📚 Open Source Technology DailyExploring the Infinite Possibilities of the Open Source World2025/11/8🎪 KDE Plasma 6.6 Reduces Memory Usage by 100MB, Fixes DrKonqi Crash Reporter IssuesKDE developers have been busy since early November. The Plasma 6.6 version continues to undergo extensive feature development, while bug fixes for Plasma 6.5 and related KDE components are also ongoing.KDE developer Nate Graham consistently delivers an excellent weekly summary of Plasma development through the “This Week in Plasma” newsletter. Based on this, the Plasma 6.6 version is gradually being refined, with this week’s changes from KDE including:
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Plasma 6.6 will introduce a feature that limits virtual desktops to display only on the primary screen. This feature is implemented through a new Plasma extension KWin script, allowing virtual desktops to be displayed only on the primary screen while keeping windows on secondary screens always visible.
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The network widget in Plasma 6.6 adds a button to connect to networks via QR code.
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The DrKonqi crash reporting system now supports crash detection for non-KDE applications.
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KDE Frameworks 6.20 also fixes a potential crash issue with the DrKonqi crash reporter itself, which occurred when users clicked the “Details” button on crash notifications from other programs.
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Support for the MHC2 tag used in ICC profiles on Microsoft Windows has been added. This will help KWin achieve consistent color effects with Windows. This feature will be released with Plasma 6.5.3.
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The hot corner effect can now trigger on all screens, no longer limited to the corners of a single screen.
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Plasma 6.5.3 will bring more crash fixes.
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Plasma 6.6 will add a page in the HDR calibration wizard to measure the maximum average brightness for full screen.
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Plasma 6.5.3 will enhance the visual smoothness when switching display modes in multi-monitor configurations (for screens that support VRR).
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Plasma 6.6 will intelligently uninstall unnecessary wallpaper images, reducing Plasma’s memory usage by over 100MB.
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Stability of drag-and-drop operations between XWayland windows and native Wayland windows has been improved.
For more detailed information about the changes in KDE Plasma at the beginning of November, please refer to Nate Graham’s “This Week in Plasma” blog.📡 GTK Adds “Reduce Motion” Accessibility Option to Align with Design Standards of macOS, Windows, and Other SystemsIn addition to GNOME’s Mutter compositor removing support for its X11 backend to focus on Wayland (while retaining XWayland client support), another noteworthy change in GNOME this week is the addition of a “Reduce Motion” accessibility option in the GTK toolkit.GTK now offers a “Reduce Motion” accessibility option that provides alternative animation schemes in relevant scenarios, avoiding additional discomfort or distraction for users. This feature will be released with the GTK 4.21 development version and GTK 4.22 stable version next year.Submitted by Emmanuele Bassi, the GTK merge request explains the design philosophy behind the reduce motion option: “Disabling all animations is not a true accessibility setting: animations themselves carry meaning. Turning off all animations can actually reduce the accessibility of the user interface.Platforms (macOS, Android, Windows, and web) have converged towards providing options to reduce the extent of animations, both to avoid discomfort for those sensitive to vestibular motion and to minimize distractions for those with attention deficits.We implement the same mechanism for animations defined internally for controls through GtkSettings and support CSS animations via media queries.”This change responds to a defect report submitted a year and a half ago, requesting the GTK toolkit to add support for reducing animations to better match the behavior of other operating systems.The addition of the GTK reduce motion feature has been announced in “This Week in GNOME”, which also includes several new features related to different GNOME Shell extensions.📱 Hyprland 0.52 Released: This Wayland Compositor Introduces Multiple New FeaturesHyprland 0.52 has been released today, as the latest feature update for this alternative Wayland compositor.This version introduces a new “forceidle” scheduler, supports setting rotation parameters for each compatible input device, adds a “modal” property to window rules, and includes several other improvements.Although Hyprland 0.52 is not the most feature-rich version released recently, it is noteworthy that the development team has shifted focus to the development of the Hyprtoolkit toolset, which will provide underlying support for all Hyprland graphical interface applications in the future.For more detailed information about the Hyprland 0.52 version update, you can visit the Hypr.land official website and the GitHub repository.💡 IncusOS Announces Launch of Immutable Linux Operating System Based on ZFS, Designed for Running ContainersLinux Containers project has forked from Canonical’s LXD project to establish Incus two years ago. Now joining the Incus family is IncusOS—an immutable Linux operating system built on Debian, supporting the OpenZFS file system, and specifically designed for running Incus containers.Incus chief developer Stéphane Graber announced today that IncusOS, which has been continuously developed over the past year, is officially launched. The project describes it as: “IncusOS is a modern immutable operating system image designed for running Incus. It provides atomic updates through an independent partition A/B update mechanism and enhances boot security with UEFI secure boot and TPM 2.0 modules.The system is built on a streamlined Debian 13, using a Linux kernel built by Zabbly, ZFS, and Incus, providing the latest stable versions of all these components. We heavily rely on the systemd toolchain for image building (mkosi), application installation (sysext), system updates (sysupdate), and various operations from network configuration to partition management.This is a highly locked-down runtime environment, with no local or remote shell access. The entire system is configured and maintained through the Incus API, supporting TLS client certificate authentication or external OIDC authentication.”Users interested in experiencing this Linux operating system for running Incus or learning more about this new project can find more information through the announcement on LinuxContainers.org.🌟 Open Source Changes the World, Let’s Drive Technological Progress Together 🚀