KDE's Plasma 6.8 retires support for starting X11 sessions, handing the desktop over to Wayland as its session type. The release shipped on October 14, which KDE marked as its own 30th birthday.
Only the ability to log in to a Plasma session on X11 goes away. Per KDE, the small number of apps that still require X11 will keep running through the XWayland compatibility layer, and KDE applications will continue to support X11 for the foreseeable future. The project's case for the switch is that Wayland handles modern screens and graphics cards better and is under active development, while X11 first appeared in 1984.
The theming work moves forward too. Plasma 6.7, released on June 16, carried an alpha of Union, KDE's new theming system, which could style Qt Quick applications. Version 6.8 moves Union to beta and extends it to Qt Widgets programs such as Dolphin, Kate and Konsole. KDE says Union is not ready to be the default, and that apps styled with it should look nearly identical to the traditional Breeze theme. Testers install the union package (its name varies by distribution), apply Breeze (Union) in System Settings under Colors & Themes, then Application Style, and restart their apps.
Accessibility and monitoring get concrete additions. A built-in dwell clicker sends a mouse click when the pointer stops moving, aimed at users with mobility issues who previously needed an external app. System Monitor can assign compute-intensive tasks to chosen CPUs and now shows VRAM load as a percentage. Spectacle can record system audio and microphone input together, and the screen-sharing dialog accepts a custom virtual-screen resolution instead of a fixed 1920 by 1080.
Plasma's built-in remote desktop server adapts to slow networks and fast-changing screen content, adds an exclusive mode that locks the server screen and gives the client a virtual display matching its window, and synchronizes the clipboard both ways. These features only take effect in client apps that support them. On the graphics side, KWin turns on triple buffering by default for NVIDIA GPUs, improves HDR output with an ICC color profile, and adds the HLG transfer function. Window rules can now add shadows, outlines and rounded corners to client-side-decorated windows, and Plasma 6.8 ships one such rule for Steam.
Whether a distribution can keep shipping an X11 Plasma session on its own is left open, and KDE notes that 6.8 packages may not reach every distribution right away. Users who still depend on an X11 session will want to check their distribution's plans before upgrading.
