KDE Plasma 6.1 brings many enhancements to the popular Linux desktop

After several pre-releases, the KDE Plasma development team unveiled version 6.0 of its desktop environment for Linux and BSD systems on 28 February, using the Qt6 framework for the first time. KDE Plasma 6.1 now comes with a number of new features to further improve the user experience.

The edit mode, which can be started by right-clicking on the desktop wallpaper and selecting the appropriate item, has been completely redesigned in KDE Plasma 6.1. When activated, a stylish animation starts and the entire desktop zooms into an overview with settings panels on the sides. This means that users no longer have to deal with multiple, sometimes overlapping options and can configure their Plasma desktop in a relaxed manner.

While KDE Plasma under X11 has had a session restore feature for some time, Plasma 6.1 now offers a session restore feature under the Wayland display standard for the first time. This means that window positions in Wayland sessions can now be saved when logging out or shutting down and restored the next time KDE is started. This feature is still described as experimental by the development team.

In addition, KDE Plasma 6.1 allows users to launch a remote desktop directly from the system preferences, providing convenient access to remote computers using a client such as KRDC. Other features in Plasma 6.1 include the ability to synchronise the desktop's accent colour with a keyboard's LED lighting and the ability to magnify the mouse pointer by "shaking" the mouse, a feature known from macOS.

An overview of all the changes in KDE Plasma 6.1 can be found in a dedicated blog entry by the KDE team.