Valve's Steam Deck updates to Plasma 6.2.5!
The games console has a slow update cycle to guarantee stability for users, but #Valve announced yesterday that both the #Arch base system and the #Plasma desktop environment are being updated to new preview releases.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/529841158837240756
This Week in Plasma brings file transfer progress graphs, per-virtual-desktop custom tile layouts, improved KRunner search result ordering, and much more to your favourite desktop.
https://blogs.kde.org/2025/03/15/this-week-in-plasma-file-transfer-progress-graphs/
Windows 8 (2012) vs KDE Plasma 6.4 (2025)
I'm sure there are better screen-shot apps than whatever is the default in GNOME, but I never got around to figuring that out, or getting it to allow me to create images in formats that weren't PNG.
In KDE, Spectacle is far and away better. It lets me do things the way I want without ugly hacks.
I always had a soft spot for #GarudaLinux and their deep customization. That #Catpuccin #Plasma desktop is sweet.
Garuda Linux "Broadwing" Takes Flight https://linuxiac.com/garuda-linux-broadwing-takes-flight/
This week #Plasma has received quite a lot of fixes,
like you can now remove the titlebar and frame from a window directly from the Task Manager, the digital clock gets a nicer-looking font picker dialog, and we have simplified the info shown on Display Configuration, among many other improvements and changes.
https://blogs.kde.org/2025/03/08/this-week-in-plasma-a-very-fixy-week/
It seems obvious but there's nothing I was doing in GNOME that I can't do in KDE Plasma.
There are plenty of GNOME apps that are as good or better than their KDE counterparts, and KDE apps that are as good or better than their GNOME counterparts.
The Plasma desktop is very responsive. I loved the "hot corner" in GNOME Shell, and I'm glad Plasma has it as well. I'm doing a lot of work in Kwrite, and it's a great app.
After quite a few years using a lot of GNOME and a little Xfce, I am really enjoying KDE Plasma in Fedora Kinoite.
Plasma looks and works the same in the Debian (Bookworm and Testing) and Fedora KDE (41) live environments.
Hey KDE Plasma users, is there a thing for Plasma that's like the Caffeine extension for GNOME that overrides the screen saver and other power mangement until you toggle it off again?
#JamesHarrison died
Who was James Harrison?
From age 18 to 81, every 2 weeks, he donated blood #plasma (unpaid)
He had the world record until 2022
The twist:
James' blood had high levels of Anti-D
#AntiD protects fetuses from Hemolytic Disease of the Fetus and Newborn- the mother and fetus have immunological incompatibility
Before the 1960s, 50% of babies diagnosed with #HDFN died
James Harrison, over his life, saved *2.4 million* babies
Next up: Fedora 41 KDE spin
Ideally my Kinoite issues will be resolved by the end of the upcoming week.
The KDE Plasma auditions:
Both Debian Bookworm and Testing/Trixie have nice Plasma desktops. I tried both in the live environments -- and am making this post in Testing.
I have released version 1.1 of my "Black Sun" icon theme.
It's available for: Gnome, Cosmic DE, Budgie DE and XFCE.
KDE: is still in the experimental phase, please read the notes regarding it on "Black Sun" github page.
"This week in Plasma" covers how KRunner now sees in color, the disk widget finds errors in your drives, Spectacle gets a spectacular overhaul, and much, much more!
https://blogs.kde.org/2025/03/01/this-week-in-plasma-great-stuff-for-6.4/
Additionally, our @kde #Plasma has been updated to 6.3.2! Plasma 6.3 contains many new features and improvements. Check out their release announcement here: https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.3.0/
- Evan
The KDE text editor Kate has Snippets, though you have to go to Settings -> Configure Kate -> Plugins and check the box for them to be activated, and then create at least one "repository" in the tool for your snippets to live in.
It's just like the (mostly hidden) gEdit feature of the same name. Super powerful and able to make up for the hackery of Vim macros.
Now if I can figure out how to save complicated search/replace routines ...
Fedora Kinoite video player tip:
There is no Flatpak in Flathub for the Dragon Video Player, but there is one in the Fedora Flatpak repo.
It does not have all the codecs you would expect from a Flathub Flatpak.
I'm using the Haruna Media Player from Flathub. It has the codecs and can play all the videos I've thrown at it.
