History
Name | Version | Details |
KWM | 1.0 | |
KWin | 2.0 | Extended support for themes and window effects. |
3.0 | Improved support for the extended ICCCM standards from freedesktop.org. |
4.0 | Compositing support and Compiz-like effects. |
4.4 (02/2010) | Maximizing and tiling by snapping to the screen-edges, grouping and tabbing.[5] |
4.5 | Tiling.[6] (removed in version 4.10) |
4.9 | Incompatible API change.[7] |
4.11 | Last release based on KDE Platform 4. Experimental Wayland support.[8] |
5.0 | First release based on KDE Frameworks 5 and Qt 5.[9] |
5.12 | Released February 2018, KWin/X11 got feature frozen, meaning no new X11 specific features will be added. Martin Flöser stated that new features are easy and straight forward with the Wayland back-end, but require considerably more development to add the same feature to the X11 back-end.[10] |
Look and feel
There are many window decorations for KWin, including the current default Breeze (shown below), the previous default Oxygen, Microsoft Windows-like Redmond, and Keramik.
Compositing
Currently available compositing backends include XRender, OpenGL 1.2, OpenGL 2.0, OpenGL 3.1[11] and OpenGL ES 2.0.[12]
Included effects
Screenshot showing the cover switch effect in KWin for KDE 4.1.
As of KDE 4.3 the following effects are built-in:
Accessibility
Name | Description |
Invert | Inverts the color of the desktop and windows |
Looking glass | A screen magnifier that looks like a fish eye lens |
Magnifier | Magnify the section of the screen that is near the mouse cursor |
Sharpen | Makes the entire desktop look sharper |
Snap Helper | Helps locate the centre of the screen when moving a window |
Track mouse | Display a mouse cursor locating effect when activated |
Zoom | Magnify the entire desktop |
Appearance
Name | Description |
Explosion | Make windows explode when they are closed |
Fade | Make windows smoothly fade in and out when they are shown or hidden |
Fade Desktop | Fade between virtual desktops when switching between them |
Fall apart | Close windows fall into pieces |
Highlight Windows | Highlight the appropriate window when hovering over taskbar entries |
Login | Smoothly fade to the desktop when logging in |
Logout | Desaturate the desktop when displaying the logout dialog |
Magic Lamp | Simulate a magic lamp when minimizing windows |
Minimize animation | Animate the minimizing of windows |
Mouse mark | Allows you to draw lines over your desktop |
Scale In | Animate the appearance of windows |
Sheet | Make modal dialogues smoothly fly in and out when shown or hidden |
Slide | Slide windows across the screen when switching virtual desktops |
Sliding popups | Sliding animation for Plasma Popups |
Taskbar Thumbnails | Display window thumbnails when hovering over taskbar entries |
Thumbnail aside | Display window thumbnails on the edge of the screen |
Translucency | Make windows translucent under different conditions |
Wobbly windows | Deform windows while they are moving |
Candy
Name | Description |
Snow | Simulate snow falling on the desktop |
Focus
Name | Description |
Dialog parent | Darkens the parent windows of the currently active dialogue |
Dim Inactive | Darken inactive windows |
Dim screen for administrator mode | Darkens the entire screen when requesting root privileges |
Slide Back | Slide back windows losing focus |
Name | Description |
Show FPS | Show kwins performance in the corner of the screen |
Show Paint | Highlight areas of the desktop that have been recently updated |
Window management
Name | Description |
Box switch | Display thumbnails of windows in the alt+tab window switcher |
Cover switch | Apply a Cover Flow-like effect to the alt+tab window switcher |
Desktop cube | Present each desktop as the facet of a cube |
Desktop Cube Animation | Animate desktop switching with a cube |
Desktop grid | Zoom out so all desktops are displayed side-by-side in a grid |
Flip switch | Flip through windows that are in a stack for the alt+tab window switcher |
Present windows | Zoom out until open windows can be displayed side by side |
Resize Window | Effect to outline geometry while resizing a window |
References
- ↑ "Release Announcements: Plasma 5.14.0". KDE.
- ↑ "Plasma 5.12 LTS Beta Makes Your Desktop Smoother and Speedier". KDE.
- ↑ "KDE Ships Plasma 5.5 Release". KDE. 2015-12-08.
- ↑ "Development/Tutorials/KWin/Scripting". Retrieved June 19, 2013.
- ↑ "KDE SC 4.4.0 Caikaku Release Announcement". Retrieved June 13, 2010.
- ↑ "KDE Software Compilation 4.5 Beta2 Release Announcement". Retrieved June 13, 2010.
- ↑ "Scripting Update Notes". March 6, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
- ↑ "Plasma Workspaces 4.11 Continues to Refine User Experience". August 14, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
- ↑ "New Plasma brings a cleaner interface on top of a new graphics stack". July 15, 2014. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
- ↑ "KWin/X11 is feature frozen". 2018-01-16.
- ↑ Martin Gräßlin (June 18, 2013). "What we did in KWin 4.11".
- ↑ Martin Gräßlin (February 18, 2011). "KWin Embraces New Platforms with OpenGL ES 2.0 Support". KDE. KDE.NEWS. Retrieved April 9, 2011.