KDE Plasma 6 Alpha 'megarelease' is out with Qt 6 support and many enhancements

The KDE team has just unveiled the first alpha release of KDE Plasma 6, KDE Frameworks 6 libraries, and KDE Gear + applications, a milestone referred to as a “megarelease”. This significant development in the KDE ecosystem signals a shift from feature development to a focus on stabilization and bug fixing.

The KDE team plans to roll out the Beta 1 release at the end of November, followed by a second beta just before Christmas, and two release candidates in January. If everything proceeds as planned, Plasma 6.0 and KDE Framework 6 with KDE Gear 24.02 should ship as stable by the end of February 2024.

The KDE components have undergone a major transformation, with the most noteworthy change being their porting over to the Qt6 toolkit.

The KDE Plasma 6 Alpha release includes Wayland as default and introduces a floating desktop panel. It also marks the return of the 3D desktop cube effect and includes accent color tints in app header bars. Additionally, it offers improved Flatpak support in Discover, a redesigned task switcher, and enhancements in performance and stability.