https://kde.org/announcements/gear/24.12.0

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Your present from me is shiny new application snaps! There are several new qt6 ports in this release. Please visit https://snapcraft.io/store?q=kde

I have also fixed the Krita snap unable to open/save bug. Please test –edge!

I am continuing work on core24 support and hope to be done before next release.

I do look forward to 2025! Begone 2024!

If you can help with gas, I still have 3 weeks of treatments to go. Thank you for your continued support.

https://gofund.me/573cc38e

I use Hugo to build my website (which you can explore the source code to on GitHub.) And because I love using KDE applications whenever I can, I do all of my editing - from config files, CSS and Markdown for posts - in Kate.

My song & dance when I want to edit my website is a bit inefficient. I would use Kate, then manually navigate to my folder. Or I would invoke Kate from the command-line to do the same. Then I would open a separate Konsole window (and sometimes the integrated terminal) in order to launch Hugo to build the site. I would then open up a separate terminal to perform git operations.

So I have created a neat workflow that I think is worth sharing, in case you didn’t know Kate had these features. This also serves as documentation to myself whenever I want to re-create it.

Sessions

The first and easiest improvement is to use sessions. You can manage these under the “Session” menu item at the top of Kate.

Instead of opening a fresh Kate session each time, the folder I was in (which is always my site’s folder) and the open documents I have are saved automatically. Note that you probably need the Projects plugin enabled to have access to the “Projects” tab where it’s state is also saved in the session.

External Tools

The next thing to tackle is making it easier to launch Hugo. We can accomplish this by using External Tools, which is managed under Settings or under the Tools menu item. I have two, one for launching Hugo and the other for stopping it.

These external tools are self-explanatory, but I set the working directory to %{Project:Path} to ensure it’s running at the site root. I also have it set to spit out the Hugo output into the pane, but it doesn’t actually display until the process quits which seems like a bug in Kate.

It’s not a huge deal, as the output is displayed when I use the “Stop Hugo” action. I suggest using the “-O” argument of hugo server to automatically open your default web browser when Hugo completes initialization.

Ideas

It would be cool to have a preview pane that automatically finds the Markdown file you’re editing and navigate to it, which seems possible. Another nicety would be a native Kate plugin to handle launching/stopping/configuring the Hugo server. But this workflow is already a big improvement over what I had before.

The Amarok Development Squad is happy to announce the immediate availability of Amarok 3.2 "Punkadiddle"!

2024 was the year that finally introduced a Qt5/KF5 based Amarok 3 release in April, and it was followed by a number of 3.x bugfix and feature releases. Now, to conclude 2024, it is time for Amarok 3.2.0. The most interesting change is probably the ability to build the same codebase on both Qt5 and Qt6. Qt5/KF5 is still the recommended, tested configuration, for now. Qt6 version should be usable, but in addition to any unknown issues, there are a number of known issues documented in README.

Additionally, 3.2.0 includes e.g. collection filtering and Ampache related features and fixes, oldest resolved feature request being from 2013. Multiple long-standing crash bug reports have been closed lately, and probable fixes for various issues observed in crash report data have been introduced. Amarok 3.2.0 should thus feature slightly improved stability. Some 3.2.x bugfix releases are to be expected in 2025, before the focus shifts to preparations for an "Amarok 4".

Changes since 3.1.1

CHANGES:

• Building an experimental Qt6/KF6 Amarok version is now possible
• Allow filtering collection by lack of tag / empty tag (BR 325317)

CHANGES:

• Amarok now depends on KDE Frameworks 5.108
• Show current track context applet by default

BUGFIXES:

• Probably fix occasional crashes when filtering collection (BR 492406)
• Probably fix occasional crashes when clearing CompondProgressBars
• Fix context view applets on Qt6/KF6
• Fix Ampache login on server version 5.0.0 and later (BR 496581)
• Fix crash if Ampache login is redirected (BR 396590)

The git repository statistics between 3.1.0 and 3.2.0 are as follows:

l10n daemon script: 68 commits, +41987, -35275
Tuomas Nurmi: 46 commits, +723, -4854
Raresh Rus: 3 commits, +41, -53
Ian Abbott: 1 commit, +17, -3
Heiko Becker: 1 commit, +0, -3

Getting Amarok

In addition to source code, Amarok is available for installation from many distributions' package repositories, which are likely to get updated to 3.2.0 soon, as well as the flatpak available on flathub.

Packager section

You can find the tarball package on download.kde.org and it has been signed with Tuomas Nurmi's GPG key.

The post Kdenlive new year preview appeared first on Kdenlive.

Unfortunately, there won't be any "This Week in KDE Apps" blog post this week as I (Carl) and others are at the #38C3 (Chaos Communication Congress) in Hamburg. But if you are also there, don't hesitate to come by and say hi.

Screen magnification is an accessibility feature that enlarges the screen to make text, images, and other user interface components easier to see or read. It is not something that requires constant developer attention, however, in Plasma 6.3, the zoom plugin received some improvements that I’d like to go over quickly.

Pixel grid

Arguably, it will be too hard to read text if the screen is “too” zoomed in. There are several ways how this case can be handled. For example, the magnification factor can be capped (e.g. to x8 or x10), or do nothing and just display blurry upscaled screen contents… or display something else.

With the old behavior, the zoom plugin used not to do anything special when the magnification factor reaches a high value, but with the new behavior, it is going to display the individual pixels on the screen. This can be very useful to developers, designers, etc.

System settings

In addition to the new pixel grid mode, the system settings for the zoom plugin received minor polishing to look more consistent with other config modules.

Future improvements

Keyboard shortcuts are not the only way how the zoom plugin can be triggered. For example, it can be also triggered by pressing Meta and Control keys and scrolling the mouse wheel to zoom. However, it is not exposed anywhere in the user interface and some people may prefer zooming with just the Meta key pressed. In order to address the discoverability issue of the mouse wheel gesture and allow using a different combination of modifier keys, there is already a patch to add the corresponding system setting, but it’s 6.4 material. It would be also nice to move screen magnifier settings from the desktop effects config module to the accessibility config module.

Last but not least, the zoom effect currently uses the bi-linear magnification filter, which produces okay-ish visual results, but it’s worth looking for alternative upscaling algorithms that handle edges better so zoomed in text looks less blurry.

Hello,

I need your help. I’ve created a first version of Skrooge that can be built on KF6 and Qt6 (Its temporary number version is 2.33.8).

I use it daily for managing my own accounts. However, before releasing an official version, I’d like some of you to test it and provide feedback by reporting any issues you encounter.

I’m counting on you! To get started, check out the download section and the README.md.

Thanks in advance!

After almost a year, I finally found some time to dive back into Krita. I stumbled upon the Memileo Impasto Brushes bundle, which mimics the texture and thickness of real paint—perfect for adding depth and dimension. Inspired to try them out, I created this quick one-hour painting.

Let’s go for last web review of 2024!

This is Your Brain On Surveillance: New Study Reveals How Awareness of Being Watched Alters Our Brains - The Debrief

Tags: tech, surveillance, psychology, cognition

It looks like it’s not only impacting negatively our privacy. The linked paper (good to read as well) hints at negative impacts on mental health as well. Still needs to be fully validated but it doesn’t look good already.

https://thedebrief.org/this-is-your-brain-on-surveillance-new-study-reveals-how-awareness-of-being-watched-alters-our-brains/

The era of open voice assistants has arrived - Home Assistant

Tags: tech, smarthome, foss

Nice move from the home assistant people. Such open and privacy respecting hardware is needed.

https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/12/19/voice-preview-edition-the-era-of-open-voice/

The Ghosts in the Machine, by Liz Pelly

Tags: tech, music, copyright

You love artists and their music? You probably should get off Spotify then… because they’re clearly at war to reduce even further how much they pay artists. Clearly it’s not about discovering artists anymore, it’s about pumping cheap stock music to increase their margin. Also its clear the remaining musicians trapped in that system will be automated away soon… you don’t need humans to create soulless music.

https://harpers.org/archive/2025/01/the-ghosts-in-the-machine-liz-pelly-spotify-musicians/

My colleague Julius

Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, criticism, knowledge

OK, this is a nice parabole. I admit I enjoyed it.

https://ploum.net/2024-12-23-julius-en.html

Can AI do maths yet? Thoughts from a mathematician

Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, mathematics

Looks like we’re still a long way from mathematical accuracy with the current generation of models. It made progress of course.

https://xenaproject.wordpress.com/2024/12/22/can-ai-do-maths-yet-thoughts-from-a-mathematician/

Lua is so underrated

Tags: tech, programming, language, lua

It’s a not niche indeed but has its place in some applications.

https://nflatrea.bearblog.dev/lua-is-so-underrated/

Simpler and faster parsing code with std::views::split – Daniel Lemire’s blog

Tags: tech, c++, performance

A good reason to use more modern C++20 APIs for parsing code.

https://lemire.me/blog/2024/12/21/simpler-and-faster-parsing-code-with-stdviewssplit/

A Simple ELF

Tags: tech, unix, elf, system

Nice little introduction to the ELF format.

https://4zm.org/2024/12/25/a-simple-elf.html

Electronics Test Gear on the Cheap

Tags: tech, electronics

Price of such gear definitely went down indeed.

https://bigdanzblog.wordpress.com/2024/12/25/electronics-test-gear-on-the-cheap/

Server-Sent Events (SSE) Are Underrated

Tags: tech, web, http

This is definitely an overlooked alternative to websockets. It doesn’t apply everywhere of course but when it does it’s a good pick.

https://igorstechnoclub.com/server-sent-events-sse-are-underrated/

On Long Term Software Development - Bert Hubert’s writings

Tags: tech, engineering, supply-chain, complexity, dependencies, maintenance

There is some good advice in this piece. If you want to maintain something for a long time, some aspects need to be thought out from the beginning.

https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/on-long-term-software-development/

Problem Driven Development | Stay SaaSy

Tags: tech, project-management, product-management, engineering, quality

Struggling with making your first technical roadmap? Driving it from measurable problems is a good first step.

https://staysaasy.com/engineering/2024/12/17/problem-driven-development.html

The number pi has an evil twin… - Mathstodon

Tags: mathematics

Interesting thread. I didn’t know about this family of constants. Fun stuff.

https://mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosbaez/113703444230936435

Bye for now!

Like every year I take a couple of days off at the end of the year to wind down and spent time with the family. The year has brought many major changes, both to KDE and to me personally: We did the KDE MegaRelease 6, the next major update to KDE’s software suite. Plasma 6 further made Wayland the default graphical session. I also spent a lot more time in Qt itself, particularly Qt Wayland, rather than KDE code. Anyhow, between family visits and feasts there’s always some time for quality KDE hacking.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Windows 7’s task bar with its progress reporting and Jump Lists. Nine years ago (wow, really?!) I added support for the Unity Launcher API to Plasma’s task bar in order to display download and copy progress. The other day I was browsing systemd changelog when I stumbled upon:

The various components that display progress bars […], will
now also issue the ANSI sequences for progress reports that Windows Terminal understands. Most Linux terminals currently do not support this sequence (and ignore it), but hopefully this will change one day.

I hope so, too! Guess whose Konsole understands ConEmu-specific OSC (Operating System Command), the stuff systemd uses, for progress reporting now? There’s still a few quirks to be worked out since Konsole allows you to have multiple split views within the same tab. Nevertheless, we’ve got plenty of time until the next KDE Gear release in April 2025 to finalize it. Moreover, I asked kde-builder (KDE’s meta build system and spiritual successor to kdesrc-build) to support it, so you could monitor KDE compile progress at a glance.

I’m a scratch-your-own-itch type of guy. When I finally got fed up with Element (a Matrix chat client) in a browser window eating my CPU, I gave our own NeoChat application a try. The first thing I added was a “Copy Link Address” context menu when hovering a link in addition to fixing the missing “Edit” entry. Next, I had the window title include the chat room name since that’s what I am usually looking for in my task bar. Finally, Kirigami’s Avatar component can now load its image asynchronously which should speed up scrolling through the timeline and lists of rooms and users.

Speaking of Kirigami, Qt 6.8 added an animateClick function to buttons. It briefly flashes and then triggers it. This is now used throughout Kirigami in keyboard shortcut handling, bringing it in line with the Qt Widget world. Qt 6, too, has a concept of “accent color” for a few releases. Plasma’s accent color system predates it, though, so there’s some friction between the two. While we don’t have a proper Kirigami Theme API for it yet, at least setting the highlight now also sets the accent color. With that, ink cartridge levels have the appropriate marker colors in printer settings again. Speaking of accent color, I just backported some changes we made for Frameworks 6 to Frameworks 5 to ensure that KF5 apps can interpret Breeze Icons from KF6 properly, notably fixing the black folder icons.

I hope you also got the chance to spend some time with your loved ones. If you enjoyed what the KDE Community brought you this year, please consider donating to our Year End Fundraiser or to me personally, so we can continue rocking in 2025!

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