KDE Plasma 6.8 Marks KDE’s 30th Anniversary and Ends Native X11 Sessions

On October 14, KDE released Plasma 6.8, the project’s “30th Anniversary Edition.” The release celebrates three decades of KDE software development while preparing the Plasma desktop for the future by ending support for starting new native X11 sessions.

KDE Plasma 6.8 moves fully toward Wayland

After 42 years of service, the X11 protocol is losing another major desktop environment. Plasma 6.8 is now focused on Wayland and no longer supports launching new X11 sessions.

Users who continue running Plasma 6.7 can keep using their existing X11 sessions for the time being. The change was expected, following GNOME’s decision to remove X11 sessions by default in 2025.

Legacy X11 applications remain supported through the XWayland compatibility layer. KDE applications also continue to support X11 when running in other desktop environments.

What’s new in Plasma 6.8?

Alongside its Wayland focus, Plasma 6.8 introduces several desktop improvements. The release adds better support for window decorations in third-party applications, including shadows and rounded corners, and improves integration with the Union theme system.

Other notable Plasma 6.8 additions include:

• NVIDIA triple buffering, enabled by default.
• Kup backup integration, bringing KDE’s backup utility into Plasma.
• kscreenctl, a command-line utility for adjusting display configurations.

With Plasma 6.8, KDE is making its transition away from native X11 sessions official while continuing to support older X11 applications through XWayland.