Plasmate: Mini-IDE for Plasmoids
The KDE project has released a first alpha version of Plasmate. The small development environment is meant for writing Plasmoid applets for the KDE4 desktop.
Plasma uses Kate, a reliable KDE editor component. It also provides built-in integration with git version control, also a recent KDE addition. A documentation browser also shows the contents of KDE API documents.
The Plasmoid editor is limited to script languages like JavaScript, Ruby and Python that support Plasma applets. There are no immediate plans to grow Plasmate into an all-inclusive environment such as KDevelop or Qt Creator.
The alpha version is still functionally incomplete and "unpolished," as Aaron Seigo reports in his blog announcing the release. Nevertheless, he hopes it will be thoroughly tested based on source code downloads and bugs reported in the KDE bugtracker. Once the summer comes along, Plasmate should mature to a stabile 0.1 release. Development discussion can take place on plasma-develop@kde.org and in #plasma on irc.freenode.net.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.
-
RingReaper Malware Poses Danger to Linux Systems
A new kind of malware exploits modern Linux kernels for I/O operations.