KDE Gear 25.04: Key Improvements in KDE Ecosystem Applications
The KDE team has released the latest version of its application suite, KDE Gear 25.04, bringing substantial enhancements in performance, accessibility, and functionality for users of the KDE Plasma environment.
Dolphin, the file manager, now features better integration with the Orca screen reader, more efficient navigation using arrow keys, selection with Enter, and a more compact status bar. Additionally, it introduces a new icon depicting a real dolphin, initial support for right-to-left (RTL) languages, and the ability to rename tabs.
Konqueror improves download management with an enhanced "Save As" dialog, while KDE Connect now speeds up data transfer via Bluetooth. Kongress, the event assistant app, displays the speaker's name for each talk.
KRDC, the remote desktop client, adds support for the latest FreeRDP protocol version and allows scaling the remote machine's desktop within its window. Itinerary, the travel assistant app, expands support for new European companies, improves the handling of electronic tickets, and introduces a personal data page to track memberships and saved locations.
The Merkuro calendar app now allows configuring multiple regions for displaying holidays, viewing tasks due today, and applying actions to multiple contacts in the list. KMail adds validation for unknown OpenPGP certificates, while KOrganizer implements a new date picker for smoother navigation. Okular, the document viewer, now supports PGP/GPG digital signatures.
Other updates include improvements in the KWave audio editor, OpenTimelineIO support in Kdenlive for importing and exporting video projects, and optimizations in NeoChat, which now enables sorting rooms by the most recent activity.
Additionally, the Elisa music player automatically opens files from other applications, Kasts offers both mobile and desktop modes, and AudioTube now displays synchronized lyrics thanks to LRCLIB. Kate and KDevelop integrate support for language servers, while Tokodon allows saving Mastodon post drafts and scheduling them for later publication.
KDE Plasma users can expect the update to arrive in the stable repositories of their GNU/Linux distributions. The continuous evolution of the KDE ecosystem demonstrates its commitment to delivering more efficient and versatile applications.
