04-05-2025
KDE Ends Long-Term Support for Plasma Desktop
KDE has officially ceased the long-term support releases of its Plasma desktop environment, marking a significant shift in its development strategy. The decision, confirmed during a developer sprint in Graz, Austria, reflects a move towards more frequent and uniformly supported releases, aligning with the project's evolving priorities and resource allocation.
The discontinuation of LTS versions stems from multiple factors. Developers cited inconsistent expectations from users, challenges in maintaining older codebases, and the complexities of backporting fixes without introducing new issues. Nate Graham, a prominent KDE contributor, noted that LTS releases often involved backporting fixes 'usually without even testing them,' leading to potential stability concerns.
Instead of LTS versions, KDE plans to extend the support period for regular Plasma releases. This approach includes adding an extra bug-fix release, increasing the number from five to six per cycle. The aim is to provide a more stable and reliable experience for users without the overhead of maintaining separate LTS branches.
KDE is considering reducing the number of Plasma releases per year from three to two. This change would allow better alignment with major Linux distributions like Kubuntu and Fedora, facilitating smoother integration and testing processes.
The decision also addresses the issue of users reporting bugs from LTS distributions to KDE developers, even when those issues stemmed from the distributions' packaging. By focusing on a unified release strategy, KDE aims to streamline support and development efforts.
