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KDE celebrates the 29th birthday and kicks off the yearly fundraiser
- robertlagrant 1y agoI've installed KDE on my Ubuntu system instead of Gnome and it is pretty nice. It feels slightly more integrated, so lots of regular UI actions feel slicker and simpler.
- noisy_boy 1y agoIt feels good to donate to a high quality sane default that has been serving my needs as a daily driver. The more I see the mistreatment of Windows users by Microsoft, the more I am grateful for Linux and KDE.
- Antifa4HN 1y ago[flagged]
- rs_rs_rs_rs_rs 1y agoAmazing DE, daily driving KDE(Kubuntu) on my desktop for couple of years now and I can't imagine anything better.
- shoobiedoo 1y agoI've been running KDE plasma with wayland in arch for over a year now, it's been an absolute dream come true. Everything just works. Gaming with Proton, dual monitors with different resolutions, Japanese input, I only need to hop onto windows when my son wants to play Minecraft.
- moxvallix 1y agoYou might not need to even for Minecraft, have you seen this project? https://flathub.org/en/apps/io.mrarm.mcpelauncher https://flathub.org/en/apps/io.mrarm.mcpelauncher (Android version of Bedrock made to work on Linux)
- hurricanepootis 1y agoI maintain the AUR package for this. `mcpelauncher-linux` and `mcpelauncher-ui`. If you just do a simple `paru -S mcpelauncher-ui`, it should build just fine.
- shoobiedoo 1y agoVery cool. Thank you very much
- shoobiedoo 1y agoI haven't seen this! Thank you
- Kenji 1y agoHuh, why? Minecraft is Java. It works perfectly fine on Linux, both the server and the client.
- wiether 1y agoSince MS bought it, aren't there two versions, a legacy one called "Java" and the newer one from MS, probably not in Java and with all the cool kids (multiplayer mode) on it?
- c0wb0yc0d3r 1y agoThere is Java and bedrock. Everyone I know has Java. There are other differences, but multiplayer is available in both.
- wiether 1y agoYou're right, my bad! I remembered some friends complaining about the fact the since MS, they couldn't play as they did before because of two versions co-existing
- kelvinjps10 1y agoThe difference it's that bedrock allows you to play with the people that use Minecraft on consoles or mobile and Java doesn't
- array_key_first 1y agoAnother key difference is that Java has mods and shaders, bedrock doesn't. Mojang is trying to fix this with resource and data packs, but even still, those are not full powered mods.
- cql 1y agoTo add to the solutions proposed you could also use a mod called geysermc to make the server compatible with both Java and bedrock.
- Aerbil313 1y agoPrismlauncher is great for playing Minecraft. nix-shell -p prismlauncher
- LtWorf 1y agoLet me just say that luanti/minetest is a serious contender at this point.
- ak_111 1y agoI am used to having "Emacs key-bindings" on both gnome and Mac (so that for example ctrl-a will always go to the beginning of a textbox no matter the application, such as chrome). For some strange reason this seems to be very hard thing to set up on KDE or am I missing something?
- pedrogpimenta 1y agoI'm not sure this is the reason or a big reason, but I think this is very difficult to do in Linux, sadly. What makes Linux great is also its biggest handicap, in my opinion, when it comes to User Experience: the fragmentation of UI frameworks and libraries. I imagine having this control between Qt, GTK and other UI libraries and electron-type-apps os difficult if not impossible.
- ak_111 1y agoIt works perfectly on Gnome (ubuntu) though. There is simple toggle you have to do in one of the standard control panels as well. I am surprised this issue is not gaining traction with the KDE crowd, as I imagine a substantial part of the userbase are emacs users and used to emacs keybindings.
- asimovDev 1y agoomg I found my people. Ctrl+A and Ctrl+E are so engraved into my muscle memory that it always takes a moment to readjust when using non Mac OSes. I didn't know Gnome also uses those as a KDE fan
- torben-friis 1y agoThere are projects like kinto that achieve very good results at making Linux behave like macOS on shortcuts (cmd instead of ctrl only when it makes sense, etc). I’m not sure how they do it, i suspect it’s mostly a manual grind for configuring the most common shortcuts and apps, but there might be some idea there that can be reused for the eMacs setup.
- tmtvl 1y agoOn paper KDE's system is more elegant and practical than GNOME's. In practice the keyboard shortcut management via exporting and importing is rather unwieldy. Then again, if you want to go deep into setting up your shortcuts to something properly usable, it's a fair bit more convenient with KDE, where all your shortcuts are in a single place, than with GNOME, where you have to look in all the gconf categories and it's a right pain to find conflicts.
- wkat4242 1y agoI donate monthly anyway. KDE is amazing and I love the extensive options in this day and age of horrible opinionated design. I just wish they weren't in such a hurry to deprecate X11 because Wayland isn't quite there yet on my OS (FreeBSD)
- munchlax 1y agoHow's the gpu driver? Which chip would you recommend for the beast?
- wkat4242 1y agoI use the generic intel drm-kmod driver, it works well and supports acceleration though you do need some additional stuff like libvaapi. Not sure what hardware is best. I just use it on a NUC so I didn't have any choice in hardware options.
- jlpcsl 1y agoStarted regularly donating last year and it is well worth it. KDE Plasma is the best desktop in existance and they also make one of the best FOSS applications.
- PapstJL4U 1y agoThanks KDE - I always liked the Windows-like design (that's what I would call it coming from Windows like many people). Instead of hiding "power-user" features so well you have to google them to find them, I can interact with the OS on gui or command-line level - really depending mostly on my mood. Although KDEConnect to easily connect a Windows PC, a Linux laptop and an android phone to share files and control my pc while watching a movie was the "step-up". When they are in the same network and approved, they simply connect.
- fragmede 1y agoand iPhone!
- setopt 1y agoI used Linux for a long time (since ~2002), but for the past years I've been daily-driving a MacBook. I'm now switching back, and will likely go with either Gnome or KDE. I've used XFCE, i3wm, etc. for years before – and briefly tried Sway too before I switched to Mac – but from what I've read it sounds like the "big" DEs make life easier post-Wayland. Anyone want to share why you currently choose KDE over Gnome?
- voidon 1y agoI guess because the defaults suits me better, and the configurability is exposed well and I don't have to load special tools or commands to change stuff. I used to run complicated setups back in the days, with black/flux/openbox or even enlightenment (16), but now I don't really have the interest or time for tweaking DEs.
- jlpcsl 1y agoI switched from Gnome to KDE Plasma because I find it more stable and more integrated since many of the features I otherwise miss are out of the box in KDE Plasma, and you do not need third party extensions which are quite unstable. Also later found out Plasma is much more configurable and personalizable so I xan really fit it best to my orefered workflow. I also find KDE developers listen to their users much more.
- haspok 1y agoGnome UI sucks. It is ugly and non-customizable without plugins, or whatever you call that addon that enables you to put your clock on the right... I'm sure the UI makes more sense on a tablet or a phone with touch controls, but I just want to use it on my laptop with a regular monitor and with a mouse (or touchpad). KDE has sane defaults and looks and feels like Windows UI from the best era. It just works.
- morshu9001 1y ago"It just works" is the important part. The style doesn't matter a whole lot if things aren't working right. Is this other guy's comment about GTK not a real problem? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45581866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45581866
- voidon 1y agoMy first experience with KDE was the beta release that came with SuSE 5.2 in the late 90s. I still daily drive KDE, though very much has changed since then, it still is familiar.
- NoboruWataya 1y agoIt's been well over a decade (maybe closer to 2 in fact) since I have used KDE, and I'm happy with my more minimalist setup based on Arch+AwesomeWM, but I think KDE is a great project and like to follow its progress. It seems to have a great suite of software - the KDE versions of common applications often seem to be among the best FOSS options out there.
- ktosobcy 1y agoDonating montly and so happy to do it! <3
- wiz21c 1y agoI use KDE on my home PC since about a 15 years, exclusively. I like it a lot but it still has some rough edges here and there. For example, the network config interface is a bit messy. Sure you can configure many things with it, but it's hard to understand). Dolphin is the best file manager I have ever used, nothing come close nowadays (I have tested windows and macs). The desktop configuration is quite nice and the look and feel is really good too. Unfortunately, it still crashes sometimes (about 2 or 3 times over 500 hours of usage, but my PC is 15 years old, so this may explain that). And as many here, I sure don't think about changing. Thank you KDE team !
- MegaDeKay 1y agoDolphin is a real gem. Split windows, tabs, open terminal in current location, etc. Going back to Windows Explorer is painful once you've gotten used to Dolphin.
- SAI_Peregrinus 1y agoFortunately Dolphin works on Windows, so going back to Windows Explorer is needed only if you can't install it due to security policies or such.
- weaksauce 1y agoyeah dolphin is great software!
- heavyset_go 1y agoIf you're ever on Windows and want a slimmed down Dolphin, run: winget install KDE.Dolphin
- saidinesh5 1y agoI'm still surprised at how smooth KDE Plasma + Wayland + Input actions on Arch feels on a fresh install on my new HP AMD laptop. The Only slightly wonky thing has been the fingerprint reader. Other than that my Linux set up now feels smoother than my office Mac. AND I get way better battery life compared to Windows on the same machine. Special call outs to: kwin, dolphin, yakuake, kde-connect
- majoe 1y agoI was pleasantly surprised, that a recent update for plasma fixed the fingerprint reader for my thinkpad t15. It previously had an issue, where it didn't work after waking from suspend.
- saidinesh5 1y agoWow.. looks like this is the case with my HP too.. very plesant surprise indeed.. just opened my personal laptop after a week of sleep. battery is still 60%+ and fingerprint unlock works!
- frameset 1y agoI'm absolutely loving KDE since I returned to desktop Linux after a long absence. What really shocks me is how few of the big distros make KDE a default or "first class" DE choice. If I was a novice user coming from Windows, I'd much prefer KDE, which if you stick to the GUI is very navigable and similar in some ways.
- qiine 1y agoDoes not make any sense to me either
- happymellon 1y agoThere are two minds of thought. 1. Like yours, KDE is similar to Windows so it's less scary for new users. 2. KDE is similar to Windows so will confuse users when it doesn't run Windows software or doesn't quite behave in the same way. Macs don't look the same and people don't get scared or expect their Windows software to run on it. I can see both arguments, and I've definitely seen internet complaints about both KDE and Gnome being either too similar or not similar enough and they are confused.
- goalieca 1y agoI think there’s more thoughts to… I migrated my non-technical mom from windows to Ubuntu in 2005 and my daily support questions on how to do this and that went to once a few weeks. Gnome 2 and Firefox was very simple. The OpenOffice stability was also great when Microsoft switched to ribbon. Eventually I got her on a Mac and she hasn’t asked a question since. She keeps buying new ones ever since.
- dapperdrake 1y agoPoint 2 doesn’t count. As far as Windows 11 is concerned even Windows doesn’t run games like old Windows.
- daveidol 1y agoWhat do you mean?
- pjmlp 1y agoHappy birthday KDE, outside XFCE, KDE is the desktop I would go back to if I ever reconsider building a Linux desktop again. Has all the developer goodies with KDevelop, written with tooling that empowers UI/UX development workflows, has a proper component system with much better tooling than COM, quite configurable without extensions all over the place. Signed, a disillusioned former Gtkmm user, with how GNOME turned out.
- noisy_boy 1y agoFor a sec I read it as a former Gkrellm user
- Multicomp 1y agoGlad they keep using the mascots to help brand and punch up their images. Both artist links are either private or show closed commissions, so the artists aren't fishing for exposure to do lead gen, they have a passion to help make KDE be a better marketable product. I daily drive KDE, but I'm glad that in part thanks go the KDE projects approach to accessibility to newcomers and these artists' desires to help out, we get visual aids for the masses, which are pleasant for those of us who live in walls of text and can help humanize an otherwise dry technical subject, aiding newcomers considering joining the project to have an easier time understanding what they are looking at.
- akimbostrawman 1y agoAmazing project my only gripes about KDE is that while the customization is great it can feel overwhelming and opaque. For example multiple different ways to get transparency (Kvantum & qt6ct) but nothing built in or large amount of different but seemingly connected config files with confusing syntax in .config I hope the work on union will help fix some of that
- yjftsjthsd-h 1y agoYes, if you choose to go off the happy path into the weeds, then you will be off the happy path in the weeds. The only desktop environments where that isn't true are the ones that forbid customization.
- Aldipower 1y agoMan, I am getting old too. :-O Still remember how amazed I was with KDE 1.
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 1y agoHow much do I have to pay to get ISO dates?
- yjftsjthsd-h 1y agoNothing? I've got a date format option for ISO date right now?
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 1y agoWhere the fuck is that? Why can;t it just obey my locale which already produces the right format.
- yjftsjthsd-h 1y agoRight click on clock > "Configure Digital Clock..." > "Date Format:" > "ISO date"
- Am4TIfIsER0ppos 1y agoOh wow you can get the ISO date in one little corner of the screen but everywhere else a date is shown will still be mixed endian US.
- Aldipower 1y agoYou need to upgrade to KDE 11. KDE 10 reached end-of-life.
- rookderby 1y agoI've installed two KDE+Tumbleweed machines in the past two days. One for a friend into retro gaming and the other time for older family into solitaire/youtube. KDE is an easy drop-in for Windows. If you have a better recommendation than Tumbleweed for new people, I'm open to looking into it, but so far it's been easy and I'll probably be the one to support it.
- rini17 1y agoKDE user since version 2. Fell in love with KMail. Even upgraded my RAM from 16 to 48MB to run it smoothly lol. Stopped used it at version 4, the new kdepim was atrocious. But now it's usable again. Probably my largest peeve is how there's advanced desktop search/semantic engine but it has no own interface as if the devs were ashamed of it, search results only appear when you type something in menu. And if you google nepomuk/baloo most ppl just ask how to turn it off.
- janwl 1y ago>Case in point: Microsoft is stopping free support for Windows 10 on hundreds of millions of computers this very week. Many of these old yet perfectly usable devices will not be able to upgrade because of spurious hardware requirements. Microsoft’s solution? “Throw away your computer and pollute the planet because we want to make even more money.” Windows 10 was released in 2015. Does KDE still support whatever version of KDE was released in 2015?
- cgh 1y agoThe point is that KDE from 2015 will still run on today’s hardware.
- janwl 1y agoSo will Windows 10, and it will receive as much support as a KDE version from 2015.
- yjftsjthsd-h 1y agoIt isn't competing with an old KDE, it's competing with the current version of KDE that still works on that hardware.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- emilsedgh 1y agoNo but upgrading KDE is free. It also doesn't force new hardware requirements.
- space_ghost 1y agoCounterpoint: any modern linux distro will run fine on your 10yo computer.
- cmeacham98 1y agoYou're misunderstanding - the point is that current (supported) versions of KDE support hardware manufactured in 2015, and current (supproted) versions of Windows will stop doing that very soon.
- edwcross 1y agoI'm increasingly pessimistic about everyday reach of Linux. Around me, all I see are Windows users, volunteers teaching old people how to use several tools... on Windows. Public institutions relying on Windows, upgrading to Windows 11, doing everything despite Trump, despite Microsoft, despite all of the negatives associated with it. When primary school students are given Windows laptops instead of Linux ones, there's not much hope in changing. But how can you amass enough momentum and volunteers to get enough manpower to at least try to move in the other direction? KDE surely helps, but it's like, nowadays simply trying to explain what a non-mobile OS is useful for, seems like yet another uphill battle, and I cannot fix even my small town by myself.
- morshu9001 1y agoFirst and biggest challenge is that there's no single default desktop Linux, and even one distro could have different DEs, window servers, etc. Imagine asking for tech support as a newbie, and giving your laptop model and OS and version is still not enough info.
- array_key_first 1y agoIt's completely unavoidable with open source software, we just have to adapt around it.
- morshu9001 1y agoWe do have one main Linux kernel (while other open source like BSD is far less popular on PCs) and a bunch of tools like bash and git that are de facto default. Seems like Linux community actively avoids converging on a default DE though.
- array_key_first 1y agoWe have many, many Linux kernels. Many distros compile their own kernels. You aren't using "the" Linux kernel most likely, you're using your distros Linux kernel. It's just that nobody notices because the kernel has stable interfaces. Thats also why you can run kernel 6.5 on a version of RHEL from 15 years ago. By its nature as a community, the Linux community will never converge on a default DE. The only reason Windows pulls it off is because it's not a community. It's a dictatorship and you're a serf. You use what Microsoft tells you to use. But, even then, there is divergence. No doubt you've heard of people sticking to 10 even though Microsoft is abandoning it. Some people still use 7, or even XP.
- slipperybeluga 1y ago[dead]
- nallerooth 1y agoThanks for all the work done over the years! I've donated to the project many times and it always feels good to support something I enjoy using every day.
- basfo 1y agoMy first introduction to Linux was through Knoppix, the first “live CD” if I recall correctly. Maybe there was something before it, but I remember it as something new and magical at the time: being able to test a full Linux desktop directly from a CD. From there, as I was learning Linux (I was 16 years old), I used KDE a lot. It was such a cool experience. I especially loved how easy it was to create custom themes, the desktop widgets, and Amarok! the big “killer app” back then. A music player that could show you song lyrics, album art, and even the band’s history by pulling data from Wikipedia and other APIs. It felt futuristic. Later on, I switched to GNOME as it became more popular in the mid 2000s, but I’ve always had a soft spot for KDE. It’s been part of my Linux journey for nearly three decades. Happy birthday, KDE!
- frameset 1y agoWow Amarok, that takes me back. I used to use KDE in the late 00s and it was head and shoulders over other music apps.
- bovermyer 1y agoWith this hitting multiple communications media for me independently over the last few hours, it has me considering whether I can switch from Windows to Linux for my gaming PC again. Last time I tried, I used Ubuntu, and I experienced problems with several games via Proton (e.g., The Finals, Fields of Mistria, and Civilization VII, among others). I checked ProtonDB, and it looks like those issues may be resolved. However, I also wonder what people are using to replace iCloud/OneDrive/Dropbox/whatever on Linux. Or, if they don't use such a thing in the first place, how they handle off-site backups of files and images.
- morshu9001 1y agoI tried recently and unfortunately had to bail out
- ireadmevs 1y agoAt work I use OneDriveGUI with no problems. - https://github.com/bpozdena/OneDriveGUI https://github.com/bpozdena/OneDriveGUI
- cardanome 1y agoDropbox works fine on Linux so you should be good. OneDrive has a community developed client, not sure how good it works. Gaming works great on Linux, arguably better than on Windows. Show stoppers are mostly aggressive anti-cheat or DRM stuff so multiplayer can still suck but for anyone doing single player it is amazing. I have a windows installation I can dual boot into but I haven't in like half a year, I prefer gaming on Linux. Linux Mint with Cinnamon has a traditional Desktop close to Windows. I highly recommend checking it out.
- bovermyer 1y agoMy last attempt was Debian-flavored Mint. This go around, I'm thinking of trying Kubuntu. Specifically 25.10 Kubuntu, since apparently Wayland fixes a lot of the problems I had trying to game on Linux before.
- heavyset_go 1y ago
- bityard 1y agoI loved the KDE 3.x series, it felt like the future to me. It was _way_ ahead of both Windows and Mac at the time in terms of features and power. KDE 4 was a dud. Too much of a radical make-over instead of iterating on what worked. Ugly. Very crashy. I'm not sure how close KDE 4 came to killing KDE altogether, but it must have been pretty close. KDE 5 was a vast improvement over 4, going back to what made 3 so good. Earlier releases left a bit to be desired and still had a few stability issues. Later releases were pretty well refined. I switched (back) to KDE at this point, when I switched to Debian 12 (bookworm) at the same time. KDE 6 is just a continuation of KDE 5, but using Qt 6 under the hood and defaulting to Wayland. It's very solid, fast, and just gets out of your way so you can do real work with it.
- cogman10 1y agoI'm loving KDE 6. It's what a good desktop environment should be. Just enough eye candy to make it feel pleasant, and yet also very fast and responsive on even a potato of a computer.
- meekins 1y agoThe 4.x series was the one where the ideas still making Plasma so powerful were seeded. While I loved KDE 3 the design for 4 seemed revolutionary. Too bad it was alpha/beta quality up until the 4.6 release years later. I fared through all the bugs, crashes and performance issues with a young student's determination (while running Fluxbox on the side) but I can very well understand people doing serious work had limited patience for the issues. Anyhow, happy anniversary from a long-time KDE user!
- Sammi 1y agoIt's a story that's very similar to Windows Vista. It gets a lot of hate for breaking stuff at the time it was originally released, but the reason it broke stuff is because it put in a new foundation for later releases to build upon. The later releases were better because of the breakage. Something something gotta breaks some eggs to make an omelette something something.
- prein 1y agoI don't daily drive KDE, but when I set up our home media PC in the living room over the weekend, KDE was a no-brainier to pick for the DE. Everything immediately just worked, it's familiar enough that someone not used to Linux can click around and get to things, and as a bonus, controlling it from the couch with our phones is trivial with KDE Connect.
- indymike 1y agoKDE has been my daily driver since 2008. The upgrade from KDE2 to KDE3 was a nightmare, but once the dust settled, KDE became quite good... One of my favorite things about KDE is how they have left the user a wide berth to customize their experience. After almost 20 years of tweaking, I find moving to other desktop GUIs to be very painful. And to this day Dolphin is the gold standard for file managers. Thanks, KDE team!
- WhereIsTheTruth 1y agoSupporting it is important so we have an alternative to GNOME/GTK GNOME ruined my Linux experience, I'm no fan of the tablet/smartphone UX spreading to desktop
- wolfgangbabad 1y agoMy dream is that The Qt Company will make some monstrous deal with the EU and all the licensing will become 100% opensource while they will be tasked and paid to maintain it longterm and work on it.
- dethos 1y agoWorks like a charm. Powerful when needed. Thanks, KDE, looking forward to the next 29 years.
- pacetherace 1y agoSurprisingly this feels like it has been in existence for longer than 29 years.
- Gud 1y agoJust recently switched back from XFCE to KDE, after a 20 years hiatus. KDE feels just as snappy as XFCE but is also more polished and has really nice settings management. Congrats to the KDE team. Unfortunately too broke to donate.
- lousken 1y agoKDE is the best non-tiling desktop environment. Thanks KDE and keep it up!
- Aerbil313 1y agoAfter years of distro hopping I landed on KDE NixOS and stuck with it ever since. Stable, featureful, intuitive experience. KDE is visibly taking off.