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The KDE Project released today KDE Gear 21.08 as the newest series of their open-source software suite for the KDE Plasma desktop environment and other projects.
KDE Gear (formerly KDE Applications) 21.08 is here to bring you a plethora of improvements and new features to your favorite KDE apps, starting with the most used one, the Dolphin file manager, which received animated previews of the contents of a folder, previews for files inside encrypted locations, as well as automatic and real time update of the file info presented in the Information Panel.
On top of that, Dolphin now presents you with an easier to rename several files, using the F2 key on a selected file, or using Tab and Shift + Tab to navigate back and forward on your files, as well as to copy a file’s name to the clipboard. Moreover, Dolphin’s new KHamburger menu now makes everything easier to access.
“KDE Gear 21.08 improves KDE apps across the board, bringing you quick and responsive utilities, creativity programs with powerful features, and secure tools for all your work and play needs,” said the KDE devs.
Another powerful app that received improvements in KDE Gear 21.08 is the Okular document viewer, which now makes it easier to customize the toolbar to your liking by adding buttons for changing the color of the document’s paper, lets you disable the big notification messages about embedded files, forms, and signatures that pop up when opening a document, as well as to disable or enable the annotation tools.
The Konsole terminal emulator now comes with a SSH (Secure Shell) plugin that helps you create a directory of machines you regularly connect to via the SSH protocol, and the the Gwenview image viewer now features new compact controls at the bottom right-hand corner of the app, full support for the new KHamburger menu, support for 16-bit color images, and the ability to read color profile information from JPEG, PNG, and many other image formats.
Kate text editor now comes with a feature called Snippets that acts as useful templates of bits of code you can drop into your projects when you code and support for the Dart programming language, the KDE Connect mobile device manager now lets you easily reply to a SMS from the notifications, and the Ark archive manager can now extract zip files with Windows-style backslashes used as path separators.
The Spectacle screenshot utility has been improved as well and it now lets you take screenshots of the window that’s currently under the mouse cursor by pressing the Meta (Super)+Ctrl+Print keys at the same time, and works much better under Wayland. Also, the Elisa music player can now enter the party mode by pressing the F11 key, and remembers what it was playing and continues from where it was left off even after a reboot.
Also improved is the Kdenlive video editor, which now makes it easier to change the speed of a clip using a keyframeable effect and makes it faster to open projects and import files, as well as the Yakuake drop-down terminal emulator, which now lets you switch from one pane to the next using the Ctrl+Tab keys.
More details about the new features and improvements implemented in your favorite KDE apps in the KDE Gear 21.08 release are available in the official announcement page. Meanwhile, keep an eye on the stable software repositories of your favorite GNU/Linux distribution for the KDE Gear 21.08 packages, which already landed in KDE neon or other rolling-release distros.
Image credits: KDE Project
Last updated 3 years ago
