Exploring Kubuntu 18.04 LTS and the Plasma desktop
Kubuntu Close-up
© Lead Image © federicofoto, 123RF.com
Kubuntu 18.04, which is built on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver, is the first long-term support release that includes the Plasma 5 desktop. This article looks at the latest Kubuntu and highlights some cool configuration tricks.
In July 2014, KDE announced Plasma 5.0, a visually updated core desktop experience that was user friendly and familiar. Plasma also introduced a new major version of KDE's workspace.
The new "Breeze" artwork concept introduced cleaner visuals and improved readability. Central workflows were streamlined, while well-known overarching interaction patterns were left intact. Plasma 5 improved support for high-DPI displays and added a "converged shell," able to switch between user experiences for different target devices. Changes under the hood included the migration to a new, fully hardware-accelerated graphics stack centered around an OpenGL ES scene graph. Plasma is built using the new Qt 5 and Frameworks 5.
The changes ushered in with Plasma 5 have finally reached the Kubuntu LTS series with Kubuntu 18.04. If you're new to Kubuntu, or even if you're upgrading now from a previous LTS edition, this article will give you a brief introduction to Kubuntu 18.04 and show you some highlights of the Plasma 5 desktop.
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