KDE 4.6 - new version of the graphical environment

The popular KDE graphical desktop project has released a major new release, 4.6. A new release of KDE means the release of the respective versions of the three components: desktop (KDE Plasma Workspaces), a set of applications (KDE Applications) and platform (KDE Platform).

The key changes in Plasma are a redesigned system of rooms (activities) with a simplified interface, an update to the power management system (its source code has been reduced by 10 times, a new Policy Agent has been introduced), and a significant optimization of the KWin window manager.

Smaller improvements to Plasma have also been reported:

• widget "Shelf" has learned to show the number of unread letters and contacts in the network;
• "Digital clock" in the panel can now display a shadow under the text;
• "Taskbar" received support for basic launch buttons (for this, you need to drag the application icon onto the widget);
• optimizations in Plasma Netbook (faster "Search and launch", more convenient "Newspaper view" for touch screens).

Among the changes in KDE 4.6 applications are:

• faceted browsing in Dolphin, a "Filter" sidebar that allows you to view and search indexed files using their metadata;
• text editor Kate received a basic SQL client based on QtSQL (KateSQL), a new module for GDB (GNU Debugger), a new module for highlighting selected text, support for intermediate files (for restoring unsaved data on subsequent startup), adding scripts to the menu and assignment of key combinations;
• Gwenview image viewer and KSnapshot screenshot tool have been added with an export function for quick sharing of images to Flickr, Facebook and other resources; in addition, KSnapshot learned how to take screenshots of a screen area of a given shape and include a mouse cursor in it;
• the mobile version of Marble's virtual globe - MarbleToGo - has turned into a "full-fledged car navigator";
• KStars planetarium now supports rendering with OpenGL.

Innovations in the KDE 4.6 platform: the appearance in the Plasma infrastructure of support for widgets written in QML ; abandonment of HAL and the emergence of modules UPower, UDev and UDisks for Solid; backup and synchronization in Nepomuk; interface for writing scripts in KWin; new Oxygen-GTK style for better integration of GTK applications into the KDE environment; the emergence of BlueDevil , a replacement for KBluetooth based on BlueZ.