Nate Graham, a developer involved in quality control for the KDE project, recently released a report on the latest developments in KDE. The report highlights the key changes made for the upcoming release of KDE Plasma 6.5.
One significant update is the addition of support for the experimental Wayland Protocol called xdg-pip (Picture-in-Picture). This protocol allows for the correct display of floating windows with multimedia content, such as the “Picture in Picture” feature in Firefox. The code to support the XDG-PIP protocol was recently added to the Firefox code base.
Another notable change is the relocation of the inverting and scaling configuration options to the “Accessibility” page in the configurator. This move was made to make the options more accessible and appropriate for users.
The screenshot creation program, Spectacle, now includes the ability to complete screenshots by pressing the key combination used to start the process. This enhancement improves the user experience when capturing screenshots.
Updates were also made to the Breeze styles to ensure effects are applied correctly to clicks in QTQuick applications and Configurator pages. These improvements enhance the visual experience for users.
Various widgets, such as those for connecting devices and configuring Bluetooth settings, have been translated to the standard headline style sections. This change improves the consistency and user interface of KDE Plasma.
Additionally, support for expanding virtual desktops through the pager widget when using Wayland has been implemented. This feature allows for seamless navigation between virtual desktops.
Lastly, in KWin, interdependent blurry effects and changes in background contrast have been combined to improve visual effects. The Blur effect is now integrated into the Shader BackgroundContrast effect for a more cohesive user experience.