Updated: October 25, 2024
For me, the Plasma desktop is the best work environment out there, hands down. But it ain't without its faults and unfortunate (and unfortunately avoidable) regressions. The release of the brand new, mega-major 6.X version was quite tumultuous. Rife with bugs. I tested it no less than three times, on three different systems, and every single time, there were lots of issues and problems. Some of these are semi-understandable, after all, the KDE team is adopting the brand new Qt6 framework. But others are just ... unnecessary.
Well, now, version 6.2 is out, and I was happy, even eager to test it. After all, I love it, and I want it to succeed. That said, I still believe that major version releases aren't an excuse for "delayed" QA, whereby software gains maturity a year or two after the official go-live date, and all of the testing is done live, with real human users. Nope. Alas, this seems to be the modern trend, whatever fast, iterative software development means these days, and it affects the KDE world, too. Well, Plasma 6.0 was meh. Plasma 6.1 was a bit better. Let's see what 6.2 can do for us.
Better defaults, cleaner looks
First impressions are everything. Previous releases of the new Plasma desktop featured a very bright, cartoonish wallpaper. While it's a nice piece of art, it's not suitable for a serious desktop, for many reasons. The choice of colors, the motif, and the fact non-nerds need something quiet and unobtrusive as their background. Indeed, you don't want actual programs to compete with the wallpaper for attention.
Plasma 6.2 fixes this, introducing the familiar Plasma colors and lines. The floating taskbar is still there, and it's still the wrong ergonomic choice - but you can easily fix it. Likewise, the all-light-gray Breeze theme is not the best option, as there's no separation between foreground and background windows. It's Breeze Classic that does the job. But you have full control, and easy control.
I tested Plasma 6.2 as part of the KDE neon User Edition live image. I did not install the distro, as I wanted to limit my impressions to the desktop environment, and not the whole system. KDE neon is a bit rough, mostly intended for tinkering, and so, it can be hard to separate the desktop from the underlying skeleton. Test system: the AMD-powered laptop, I used for my second Plasma 6.0 review.
There be bugs
If you haven't noticed right away, Plasma now uses monochrome category items to make them not compete with application icons. A good choice, in line with the wallpaper change. But, if you use Breeze Classic, you get the wrong multimedia icon.
I also noticed that all windows have this extra border - it helps delineate them, but feels like an artifact or a glitch. Shadows are still there, so I'm not 100% sure how this is a better solution compared to the 5.X family of releases.
And then, you have missing or incomplete borders, as in the battery indicator, on the button that says Manually Block. At some point, the Firefox icon "disappeared" - both in the taskbar and in the menu Favorites. I had to remove it and then re-pin it. I guess this has to do with the fact there was a Firefox update - I had seen this before, mostly with snaps (and a flatpak or two), but never with the Debian packages, which is what KDE neon uses. Overall, not a biggie, but there are lots of these tiny papercuts everywhere, and I would like to hope they will be removed by the time we reach 6.4-6.5, as that's when most distros will adopt the new desktop.
And here's an old problem I mentioned in my MX-23.4 review, so this means an issue that spans a bunch of Plasma family versions, as MX uses 5.27. If you manually resize the menu, and then enable session and power buttons, if the width of the menu is insufficient, all of the buttons will be hidden:
Trying to use Wayland, login problems, and back to X11
Plasma 6.2, like the previous two releases, defaults to Wayland. Okay, but still not good enough. Among other things, the icon reshuffle problem on the taskbar still remains. Try to drag an icon, and one of them will move left or right, but not necessarily the one you want. On top of that, my laptop has a bad display, and changing the gamma is a must. You can do that with X11, not with Wayland.
And so, naturally, I switched to the superior solution, and things immediately improved. The performance, or rather, responsiveness, is marginally faster using X11, there are fewer bugs, and no missing functionality. A simple fact of life. Once again, the old technology shows its value.
However, I struggled switching to X11. I would log out, and the system would log me back in, automatically, not giving me an option to change the desktop session. I had to open Settings, and disable the relevant checkbox. Now, in the screenshot below, you will see that under Behavior, it says: with session Plasma (X11). I did not select this - this is the KDE neon default. But this obviously isn't the case, as the default login happens with Wayland, and all subsequent auto-logins, too. Only after my manual change did I get the superior X session.
You also get the Welcome screen, every single time:
And X-ing like a pro:
Nice things, everyday use, some more bugs and such
Plasma 6.2 is a slick desktop, despite its beta-quality foibles. For example, the clock now uses an adaptive location, so you don't need to manually configure timezones. This is a fine little touch. I mean, when it comes to ergonomics and even simple usability, Plasma is 56,000 light years ahead of everything else out there.
The system area also shows categories in a bit more "mature" way, if you will. However, if you hover your mouse over any which one option and then move it away, that option will remain highlighted, no matter where your cursor goes. This is a bit jarring.
The error submission UI has also changed. It's a bit simpler, and nicer in that sense. Now, it says System Settings, but in the trace you mostly see something called DrKonqi, whatever that means - plus if you check the developer information, the system will tell you the crash dump is probably, highly likely useless. And then, it's best if things don't crash, right?
The generated crash information is probably not useful
warning: could not find '.gnu_debugaltlink' file for /usr/bin/systemsettings
warning: Can't open file /memfd:xorg (deleted) during file-backed mapping note processing
warning: Can't open file /memfd:JSGCHeap:QtQml (deleted) during file-backed mapping note
processing
Well, I spent a bit more time fiddling around. I don't like Peek, I prefer Minimize All Windows. Dolphin, the file manager, feels a bit nude in its default form (and the menu is hidden, which feels wrong as you get very few quickaction buttons). I made some adjustments, but it could be a bit more immediately user-friendly. Again, there's a bunch of visual artifacts here and there, as everywhere in the system. In the end, you have a blistering fast, elegant, pretty desktop.
Lastly, in the live session, if you do manage to log out (after tweaks), you will notice that there is more than just the demo user. There's also dnsmasq. For some reason, this service has a shell, and therefore, it is shown in the login window. Not how it should be.
Conclusion
Well, here we are. I played with the Plasma 6.2 desktop for a while, collected a bunch of screenshots, and then wrote this report. My findings? Mostly positive. That said, there are (too) many little quirks, bugs and problems, primarily related to the visual side of things. UI borders and separators and such. Thin lines, thick lines, missing lines, too many lines. Wayland still isn't ready for prime time, as crucial accessibility and usability features remain missing. I don't want to use a beta-quality 85% ready thing. Nope. I want feature-complete tools. The system defaults are better, but they can improve still.
This is a very nice desktop environment. I think the transition from 5.X has been mostly okay, smoother than the 4.X to 5.X ride, for sure. Even so, things aren't as optimal as they could be. Wayland shouldn't be part of the Qt6 equation, as it must make life harder for the development team. On top of that, this is the third major release of the new edition, and it still feels somewhat immature. Versioning has lost its meaning in the modern world. What's the point of a GA, when it's merely Beta 5 or Beta 6? The same is true for every distro out there. They get released on a specific date, arbitrarily, but then reach "stability" after 4-9 months. You might as well never declare stable, or keep things perpetually beta (as they often practically are). Technically, it would have made sense for Plasma 6 to be released only next February, and use this year for serious bug squashing. And only then commence work on Wayland, or if you ask me, never.
Well, we can't go back in time, so Plasma 6.2 is Plasma 6.2. It is what it is. And it ain't bad. Plasma 6.2 is beautiful, very fast, mostly robust, and peppered with a slew of various bugs and problems, which will hopefully, eventually go away. Worth testing, just remember, it's still too early to use this for production machines. And we're done here, fellas.
Cheers.