Summary
Plasma 6.6.0 fixes fingerprint login bugs, making biometric unlock reliable.
This week’s changes to 6.6.0 are bug-fix focused; major new features are slated for Plasma 6.7.0.
Plasma 6.7.0 will remember per-screen tiling padding, plus many small QoL tweaks.
While I am a huge fan of KDE Plasma, I’ll also admit that it’s not perfect on every front, as much as I want it to be. For every 10 things it gets right, there’s one problem that causes frustration, and some are so severe that they may cause someone trying out the desktop environment to consider a different one.
For instance, while I’m perfectly happy with signing into KDE Plasma with a password, some people would prefer to use biometrics for that added layer of security. There’s just one problem: right now, using fingerprint logins with KDE Plasma is rife with issues and errors. If you prefer using your fingerprints over a password, there’s good news: KDE Plasma 6.6.0 is finally going to fix those problems.
Related
KDE Plasma 6.7.0 will finally make managing your notifications a lot easier
Also, a huge wave of 6.6.0 bug fixes are coming.
KDE Plasma 6.6.0 will finally make logging in with biometrics viable
Alongside more fixes that are in the works
Yep, it’s that time again; the good folk over at KDE have published a brand-new This Week In Plasma. If you’re new to KDE, This Week In Plasma gives us a sneak peek into what people are working on and when it’s scheduled to be released. The joy of open-source software is that you can take a look at what people are making and see all the cool stuff on the way, and This Week In Plasma bundles all of the week’s advancements into one handy digest.
This week, we’re poking our noses into the planned changes for both KDE Plasma 6.6.0 and 6.7.0. The former is coming out on February 16th, so people are spending the short amount of time left to fix bugs and tweak things instead of adding meaty new features. The big changes are more of a 6.7.0 thing now.
Well, one of the fixes scheduled to be released in 6.6.0 offers some great news for people who want to use their fingerprint scanner with the desktop environment, but found that it was a bit of an unstable mess:
Fixed multiple significant issues on the lock screen that could be encountered with fingerprint authentication enabled: one that could break fingerprint unlocking, and another that could leave you with an “Unlock” button that did nothing when clicked. (David Edmundson, KDE Bugzilla #506567 and KDE Bugzilla #484363)
If you’re not interested in fingerprint scanning, you’ll be pleased to hear that 6.7.0 will introduce a new feature to tiling padding, which will allow the desktop environment to remember what you set for each screen. Other than that, this week was filled with small but very welcome tweaks, so give the blog post a read for all the details.