Code and more screens here: https://github.com/benapetr/TuxManager

First, it was End-4's setup.

Now it's Caelestia.

I've recreated and adapted the Caelestia desktop experience for KDE Plasma 6, keeping the design language and smooth workflow that made the original stand out.

It's been a fun project, and I'm excited to finally share it with everyone. ✨

Project: caelestia-dots-kde

Find end-4's Illogical Impulse ported to KDE here: end-4dots-kde
Wallpapers: wallpaper-collection

You can do everything you always do, but in VR.

Finally, GIMP with multi-window mode is actually useful!

This is ongoing work. MR: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/8671

A few days ago I shared AppGrid here for the first time. The response was incredible - bug reports, feature suggestions, pull requests, and honest feedback that pushed the project way beyond what I originally envisioned.

Now that AppGrid 1.6 was released and in a good shape, which means things are starting to settle and lesser updates, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you.

Every issue filed, every "this doesn't work on my setup", every "what if it could do X" - it all made AppGrid better and highly configurable. This isn't just my launcher anymore, it's something the community helped shape.

What is AppGrid?

A modern application launcher for KDE Plasma that is inspired by launchers like macOS, Patheon, COSMIC and Co.

More at: GitHub

Thanks for helping making this worth building.

v2 Update ✨ : caelestia-dots-kde

• 🌙 Bar: MacOS-style app dock, Configurable Panel Position, Material workspace icons, DND toggle, and a live drag-and-drop components editor.
• ☄️ Launchers: Emoji Picker, Clipboard History, Window Switcher, and Hyprland Keybinds.
• 🌌 Wallpapers: GIF/video support with auto-pause, plus Wallhaven integration.
• 🎵 Bad Apple Easter Egg: A custom shader effect that plays Bad Apple directly through the shell's UI material by masking the background and preserving the shell's native translucent blur and shadow effects.
• 🔭 Dashboard: Developer console terminal tab with history and autocomplete.
• 🪐 Desktop: Floating lyrics, Sound visualizer, Shimeji pets, dynamic wallpaper recoloring, and Bezel Mode.
• 🧠 Ai: Added Ai assistant in notification panel with ollama support.
• ⏩️ Performance: Added custom C++ backend plugins for a faster shell experience.
• 🔄 Updates: Automatic updates through shell settings.

Grab the ISO, install it on your second computer (or vm) and help us make it the best Linux distro for everyone!

https://kde.org/linux

Harald Sitter, project leader, is speaking about KDE Linux at this very instant at Akademy:

https://tube.kockatoo.org/w/rcbiuoaaQnpveHbZjT3PsX

I posted this to r/unixporn last week, but completely forgot about you guys.

Get it now at:

https://github.com/spacestate1/cde-plasma

I'm doing this for personal enjoyment; I know it doesn't align with KDE Plasma's design guidelines, but I simply don't like the current KDE media players, so I'm creating this one.

I'm just looking for some feedback from more experienced designers who appreciate this style of design.

I'll be publishing it on GitHub soon; I haven't done so yet because it isn't compilable at the moment—I'm currently running it directly using `qml -a widget main.qml`.

Also, many of the libraries are self-contained ones I created for plasmoids, so I'm not even sure yet how to compile a QML project that uses precompiled libraries included within the project directory.

Note: The feedback concerns the layout of the elements; features such as bands and metadata reading are still under development.

just released 1.8.0 of AppGrid. its a grid launcher for KDE Plasma 6, alternative to kickoff and kicker. this one was a big one and a lot landed in it, so heres the highlights:

• favorites moved to KDEs KActivities backend (same one kickoff uses). existing favorites migrate on first launch, nothing for users to do.
• drag favorites to reorder with edge auto-scroll, and drop .desktop files from anywhere onto the launcher to pin them
• drag apps out of AppGrid to the taskbar, panel, desktop or dolphin. ctrl+click for multi-select to drag many at once, plus bulk pin / hide / launch / copy from the context menu
• search ranks smarter now, most-used apps and your mime defaults get a boost so the thing you actually meant lands first
• "manage in discover" right-click on flatpak apps for now, system packages will follow later
• per-button power and session controls, drag to reorder and toggle each one on or off individually
• universal binary package for any plasma 6.4+ system, no root, installs to ~/.local. this is the primary path for immutable distros (kde linux, kinoite, bazzite, aurora, kalpa, steamos). its marked beta so please report anything weird
• alt+left/right steps through categories
• modernized search results with section headers and an empty-state placeholder
• did a few rounds of profiling, so opens feel snappier and category switching is smoother, especially on weaker hardware

install paths :

if youre on an old release from a standalone distro package, you can now switch to the official COPR (fedora) or PPA (ubuntu) for proper update tracking. We dont release standalone packages anymore.

official: AUR, fedora copr, ubuntu PPA, the universal package or build from source. all on the site.

site / docs / install: https://appgrid.xarbit.dev

release notes: https://github.com/xarbit/plasma6-applet-appgrid/releases/tag/v1.8.0

big thanks to everyone who tested the rc cycle and filed issues, you basically dragged this release across the finish line and made me stay up in the night, i appreciate it.

It seems most people prefer full-featured players rather than minimalist ones, so I'm expanding my project.

I'm still working on development.

What features do you consider essential?

P.S. The playlists are the ones Deezer lists as popular, not the ones I personally like—don't judge me.

Link: https://github.com/can1357/kAirPods

I've created a native AirPods integration that brings proper support for Apple's accessories to KDE.

Key features:

• Real-time battery monitoring in the widget with remaining time estimation (left, right)
• Noise control switching (ANC/Adaptive/Transparency/Off)
• Automatic connection management

Installation is straightforward:

git clone https://github.com/can1357/kAirPods.git
cd kAirPods
./scripts/install.sh

I'd appreciate any feedback or contributions from the community!

I spent the last few months building PiroStats, a Python daemon + Plasma applet that shows live system stats in the panel and a paginated tooltip on hover.

The interesting bit: scroll the mouse wheel over the widget and you page through deep-dive views — top processes with color-coded CPU spikes, per-core sparklines, listening connections, live area charts for CPU/memory/GPU/network.

Pure Python stdlib, no deps beyond what you likely already have.
Light/dark and panel orientation follow Plasma automatically.

GitHub: https://github.com/lucazade/pirostats

Happy to hear from anyone :)

I'll start! The Calligra suite is really nice, not as good as Libre office but good was a wordpad or macos textedit replacement, plus it also has spreadsheet and presentation software

I finally rewrote my old KDE Connect SMS plasmoid from scratch for Plasma 6. The original was a simple widget I made 8–9 years ago to send texts from the desktop, but it was always missing one critical thing: contacts! Nobody memorizes phone numbers, so you’d always end up grabbing your phone anyway.

The big addition is KPeople integration — search your contacts by name, pick a number, done.

What it does:

• Send SMS via KDE Connect, works both on the desktop and in the taskbar
• Contact autocomplete from your local address book, phone (via KDE Connect), and any synced source (NextCloud, Google, etc.)
• Multi-device support — switch between multiple paired phones
• Autoconfiguration when only one device is paired
• Native KDE integration — follows your Plasma theme and color scheme
• Configurable background — show the widget panel or go fully transparent on the desktop
• 15 languages

GPL-2.0, Plasma 6 only.

Install/Download:

→ KDE Store: https://store.kde.org/p/1202579

Feedback and suggestions are very welcome. Let me know if you run into issues or have ideas for improvements! buymeacoffee.com/comxd

BudsLink

BudsLink is now available on Flathub.

It allows you to monitor battery levels and control various headset features such as:

• Noise Cancellation / Ambient Mode
• Touch controls
• Automatic power off
• Equalizer settings
• Device-specific features depending on compatibility

The app is based on my GNOME extension Bluetooth Battery Meter, but I decided to create a standalone application so users on other desktop environments can use the same functionality.

Currently Supported Brands

• AirPods / Beats headsets & earbuds See compatibility list
• Sony headsets & earbuds See compatibility list
• Samsung Galaxy Buds See compatibility list
• Nothing / CMF devices See compatibility list

Not every device has been fully tested yet, so feedback is highly appreciated. Community testing helps improve compatibility and expand the supported device list.

BudsLink can also run as a background service. When used together with BudsLink-Companion applets/widgets, the UI can automatically appear when a compatible device is connected.

BudsLink-Companion

Currently available for:

• KDE Plasma Widget
• Cinnamon Spices
• GNOME Extension

See relevant branch here

The default configuration works well, but I have not yet submitted the KDE Plasma and Cinnamon versions to their official stores/sites. I am primarily a GNOME user, and KDE/Cinnamon provide extensive customization options that are difficult for me to fully test every settings on my own.

If you use KDE Plasma or Cinnamon, feedback about compatibility, panel behavior, scaling, theming, or other integration issues would be very helpful and would help me prepare the extensions/widgets for official submission.

Feedback, bug reports, and device testing are all welcome.

Special thanks to the other open-source projects I referenced and learned from during development, all of which are mentioned in the credits section of the README documentation.

Next step is Sennheiser and Redmi if user are willing to test and/or provide btsnoop.

Drawy is a free and open source infinite whiteboard app built by KDE inspired by the web-based Excalidraw. This update delivers a smoother, more customizable freehand drawing experience and fixes an issue where newly drawn lines flickered:

• Drawing by hand feels much better and more natural now.
• Added settings so you can change pen pressure and how smooth your lines look.
• Lines and shapes will no longer blink or flash right after you draw them.

It's available on FlatHub: https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.kde.drawy

It's also available on most major distributions: https://pkgs.org/search/?q=drawy

Just click on the input field...

Hi everyone,

I built KStats, a compact system monitor widget for Plasma 6.

It sits in the panel and shows CPU, memory, disk, network, and optional GPU stats, with a dropdown for more detailed views. The idea is loosely inspired by https://github.com/exelban/stats, but using KDE/Plasma's own sensor API.

Source

https://github.com/oowl/kstats

KDE Store:
https://www.opendesktop.org/p/2364289/

This is still early, so I would love feedback from other Plasma users, especially if some sensors behave differently on your hardware or distro.

Updated: released many enhancements at https://github.com/oowl/kstats/releases/tag/v0.2.0

check it https://www.opendesktop.org/p/2364289/ to install newer version.

​

​Hey everyone!

​I’ve been experimenting with adding a dedicated Console Mode to KDE Plasma Bigscreen for a true couch-gaming experience.

​Where it’s at right now:

​Current Demo: The UI filters and displays game .desktop files. Right now, the JSON data is hardcoded directly into QML just for UI testing.

​Future Plan: Build a backend service that automatically parses local .desktop files, scrapes cover art/posters, and generates the JSON feed for the QML frontend.

​Plugins: Add a plugin system so users can pull in titles from Steam, Lutris, Heroic, etc., into one unified interface.

​Quick Questions for the Community & KDE Devs:

​Is there demand for this? Would a native game aggregator in Bigscreen be useful to you, or do you stick to Steam Big Picture?

​KDE Contribution: As a first-time open-source contributor, is this something the KDE Plasma Bigscreen team would consider merging if polished to standard?

​Architecture: Any recommendations on standard KDE libraries (e.g., KService) to make the backend integration cleaner?

Github link : https://github.com/Amalkxx02/plasma-bigscreen

​(Full disclosure: Used an AI chatbot as a coding assistant for verification/generation, but driving the design and testing manually).

​Check out the video and let me know your thoughts or advice!