KDE Plasma 6.1: Improvements for Remote Desktop
The KDE Plasma 6.1 desktop brings new functions that work natively with Wayland. Remote desktop connections have been simplified.
(Image: heise online / dmk)
The KDE developers have released version 6.1 of the Plasma desktop. After the central QT6 migration with Plasma 6.0, it should now bring new functions. These should run natively in Wayland without the need for additional apps or services.
In the version announcement, the KDE programmers particularly emphasize the simplified use of remote desktops. Remote sessions can now be started directly from the system settings app; the options should appear after entering "rdp" in the search field. This is particularly interesting for system administrators who want to solve problems on users' machines or simply work on a computer with a Plasma desktop that is unreachable. A connection can be set up with just a few clicks.
Persistent apps
What other desktop environments and also KDE under X11 can already do is now also available in Wayland-based Plasma 6.1. The desktop remembers which apps were active at the time of logging out and restarts them after a computer restart. This allows work to be resumed more quickly from where it was left off.
In addition to such useful functions, eye candy is also part of the update. Anyone using a keyboard with coloured LED lighting can synchronize its colors with the colour scheme of the desktop. Individual adjustments to the desktop should be better visualized by displaying a short animation and zooming out the entire desktop after right-clicking on the desktop and selecting "Start edit mode". This should provide a better overview of the desktop and the changes made to it.
Small improvements include the selection options for exiting Plasma. After selecting "Shutdown", for example, the confirmation dialog now only shows "Shutdown" and "Cancel" instead of all possible energy options - the translations have not yet been made consistently. The screen lock has been given the function of only working as a screensaver so that a password is not requested when unlocking. The "Shake Cursor" function, which makes the cursor larger when you shake it with the mouse, sounds funny - this should make it easier to find and recognize on the desktop. "Edge Barrier" adds a "sticky edge" between the monitors in multi-monitor mode, which should make it easier to click there.
Nvidia users should be able to use the "Explicit Sync" option to eliminate flickering and other glitches that frequently occur under Wayland. In addition, "Triple Buffering" delivers smoother animations and smoother rendering.
Plasma 6.1 is available immediately, the software administrations of the Linux distributions should be offering the updated packages by now. The current Plasma 6.1 desktop is already included in the KDE-specialized distribution Neon. However, not all the announced options are available in it.
(dmk)