KDE developers have announced progress on KDE Plasma 6.7, including an enhancement to the Digital Clock widget. When multiple time zones are set, Plasma will display each zone’s offset from the user’s local time, making it easier to track global schedules.
Another change improves desktop interaction. If triggering KRunner by typing on the desktop is disabled, typing will now activate a new type-ahead feature. This enables users to quickly select files by entering the first few characters of their names, enhancing keyboard navigation.
On top of that, the System Tray now allows users to reverse the order of its items. Additionally, the display will brighten more quickly than it dims, better aligning with user intent.
Discover, KDE’s software center, has been updated to improve relevance and usability. App listings are now sorted by the number of reviews by default, and non-application entries are filtered from the home page to prevent misleading results. The previous rating-based sorting option remains available.
Other usability improvements include clearer highlighting of active tasks in grouped tooltips, improved visibility of Bluetooth device battery levels regardless of name length, and more consistent rounded menu highlights throughout the interface.
Panel interaction has been expanded. Users can now assign a standalone modifier key to focus a Plasma panel, and opacity controls in the panel configuration are shown only when supported by the active theme.
For performance, Plasma 6.7 adds support for 3D LUTs in KWin, reducing GPU resource usage on compatible hardware. Plus, the Networks widget now fetches speed data only when visible, reducing unnecessary background activity.
Finally, memory usage and application startup times have improved by eliminating redundant OpenGL context creation for applications that do not require it, reducing per-application memory consumption by approximately 10 to 15 MB.
For more information, refer to the “This Week in Plasma” post on the KDE Blogs. Plasma 6.7 is scheduled to be released in mid-June.
