The State Of KDE Plasma For Summer 2017

Last week was KDE's annual Akademy conference where developers and enthusiasts came together to recap the past year of KDE software development as well as some of what's ahead.

Longtime KDE developer Sebastian Kügler has provided a recap of the KDE Plasma activities from Akademy 2017. Those interested in the state of Plasma can read Sebastian's post at dot.kde.org. Below are some of the highlights.

- Some of the recent Plasma work as well as what's being worked on for the 5.11 cycle includes better web browser integration, better touchscreen support, taskbar enhancements, App/Global Menu work, Plasma Vault for encrypted volumes, artwork enhancements, a redesign of the KDE System Settings user interface, and much more.

- KDE Store continues picking up features, including users being able to make donations.

- Future Plasma work on the Wayland port, smoother graphics, improved HiDPI support, better touchscreen / convertible device support, virtual keyboards, and more.

- The Halium project is making it possible for developers across different projects to work together on the low-level mobile Linux stack. Plasma Mobile developers are among those working on Halium.

- Kirigami is still working on a framework for convergence of Qt/KDE user-interfaces.

- Future Plasma Mobile work includes making it more efficient, better back-end sharing with KDE desktop components, and better support for third-party applications. For third-party apps they are exploring the possibility of running defunct Ubuntu Touch software.