KDE Plasma developers squeeze a few more features into 6.8 just weeks before release

Published Sep 25, 2026, 11:51 PM EDT Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech. Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics. Sign in to your XDA account Summary KDE Plasma 6.8 gains last-minute quality-of-life tweaks before the mid-October release. It adds improved click feedback, clearer focused tabs, a lock-screen layout shortcut, and password-eye tooltips. Bigger changes like currency conversion and relaxed weather searches were deferred to Plasma 6.9. Usually, when a new version of KDE Plasma is on the horizon, its developers stop making new features and start fixing bugs. Polishing existing features instead of adding new ones is a great way to keep the final product from becoming a buggy mess. Now, with just over two weeks remaining until KDE Plasma 6.8 launches, developers have snuck in a few more features before the submission door closes. KDE Plasma 6.8 receives a handful of features before release Getting them in before the final call Over on This Week in Plasma, the community shows off everything they've been working on over the last seven days. Turns out, people are managing to fit in some nice quality-of-life features before 6.8 ships out to everyone in October 14th. Here are some of my personal favorites: Click feedback for System Tray icons now works a lot better (even if it remains inconsistent with other things, which is also being worked on!). (Kamil Wolter, KDE Bugzilla #520915) The focused tab in a Plasma tab bar now looks less like a link, which it isn’t. (Christoph Wolk, libplasma MR #1584) You can now use the “Switch to Last-Used Keyboard Layout” keyboard shortcut on the lock screen. (Pavel Lunin, kscreenlocker MR #373) Password fields throughout Plasma now show an explanatory tooltip when you hover over the little eyeball icon that shows and hides the characters of the password. (Christoph Wolk, KDE Bugzilla #525790) Some features were presumably a little too big to fit into 6.8 before launch, so we saw some of them get added to 6.9 instead. This includes an easier time performing currency conversions in KRunner, and when you search for a weather station, you can omit any punctuation, and it'll still work (i.e., “st louis” to find “St. Louis”).