should not be spent on tidying up this complicated code.
• Presentation of available settings in the form of a set of icons - has been in an abandoned state for many years and does not support some necessary functions, such as highlighting changed settings. This mode was replaced by a sidebar.
• The possibility of using icons from style sets - there is confusion and diversity in the design, when icons can be selected not only from those icons, but also from those styles.
• Support for using the picture of the day from the Unsplash service - the feature stopped working after the Unsplash service stopped providing a public API and changed the rules of use due to abuses related to automated training of machine learning models.
• The Plasma Mobile edition offers an updated home screen implementation that allows the user to group applications to their liking. Added a welcome screen that introduces the features of Plasma Mobile at first launch, as well as allows you to quickly configure Wi-Fi, time zone, scaling level and connection parameters through the cellular operator^[1].

2019: A vulnerability that allows commands to be executed by opening a folder

On August 7, 2019, it became known that security researcher Dominik Penner discovered a vulnerability in KDE 4 and 5 that allows arbitrary code to be executed by forcing the victim to download the archive and then unzip and open the folder.

As Penner explained, the instruction implementation vulnerability affects the KDesktopFile class. When instanting (instantiating a class) a.desktop or.directory file, it evaluates the environment and shell extension variables in an insecure manner using KConfigPrivate:: expandString () via the KConfigGroup:: readEntry () function. Using a specially configured.desktop file, a remote attacker can compromise the victim's system by simply forcing it to download and view the file.

The vulnerability affects KDE versions 4 and 5 and allows commands built into.desktop and.directory files to be executed immediately after opening the file or in some cases after unpacking the archive. As of August 7, 2019, almost all Linux distributions use vulnerable versions of KDE.

Penner notified Ubuntu of the vulnerability after reporting it to the general public. According to him, he "wanted to bring the 0day vulnerability to Defcon so that people could experiment with it."^[2].

2009

The control system of the Large Hadron Collider operates in a free KDE environment. You can find out the KDE environment, for example, by the "sticky" KNotes notes that are viewed on the screen

KDE is a working environment for UNIX workstations whose primary purpose is "transparent" networking. KDE arose as a response to the need of UNIX users for a simple and convenient graphical working environment similar to existing systems based on Mac OS and Microsoft Windows.

As of April 2019, a large number of applications have been created for KDE, in addition to an interactive working environment. Some of these applications are included in the standard KDE delivery. Also, a powerful package of office applications, better known as KOffice, was developed and continues to develop specifically for KDE. The package itself is rapidly developing and includes a text editor (KWord), a spreadsheet (KSpread), a program for building diagrams (KChart), a presentation preparation tool (KPresenter), a package for creating vector graphics (KIllustrator). What is especially important in Russian conditions, Cyrillic and import/export of Microsoft Office documents are supported.

Sources

Site of the Russian localization team KDE

Notes