Schedules/Plasma 6

Plasma 6 is the most recent major version of the Linux desktop environment developed by the KDE community. It is developed, built and shipped atop the foundation of the Qt 6 cross-platform GUI framework.

Further details about the release can be found on the Plasma 6 page, while the list of open Plasma 6 bugs can be found at Bugzilla.

Status

As of March 2024, Plasma 6 is in active development for new and improved features as well as for bug fixes and will remain so until the (as yet unscheduled) initial public release of Plasma 7.

Releases

See also: Plasma 6 release notes

The initial release produced by each development cycle (v6.Χ.0) will be tagged on Thursday a fortnight after the second beta release (four weeks after the first beta). Tarballs will be created from a git snapshot at that time that are made accessible to packagers ahead of the official public release, which will take place on the following Tuesday.

Schedule

The schedule of Plasma 6 releases is subject to change at any time as circumstances dictate. Some prior justifications for release cadence modifications have been:

the quality of a major component determined to be substandard
a delay in the release of a mandatory dependency, such as:
- KDE Frameworks
- Qt 6
to allow time for important bug fixes or security remediations to land

All deadlines are considered deliverable at midday UTC unless otherwise specified, however if you are a developer and need a few more hours (e.g. for an important bugfix), please notify someone from the release team as soon as the need becomes apparent.

For questions about the release process or related issues, visit the #release-team channel on the KDE Matrix server.

Cadence

New releases are initially planned to occur regularly at four (4) month intervals—roughly three (3) times per year. Once a general consensus is formed by the major Linux distributions that package Plasma that a desirable baseline stability has been achieved, a shift to six-month intervals and semi-annual releases will be considered.^[1]

Bug fixes

Releases will each receive six (6) patch releases containing bug fixes, beginning with Plasma 6.3, while versions 6.0–6.2 only received five such updates.

Long-term support releases

There will be no long-term support (LTS) versions of Plasma 6. This decision was recorded in the 2025 Plasma Sprint notes.

Repository and soft feature freezes

Repository and soft feature freezes will occur on the second preceding Thursday before each beta release date. This means that the list of Git repositories that will be included in the release becomes fixed no major features will be merged until the next development cycle commences unless an exception request has been granted.

	Release manager tasks
	Begin writing the Beta release announcement using the list of noteworthy changes See the tables in the § Future releases and § Release history sections for examples.

Betas

Beginning with the Plasma 6.3 development cycle, two public beta versions are published in the final month of the cycle at fortnightly intervals. A hard feature freeze as well as soft UI and string freezes are begun upon the release of the first beta, lasting through the end of the development cycle. This will usually happen on the Thursday following the corresponding KDE Frameworks release, usually on or near the second Friday of a month.

No exceptions will be granted to merge new features during this period, and no UI or string changes are allowed without first securinging an exception. This includes even for relatively inconsequential elements such as the default wallpaper chosen for a release.

Release manager tasks

Bump the milestone to the current version (i.e. the version that the beta leads up to) for bug fixes that failed to merge in time for the previous version and likewise bump the milestone for features that failed to merge during the current cycle to the next future release.
See the tables in the § Future releases and § Release history sections for examples.
Also be sure to review all other milestoned merge requests for the current cycle and add the "Cherry-Pick" label to those that qualify as bug fixes.

Bugfix releases

Bugfix tags/releases for each release are published on subsequent Tuesdays at weekly intervals according to the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8).

Dependencies

Beginning with Plasma 6.3, each release cycle has been color-coded to better distinguish them in public-facing documentation.

Releases should depend on the latest KDE Frameworks available at beta time and an agreed upon version of Qt. Ensure that the KDE Invent Continuous Integration (CI/CD) system is updated to build using said version of Qt soon after the decision is made, involving the KDE Sysadmin team as needed.

Versioned dependencies for Plasma 6 feature releases
Plasma Release	Qt Version^{[dep 1]}	KDE Frameworks Version
6.6	6.10	6.22
6.5	6.9	6.18
6.4	6.8	6.14
6.3	6.7 / 6.8 *	6.10
6.2	6.7	6.5
6.1	6.6 / 6.7 *	6.2
6.0	6.6	6.0^{[dep 2]}
Notes: ↑ Bold type and an asterisk denotes a strong recommendation when multiple versions may be used for compilation. ↑ Includes an additional dependency on KDE Gear v24.02 for libkexiv2

Future releases

Beginning with Plasma 6.3, each release cycle has been color-coded to better distinguish them in public-facing documentation.

Upcoming Plasma 6 releases
Version	Release type	Tarball Date	Release Date	Comments
6.5.5	Bugfix	Tue 2026-01-13
6.5.80 (repo and soft feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Fri 2026-01-02		Dependencies: Qt 6.10 / FW 6.22 Delayed by one day because of New Year ⇒ Features that failed to merge in time for 6.6
6.5.90 (6.6 Beta 1)	Beta	Tue 2026-01-13		Two days earlier than usually ⇒ Noteworthy changes/additions in 6.6
6.5.91 (6.6 Beta 2)	Beta	Tue 2026-01-27		Two days earlier than usually
6.6.0	Public Release	Thu 2026-02-12	Tue 2026-02-17
6.6.1	Bugfix Release	Tue 2026-02-24
6.6.2	Bugfix Release	Tue 2026-03-03
6.5.6	Bugfix	Tue 2026-03-10
6.6.3	Bugfix Release	Tue 2026-03-17
6.6.4	Bugfix Release	Tue 2026-04-07
6.6.5	Bugfix Release	Tue 2026-05-12
6.6.6	Bugfix Release	Tue 2026-07-07		⇒ Bugfixes that failed to merge in time for 6.6

Release history

Beginning with Plasma 6.3, each release cycle has been color-coded to better distinguish them in public-facing documentation.

6.5 series

Plasma 6.5 release series
Plasma version	Type	Release date	Notes
6.4.80 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2025-09-04	⇒ Unmerged features for v6.5
6.4.90 (6.5 Beta 1)	Beta	Thu 2025-09-18	⇒ Noteworthy changes/additions in 6.5
6.4.91 (6.5 Beta 2)	Beta	Thu 2025-10-02
6.5.0	Feature	Tue 2025-10-21	Tarballs created on Thu 2025-10-16.
6.5.1	Bugfix	Tue 2025-10-28
6.5.2	Bugfix	Tue 2025-11-04
6.5.3	Bugfix	Tue 2025-11-18
6.5.4	Bugfix	Tue 2025-12-09

6.4 series

Plasma 6.4 release series
Plasma version	Type	Release date	Notes
6.3.80 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2025-05-01	⇒ Unmerged features for v6.4
6.3.90 (6.4 Beta 1)	Beta	Thu 2025-05-15	⇒ Noteworthy changes/additions in v6.4
6.3.91 (6.4 Beta 2)	Beta	Thu 2025-05-29
6.4.0	Feature	Tue 2025-06-17	Tarballs created on Thu 2025-06-12.
6.4.1	Bugfix	Tue 2025-06-24
6.4.2	Bugfix	Tue 2025-07-01
6.4.3	Bugfix	Tue 2025-07-15
6.4.4	Bugfix	Tue 2025-08-05
6.4.5	Bugfix	Tue 2025-09-09
6.4.6	Bugfix	Tue 2025-11-11	Delayed by one week (w/r/t Fibonacci schedule) to avoid sharing the same release date as v6.5.2. ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.4

6.3 series

Plasma 6.3 release series
Plasma version	Type	Release date	Notes
6.3 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2024-12-26	⇒ Unmerged features for v6.3
6.2.90 (6.3 Beta 1)	Beta	Thu 2025-01-09	⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.2
6.2.91	Beta	Thu 2025-01-23	An update (`v6.2.91.1`) was made available on Fri 2025-01-24
6.3.0	Feature	Tue 2025-02-11	Tarballs created on Thu 2025-02-06.
6.3.1	Bugfix	Tue 2025-02-18
6.3.2	Bugfix	Tue 2025-02-25
6.3.3	Bugfix	Tue 2025-03-11	An update for Kwin (`v6.3.3.1`) was published on Wed 2025-03-12.
6.3.4	Bugfix	Tue 2025-04-01
6.3.5	Bugfix	Tue 2025-05-06
6.3.6	Bugfix	Tue 2025-07-08	Delayed by one week (w/r/t Fibonacci schedule) to avoid sharing the same release date as v6.4.2. ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.3

6.2 series

Plasma 6.2 release series
Plasma version	Type	Release date	Notes
6.2 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2024-08-29
6.1.90 (6.2 Beta)	Beta	Thu 2024-09-12	Plasma 6.2 branched. ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.2 ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.1
6.2.0	Feature	Tue 2024-10-08	Tarballs created on Thu 2024-10-03.
6.2.1	Bugfix	Tue 2024-10-15
6.2.2	Bugfix	Tue 2024-10-22
6.2.3	Bugfix	Tue 2024-11-05
6.2.4	Bugfix	Tue 2024-11-26
6.2.5	Bugfix	Tue 2024-12-31

6.1 series

Plasma 6.1 release series
Plasma version	Type	Release date	Notes
6.0.80 (6.1 Alpha)	Alpha	Thu 2024-05-09
6.0.90 (6.1 Beta)	Beta	Fri 2024-05-24	Plasma 6.1 branched. ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.1 ⇒ Open merge requests for v6.1
6.1.0	Feature	Tue 2024-06-18	Public release of Plasma 6.1.
6.1.1	Bugfix	Tue 2024-06-25
6.1.2	Bugfix	Tue 2024-07-02
6.1.3	Bugfix	Tue 2024-07-16
6.1.4	Bugfix	Tue 2024-08-06
6.1.5	Bugfix	Tue 2024-09-10

6.0 series

Plasma 6.0 release series
Plasma version	Type	Release date	Notes
5.80.0 (6.0 Alpha)	Alpha	Wed 2023-11-08	Release notes Megarelease announcement
5.90.0 (6.0 Beta 1)	Beta	Wed 2023-11-29	Megarelease announcement
5.91.0 (6.0 Beta 2)	Beta	Wed 2023-12-20	Megarelease announcement
5.92.0 (6.0 Release Candidate 1)	Release Candidate	Wed 2024-01-10	Megarelease announcement
5.93.0 (6.0 Release Candidate 2)	Release Candidate	Wed 2024-01-31
6.0	Feature	Wed 2024-02-28	Public release of Plasma 6.0.
6.0.1	Bugfix	Tue 2024-03-05
6.0.2	Bugfix	Tue 2024-03-12
6.0.3	Bugfix	Tue 2024-03-26
6.0.4	Bugfix	Tue 2024-04-16
6.0.5	Bugfix	Tue 2024-05-21

References

↑ Graham, Nathan. May 9, 2023. "Plasma 6 proposal: Change the release schedule" on the plasma-desktop issue tracker, KDE Invent.

External links

The schedule of upcoming Plasma 6 releases is also published at:

[2] Bold type and an asterisk denotes a strong recommendation when multiple versions may be used for compilation.

[3] Includes an additional dependency on KDE Gear v24.02 for libkexiv2

[release_cadence-1] Graham, Nathan. May 9, 2023. "Plasma 6 proposal: Change the release schedule" on the plasma-desktop issue tracker, KDE Invent.

[1]

[dep 1]

[dep 2]