KDE developers have shared another round of improvements planned for Plasma 6.9, with one noticeable change being smarter widget sizing. Widgets added to the desktop will automatically receive dimensions large enough to display their content properly, eliminating the need to resize them when parts of their interface are cut off.
Panel handling is also being refined, especially when multiple panels meet at screen corners. System Monitor widgets will display their graphs better when placed on panels, and the Task Manager will support mouse-wheel scrolling through horizontal rows of window thumbnails.
Plasma 6.9 will also introduce configurable positioning for OSD popups. Instead of being limited to the default location, users can choose where notifications like the volume indicator appear on the screen.
Several existing widgets are receiving usability improvements as well. The Calculator widget will animate button presses triggered by keyboard input, while the Dictionary, Disk Quota, and Konsole Profiles widgets will adopt updated list styling and behavior.
In addition, application launcher menus will switch to natural sorting, ensuring numbered entries appear in the expected order. For example, an item ending in 10 will appear after one ending in 9 rather than immediately after 1.
The clipboard history popup, accessible through Meta+V, will gain a direct shortcut to clipboard settings. Mouse users will also be able to trigger desktop actions using the Forward button.
In System Settings, searching for keyboard layouts will become more intuitive. According to the devs, the Spell Check configuration page has been rewritten using Qt Quick, giving it a refreshed interface. Systems running systemd 257 or newer will also display KDE-style password dialogs when using systemd-ask-password --no-tty.
On the performance side, Spectacle, KDE’s screenshot utility, will launch faster, and the Accessibility page in System Settings will load more quickly. Developers have also addressed memory leaks linked to right-clicking desktop files and folders, along with several leaks in System Monitor.
Regarding bug fixes, Plasma 6.9 will resolve an issue where opening the Color Picker widget’s color dialog could freeze the desktop. The Timer widget will no longer interfere with keyboard navigation when placed in a vertical panel, while the Media Frame widget will stop accidentally opening images in external applications when its navigation buttons are clicked rapidly.
Finally, a fix addresses an issue that could freeze remote desktop streams initiated through Microsoft’s Windows App RDP client for macOS.
All these improvements are currently targeting KDE Plasma 6.9, scheduled for release in late February, as development continues toward its eventual release. For additional details, see KDE’s latest “This Week in Plasma” report.
