Plasma 5.13 released!

[Bhushan Shah]

Hello,

KDE is releasing Plasma 5.13 – a new version of its Free desktop environment -
tomorrow.

https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.13.0.php

Optimized and less resource-hungry, Plasma 5.13 can run smoothly on
under-powered ARM laptops, high-end gaming PCs, and everything in between.

Feature-wise, Plasma 5.13 comes with "Browser Integration". This means both
Chrome/Chromium and Firefox web browsers can be monitored and controlled using
your desktop widgets. For example, downloads are displayed in the Plasma
notification popup, so even if your browser is minimized or not visible, you can
monitor the download progress. Likewise with media playing in a tab: you can use
Plasma's media controls to stop, pause and silence videos and audio playing in
any tab – even the hidden ones. This a perfect solution for those annoying
videos that auto-start without your permission. Another Plasma-browser feature
is that links can now be opened from Plasma's overhead launcher (Krunner), and
you can also send links directly to your phone using KDE Connect.

Talking of KDE Connect, the Media Control Widget has been redesigned and its
support of the MPRIS specification has been much improved. This means more media
players can now be controlled from the media controls in the desktop tray or
from your phone using KDE Connect.

Plasma 5.13 is also visually more appealing. The redesigned pages in 5.13
include theming tools for desktops, icons and cursors, and you can download new
splash screens from the KDE Store directly from the splash screen page. The
desktop provides a new and efficient blur effect that can be used for widgets,
the dashboard menu and even the terminal window, giving them an elegant and
modern look. Another eye-catching feature is that the login and lock screens now
display the wallpaper of the current Plasma release, and the lock screen
incorporates a slick fade-to-blur transition to show the controls, allowing it
to be easily used as a screensaver.

Discover, Plasma's graphical software manager, improves the user experience with
list and category pages that replace header images with interactive toolbars.
You can sort lists, and they also show star ratings of applications. App pages
and app icons use your local icon theme to better match your desktop settings.

Vaults, Plasma's storage encryption utility, includes a new CryFS backend,
better error reporting, a more polished interface, and the ability to remotely
open and close vaults via KDE Connect.

Connecting to external monitors has become much more user-friendly. Now, when
you plug in a new external monitor, a dialog pops up an lets you easily control
the position of the additional monitor in correlation to your primary one.

For more images of this release, check out:

https://cdn.kde.org/promo/20180612_Plasma5.13/

Live images with Plasma 5.13 will be available soon, you can find links to
various distributions providing live images at following page.

https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Live_Images

We look forward to hearing your comments on Plasma 5.13 - let us know how it
works for you!

Kind Regards!


-- 
Bhushan Shah
http://blog.bshah.in
IRC Nick : bshah on Freenode
GPG key fingerprint : 0AAC 775B B643 7A8D 9AF7 A3AC FE07 8411 7FBC E11D
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