KDE Plasma 5 Desktop is now officially available for download. It is the next iteration of KDE after KDE4. We can call it as KDE5 and is based on Qt5.KDE Framework 5 is used to create a more convergent desktop on various devices like PC, Tablets, Mobiles etc. There is no Big UI change from KDE4 to KDE5 like the transition from KDE3 to KDE4 it is the big attempt to modernise and streamline the KDE Desktop.
New KDE 5 Plasma brings a cleaner interface on top of a new graphics stack. Plasma 5.0 providing a visually updated core desktop experience that is easy to use and familiar to a KDE user.
KDE Plasma 5 comes with a new Breeze artwork concept introduces cleaner visuals and improved readability. Plasma 5.0 improves support for high-DPI displays and ships a converged shell, able to switch between user experiences for different target devices. Changes under the hood include the migration to a new, fully hardware-accelerated graphics stack centered around an OpenGL(ES) scenegraph.
KDE Plasma 5 Features
Convergent Shell
KDE Plasma 5 allows the UI to adapt to changes in computing environment. If a user switch from a tablet to a Desktop that is if the keyboard and mouse plugged in the the shell also changes accordingly. KDE developers are currently working on both tablet and media centre interfaces as well.
New Modernized Theme and Artwork
The Breeze theme gives KDE Plasma 5 a fresh look. The 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.
A new lock screen interface provides a quick and slick way to switch user sessions and perform everyday session management tasks while getting a quick glimpse at the time, date, and battery status.
Take a quick tour of The Plasma 5.0 Visual Feature Guide .
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KDE Plasma 5 Screen Shots
Download KDE Plasma 5
KDE Plasma 5 desktop is available on the Ubuntu Based spin called Project Neon, . Ubuntu users can just enable the PPAs and install by the apt command. For trial using live seission ISOS is better. Because the Project is not somewhat stable for daily production usage.
Download Neon Live Session Image
The KDE wiki also lists other ways to get the new Plasma 5 desktop.
Arch Linux
Arch Linux provides packages in the KDE-unstable repository
# pacman -S plasma-next
AOSC
- AOSC OS2 KF5+Plasma Next Spin: http://mirror.anthonos.org/os2-releases/aosc-os2-spins/kde5-plasma-preview/aosc-kf5_preview.iso
Kubuntu
On Kubuntu, Project Neon is available as PPAs which offers frequently updated development snapshots of KDE Frameworks. Packages will be installed to /opt/project-neon5 and will co-install with your normal environment.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:neon/kf5 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install project-neon5-session project-neon5-utils project-neon5-konsole
Releases of KDE Frameworks 5 and Plasma 5 are being packaged in the next PPA. These will replace your Plasma 4 install.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/next sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ci-train-ppa-service/landing-005 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install kubuntu-plasma5-desktop
Finally the Neon 5 Live image, updated every Friday with latest source from Git to run a full system from a USB disk.
KaOS
- KaOS, for a test/live ISO, select kf5 version
openSUSE
Packages are provided in KDE:Frameworks5 and KDE:Qt5 repositories, for openSUSE 13.1:
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Qt5/openSUSE_13.1/ Qt5 zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Frameworks5/openSUSE_13.1/ KF5
and openSUSE Factory:
zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Frameworks5/openSUSE_Factory/ KF5
For more details see this page.
Source
- Source: download.kde.org