KDE Plasma 5.23 is set for release on October 7, 2021, and it promises several (although subtle) improvements across the board. This new release is powered by Qt 5.15 and KDE Frameworks version 5.86. Along with the improvements found in those software stacks, there’s plenty of goodness to go around within KDE itself.
Many of the new features and improvements are all about refinement, so you probably won’t see anything that’s mind-blowing or drastic. For example, one of the highlighted new features is that you can specify an alternative accent color than that which is configured by the theme. Other subtle newness includes the ability to choose list or grid view for all Kickoff items (so it no longer only applies to Favorites), a new QML-based Overview effect has been introduced that is similar to GNOME’s Workspace view, the Dolphin file manager can be configured to display hidden files/folders first, and selected items can be deleted from the clipboard popup.
There have also been some updates to Wayland support, such as copying text from notifications now works as expected, and middle-click paste has finally returned (huzzah!).
Much of the improvement for KDE Plasma 5.23 comes under the hood and should bring a significant bump in performance.
For those interested in testing the new version, download the Unstable Edition of KDE Neon[1]. Just remember, do not use this release for production environments.
