KDE Plasma 6.8, scheduled for release on October 14, continues to take shape, with developers landing another batch of improvements.
One of them concerns printing. Starting with Plasma 6.8, sending a print job to an unavailable printer will trigger a notification explaining the problem. Currently, the action may appear to do nothing, leaving users without a clear indication of what went wrong.
Plasma’s built-in remote desktop server is also receiving some improvements; KDE developers have fixed an issue that could cause certain remote desktop clients to display a black screen instead of the expected desktop content.
At the same time, work on the remote desktop implementation should make sessions feel more responsive. Plasma 6.8 lowers latency and improves performance when connections are less than ideal, thus improving user experience over slower or unstable networks.
There is also a small memory optimization coming to the desktop. Instead of loading the clipboard pop-up when Plasma starts, Plasma 6.8 will load it only when it is actually needed.
Several user interface details are being polished as well. Task Manager thumbnails will receive improved padding around the labels displayed near their upper edge, giving the previews a slightly cleaner appearance.
Creating new user accounts should also become less confusing. Plasma 6.8 will clearly warn users when they enter characters that are not permitted in a username, rather than leaving the restrictions unclear.
Finally, KDE has fixed a virtual desktop bug that could cause the Window List widget to display the wrong window after switching between desktops.
More details about the ongoing development work are available in KDE’s latest “This Week in Plasma” report.
