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sources/tech/20220310 KDE Plasma 5.24 Review. A Crafted Desktop to Dominate the Linux World.md
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KDE Plasma 5.24 Review. A Crafted Desktop to Dominate the Linux World
IT’S TIME FOR A QUICK RECAP AND REVIEW OF THE KDE PLASMA 5.24 DESKTOP, RELEASED A WHILE BACK. The KDE team did it again with their perfect KDE Plasma 5.24 release. A fantastic release in terms of efficiency, new features, performance, stability, and everything in between makes an excellent desktop environment for all types of users.
KDE Plasma 5.24 is the 26th edition of Plasma and Long Term Support (LTS) release to grace the Kubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish. That means you, me and thousands of users worldwide will be using this version for two or more years. You can fathom how important this release is.
Without much rambling, let’s go for a quick review of KDE Plasma 5.24.
KDE Plasma 5.24 Review
Installation
I have been using KDE Plasma 5.24 in Fedora for quite some time. So, that installation was a direct upgrade from KDE Plasma 5.23. On the upgrade process front, everything went smooth. All the user-configured settings remained intact, and only the default wallpaper is changed after the upgrade. So surprises or any loss to data or boot loader.
I have installed KDE Plasma 5.24 with KDE Neon user edition in a physical system to test further. The installation went fine with around 8 minutes in an Intel i3 system with 4GB RAM.
The test system had another operating system, so the installer perfectly detected all the operating systems and updated the grub correctly.
New Features, Look and feel and Usability
Plasma 5.24 looks stunning. The first boot presents a clean desktop with a classic look and incredible wallpaper. The default Breeze Light theme with new borders and decorations are almost perfect for every user. And if you are curious and want a different look for your Plasma, then all the settings such as accent colour and stuff are all right there. You do not need to hack or reach for the command line for changing the look.
The newly designed overview screen gives you a GNOME vibe, but it’s awesome in the KDE environment when you set it up.
During my test, I tried Bluetooth, WiFi, and printing (after installing HPLIP) – all went smooth. No hiccups or command line is required. Everything worked out of the box. The notification area of KDE Plasma should give you access to all the necessary options. You seldom need to visit the System Settings dialogue.
The battery usage is fair, and I think a slight improvement since the Plasma 5.23 in my test hardware. I kept the test machine to reach standby, and Plasma woke up nicely without any problem. I know some Linux distributions fail to wake up after sleep and lead you to go to TTY and reboot or start the X session again.
Stability and Performance
If you are a new or long-term Plasma user, Plasma 5.24 would feel like a home; everything is ready, bug-free and waiting for your actions and workflow.
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I have not encountered any bugs during my test window. So, I did a quick scan on the official KDE Forum on how many issues and types of problems have been reported in one month since the release. It’s not much, actually in two digits. And the reported issues are mostly related to high-end displays and networks – that I feel are related to specific specialized hardware.
But in general, it is a well built and well-tested desktop out there today.
KDE Plasma performance was always perfect in any hardware for the past couple of releases. And this release also proves the same.
During the idle phase, KDE Plasma 5.24 consumes 614 MB of RAM with 2% CPU usage.
I ran it through Firefox with five tabs and played Youtube. Also, with one instance of File Manager, text editor, image viewer, system settings, and Discover to test the heavy workload performance. This use case uses 1.29 GB of RAM, and the CPU is at an average of 6% to 7%.
Firefox, obviously consuming most of the system resources.
A remarkable performance metric, I must say.
So, there you have it, a perfect Plasma desktop with this release.
How to get KDE Plasma 5.24
KDE Plasma 5.24 is now available with KDE Neon user edition, Fedora 35 and Kubuntu 21.10 via backports PPA. You can download it from here if you want a fresh install.
If you are using Fedora 35 and Kubuntu 21.10, follow these guides to get this version.
How to Get KDE Plasma 5.24 in Kubuntu 21.10 Impish Indri
Closing Notes
I review and test many Linux distributions and desktop environments for our portal. Nothing comes close to KDE Plasma in every aspect. I know GNOME is well designed and has other tricks, but still, when you need a fast system with almost all customization options out of the box, KDE Plasma has been the winner for decades.
There were times when I had to install KDE Plasma to get a system up and running in no time without worrying much. Because in the end, it just works, and all the options are ready for you to use.
I think KDE Plasma with Kubuntu/Fedora and Linux Mint is the two best distribution in the world today – hands down.
To wrap up the KDE Plasma 5.24 review, I am compelled to say that KDE Plasma 5.24 LTS is a home run from the team. And we are glad that KDE exists and is about to dominate in days to come.
Cheers.
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via: https://www.debugpoint.com/2022/03/kde-plasma-5-24-review/