The KDE Project has officially released Plasma 6.5, the latest stable version of its popular desktop environment for Linux-based systems. This update introduces numerous features and improvements, including rounded window corners and enhanced accessibility options. It aims to enhance user experience across various aspects of the desktop interface.
The KDE Project announced the release of Plasma 6.5 on October 21, 2025, bringing a host of new features, improvements, and bug fixes to Linux users. Key highlights include rounded bottom corners for Breeze-decorated windows, the ability to display ink levels on supported printers, an improved tone mapping curve for HDR content, and a new grayscale mode added to colorblindness correction filters to desaturate screen colors.
A significant addition is the KDE Initial System Setup tool, designed for OEM installations on new laptops with Plasma, allowing users to configure the desktop upon first boot. Plasma 6.5 also adds support for the XDG Wallpaper portal, enabling apps to change desktop and lock screen wallpapers; text insertion point tracking in the Wayland Zoom effect; and VPN setup for the “FortiGate” vendor.
Remote desktop sessions have been streamlined: existing user accounts now work without manual setup, and clipboard text syncing between client and server is supported. Wayland window activation and raising have been improved, while screen readers better describe actions and keyboard shortcuts on System Settings' Shortcuts and Autostart pages. Users can now activate Sleep, Shut Down, and Restart buttons in the Kickoff menu using the Enter key.
After more than 22 years of requests, Klipper now allows marking clipboard entries as favorites for permanent saving, useful for repeated text snippets. Other enhancements include finding global shortcuts in KRunner, automatic switching to a different Global Theme at night, hibernation support from the SDDM login screen, and configuration for touch rings on drawing tablets.
The Plasma Discover package manager gains support for flatpak+https:// URLs to simplify Flatpak installations from Flathub and hardware driver installations from distribution repositories. Screencasts of windows now capture titlebars, borders, shadows, and pop-ups. Accessibility improvements cover Flatpak Permissions and Shortcuts pages, and KRunner uses fuzzy matching for application searches.
Plasma 6.5 will soon be available in repositories of distributions like openSUSE Tumbleweed, Arch Linux, Fedora, and KDE neon.