iWillFolo readers have probably already been aware of the changes brought by this release – KDE Next Generation Plasma Workspace is Getting Near Production – Take a Glimpse!
But in case you weren’t following here is the new updated list:
Plasma 5.0 Highlight Features
- Improved Visuals – whether it’s the cleaner apps or the complete UI, Plasma 5.0 looks a lot more neat and beautiful.
- Convergence – bringing up a suitable UI for a given target device.
- Fully Hardware-Accelerated Graphics Stack – thanks to QtQuick 2, expensive graphics rendering tasks can now be offload to the GPU (Graphics processing Unit).
- Modernized launchers – application launchers’ UI such as: “Kickoff”, “Kicker” and “KRunner” have been reworked.
- Better support for high-density (high-DPI) displays – this leads to better usability and display on screens with very small pixels, such as Retina displays.
- Workflow improvements in the notification area – notification area has been cleaned up, and sports a more integrated look now.
Although KDE has changed for the better with its new prettier, slicker UI and its more advanced underlying technology (Qt5 and QtQuick 2), it is still lacks some of the features currently available under the 4.x series.
Moreover, some of the apps are still awaiting for some rework to be done, thus you might imagine that although this is a step forward there’s a lot more needed to be done. Surely, contributing to the project would be very welcome.
In case you’d like to enjoy KDE’s new looks but at the same time not loose your 4.x functionality, you might want to check out: Give your KDE a Plasma 5 Looks.
Finally, here’s a video demonstrating Plasma 5.0 new features, enjoy!
