KDE Plasma

Last updated

KDE Plasma
Developer(s) KDE
Initial release11 January 2008;17 years ago (2008-01-11) [1]
Stable release
6.4.4 / 5 August 2025 [2]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Repository
Written in C++, QML
Operating system Unix-like
Predecessor KDesktop
Type Shell
License GPL 2.0 or later [3]
Website kde.org/plasma-desktop

KDE Plasma is a graphical shell developed by the KDE community for Unix-like operating systems. It serves as the interface layer between the user and the operating system, providing a graphical user interface (GUI) and workspace environment for launching applications, managing windows, and interacting with files and system settings. Plasma is designed to be modular and adaptable, with different variants tailored for specific device types, such as Plasma Desktop for personal computers, [a] [4] and Plasma Mobile for smartphones. [5]

Contents

Plasma was first introduced in 2008 as part of KDE Software Compilation 4, as a major technical overhaul, combining traditional desktop functionality with a widget-based system designed for flexibility and visual consistency. With the KDE brand repositioning in 2009, the KDE software compilation was split into three distinct projects: KDE Plasma, KDE Frameworks and KDE Gear, allowing each to develop and release on independent schedules. [6] As of the Plasma 6 series, feature updates are released every four months, with interim bugfix releases.

Releases

Version history

Plasma 4

Plasma 4.9 with the Dolphin file manager open KDE Plasma Desktop 4.9.png
Plasma 4.9 with the Dolphin file manager open

Plasma 4 was released as part of KDE Software Compilation 4 and replacing the KDesktop shell, Kicker taskbar, and SuperKaramba widget engine, which formed the Desktop in earlier KDE releases. [7] They are bundled as the default environment with a number of free software operating systems, such as Chakra, [8] Kubuntu, [9] Mageia (DVD version), [10] openSUSE, [11] or TrueOS. [12] [13]

From KDE SC 4.0 to KDE SC 4.2, the default theme, "Oxygen", was characterized by dark tones. In KDE SC 4.3, it was replaced by the new "Air" theme, which predominates in transparency and white as the base color. New themes for Plasma can be chosen and installed through software like Discover or online at store.kde.org.

With the release of KDE SC 4.11 on 14 August 2013, Plasma 4 was placed into a feature freeze and turned into a long-term stable package until August 2015. On 15 July 2014, Plasma 4's successor, Plasma 5, was released. [14]

Features

Plasma features containments, which are essentially applets that contain other applets. Two examples of containments are the desktop background and the taskbar. A containment can be anything the developer wants: an image (either raster graphics or an SVG image), animation, or even OpenGL. Images are most commonly used, but with Plasma the user could set any applet as the desktop background without losing functionality of the applet. This also allows for applets to be dragged between the desktop and the taskbar (two separate containments), and have a separate visualization for the more confined taskbar.

Plasma separates components into "data engine" and their visualization counterparts. This is intended to reduce the total programming effort when there are multiple possible visualizations of given data, and to make it easier for the data engine and the workspaces to be written independently.

The scalable nature of the Plasma widgets allows for them to be resized and rotated to any size, with only a brief pause to redraw themselves. The Kross scripting framework allows developers to write widgets in a variety of programming languages in addition to C++. [15]

KRunner in Plasma 4.3 Krunner kde4.3.png
KRunner in Plasma 4.3

KRunner is a versatile tool for several functions. [16] It replaces the dialog box "Run Command" from K Desktop Environment 3, and also inherits from the application launcher feature, expanding the possibilities through a modular plug. KRunner stores previously entered commands and searches, accessible via an auto-complete feature. KRunner can be shown on the desktop via the keyboard combination Alt+F2 or by selecting "Run Command ..." in the desktop menu.

These functions are handled by the plugin:

  • Application launcher: Type at least three letters of the desired name or description. KRunner shows applications associated with the terms of the search and allows the selection of the desired one.
  • Calculator: Simply enter the desired operation to show the result. It also supports sophisticated expressions.
  • Contacts can search for entries in KDE's address book, allowing users to directly open, for example, KMail to write an e-mail. The address of the recipient of your choice is automatically added to the message.
  • Unit Converter converts values between different units of measure.
  • Web history: Search history of recently visited sites in Konqueror.
  • Recent documents: Search for recently opened files.

Widgets

Notes widget in Plasma 4.3 Kde43 plasmoid.png
Notes widget in Plasma 4.3

This is a list of widgets that the current release version of Plasma supports. Not all widgets are supported by default in all Linux distributions; some may require different packages or even a recompilation of Plasma.

Previous Plasma Workspaces releases also supported Edje gadgets and E17 modules. Support for those was developed in 2008 [20] but removed later, in 2010. [21] [22]

Google Gadgets were also supported. [18] After Google announced the discontinuation of its two services that utilize Gadgets –  Google Desktop [23] and iGoogle [24]  – KDE removed support for this widget engine in March 2013. [25]

Plasma 5

Plasma 5 with the Breeze Dark theme, with Konsole and Dolphin, core KDE applications KDE Arch.png
Plasma 5 with the Breeze Dark theme, with Konsole and Dolphin, core KDE applications

Plasma 5 is the fifth generation of the graphical workspaces environment created by KDE primarily for Linux systems. Plasma 5 is the successor of Plasma 4 and was first released on 15 July 2014. [26] [27] [28] It includes a new default theme, known as "Breeze", as well as increased convergence across different devices. The graphical interface was fully migrated to QML, which uses OpenGL for hardware acceleration, resulting in better performance and reduced power consumption. [26] [27]

Plasma Mobile is a Plasma 5 variant for Linux-based smartphones.

Architecture

KDE Plasma 5 is built using Qt 5 and KDE Frameworks 5, [29] predominantly plasma-framework. [30]

It improves support for HiDPI displays and ships a convergable graphical shell, which can adjust itself according to the device in use. 5.0 also includes a new default theme, dubbed Breeze. Qt 5's QtQuick 2 uses a hardware-accelerated OpenGL(ES) scene graph (canvas) to compose and render graphics on the screen, which allows for the offloading of computationally expensive graphics rendering tasks onto the GPU, freeing up resources on the system's main CPU. [26]

Windowing systems

Plasma 5.24 running under Wayland on Arch Linux KDE Plasma 5.24 on Arch Linux screenshot.png
Plasma 5.24 running under Wayland on Arch Linux

KDE Plasma 5 uses the X Window System and Wayland. Support for Wayland was prepared in the compositor and planned for a later release. [26] It was made initially available in the 5.4 release. [31] Stable support for a basic Wayland session was provided in the 5.5 release (December 2015). [32]

Support for NVIDIA proprietary driver for Plasma on Wayland was added in the 5.16 release (June 2019). [33]

Features

  • KRunner, a search feature with many available plugins. In addition to launching apps, it can find files and folders, open websites, convert from one currency or unit to another, calculate simple mathematical expressions, and perform numerous other useful tasks. [34]
  • Flexible desktop and panel layouts composed of individual widgets (also known as "Plasmoids") can be individually configured, moved around, replaced with alternatives, or deleted. Each screen's layout can be individually configured. New widgets created by others can be downloaded within Plasma.
  • Powerful clipboard with a memory of previously copied pieces of text that can be called up at will.
  • Systemwide notification system supporting quick reply and drag-and-drop straight from notifications, history view, and a Do Not Disturb mode.
  • Central location to control playback of media in open apps, the phone (with KDE Connect installed), or the web browser (with Plasma Browser Integration installed)
  • Activities, which allow users to separate methods of using the system into distinct workspaces. Each activity can have its own set of favorite and recently used applications, wallpapers, "virtual desktops", panels, window styles, and layout configurations. It also couples with ksmserver (X Session Manager implementation) which keeps track of apps that can be run or shutdown along with given activity via subSessions functionality that keep track of state of applications (not all applications support this feature as they do not implement XSMP protocol). [35]
  • Encrypted vaults for storing sensitive data.
  • Night Color, which can automatically warm the screen colors at night, or user-specified times, or manually.
  • Styling for icons, cursors, application colors, user interface elements, splash screens and more can be changed, with new styles created by others being downloadable from within the System Settings application. Global Themes allow the entire look and feel of the system to be changed in one click.
  • Session Management allows apps that were running when the system shut down to be automatically restarted in the same state they were in before.

Plasma 6

KDE Plasma 6 is the sixth and current generation of the graphical workspaces environment made by KDE. It is the successor to Plasma 5 and was initially released on 28 February 2024. [36] [37]

Plasma 6 changes the default display server from X11 to Wayland, though the former is still available. [38]

As of version 6.4, the X11 version is no longer installed by default and the KWin (the KDE window manager) codebase is split into kwin and kwin_x11. Kwin is the default Wayland version and will see active development. New fixes are developed for kwin first and backported later to kwin_x11. Version kwin_x11 is maintained until Plasma 7 and no new features are expected to be backported. [39]

Variants

Plasma Desktop

Plasma Desktop is the main variant of KDE Plasma, targeted at desktop PCs and laptops.

Plasma Netbook

Plasma Netbook aims at netbooks and may also be used on tablet PCs. The first stable release shipped with KDE SC 4.4. [40] With the release of Plasma 5, Plasma Netbook's functionality was merged into Plasma itself.

Plasma Active

Plasma Active logo Plasma Active logo.svg
Plasma Active logo

Plasma Active was a workspace for devices with touchscreens. It shipped with several applications such as Kontact Touch and a document viewer based on Calligra Suite. [41] "Contour" was the name of an interface for tablet devices. Its development was started in April 2011 by basysKom. [42] Replacing an earlier tablet prototype, [43] Contour has then become the main workspace UI of Plasma Active and was shipped as 1.0 in October 2011. [44]

Plasma Active has been succeeded by Plasma Mobile starting with Plasma 5. [45]

Plasma Mobile

Plasma Mobile was targeted at smartphones and small tablet devices that are mainly used via touch input. It was originally expected to be released in 2011 along with Plasma Active 1.0, but development focus shifted towards Contour. A new version with the same name but based on KDE Frameworks 5 was announced on 25 July 2015. [46]

Plasma Bigscreen

Plasma Bigscreen for TVs and set-top boxes incl. voice interaction. [47]

Plasma Nano

Plasma Nano is a minimal shell for embedded and touch-enabled devices, [48] like IoT or automotive.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ As the main variant, it is commonly referred to simply as "Plasma".

References

  1. ↑ "4.0 Released". KDE. 11 January 2008. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  2. ↑ "KDE Plasma 6.4.4, Bugfix Release for August". 5 August 2025. Retrieved 6 August 2025.
  3. ↑ "COPYING of Plasma Workspace". KDE Invent. Archived from the original on 4 May 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  4. ↑ "Plasma Desktop" . Retrieved 21 November 2010.
  5. ↑ Bhartiya, Swapnil (25 July 2015). "KDE Community announces fully open source Plasma Mobile". ITWorld. Archived from the original on 8 November 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  6. ↑ "Release schedule for Plasma 5". KDE. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Mielewczik, Michael (2009). "Aufgebrezelt. Gnome und KDE aufgepeppt". LinuxLife (in German). 1/2009: 18–21.
  8. ↑ "Chakra Project". Archived from the original on 19 December 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  9. ↑ "Kubuntu website". Archived from the original on 23 August 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  10. ↑ "Mageia 2 and the default GNOME 3 desktop". LinuxBSDos.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  11. ↑ Ryan Paul (21 August 2009). "OpenSUSE community konfesses love for KDE, makes it default". Condé Nast Digital. Ars technica. Archived from the original on 9 May 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  12. ↑ "About | Ideal for desktop or server". PC-BSD. Archived from the original on 26 September 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  13. ↑ Sean Michael Kerner (31 January 2014). "FreeBSD Open-Source OS Comes to the PC-BSD Desktop". Eweek.com. Archived from the original on 5 February 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  14. ↑ "New Plasma brings a cleaner interface on top of a new graphics stack". kde.org. KDE. 15 July 2014. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  15. ↑ "KDE's Plasma is heating up". Linux.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  16. ↑ "KRunner". Archived from the original on 13 November 2010. Retrieved 21 November 2010.
  17. ↑ "4.6 Beta1 Brings Improved Search, Activities and Mobile Device Support" (Press release). KDE. Archived from the original on 10 September 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  18. 1 2 "Introducing KDE 4: Plasma". Introducingkde4.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  19. ↑ "freiesMagazin 2008–09". freiesMagazin. Archived from the original on 16 September 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  20. ↑ "Plasmoid with QEdje". Archived from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  21. ↑ Artur Duque de Souza (9 July 2010). "KDE Workspace – Revision f9d8bf81". KDE. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  22. ↑ "KDE calls 'home'". 10 July 2010. Archived from the original on 13 July 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  23. ↑ Chitu, Alex (2 September 2011). "Google Desktop Will Be Discontinued". Google. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  24. ↑ "Google to Discontinue Mini Search Appliance, IGoogle, Other Products". PCWorld. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  25. ↑ Michael Palimaka (1 April 2013). "KDE Workspace – Revision f18065df". KDE. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  26. 1 2 3 4 "KDE Plasma 5.0 Released". KDE. 15 July 2014. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  27. 1 2 Sneddon, Joey-Elijah (15 July 2014). "KDE Plasma 5 Arrives with Fresh New Look, True Convergence". OMG! Ubuntu!. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  28. ↑ Gilbertson, Scott (18 August 2014). "KDE Plasma 5—For those Linux users undecided on the kernel's future". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  29. ↑ Jos Poortvliet (17 December 2013). "Qt 5.2 – Foundation for KDE Frameworks 5". Dot.kde.org. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  30. ↑ "plasma-framework readme". Archived from the original on 16 December 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  31. ↑ Grässlin, Martin (29 June 2015). "Four years later". blog.martin-graesslin.com. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  32. ↑ Riddell, Jonathan (8 December 2015). "Plasma 5.5 With Beautiful New Artwork". KDE.news. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  33. ↑ "Plasma 5.16 Release Announcement". KDE. 16 May 2019. Archived from the original on 21 May 2019. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  34. ↑ "How to Use KDE Plasma Desktop Like a Pro". Linux.com. 22 February 2015. Archived from the original on 9 August 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  35. ↑ "Changes to KSMServer – David Edmundson's Web Log". 28 November 2018. Archived from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  36. ↑ "KDE MegaRelease 6". KDE Community. 28 February 2024. Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  37. ↑ "Schedules/Plasma 6 – KDE Community Wiki". community.kde.org. Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  38. ↑ "login-sessions: Make Plasma Wayland the default (!2188) · Merge requests · Plasma / Plasma Workspace · GitLab". GitLab. 4 October 2022. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  39. ↑ Zahorodnii, Vlad (11 March 2025). "kwin_x11 and kwin_wayland split" . Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  40. ↑ "SC 4.4.0 Caikaku Release Announcement". KDE. 9 February 2010. Archived from the original on 29 May 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  41. ↑ "Plasma Active 3 Improves Performance, Brings New Apps". KDE. 15 October 2012. Archived from the original on 28 November 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  42. ↑ "Contour Open Source Project announced – a new and innovative usage paradigm for digital devices". basysKom. 11 April 2011. Archived from the original on 3 May 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  43. ↑ Artur Souza (3 December 2010). "KDE's Mobile Team Meets for First Sprint". KDE. KDE.NEWS. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  44. ↑ Carl Symons (9 October 2011). "Plasma Active One released!". KDE. KDE.NEWS. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  45. ↑ "Plasma/Active – KDE Community Wiki". community.kde.org. Archived from the original on 23 September 2023. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  46. ↑ Swapnil Bhartiya (25 July 2015). "KDE Community announces fully open source Plasma Mobile". ITworld. Archived from the original on 25 July 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  47. ↑ "Plasma / Plasma Bigscreen". Archived from the original on 6 May 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  48. ↑ "Plasma / Plasma Nano · GitLab". GitLab. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
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