sujith Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 The KDE developers have announced that the final version of the new Plasma 5 desktop is finally complete and that it integrates a huge number of improvements.KDE Plasma 5 has been in the works for three years and a lot of effort has been put into this project. It was about time to change the old desktop shell that has been used until now, and the new version looks a lot better and much more modern. It's likely that not all users will like it, especially because there is always resistance to change inside the Linux community.Similar problems were encountered by the GNOME developers when they switched to the 3.x branch and with Ubuntu when it adopted the new Unity.“The UI has been tidied up, there is a new Breeze artwork theme starting to take off and high-DPI support has been added. The main design of the desktop and workflows in it have not been altered, we know you like your desktop and have no desire to change it. There is not enough polish in this release to make it mainstream yet, this is only for enthusiasts and people who want to help debug for now.”“Many distributions have packages to install or test images to try out although this 5.0 release should not be the default option yet. Plasma 5 is built using Qt 5 and Frameworks 5 and is due to have new releases on a three monthly cycle,” note the developers in the announcement.This is not just a simple upgrade or just another version in a long line of releases. The differences are pretty big and they can be clearly observed because the UI is one of the major features that got changed. For example, a new theme called Breeze (high-contrast, flat theme for the workspace) has been implemented, simpler and more monochromatic graphics assets and typography-centered layouts have been added, and the "converged Plasma shell" that loads up the desktop in Plasma 5.0 can be extended with other user experiences.Also, users will notice the improved performance of the desktop. This is because the KDE Plasma 5 user interfaces are are rendered on top of an OpenGL or OpenGL ES, taking some of the strain from the processor and using the GPU for a change.The application launchers have also been improved, the notification area has been enhanced considerably, and high-density (high-DPI) displays are now supported by KDE. To top it all off, a new lock screen has been added, which should make all users very happy.The new KDE Plasma 5 is sure to arrive in some of the repositories very soon (if it hasn't already).Changes in KDE 5- An updated and modernized, cleaner visual and interactive user experienceThe new Breeze theme is a high-contrast, flat theme for the workspace. It is available in light and dark variants. Simpler and more monochromatic graphics assets and typography-centered layouts offer a clean and visually clear user experience.Smoother graphics performance thanks to an updated graphics stackPlasma's user interfaces are rendered on top of an OpenGL or OpenGL ES scenegraph, offloading many of the computational-intensive rendering tasks. This allows for higher framerates and smoother graphics display while freeing up resources of the main system processor.Converged shellThe "converged Plasma shell" that loads up the desktop in Plasma 5.0 can be extended with other user experiences. This lays the base for a converged user experience bringing up a suitable UI for a given target device. User experiences can be switched dynamically at runtime, allowing, based on hardware events such as plugging in a keyboard and a mouse.Modernized launchersThe application launchers' user interfaces have been reworked. Among the changes are a visually redesigned Kickoff application launcher, a newly included, more menu-like launcher, called Kicker and a new, QtQuick-based interface for KRunner.Workflow improvements in the notification areaThe notification area has been cleaned up, and sports a more integrated look now. Less popup windows and quicker transitions between for example power management and networks settings lead to a more distraction-free interaction pattern and greater visual coherence.Better support for high-density (high-DPI) displaysSupport for high-density displays has been improved. Many parts of the UI now take the physical size of the display into account. This leads to better usability and display on screens with very small pixels, such as Retina displays. Screenshots-SourceOffiicial Announcement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
software182 Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Looks beautful, gonna download this :rockon: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manju Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 (edited) my 12.04.4 isn't getting all the updates :sthere seem's to some issues with some packages (maybe some offthem aren't backported yet)asus.eeepc.X101CH.wih.Ubuntu.(Unity.2D).12.04.4.LTS Edited July 15, 2014 by manju Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolin Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 looks amazingI want more news about linux here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemonadez Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 If only they can run Windows Games so badly. I would switch over :O Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben01 Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 If only they can run Windows Games so badly. I would switch over :oSo true ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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