Plasma 6.1 series 2 and KDE Gear 24.08 3 add intriguing new features to the desktop. Plasma 6.1 adds features like initiating a remote desktop straight from the System Settings app, redesigning Edit Mode's visuals, and allowing users to "remember" what they were doing in their previous session. XFCE edition has Xfce 4.18, which includes a new file-highlighting feature, panel.
Manjaro 24.1 Xahea released
Since we released Wynsdey in May 2024 we worked hard to get the next release of Manjaro out there. We call it Xahea.
Highlights of 46 release series are:The GNOME edition has received several updates to Gnome 46 series. This includes a lot of fixes and polish when Gnome 46 originally was released in March 2024. You can find the changes made to each point-release here: 46.1, 46.2, 46.4, 46.5 .
Highlights of 46 release series are:
GNOME’s filemanager comes with a new global search feature in GNOME 46. Global search is a great way to jump directly into search, without having to think about where the items you want are located. The new feature also leverages GNOME’s existing file search capabilities, including the ability to search the contents of files, and filter by file type and modification date. Another great thing about global search is that it makes it possible to search multiple locations simultaneously, which can include locations that aren’t in your home directory. To set this up, go to the newly refined search locations settings, and add the locations that you want to be included.
GNOME’s remote desktop experience has been significantly enhanced for version 46, with the introduction of a new dedicated remote login option. This allows remotely connecting to a GNOME system which is not already in use. Connecting in this way means that the system’s display can be configured from the remote side, resulting in a better experience for the remote user.
The Settings app has been reorganized for GNOME 46, to make it easier to navigate. To this end, a new System section has been created, which contains preferences for Region & Language, Date & Time, Users, Remote Desktop, Secure Shell, and About. The Apps settings have also been consolidated, and now include the Default Apps and Removable Media settings.
GNOME 46 contains many small improvements and polish changes to the core GNOME experience. Many of GNOME’s core apps have also been upgraded. The improvements in GNOME 46 are not just skin deep, and the new version comes with deep technical enhancements which result in a more performant and refined experience.
The Plasma edition comes with the latest Plasma 6.1 series and KDE Gear 24.08 . It brings exciting new improvements to your desktop.
Plasma 6 hits its stride with version 6.1. While Plasma 6.0 was all about getting the migration to the underlying Qt 6 frameworks correct (and what a massive job that was), 6.1 is where developers start implementing the features that will take your desktop to a new level.
One of the more spectacular (and useful) features added in Plasma 6.1 is that you can now start up a remote desktop directly from the System Settings app. This means that if you are sysadmin who needs to troubleshoot users’ machines, or simply need to work on a Plasma-enabled computer that is out of reach, setting up a connection is just a few clicks away.
We all love customizing our Plasma desktops, don’t we? One of the quickest ways to do this is by entering Plasma’s Edit Mode (right-click anywhere on the desktop background and select Enter Edit Mode from the menu). In version 6.1, the visual aspect of Edit Mode has been overhauled and you will now see a slick animation when you activate it. The entire desktop zooms out smoothly, giving you a better overview of what is going on and allowing you to make your changes with ease.
Plasma 6.1 on Wayland now has a feature that “remembers” what you were doing in your last session like it did under X11. Although this is still work in progress, If you log off and shut down your computer with a dozen open windows, Plasma will now open them for you the next time you power up your desktop, making it faster and easier to get back to what you were doing. At Manjaro we are still defaulting to X11, however switching to Wayland can be done easily by selecting the wanted session in your display manager.
With our XFCE edition, we have now Xfce 4.18. Here some highlights: A new file highlighting feature (accessed from the file properties dialog) in Thunar file manager lets you set a custom colour background and a custom foreground text colour – an effective way to call attention to specific file(s) in a directory laden with similar-looking mime types. On the subject of finding files, Thunar includes recursive search.
The panel picks up a pair of new preferences. First, panel length is now configured in pixels rather than percentages, as before. Second, there’s a new “keep panel above windows” option. This allows maximised app windows to fill the area behind the panel rather than maximise its bottom or top edge to sit flush against it.
Control Centre groups all of the desktop’s various modules for managing the system into one easy-to-use window. New options are present in many of these. For example you can disable header bars in dialogs from the Appearance module; show or hide a ‘delete’ option in file context menus from Desktop; and pick a default multi-monitor behaviour before you attach an additional screen – dead handy, that.
Kernel 6.10 is used for this release, such as the latest drivers available to date. With 6.6 LTS and 6.1 LTS we offer additional support for older hardware as needed.
We hope you enjoy this release and let us know what you think of Xahea.
Download
Download Manjaro GNOME 24.1.0
Download Manjaro GNOME Minimal 24.1.0
Download Manjaro KDE 24.1.0
Download Manjaro KDE Minimal 24.1.0
Download Manjaro Xfce 24.1.0
Download Manjaro Xfce Minimal 24.1.0
