KDE Plasma 6.8 Is Available for Beta Testing

KDE Plasma desktop 6.8 is now available for beta testing, while the final release is planned for October 14, 2026.

The new version of this popular Linux desktop environment, introduced some new features, UI improvements, and fixed various bugs.

First, the Kup backup software has been moved into the KDE Plasma project. Meaning it is now being developed and maintained as part of the KDE Plasma project, rather than being a separate KDE application/project. KDE is also encouraging OS developers to package and ship Kup by default or make it readily available in their distributions.

Kwin, the default window manager and Wayland compositor, now supports the commit_timing Wayland protocol. It provides frame commit and presentation timing information, that’s useful for applications to measure latency between submitting a frame and displaying it and debug graphics performance.

Besides the new features mentioned above, the 6.8 Beta also includes many UI improvements, stability and various bug-fixes.

Changing the volume really quickly no longer causes annoying popping sounds in the volume level preview sounds. Virtual Keyboard in the login screen has been renamed to “Show On-Screen Keyboard” and works as expect.

The Input Method widget now is primarily used for switching between on-screen keyboard visibility modes, while, user can manually show the keyboard for apps that don’t have support for making the keyboard appear automatically.

There are as well many many improvements for the Kickoff Application Launcher, Spectacle screenshot tool, Power & Battery widget, and multi-panel behaviors.

on screen keyboard works as expect in Plasma login screen

And for stability, invalid XWayland configuration file does no longer prevents KWin from launching XWayland at all, and, Plasma no longer crashes when querying the wallpaper via D-Bus while switching wallpaper plugins in the wallpaper settings dialog.

For more about KDE Plasma 6.8 Beta, see the official announcement.