Unfortunately we didn’t get any 15-minute bugs fixed this week, and overall activity was lower than usual. I suspect at least part of the reason is fallout from the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has affected several prominent Ukrainian KDE contributors and also cut off Russian contributors from many of their usual internet resources. Some humanitarian aid and media organizations that you can donate to may be found here. Let us all hope for peace, and remain united in our pursuit to build the finest and most humane software.
Nevertheless, back in KDE land we did accomplish quite a bit, including a fancy new “Firmware Security” page in Info Center!
15-Minute Bugs Resolved
None!
Current number of bugs: 81, up from 80. Current list of bugs
New Features
Skanpage now lets you configure which scanner settings are visible on its scanner options sidebar, in case you regularly use any uncommon or non-default scanner options (Alexander Stippich, Skanpage 22.04)
KRunner and other KRunner-powered searches can now convert teaspoons and tablespoons to and from each other and other units (Corbin Schwimmbeck, Frameworks 5.92):
Just in case that was something you ever wanted to know
Info Center now has a new “Firmware Security” page that provides information about the security of your system’s low-level components (Harald Sitter, Plasma 5.25):
Bugfixes & Performance Improvements
In the Plasma Wayland session, Yakuake’s “slide up/slide down” animation now works (Tiernan Hubble, Yakuake 22.04)
Adding tracks to Elisa’s playlist when shuffle mode is being used no longer causes the added tracks to have the wrong names (Martin Seher, Elisa 22.04)
When using a session, Kate now correctly saves its list of open documents/tabs when the app is automatically quit by logging out, restarting, or shutting down, so that the next time you open it, it shows that you were working on last time (Waqar Ahmed, Kate 22.04)
Dolphin’s context menu is now significantly faster to open when Ark is installed (Kai Uwe Broulik, Ark 22.04)
In the Plasma Wayland session, screen sharing/recording/casting in full-screen apps now works (Xaver Hugl, Plasma 5.24.3)
In the Plasma Wayland session, colors are no longer sometimes weirdly dithered with certain hardware (Xaver Hugl, Plasma 5.24.3)
The “Help” buttons in Info Center once again work (Harald Sitter, Plasma 5.24.3)
In the Plasma Wayland session, the virtual keyboard no longer overlaps half of your vertical panel setup (if you are using such a setup) when it appears (Arjen Hiemstra, Plasma 5.24.3)
When showing seconds in a Digital Clock applet, seconds no longer skip at minute changes (Fushan Wen, Plasma 5.24.3)
In the Plasma Wayland session, hitting the Escape key while dragging something now cancels the drag like you would expect (Marco Martin, Plasma 5.25)
In the Plasma X11 session, rotating a touchscreen no longer leads to touches going to the wrong area of the screen; everything now works as you would expect (Marco Martin, Plasma 5.25)
Dolphin and Gwenview no longer crash when you drag a file or folder over the top of their Places panels (Someone going by the pseudonym “Snooxx”, Frameworks 5.92)
User Interface Improvements
Compressing files from Dolphin’s context menu now produces an archive file whose filename is based on the names of the compressed files, not the folder they live in (Méven Car and me: Nate Graham, Ark 22.04)
System monitor bar charts no longer erroneously lack spacing between bars (John Fano, Plasma 5.24.3):
Applet labels in the System Tray grid view are now vertically aligned such that the first line in multi-line labels always matches other applets even those with 1 or 3 lines (Michail Vourlakos, Plasma 5.24.3):
Text in Breeze-styled vertical tabs is now vertically centered in the tabs, rather than awkwardly top-aligned (Jan Blackquill, Plasma 5.24.3)
Menu items in Breeze-styled GTK apps are now exactly the same height as menus in Qt and KDE apps (Jan Blackquill, Plasma 5.25)
KRunner and other KRunner-powered searches now let you spellcheck words in any language with enabled dictionaries, not just the primary one (Fushan Wen, Plasma 5.25)
The quick process view window that you can see by pressing Ctrl+Esc now remembers its size and position (in the X11 session, at least), and gets initially placed according to the specified window placement mode (Eugene Popov, Plasma 5.25)
…And everything else
This blog only covers the tip of the iceberg! Tons of KDE apps whose development I don’t have time to follow aren’t represented here, and I also don’t mention backend refactoring, improved test coverage, and other changes that are generally not user-facing. If you’re hungry for more, check out https://planet.kde.org, where you can find more news from other KDE contributors.
How You Can Help
If you’re a developer, check out our 15-Minute Bug Initiative. Working on these issues makes a big difference quickly!
Otherwise, have a look at Get Involved - KDE Community Wiki to discover ways to be part of a project that really matters. Each contributor makes a huge difference in KDE; you are not a number or a cog in a machine! You don’t have to already be a programmer, either. I wasn’t when I got started. Try it, you’ll like it! We don’t bite!
Finally, consider making a tax-deductible donation to the KDE e.V. foundation