6 ms·

This week in KDE: Converging towards something special

88 points by jrepinc 7y ago

hedora 7y ago
I’m happy to see https://kde.org/hardware https://kde.org/hardware exists, but why do all of the pre-loaded laptops come with 1080p screens? This includes the $2395 model, so it can’t be cost. I haven’t had a daily driver screen with resolution that low since 1998. For almost all of those years, that was with desktop Linux / Unix. The problem clearly isn’t software support.
- greggyb 7y ago
  Not trying to yuck your yum, just offer another perspective. I see no benefit from resolutions >1080p for common laptop sizes. I think 17" is the transition point where 1440p even begins to make sense. The majority of people I've actually discussed this with (note, N=V.Small) tend to agree. I say this having had multiple laptops <=15.3" with >1080p and really not seeing any benefit. Those have all been provided by employers. I really cannot justify paying for it myself. What is the benefit you see from higher resolutions on laptops? Am I just missing something?
  - JoshTriplett 7y ago
    I use an X1 Carbon with a 14" 1440p screen. It provides sharper text, better rendering of high-res photos, more working area, and the ability to run a 1080p VM or play a 1080p video in a window or browser tab. I absolutely consider this screen worth the premium.
  - wwright 7y ago
    IME, it’s not 1440p that is interesting, but skipping all the way to 1600p or 2160p. This lets you use 2x scaling factor and keep the same ergonomics of 800p or 1080p, but has a few other big advantages: - “Retina” resolution with significantly less artifacting due to density (your eye doesn’t see “pixels” individually) - Ability to tweak resolution scaling without paying a huge cost in visual artifacts (on a MacBook, the native resolution is often 1600p with virtual 800p, but you can scale to 960p, 1080p, or even down below 800p if you want, and they all look pretty good)
  - IshKebab 7y ago
    You can easily see the difference between 1080p and higher resolutions even on 13 inch laptops.
smashingfiasco 7y ago
This is all awesome stuff. Slick wallpaper too.
brylie 7y ago
I've been using Kubuntu at home and work for over four years now, and it has been a stable and productive experience. The only significant difficulty I can recall was immediately after upgrading from 19.04 to 19.10, where GRUB was having difficulty with a Secure Boot extension. I should have waited for the 19.10.1 release, but the issue was relatively easy to fix by commenting out a line in GRUB config. I really believe that Ubuntu and Kubuntu are reaching a high level of simplicity and stability where they can be adopted or at least tried out by people who are more casual computer users (or who just want to stay productive.)
- algorithmmonkey 7y ago
  A casual computer user is going to figure out they need to comment out a GRUB line? Nope. That is an experience that will push them right back to OSX or Windows.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
    Darwin and NT x.0 releases have the same tenancy to break, the same advice to wait for x.0.1, and less ability to fix it yourself.
  - pkulak 7y ago
    These things kinda happen everywhere though: https://www.techradar.com/how-to/macos-1014-mojave-problems-how-to-fix-them https://www.techradar.com/how-to/macos-1014-mojave-problems-...
  - simion314 7y ago
    Casual users don't upgrade 2 times a year. A casual user might not even know that those things are called "windows" or that you can maximize them or that most application have settings where you can change the behavior you dislike. Causal users just use the system how it is, I sometimes find them suffering trough a complicated workflow because they did not consider to even ask themselves "maybe this can be improved, maybe there is a setting to do this or a shortcut or some better way"
blinkingled 7y ago
Anyone thinking about using Linux on their desktop or laptop should give latest KDE a try. Rolling release distros like Arch or OpenSuse Tumbleweed should be good options. Reasons you may like it - no new paradigm bs to learn just your plain old customizable desktop, it’s stable(they’re fixing stuff like crazy every week), if you don’t like something they are making contributing to / building KDE components very easy, HiDPI support is about the best - partial scaling, per desktop DPI works great at least on X11 and finally they are making running GTK apps a great experience with Plasma 5.18.
- azangru 7y ago
  > Rolling release distros like Arch or OpenSuse Tumbleweed should be good options. KDE Neon is perfect. It has the simplicity, familiarity, and stability of the latest Ubuntu LTS, on which it is based, combined with the evergreen KDE desktop.
- marcosdumay 7y ago
  > no new paradigm bs to learn just your plain old customizable desktop Oh, there are plenty of new paradigms you can configure into your KDE desktop. It's a good thing that most distros come with a same-old behavior, but if you want, you can change it.
- brabel 7y ago
  After years using Ubuntu 16 I upgraded to 19 as I heard it was really good and fast. It wasn't either... lots of things just didn't work anymore, like function keys (switching languages takes like 5 seconds and it's a known issue they just won't fix) and shortcuts changing or just not working anymore in several applications I use. So I decided to install KDE Plasma, and I couldn't be happier! Everything works exactly as I expected. And it's a beautiful desktop environment, especially after I installed a dark theme. I also use a Mac, and now I honestly don't know which desktop experience is better! Which is a huge compliment to Plasma, as MacOS is actually quite polished. I can't recommend Plasma enough to anyone who wants Linux on desktop/laptop.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
ssivark 7y ago
I’m most excited KDE/Plasma on the mobile. Once people get Linux working smoothly on the Pinephone, etc I think the Plasma interface could be a sane default that’s already available.
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
  I initially assumed the "converging" in the title meant they'd be talking about that:) It is a bright near future now
solarkraft 7y ago
I love KDE and use it daily on my tablet, but it's still pretty unusable without a mouse :(
ponsin 7y ago
> In KDE apps that allow you to override the systemwide color scheme, there’s now an option to revert back to using the systemwide color scheme Is there a way of forcing gtk apps to use the qt file picker?
- noahadavis 7y ago
  It's not related to the part of the article you quoted, in case you don't know. Generally, you can't use anything other than the GTK file picker in GTK apps. If you use flatpaks with XDG portal support or the app implements XDG portal support (e.g., Firefox), then they can use the KDE file picker.
pseudoroot 7y ago
I'm using KDE on Arch Linux for about a month now (tried KDE for the first time) and I'm loving it. Will start contributing to KDE soon :)
black_puppydog 7y ago
On a tangent: the telegram desktop client is IMHO one of the best examples of how (Linux) desktop apps should be: compiled, fast, and (at least compared to competitors like slack) light. Far from perfect for sure, but compared to any cheap electron app it's a pleasure to use. And yes I know about the security concerns. I'd really love to see similar apps for other messengers.
aitchnyu 7y ago
I wish there were a updated rigorous comparison of KDE vs Gnome. I switch every few ubuntu versions and notice niggles. For example, ctrl alt L doesn't lock screen in Gnome, Gnome has a pointless background you must drag away to reveal the login screen.
- Cogitri 7y ago
  FWIW Ctrl+L locks the screen in GNOME and you can press Enter instead of dragging up the lockscreen.

88 points by jrepinc 7y ago

I’m happy to see https://kde.org/hardware https://kde.org/hardware exists, but why do all of the pre-loaded laptops come with 1080p screens? This includes the $2395 model, so it can’t be cost. I haven’t had a daily driver screen with resolution that low since 1998. For almost all of those years, that was with desktop Linux / Unix. The problem clearly isn’t software support.

greggyb 7y ago
Not trying to yuck your yum, just offer another perspective. I see no benefit from resolutions >1080p for common laptop sizes. I think 17" is the transition point where 1440p even begins to make sense. The majority of people I've actually discussed this with (note, N=V.Small) tend to agree. I say this having had multiple laptops <=15.3" with >1080p and really not seeing any benefit. Those have all been provided by employers. I really cannot justify paying for it myself. What is the benefit you see from higher resolutions on laptops? Am I just missing something?
- JoshTriplett 7y ago
  I use an X1 Carbon with a 14" 1440p screen. It provides sharper text, better rendering of high-res photos, more working area, and the ability to run a 1080p VM or play a 1080p video in a window or browser tab. I absolutely consider this screen worth the premium.
- wwright 7y ago
  IME, it’s not 1440p that is interesting, but skipping all the way to 1600p or 2160p. This lets you use 2x scaling factor and keep the same ergonomics of 800p or 1080p, but has a few other big advantages: - “Retina” resolution with significantly less artifacting due to density (your eye doesn’t see “pixels” individually) - Ability to tweak resolution scaling without paying a huge cost in visual artifacts (on a MacBook, the native resolution is often 1600p with virtual 800p, but you can scale to 960p, 1080p, or even down below 800p if you want, and they all look pretty good)
- IshKebab 7y ago
  You can easily see the difference between 1080p and higher resolutions even on 13 inch laptops.

smashingfiasco 7y ago

This is all awesome stuff. Slick wallpaper too.

brylie 7y ago

I've been using Kubuntu at home and work for over four years now, and it has been a stable and productive experience. The only significant difficulty I can recall was immediately after upgrading from 19.04 to 19.10, where GRUB was having difficulty with a Secure Boot extension. I should have waited for the 19.10.1 release, but the issue was relatively easy to fix by commenting out a line in GRUB config. I really believe that Ubuntu and Kubuntu are reaching a high level of simplicity and stability where they can be adopted or at least tried out by people who are more casual computer users (or who just want to stay productive.)

algorithmmonkey 7y ago
A casual computer user is going to figure out they need to comment out a GRUB line? Nope. That is an experience that will push them right back to OSX or Windows.
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
  Darwin and NT x.0 releases have the same tenancy to break, the same advice to wait for x.0.1, and less ability to fix it yourself.
- pkulak 7y ago
  These things kinda happen everywhere though: https://www.techradar.com/how-to/macos-1014-mojave-problems-how-to-fix-them https://www.techradar.com/how-to/macos-1014-mojave-problems-...
- simion314 7y ago
  Casual users don't upgrade 2 times a year. A casual user might not even know that those things are called "windows" or that you can maximize them or that most application have settings where you can change the behavior you dislike. Causal users just use the system how it is, I sometimes find them suffering trough a complicated workflow because they did not consider to even ask themselves "maybe this can be improved, maybe there is a setting to do this or a shortcut or some better way"

blinkingled 7y ago

Anyone thinking about using Linux on their desktop or laptop should give latest KDE a try. Rolling release distros like Arch or OpenSuse Tumbleweed should be good options. Reasons you may like it - no new paradigm bs to learn just your plain old customizable desktop, it’s stable(they’re fixing stuff like crazy every week), if you don’t like something they are making contributing to / building KDE components very easy, HiDPI support is about the best - partial scaling, per desktop DPI works great at least on X11 and finally they are making running GTK apps a great experience with Plasma 5.18.

azangru 7y ago
> Rolling release distros like Arch or OpenSuse Tumbleweed should be good options. KDE Neon is perfect. It has the simplicity, familiarity, and stability of the latest Ubuntu LTS, on which it is based, combined with the evergreen KDE desktop.
marcosdumay 7y ago
> no new paradigm bs to learn just your plain old customizable desktop Oh, there are plenty of new paradigms you can configure into your KDE desktop. It's a good thing that most distros come with a same-old behavior, but if you want, you can change it.
brabel 7y ago
After years using Ubuntu 16 I upgraded to 19 as I heard it was really good and fast. It wasn't either... lots of things just didn't work anymore, like function keys (switching languages takes like 5 seconds and it's a known issue they just won't fix) and shortcuts changing or just not working anymore in several applications I use. So I decided to install KDE Plasma, and I couldn't be happier! Everything works exactly as I expected. And it's a beautiful desktop environment, especially after I installed a dark theme. I also use a Mac, and now I honestly don't know which desktop experience is better! Which is a huge compliment to Plasma, as MacOS is actually quite polished. I can't recommend Plasma enough to anyone who wants Linux on desktop/laptop.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

ssivark 7y ago

I’m most excited KDE/Plasma on the mobile. Once people get Linux working smoothly on the Pinephone, etc I think the Plasma interface could be a sane default that’s already available.

yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
I initially assumed the "converging" in the title meant they'd be talking about that:) It is a bright near future now

solarkraft 7y ago

I love KDE and use it daily on my tablet, but it's still pretty unusable without a mouse :(

ponsin 7y ago

> In KDE apps that allow you to override the systemwide color scheme, there’s now an option to revert back to using the systemwide color scheme Is there a way of forcing gtk apps to use the qt file picker?

noahadavis 7y ago
It's not related to the part of the article you quoted, in case you don't know. Generally, you can't use anything other than the GTK file picker in GTK apps. If you use flatpaks with XDG portal support or the app implements XDG portal support (e.g., Firefox), then they can use the KDE file picker.

pseudoroot 7y ago

I'm using KDE on Arch Linux for about a month now (tried KDE for the first time) and I'm loving it. Will start contributing to KDE soon :)

black_puppydog 7y ago

On a tangent: the telegram desktop client is IMHO one of the best examples of how (Linux) desktop apps should be: compiled, fast, and (at least compared to competitors like slack) light. Far from perfect for sure, but compared to any cheap electron app it's a pleasure to use. And yes I know about the security concerns. I'd really love to see similar apps for other messengers.

aitchnyu 7y ago

I wish there were a updated rigorous comparison of KDE vs Gnome. I switch every few ubuntu versions and notice niggles. For example, ctrl alt L doesn't lock screen in Gnome, Gnome has a pointless background you must drag away to reveal the login screen.

Cogitri 7y ago
FWIW Ctrl+L locks the screen in GNOME and you can press Enter instead of dragging up the lockscreen.