Plasma 6.6 brings simpler operation and useful functions

The KDE programmers have released Plasma 6.6. The desktop environment is intended to enable simplified use in particular, but to remain as flexible as before.

In the release announcement for Plasma 6.6, the KDE developers jest that the new version makes “life as easy as possible without sacrificing the flexibility or features that have made Plasma the most versatile desktop in the known universe.” They have therefore improved the usability and accessibility of Plasma and added practical functions.

Plasma 6.6 with new functions

The developers particularly highlight the “Global Theme” function, which allows those who tailor the look & feel of their environment to their taste to save the current settings in such a global theme. This can also be used when switching between day and night mode. Color selection and settings have received finer configuration options. The KDE programmers also want to speed up common workflows. For example, if a computer has a camera, users can now easily set up Wi-Fi access by scanning the QR code. An interesting function allows the volume of apps currently playing sound to be adjusted by scrolling with the mouse while the pointer hovers over the taskbar icon.

Double-clicking a file or folder on the desktop while holding down the “Alt” key opens its properties dialog. Regarding accessibility, a new grayscale filter has been added in the system settings, so there are now four filters for different types of color blindness. The “Zoom and Magnify” function can hold the mouse pointer in the center of the screen as an additional tracking mode. Similar to the Windows screenshot tool, Spectacle can now also recognize and extract text from images. This should also be useful for creating descriptive texts for images. For video screen recordings, application windows can be hidden by selecting the corresponding function after right-clicking on the window's title bar.

Plasma Setup, a new setup wizard for the first start of Plasma, has been newly added. It creates and configures user accounts independently of the installation process. This is intended to benefit companies that pre-install Plasma on devices, or institutions that give old computers new life with Plasma. It also helps those who give away or sell computers with Plasma without giving new owners access to the previous owners' data.

The previous version, KDE Plasma 6.5, was released at the end of October. Its most striking innovations were rounded window corners, improved clipboard, and also an expansion of accessibility functions.

(dmk)