KDE released Plasma 6.8 on October 14, the 30th anniversary of the KDE project, and marked the date by retiring the past: Plasma no longer has an X11 session. Wayland is now the only way to run the Plasma desktop.

What “Wayland-only” means

• You cannot log into a Plasma X11 session on 6.8; there is no fallback in the login screen
• X11 applications keep working through XWayland inside the Wayland session
• KDE applications themselves still support X11, so they keep running on other X11 desktops
• A few X11-specific tools, such as some older screen recorders, will not work, and window shading is gone

If you depend on something that only works under X11, stay on your distribution’s Plasma 6.7 or the 6.6 LTS branch for now. Our Wayland vs X11 explainer covers the common sticking points, from screen sharing to clipboard tools.

New in 6.8

• Union theming reaches beta. It is not the default; install the Union package and pick “Breeze (Union)” under Application Style
• Kup, KDE’s backup tool, now ships as part of Plasma
• Triple buffering is on by default for NVIDIA GPUs in KWin
• HDR handles ICC profiles better and supports the HLG transfer function
• Spectacle can record system audio and the microphone together
• The built-in remote desktop server copes better with slow networks, can present a virtual display sized to the client, and syncs the clipboard both ways
• System Monitor can pin processes to CPU cores and shows VRAM as a percentage
• Window rules can add shadows and rounded corners to apps that draw their own decorations, with a default rule for Steam
• A dwell-click accessibility feature and a new kscreenctl command-line display tool

When you get it

Rolling distributions such as Arch, openSUSE Tumbleweed, and KDE neon get it first. Plasma 6.8 will receive six bugfix releases, and Plasma 6.9 is planned for late February 2027.