14 DAY TRIAL // The KDE community has just revealed that Plasma 5.4.2 has been released and it packs quite a few improvements. This new version was actually introduced earlier in a Kubuntu announcement that mentioned the fact that it was integrated.
The Plasma desktop is the first thing you see when you open an operating system that's using KDE, so any change that's made there will probably be noticed by users. This is why Plasma updates usually steal the show, even if KDE Frameworks or KDE Applications are just as important. This latest version is just for maintenance, but developers have added a ton of new icons, which is always a good thing.
The designers from the Visual Design Group said a while back that they were finally finished with the new icons for KDE Plasma, but we were waiting to see their work land in a much bigger version. From the looks of it, they didn't want to wait anymore, and they've set them loose into the wild.
KDE Plasma 5.4.2 is already available
The Kubuntu devs have been quick to implement the latest version of KDE Plasma in the 15.10 branch of the operating system, and users will get access to it when the new OS launches on October 22. It's also quite likely that any subsequent versions of KDE Plasma will be backported to Kubuntu 15.10.
"Today KDE releases a bugfix update to Plasma 5, versioned 5.4.2. Plasma 5.4 was released in August with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience. This release adds a month's worth of new translations and fixes from KDE's contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important," write the developers in the announcement.
If you don't want to wait until the new version reaches your repository, you can download the KDE Plasma sources from Softpedia.