KDE turns 30 with Plasma 6.8, remote upgrades and goodbye to X11

KDE celebrates 30 years with a new Plasma release, a farewell to X11, and a movie.

To mark KDE Software Developer's 30th anniversary on October 14, the company released Plasma 6.8, released a movie, and retired support for Plasma's X11 session. KDE's announcement calls the new Plasma 6.8 the "30th Anniversary Edition" and describes the update as preparing Plasma for the future. Legacy X11 applications will continue to work through the XWayland compatibility layer, and KDE applications will also continue to support X11 in other desktop environments.

After 42 years of service, the X11 protocol is losing another major desktop environment. Plasma fully embraces the Wayland system and embeds support for starting new X11 sessions in Plasma. Users who prefer to remain on Plasma 6.7 will keep their existing sessions for now. This move was expected and GNOME officially removed X11 sessions by default in 2025.

The new Plasma 6.8 brings many improvements, including increased support for adding window decorations (such as shadows and rounded corners) to third-party applications, and a more efficient union theming system. Other notable items include Nvidia's triple buffer, which is enabled by default, Kup backup integration (KDE's backup utility – now integrated into Plasma), and kscreenctl, a command-line utility that allows power users to adjust display settings.

The updated System Monitor also gives KDE users more control over their system processes. The modified monitor allows users to pin processes to CPU cores directly through the GUI.

Homelubbers should find plenty to get excited about in the release. KDE modified the built-in Plasma remote desktop server to accommodate clients accessing virtual displays across a network. Notable new features include clipboard synchronization between client and server, "exclusive mode" that locks the server's physical display and allows the client to customize a virtual one to match their own PC, and adaptive remoting that helps stability on slower networks.

Linux enthusiasts can also check out the new video released alongside Plasma 6.8. The KDE team presents the first KDE documentary - a story from the underbelly of free software. A fun montage of the opening minute-long interview shows KDE contributors struggling to answer the question "What is KDE?" they laugh

Nick Inge is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering hardware, embedded systems, and self-hosted infrastructure. A former security researcher turned tech writer, he writes to help readers escape the pitfalls of subscription and take back ownership of their digital lives. He lives in Chicagoland with his family and a goofball husky.