Thanks to Michael Larabel from Phoronix, who spotted this earlier, it would appear that KDE published a preliminary release schedule for its upcoming KDE Applications 16.04 software suite for the KDE Plasma 5.6 desktop environment.
The current stable branch of the KDE Applications suite is 15.12, and in approximately five days from today, on February 16, 2016, it will receive its second maintenance release, KDE Applications 15.12.2.
Then, KDE will make one more update to its KDE Apps software suite, the KDE Applications 15.12.3 release, which should see the light of day on March 15, 2016. After that, they will begin work on the next major version, KDE Applications 16.04.
According to the release schedule, KDE Applications 16.04 will enter dependency freeze the next day after KDE Applications 15.12.3 gets out, on March 16, and it will be available for Beta testing on March 23, 2016, as build 16.03.80.
KDE Applications 16.04 lands for existing KDE Plasma 5.6 users on April 20, 2016
The RC (Release Candidate) version is currently set to arrive on April 6, dubbed build 16.03.90, and the final release of KDE Applications 16.04 should hit the streets on April 20, 2016.
As usual with any new branch of the KDE Applications software suite, there will be three maintenance releases, KDE Applications 16.04.1 on May 10, KDE Applications 16.04.2 on June 14, and KDE Applications 16.04.3 on July 12, 2016.
On the other hand, we reported a while ago that the KDE Plasma 5.6 desktop environment is currently in development and will enter repository freeze on February 18, 2016. Then, the first Beta build will be available to testers worldwide on March 3.
The final release of KDE Plasma 5.6 will see the light of day on March 22, 2016, and if you're curious to know that features it brings, you should read our initial report. In the meantime, the release schedule for KDE Frameworks 5 remains unchanged, with a new build out the door in the first saturday of every month.
