{
  "id": 14827453,
  "title": "KDE turns 30 with Plasma 6.8, remote upgrades, and an X11 farewell",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/kde-turns-30-with-plasma-6-8-remote-upgrades-and-an-x11-farewell",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-15T22:21:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Ars Technica",
    "slug": "ars-technica",
    "url": "https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/kde-turns-30-with-plasma-6-8-remote-upgrades-and-an-x11-farewell/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On October 14, the software developer KDE celebrated its 30th anniversary by unveiling Plasma 6.8, announcing the retirement of its native X11 session support, and releasing a promotional film. KDE touts the new Plasma 6.8 as the \"30th Anniversary Edition,\" positioning it as a step toward a more promising future. Although legacy X11 applications will continue to operate through the XWayland compatibility layer, and KDE applications will maintain X11 support across different desktop environments, Plasma is set to fully embrace the Wayland system, effectively putting an end to new X11 session start-ups. Users who choose to retain Plasma 6.7 will retain their current sessions temporarily. This transition is anticipated, following GNOME's decision to phase out X11 sessions by default in 2025. Plasma 6.8 introduces several enhancements, such as enhanced support for adding window decorations to third-party applications, a refined Union theming system, and Nvidia triple buffering enabled by default. Additionally, KDE's backup utility, Kup, has been integrated into Plasma, and kscreenctl, a command-line utility that enables users to adjust display configurations, has been introduced.",
  "summary": "KDE celebrates 30 years with a new Plasma release, a farewell to X11, and a movie.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}