14 DAY TRIAL // The KDE Project announced the release and general availability of the ninth maintenance update to the long-term supported KDE Plasma 5.12 desktop environment series.
Released more than one and a half years ago, the KDE Plasma 5.12 series is currently the latest LTS (Long Term Support) version of the acclaimed desktop environment for Linux-based operating systems. KDE Plasma 5.12.9 LTS is here six months after the KDE Plasma 5.12.8 LTS release as yet another maintenance update that addresses a total of 24 issues and updates translations.
"Today KDE releases a bugfix update to KDE Plasma 5, versioned 5.12.9. Plasma 5.12 was released in February 2018 with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience. This release adds six months' worth of new translations and fixes from KDE's contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important," reads the release announcement.
Noteworthy changes in the KDE Plasma 5.12.9 LTS update include the ability for the Trashcan applet to use the same shadow settings as the desktop icons, improved crispness of labels in the Folder View, properly translated media controls in the lock screen, improved dictionary runner to find definitions, and support for properly restoring the current desktop from session.
Future releases will be made only if they're required
KDE Plasma 5.12.9 LTS appears to be the last scheduled maintenance update for the long-term supported KDE Plasma 5.12 desktop environment series as the KDE Project announced that future point releases will be made only if they're required to patch critical security vulnerabilities or to include important bug fixes that would make the Plasma desktop to crash.
If you're using the KDE Plasma 5.12 LTS desktop environment, we recommend updating to the KDE Plasma 5.12.9 LTS point release as soon as the packages land in the stable software repositories of your favorite GNU/Linux distribution. The next LTS (Long Term Support) series of the KDE Plasma desktop environment will be KDE Plasma 5.18, which is slated for release in mid-February 2020.