I tested KDE Plasma 6.7 beta, and it’s easily my new Linux desktop of choice
I tested KDE Plasma 6.7 beta, and it’s easily my new Linux desktop of choice
https://www.zdnet.com/article/i-tested-kde-plasma-6-7-beta/
Publish Date: 2026-05-20 07:30:00
Source Domain: www.zdnet.com
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- KDE Plasma 6.7 is just around the corner.
- With tons of new features and polish, the latest release is impressive.
- You can test it on the KDE Neon unstable release.
KDE Plasma is slowly becoming one of my favorite desktop environments, and with the upcoming version 6.7, it might very well claim the top spot.
With its imminent release, I thought it would be good to see how the new version looked and felt. To do that, I had to download the unstable version of KDE Neon (it lives up to its “unstable” name, so I wouldn’t recommend it) and boot it up as a virtual machine, using Virt Manager/KVM.
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Wow. Just… wow. The KDE team has seriously delivered, and this upcoming release is, hands down, the best they’ve ever offered. It starts with the look.
A breath of fresh Air (and Oxygen)
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that I place a pretty high importance on the look of my desktop. This dates back to my early days, when I would spend hours tweaking it until it looked exactly how I wanted.
I knew the developers were bringing back two of my favorite KDE Plasma themes, Air and Oxygen. This might have been prompted by Apple’s new Liquid Glass theme in MacOS (which I happened to really like).
The Air theme is quite lovely.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
I remember both of these themes from back in the day, and always enjoyed them. Now, with KDE Plasma having evolved into the beauty that it is, when you apply either of these themes, the desktop is stunning. The Oxygen theme is especially gorgeous, very glassy and elegant.
That alone makes me jones for the stable release of KDE Plasma 6.7. This is the first time (post Liquid Glass), that I’ve thought, “MacOS who?” Yeah, the developers have really outdone themselves with this.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
I could end it there, but I’ll continue, because there are some really…
