The KDE Community has announced the release of version 5.17 of its flagship Plasma Linux desktop environment.

What's New in KDE Plasma 5.17?

"Plasma 5.27 is out and brings massive improvements to the desktop and all its tools," the official announcement on KDE's homepage said.

The KDE developers took to Twitter to announce the availability of the new Plasma desktop in celebration of both Valentine's Day and Free Software Day on February 14.

One new feature is an overhaul of the window tiling system that allows users to place windows side-by-side as well as split them vertically or horizontally. Users can also have windows float on top of them. This is a feature that will likely appeal to power users.

For less-experienced users, a new welcome wizard will appear on the first launch to guide them through the initial setup process.

Under the hood, KDE Plasma 5.17 improves support for Wayland, including input devices like pens.

KDE Plasma 5.27 App Tweaks

The Discover app for installing new software also has a new dynamically updated homepage that shows popular apps. It will also offer to search all categories when the search engine fails to find a match.

The KRunner app for searching and launching programs has also been revamped. Users can see the time in other locations and the search has been tweaked to give more relevant results first.

KDE Sends Off Plasma 5

KDE's release of Plasma 5.27 follows its release of a preview earlier in 2023. This version is a "Long Term Support" release. It's also intended as the final Plasma 5 version. The KDE team is slated to work on Plasma 6, though the release schedule hasn't been announced yet. Some Twitter users were aware of this fact and remarked on it with some apparent bittersweetness:

Most KDE Plasma users will have to wait for their Linux distributions to distribute the updates unless they want to use a live image or download the new version themselves.

Plasma 5.27 Marks a Sweet Valentine's Day for KDE Users

The release of KDE Plasma 5.27 is sure to please KDE users and give them more ammunition for their argument that KDE is the superior desktop environment for Linux. Plasma's rich feature set and customizability have endeared it to so many Linux users.