What's the best easy KDE-based Linux distro these days?
What's the best easy KDE-based Linux distro these days?
I'm not a beginner anymore, but I'm much less interested in technical tinkering for its own sake than I used to be. These days I just want my computer to work properly without too much intervention from me.
I've been using Kubuntu for a number of years, but I'm also hearing increasing complaints about how Canonical is running things. I don't think I'm ready to switch to a new distro yet, but it wouldn't hurt to know what's out there.
Is Kubuntu still a good choice for an "it just works" KDE-based distro, or has it been surpassed?
Have you looked at tumbleweed? I've been using it without major issues for a few years across different devices. Perfect integration with plasma, rolling but stable distro, built in rollback feature, it's great
TW with KDE has made me happy, it's crazy
If we are talking easy, and just works... You probably want Mint.
Edit: Somebody below has pointed out there isn't a KDE edition of Mint any more.
Isn't installing KDE on it a task?
My bad, yes I was thinking it was still one of the editions they publish out of the box. Looks like they stopped in 2018!
Mint is a fantastic place to start. Im on Manajro now but Mint was a great introduction to Linux.
I’ve been using KDE Neon for the past several months. It seems to have the best overall mix of out-of-the-box usability and customization. I haven’t found anything I can’t do with it and lots of packages are readily available. Also no “political” exclusions so it allows you to install all the portable packages like Snap, FlatPak, etc. Don’t use it if you don’t want it, but it’s there if you need it.
As someone who can't quit KDE because of KDE connect, my go-to is debian. Debian 12 is an outstanding release, it's stable, and it works. The only gripe is that debian famously has later releases than most distros, which can be a problem if you need a recent version of say, go or rust (you can still install manually but apt exists for a reason), but in general it's not that bad and it's of course a tradeoff between recency and stability.
You don't need to use KDE to use KDE connect. 😉
I am using it with i3wm.
Happy DM hoping. 😊
Holy hell
As said my sibling comment, I use KDE connect with GNOME shell
For managing non-distro versions of language runtimes I suggest rtx.
$ cat .tool-versions python system nodejs latest rust system elm latest $ rtx current python system node 20.5.0 rust system elm 0.19.1 $ rtx local go@latest # go gets installed $ which go /home/andy/.local/share/rtx/installs/go/1.21.0/go/bin/goVery nice!
Unfortunately my go use case requires my go install to be default (I patch it to gradually remove dependencies on the kernel - it's not going well) but for anyone doing something sane this should be very useful.
Kubuntu is fine if you don't mind the direction that Canonicla is heading.
Moving from Ubuntu to a debian based distro makes sense - a lot of stuff is familliar. Base debian is fine, but MX is a little more friendly. They have a KDE image here: https://mxlinux.org/download-links/
I've been using Fedora Kinoite and I love it. I wanted the same use case you wanted. Pretty much something that gets out of the way and keeps on working.
Too be fair, I was mostly inspired to use it because of the Steam Deck. Kinoite is an immutable OS, so it will prevent you from modifying core system files accidentally. It does have a small learning curve, such as learning flatpak permissions and using Distrobox/Toolbox to install cli applications, but I mostly use my computers as a gaming station where I chuck steam, a browser, and a few other tools in there and leave most things as default.
I always feel like my OS is "clean" despite having used it for a year, which is really cool. I'm curious what others might think of it as an easy distro though (it is for me, at least)
Even though I'm not a huge fan of canonical, Ubuntu and its derivatives are still pretty good.
I personally prefer Debian these days. Since Ubuntu is based on Debian, most software/support sites work just fine, but it's not so much "in the way" as Ubuntu.
And I have to say, the installer is very easy to use, especially if you already installed an OS before. Under half an hour.
Manjaro! I can't run the KDE version myself, but I have both heard and seen good things about it.
I've been using Manjaro with KDE for a few years now. It works smoothly, I never ran into any issues with it.
The
pacmanpackage manager is pretty nice, too, I found it faster and easier to use thanapt-get, and the provided packages are always kept up-to-date. Updating the system (even installing a newer Linux kernel) is very simple and works reliably. So you always have the latest version of your apps, the kernel, and the DE.In the rare occasion that a program is not available in the official repositories or the community-maintained AUR, you can also install
snaporflatpakpackages.And since Manjaro is derived from Arch, you can use the Arch Wiki, which is very useful when you want to set up a database, use the android debug bridge, install another package manager, or do anything else less than trivial.
I used that, an update twice prevented the DE starting up. Went to Kubuntu and OpenSuse TW. Both are far superior and just work.
Yea this has been my main for almost a decade. It's all of the benefits of running Arch without the painful install. And KDE Plasma 5 is pretty solid now that many bugs have been fixed.
EndeavourOS is probably good too, I haven't tried it, but it seems similar. People who don't like Manjaro seem to prefer it.
I've been running The KDE version of Manjaro for a couple months now I love it. I'm still pretty new to Linux, but setup was easy and pretty much everything has worked right out of the box.
Kubuntu is probably still the best “just works,” but you can install KDE on any distro.
"It just works" in too vague but this is the correct answer for a lot of scenarios.
does it need to be kde? because Pop OS fixes everything I didn't like about Gnomes ui
does it need to be kde?
For me, probably. But feel free to give whatever recommendations you think other people reading this thread might find useful.
If you don't mind having some outdated packages (or using nix for the few you want to be most up to date) then you may find Debian works best for your needs. Manjaro's also a solid choice but the team behind it have been in some drama over the past few years so more people are saying to avoid it these days.
You could use Arch, its installation is nowhere near as difficult as people often state (it's also got much easier in recent years) but I don't think it'd fit your "it just works" needs. It does "just work" once properly set up, but the issue is making sure it's properly set up. If it's your first time doing that extra bit of configuration then you're bound to miss a few things
I've been a long time user of Debian + Gnome, but I've recently been using Fedora KDE spin as my daily driver just to mix things up a bit. I'd say Fedora is on par with Ubuntu with not having to tinker too much. The only thing I think I've had to really intervene with is getting the Nvidia driver going. Everything else I use just works, and there are plenty of packages available in the repo(s) for anything I'm not building myself.
Aside from openSUSE (and GeckoLinux), I think an under-recognized option is Siduction.
I hear good things about Manjaro. It's based on Arcj, but preconfigured and user friendly. Although I have also heard of dependency problems when using the Arch User Repository, due to Manjaro being a bit behind Arch.
If you like Ubuntu, but not what Canonical is doing, then Linux Mint is what you're looking for. That's how it was born. There is a KDE flabor of it too!
Get a basic setup with nixOS with KDE and Flatpak installed. Then install most all your apps through flatpaks. That's my preference. You can install most/all things through the nix package manager. So, you may not even need to use flatpaks.
arch by far. just clean kde no downstream patches
Arch base (the difficulty of installing base arch is overstated, especially now that you can use archinstall), though here be tinkering to get it going. If not arch base then endeavorOS, purists will tell you its not arch but it really do be arch, basically. Both archinstall and endeavor will let you set up KDE on install.