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Diving into Plasma Bigscreen
Quoting: Diving into Plasma Bigscreen | espidev —
I have been a long time Plasma Mobile contributor, but I have always had a keen interest in having Linux on my TV! I have noticed that in the past few months, the Plasma Bigscreen project has had some interest from people wanting to contribute, but there have not been any active KDE developers working on the project. Since I have some time off school (having just graduated university), I decided to take a swing at improving the project for a week.
OMG Ubuntu:
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Plasma Bigscreen, KDE's TV Interface, is Back on the Air - OMG! Ubuntu
Plasma Bigscreen is a shell designed for use on televisions and other large displays, using a remote for navigation rather than mouse or keyboard. It’s been around for a while (I wrote about it in 2022) but if I’m frank—I’m not, I’m Joey—I’d forgotten it existed.
KDE developer Espi, a regular contributor to Plasma Mobile, had not.
But he found the project in a state of limbo. Though ported to Plasma 6, Bigscreen had seen scant development in the years since and had been dropped from the main Plasma release cycle and from the package repos of most Linux distributions.
In a detailed blog post Espi says that upon seeing this dearth in development effort he “sensed an opportunity” to do something about it, and decided to “take a swing at improving the project” over the course of a week.
And its new programming makes for some must-see TV.
Neowin:
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KDE's Android TV alternative, Plasma Bigscreen, rises from the dead with a better UI
Another KDE project, Plasma Bigscreen, is back from the dead with a much better UI spread across the entire shell.
It's FOSS News:
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Linux on TV? Plasma Bigscreen Gets Some Much-Needed TLC
Plasma Bigscreen is KDE's open source TV ecosystem that once had a lot of potential but slowly fell off the radar.
Originally launched in March 2020, it aimed to turn regular television sets into smart, Linux-powered devices with a clean, remote-friendly interface. But over time, development slowed, and it quietly slipped out of most Linux distribution repositories.
Thankfully, it is making a much-needed comeback thanks to the work of Plasma Mobile contributor espidev (Devin Lin).
Linuxiac:
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Plasma Bigscreen Gets a Fresh Boost from the Community
Plasma Bigscreen is back in action. After a period of quiet development, the KDE-based TV interface has recently seen updates thanks to a renewed push from contributors stepping up to revive the project.
Originally launched around 2020, Plasma Bigscreen aimed to provide a comfortable TV interface, complete with navigation optimized for remotes and controllers. Initially, it was closely tied to Mycroft, an open-source virtual assistant, but the project lost momentum after early 2023, when Mycroft ceased development, and Plasma transitioned from version 5 to version 6.
Fast forward to the past few months, Plasma Bigscreen has seen fresh activity, notably sparked by a KDE contributor who decided to spend a week rejuvenating the project. Initial housekeeping tasks quickly led to more substantial changes, significantly enhancing both the UI and backend.
Linux Magazine:
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Plasma Bigscreen Returns » Linux Magazine
Plasma Bigscreen was a great idea when it was in active development, and it's still a great idea today. This project aims to create a Plasma shell suitable for large-screen devices (TVs) that is navigated via remote (instead of keyboard and mouse). Bigscreen included a TV-friendly launcher for apps and even included mini apps, known as Mycroft Skills.
The project showed considerable potential, but for whatever reason, activity and interest fizzled. Recently, Canadian developer Espi decided it was time to pick up the project’s mantle and give it new life. In short shrift, Espi went to work, making some necessary changes to the user interface, home screen, the Settings app, and more.
In a recent blog post, Espi said, "I started with some housekeeping work with the repository. I added a README and a REUSE license checker to the CI. I then ported the QML library to be a declarative plugin and removed a bunch of abandoned code folders that were not used anywhere in the codebase."