6 ms·

Once the masses discover that KDE is just as user friendly as Windows these days, ... ... and that it is relatively easy to run (most) Windows apps they love t

Once the masses discover that KDE is just as user friendly as Windows these days, ... ... and that it is relatively easy to run (most) Windows apps they love through Bottles (https://usebottles.com/ https://usebottles.com/), and/or WinApps (https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps)... ... oof

Pxtl 11mo ago
I've been doing my first journey w Linux as a daily driver and I'm not loving Mint+Cinnamon, what's the best distro for KDE?
- limagnolia 11mo ago
  The better question would be what is the best distro for you. Personally I like Debian. But I don't know enough about you and how you use your computer to say for sure what is best for you.
  - Pxtl 11mo ago
    Devops-heavy development, but been a Windows desktop user up until now, with linux just running on servers. I'll probably go with Kubuntu just because I want something as vanilla as possible with the largest support-base.
    - limagnolia 11mo ago
      I used Kubuntu for years, but ultimately moved away from the Ubuntu based distros due to Canonical cruft. I haven't really missed anything going with vanilla Debian.
    - petepete 11mo ago
      I'd recommend Fedora KDE, it's vanilla and well used enough to be able to easily find answers. https://www.fedoraproject.org/kde/ https://www.fedoraproject.org/kde/ Ubuntu based distros are fine too, but there are a few weird things to get to grips with like Snaps. There's really not much difference between most distros these days so I'm sure if you like one you'd like the other.
    - simoncion 11mo ago
      I've found Gentoo Linux to be a good developer- and sysadmin-oriented distro. It requires a lot more work up-front than most any other distro but -IME- once you have it running, it just keeps running and upgrading just fine. If you wish, you can even subject yourself to systemd, as that's a supported init system. As a bonus, if you don't want to build everything from source, there are prebuilt packages available. Instructions for how to use them are in the "Installing the base system" section of the Gentoo Handbook. I've not used the Gentoo-provided prebuilt packages, but I do use my own prebuilts. I've found the process of using them to be well-documented and fairly straightforward.
- 1bpp 11mo ago
  Don't worry too much about distributions, they'll mostly just affect package formats and default settings, but imo Debian is the best choice for stable desktop computing, with the best overall support and community.
- baobun 11mo ago
  It would help to know what it is you are not loving with Mint+Cinnamon... My picks for a beginner-friendly batteries-included Linux dist for KDE: - You can install KDE on Mint without switching distro or reinstalling[0] - Debian (caveat: packages can be out of date if you need the latest-greatest of something) - Fedora (caveat: two major OS upgrades per year can feel like a chore) - EndeavourOS (caveat: Requires a bit more expertise and grease to properly maintain) - Aurora (caveat: Still young project and I'd still consider it a bit experimental and adventerous) - kubuntu (caveat: snaps. Accept them or learn how to disable) KDE Linux is a thing and something to keep an eye on but it's still in alpha/beta and probably not ready for your use just yet. [0]: Caveat: it's possible that some DE service might not be disabled properly from your old setup and conflict with KDEs variety if you keep the cinnamon packages around
- stOneskull 11mo ago
  kubuntu, kde neon, or mx linux kde version (which is debian)
- tmtvl 11mo ago
  OpenSUSE has traditionally done a bunch of work on making sure other software works well with KDE (for example patching Firefox to use the KDE file chooser). Much of that work is no longer needed with new tech like the XDG desktop portal stuff, but Tumbleweed is still a fairly solid system (up to date, stable, GUI system administration tools, automatically installs packages with AVX3 if your CPU supports it,...).
- frm88 11mo ago
  I switched from Windows 10 to Nobara KDE plasma ~1 month ago. It's a Fedora based distro, so most of the Fedora documentation applies. I came from server Linux but Windows desktop (20 years or so) and I'm amazed how similar it is and reacts. It comes with Libre Office, Steam etc. pre-installed and while the Libre software is certainly different and needs getting used to - for me, coming originally from Wordperfect and Quattro Pro it was no challenge. There are some minor bugs which I attribute mostly to the Nvidia 580 graphics driver, like distorted fonts in certain mouse positions, but these are really minimal and I won't deep dive (yet) into that. Support online via discord which isn't optimal, but at least there is support.
o11c 11mo ago
Unfortunately for right now, KDE has recently released major version 6, which is also about as stable as Windows (meaning, very not). This is reminiscent of the KDE 4 transition and much worse than the KDE 5 one. For example, half the time I try to log in or unlock the screen, it just ignores my password. Fortunately, I have discovered that pressing Escape triggers a crash, and I have to deliberately trigger a segfault by pressing Escape, in hopes that next time the password will be accepted.
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- mkl 11mo ago
  Plasma 6 is nearly two years old, and is totally fine in my experience. The transition was more like 5.x to 5.y. The biggest change is Wayland by default (X11 is currently still available, so might be worth a try). It sounds like your problem may be with SDDM (the login screen program) rather than Plasma itself. You could try an alternative: https://alternativeto.net/software/sddm/ https://alternativeto.net/software/sddm/
- baobun 11mo ago
  The only issue I have on my Plasma 6 laptop is also lock-screen related: About 20% of the time keyboard input is ignored/blocked after coming back from sleep. Closing and reopening the lid usually sorts it. Haven't seen what you describe. I did have some earlier snags which all went away after switching from Wayland session to X11 session.
- pndy 11mo ago
  Gotta be something specific to your machine - for me version 6 is way more stable than 5 was. That line would crash doing sillies things like resizing task bar or applying settings. Now I feel as good with CachyOS and Plasma 6.5.2 as I was with W2K or W7
- skirmish 11mo ago
  Changing the KDE theme into something other than the default Breeze breaks the whole Plasma: black screen with a cursor instead of the SDDM login screen. Hit this while setting up an Arch system for my wife, spent hours rebooting with recovery USB image and tweaking configuration until it all worked again. Wouldn't call it stable.

Pxtl 11mo ago

I've been doing my first journey w Linux as a daily driver and I'm not loving Mint+Cinnamon, what's the best distro for KDE?

limagnolia 11mo ago
The better question would be what is the best distro for you. Personally I like Debian. But I don't know enough about you and how you use your computer to say for sure what is best for you.
- Pxtl 11mo ago
  Devops-heavy development, but been a Windows desktop user up until now, with linux just running on servers. I'll probably go with Kubuntu just because I want something as vanilla as possible with the largest support-base.
  - limagnolia 11mo ago
    I used Kubuntu for years, but ultimately moved away from the Ubuntu based distros due to Canonical cruft. I haven't really missed anything going with vanilla Debian.
  - petepete 11mo ago
    I'd recommend Fedora KDE, it's vanilla and well used enough to be able to easily find answers. https://www.fedoraproject.org/kde/ https://www.fedoraproject.org/kde/ Ubuntu based distros are fine too, but there are a few weird things to get to grips with like Snaps. There's really not much difference between most distros these days so I'm sure if you like one you'd like the other.
  - simoncion 11mo ago
    I've found Gentoo Linux to be a good developer- and sysadmin-oriented distro. It requires a lot more work up-front than most any other distro but -IME- once you have it running, it just keeps running and upgrading just fine. If you wish, you can even subject yourself to systemd, as that's a supported init system. As a bonus, if you don't want to build everything from source, there are prebuilt packages available. Instructions for how to use them are in the "Installing the base system" section of the Gentoo Handbook. I've not used the Gentoo-provided prebuilt packages, but I do use my own prebuilts. I've found the process of using them to be well-documented and fairly straightforward.
1bpp 11mo ago
Don't worry too much about distributions, they'll mostly just affect package formats and default settings, but imo Debian is the best choice for stable desktop computing, with the best overall support and community.
baobun 11mo ago
It would help to know what it is you are not loving with Mint+Cinnamon... My picks for a beginner-friendly batteries-included Linux dist for KDE: - You can install KDE on Mint without switching distro or reinstalling[0] - Debian (caveat: packages can be out of date if you need the latest-greatest of something) - Fedora (caveat: two major OS upgrades per year can feel like a chore) - EndeavourOS (caveat: Requires a bit more expertise and grease to properly maintain) - Aurora (caveat: Still young project and I'd still consider it a bit experimental and adventerous) - kubuntu (caveat: snaps. Accept them or learn how to disable) KDE Linux is a thing and something to keep an eye on but it's still in alpha/beta and probably not ready for your use just yet. [0]: Caveat: it's possible that some DE service might not be disabled properly from your old setup and conflict with KDEs variety if you keep the cinnamon packages around
stOneskull 11mo ago
kubuntu, kde neon, or mx linux kde version (which is debian)
tmtvl 11mo ago
OpenSUSE has traditionally done a bunch of work on making sure other software works well with KDE (for example patching Firefox to use the KDE file chooser). Much of that work is no longer needed with new tech like the XDG desktop portal stuff, but Tumbleweed is still a fairly solid system (up to date, stable, GUI system administration tools, automatically installs packages with AVX3 if your CPU supports it,...).
frm88 11mo ago
I switched from Windows 10 to Nobara KDE plasma ~1 month ago. It's a Fedora based distro, so most of the Fedora documentation applies. I came from server Linux but Windows desktop (20 years or so) and I'm amazed how similar it is and reacts. It comes with Libre Office, Steam etc. pre-installed and while the Libre software is certainly different and needs getting used to - for me, coming originally from Wordperfect and Quattro Pro it was no challenge. There are some minor bugs which I attribute mostly to the Nvidia 580 graphics driver, like distorted fonts in certain mouse positions, but these are really minimal and I won't deep dive (yet) into that. Support online via discord which isn't optimal, but at least there is support.

o11c 11mo ago

Unfortunately for right now, KDE has recently released major version 6, which is also about as stable as Windows (meaning, very not). This is reminiscent of the KDE 4 transition and much worse than the KDE 5 one. For example, half the time I try to log in or unlock the screen, it just ignores my password. Fortunately, I have discovered that pressing Escape triggers a crash, and I have to deliberately trigger a segfault by pressing Escape, in hopes that next time the password will be accepted.

deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
mkl 11mo ago
Plasma 6 is nearly two years old, and is totally fine in my experience. The transition was more like 5.x to 5.y. The biggest change is Wayland by default (X11 is currently still available, so might be worth a try). It sounds like your problem may be with SDDM (the login screen program) rather than Plasma itself. You could try an alternative: https://alternativeto.net/software/sddm/ https://alternativeto.net/software/sddm/
baobun 11mo ago
The only issue I have on my Plasma 6 laptop is also lock-screen related: About 20% of the time keyboard input is ignored/blocked after coming back from sleep. Closing and reopening the lid usually sorts it. Haven't seen what you describe. I did have some earlier snags which all went away after switching from Wayland session to X11 session.
pndy 11mo ago
Gotta be something specific to your machine - for me version 6 is way more stable than 5 was. That line would crash doing sillies things like resizing task bar or applying settings. Now I feel as good with CachyOS and Plasma 6.5.2 as I was with W2K or W7
skirmish 11mo ago
Changing the KDE theme into something other than the default Breeze breaks the whole Plasma: black screen with a cursor instead of the SDDM login screen. Hit this while setting up an Arch system for my wife, spent hours rebooting with recovery USB image and tweaking configuration until it all worked again. Wouldn't call it stable.