This week we got two good 15-minute bugs fixed, with a few more in progress that have a target merge date of next week! And of course there’s a good smattering of other positive changes as well:
15-Minute Bugs Resolved
Current number of bugs: 79, down from 81. Current list of bugs
All the notifications that were suppressed while you were in Do Not Disturb mode no longer flood the screen when you leave Do Not Disturb mode; instead, they just appear in the history pop-up, ready for you to read them there (Fushan Wen, Plasma 5.25)
Folders in Recent Documents lists throughout Plasma now display their real folder icons instead of a broken-looking “unknown” icon (Méven Car, Plasma 5.25)
New Features
KRunner now has its own config window rather than re-using the systemwide search plugins page in System Settings, and in that window it now lets you disable the behavior where typing text while the desktop is focused will open it (Fushan Wen, Plasma 5.25):
Bugfixes & Performance Improvements
Ark’s “Extract here” context menu items no longer do so much unnecessary work, making Dolphin’s context menu faster to open and causing fewer hangs on network locations (Kai Uwe Broulik, Ark 22.04)
Opening a new Private window in Firefox using its Task Manager task context menu no longer sometimes opens the window with the path to your home directory in the URL field (Alexander Lohnau, Plasma 5.24.4)
When using a Global Menu, closing the active app now clears the menubar rather than leaving its menu there as a zombie (Jan Blackquill, Plasma 5.24.4)
Window titlebar buttons now get reversed as expected when you’re using the system with a right-to-left language (Jan Blackquill, Plasma 5.24.4)
KWin’s blur effect no longer sometimes results in flickering for windows that use blurred backgrounds (Mathias Tillman, Plasma 5.24.4)
Clicking the “Launch” button in Discover to launch an app now always results in only one thing getting launched, instead of sometimes launching several things (Aleix Pol Gonzalez, Plasma 5.25)
When used in right-to-left-text mode, a variety of QtQuick controls now look correct, including sliders (Jan Blackquill, Frameworks 5.93)
Showing the “Get New Widgets” window from the Widget Explorer sidebar no longer blocks/freezes the rest of Plasma until it’s closed (Alexander Lohnau, Frameworks 5.93)
User Interface Improvements
GTK applications using the Breeze-GTK theme now fully match the new appearance used in KDE apps (Jan Blackquill and Artem Grinev, Plasma 5.25):
The Plasma Wayland session’s touchpad gestures now let you reverse the direction of your fingers to cancel an in-progress gesture, when the effect in question supports it; right now only Desktop Grid does, but more are coming soon! (Eric Edlund, Plasma 5.25)
The “active job progress” notification icon in the System Tray now shows you the average completion percentage in its tooltip (Kai Uwe Broulik, Plasma 5.25):
The Media Controller applet now shows a tooltip indicating the elapsed playback time when you drag the slider handle (Kai Uwe Broulik, Plasma 5.25):
Lists of recent documents in Task Manager Task context menus can now contain recent things that aren’t files, such as folders and even abstract concepts like “Recent Downloads” and “Recent connections” (Kai Uwe Broulik, Plasma 5.25)
Discover can now warn you about the risks of installing proprietary software (me: Nate Graham, Plasma 5.25):
This’ll appear when you click on that “What’s the risk?” link
Discover now shows you the size of installed apps and other content on its “Installed” page (Jonas Knarbakk, Plasma 5.25)
The desktop context menu has lost its “Lock Screen” and “Log Out” items, to slim it down to only what’s relevant (me: Nate Graham, Plasma 5.25):
Of course you can add them back if you want, since this menu’s contents are configurable
…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