KDE Releases Plasma 5.1 BETA Bringing More New Features To Test

A new release is out from the K desktop environment! This time it’s the BETA of Plasma 5 second release. So what’s new in this release and how can you download and try it? It’s been only a bit more than a couple of months since the last (and first) release of Plasma 5 desktop

Updated Sep 19, 2016News
Plasma 5

It’s been only a bit more than a couple of months since the last (and first) release of Plasma 5 desktop was out, and here we are already presented with the BETA version of another one.

A rapid pace of development in itself however, is not much to brag about, unless it carries some new features within it, right?

So what’s new in this release:

Plasma 5.1 BETA New Features

  • Panels have new switchers – easily swap between different widgets for the same task. (example in image below)
  • Icons-only task manager is back.
  • System Settings new module – the module lets you switch between desktop themes.
  • A new Breeze widget theme for Qt 4 – makes applications written with KDE Platform 4 fit in to Plasma 5 desktop.

Download & Install Plasma 5.1

Although the final, official release of KDE’s Plasma 5.1 desktop is tentatively scheduled for a couple more weeks from now (14.10.2014 ), testers and early adopters are welcome to check out this BETA version and submit bug reports and feedback regarding your experience.

If you feel you’re comfortable and ready enough for the test then, by all means, head on to the instructions and source info pages (links below) in order to download and install Plasma 5.1 BETA on your machine.

Note that, Plasma versions 5 and 4 cannot co exist, thus you’ll need to remove the latter first, in case you have one.

Source info

Installation instructions