KDE Releases Plasma Active 3

KDE has released a new version of Plasma Active. According to the announcement, the Plasma Active user interface is touch-friendly and works well across a range of devices, giving users a natural way to organize and access their applications, files, and information. Version 3 features an enhanced and expanded set of apps, improved performance, and a new virtual keyboard.

The “Files” application is a new default feature in Plasma Active 3. It is a file manager that allows users to search for documents by file type, creation time, and semantic information, such as Tags. Files organizes documents with Nepomuk, Plasma Active’s underlying semantic engine.

Okular Active is Plasma Active’s new ebook reader. Okular Active also drives the desktop version of the Document Viewer and is optimized for reading documents on a touch device. Okular Active supports a range of file formats, such as PDF, EPub, Open Document, and more.

According to the announcement, KDE developers put a lot of effort into improving the performance of the user experience, its applications, and underlying libraries. “These improvements bring a noticeably snappier and more visually coherent user interface, and make using Plasma Active a more enjoyable experience compared to previous versions,” the announcement says.

The roadmap states that users can expect support for a wider range of devices in the future, along with easier synchronization of data across devices, an improved user experience through the use of Qt5 and KDE Frameworks 5, and more applications for popular uses. The KDE team is currently working to bring a Plasma Active-based tablet to the market.