KDE Marks 30th Anniversary With Plasma 6.8 and End of Native X11 Sessions
KDE's Plasma 6.8 celebrates its 30th anniversary and ends native X11 sessions, with legacy apps still running via XWayland.
The update does not remove support for X11 applications entirely. Legacy X11 applications will still function through XWayland, the compatibility layer, and KDE applications will continue supporting X11 under other desktop environments. Within Plasma, however, KDE is ending support for starting new X11 sessions. Users who stay on Plasma 6.7 will keep their existing sessions for now, Ars Technica reported.
The shift marks another stage in the long transition away from X11, which has been in service for 42 years. The change was expected after GNOME officially dropped X11 sessions by default in 2025. Plasma will now fully adopt the Wayland system.
Plasma 6.8 brings several improvements. KDE increased support for adding window decorations, such as shadows and rounded corners, to third-party applications. The release also includes a more streamlined Union theming system.
Other additions include Nvidia triple buffering enabled by default, Kup backup integration, and kscreenctl, a command-line utility that allows power users to adjust display configurations. Kup is KDE's backup utility, now integrated into Plasma, according to Ars Technica.
Editor's Summary
KDE marked 30 years with Plasma 6.8, ending native X11 session support and moving fully to Wayland while preserving X11 application compatibility through XWayland. The release also adds window decoration support, Union theming, Nvidia triple buffering, Kup backup integration, and the kscreenctl display utility.