KDE Celebrates 30 Years with Plasma 6.8, Drops X11 Support

Software developer KDE is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the release of Plasma 6.8, dubbed the "30th Anniversary Edition." This update transitions the Plasma desktop environment away from its native X11 session support, fully embracing the Wayland protocol.

The retirement of X11 session support, a protocol that has been in use for over 40 years, aligns with industry trends. GNOME, another major desktop environment, is set to drop X11 support by default in 2025. Legacy X11 applications will continue to function through the XWayland compatibility layer.

Plasma 6.8 introduces several enhancements, including improved support for window decorations on third-party applications and a streamlined Union theming system. Nvidia triple buffering is now enabled by default, and the Kup backup utility has been integrated into Plasma. A new command-line tool, kscreenctl, allows advanced users to manage display configurations.

Users who wish to remain on Plasma 6.7 will be able to maintain their existing X11 sessions for the time being. KDE applications will also continue to support X11 when running under other desktop environments.