10月14日，正值软件开发组织KDE成立30周年之际，该组织发布了Plasma 6.8版本，同时发布了一部纪念影片，并宣布不再为Plasma提供原生的X11会话支持。KDE方面将此次更新的Plasma 6.8称为“30周年纪念版”，称其旨在为Plasma的未来发展奠定基础。虽然如此，基于XWayland兼容层，那些基于旧版X11协议的应用程序依然能够正常运行；此外，各类KDE应用程序在其他桌面环境中也依然可兼容X11协议。
Marking the 30th anniversary of software developer KDE on October 14, the company released Plasma 6.8, debuted a movie, and retired Plasma's native X11 session support. The announcement from KDE dubs the new Plasma 6.8 as the "30th Anniversary Edition" and describes the update as preparing Plasma for the future. Legacy X11 applications will still function via the XWayland compatibility layer, and KDE applications will also continue supporting X11 under other desktop environments.
历经42年的发展，X11协议正逐渐失去重要的桌面环境支持。Plasma今后将全面转向Wayland系统，不再提供启动新X11会话的功能。目前选择继续使用Plasma 6.7版本的用户仍可维持现有的X11会话。这一举措其实早有预期：GNOME也计划于2025年起默认不再提供X11会话支持。
After 42 years in service, the X11 protocol is losing another major desktop environment. Plasma will fully adopt the Wayland system and put support for starting new X11 sessions in Plasma to bed. Users opting to stay on Plasma 6.7 will keep their existing sessions for now. The move was expected, with GNOME officially dropping X11 sessions by default in 2025.
Plasma 6.8版本带来了诸多改进：它进一步提升了第三方应用程序添加窗口装饰功能的能力，比如为窗口添加阴影效果或圆角设计；同时优化了Union主题系统，使其更易用。其他值得注意的更新还包括：默认开启Nvidia显卡的三重缓冲功能、将KDE自家的备份工具Kup整合进Plasma系统，以及新增名为kscreenctl的命令行工具，方便高级用户灵活调整显示设置。
The new Plasma 6.8 brings many improvements, including increased support for adding window decorations (like shadows and rounded corners) to third-party apps, and a more streamlined Union theming system. Other notable additions include Nvidia triple buffering being enabled by default, Kup backup integration (KDE's backup utility—now integrated into Plasma), and kscreenctl, a command-line utility that allows power users to adjust display configurations.