I use Ubuntu 21.10, and I have installed KDE Connect, DigiKam, Krita, and KolourPaint. All of these KDE apps work fine as far as I can tell. I use a lot of other apps that are NOT part of the KDE family. What incentive might I have to use a KDE distro ? What distinguishes a KDE app from other LInux apps? Have they only been tested with the KDE desktop environment?
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I have tried several different desktops over the years but always come back to KDE Plasma. I LOVE OpenSuSE, but am currently testing out Kubuntu 21.10, but I miss having the latest and greatest. I found that many KDE Apps work on other desktops, but they work best in the Plasma Desktop, plus Plasma has so much to offer, thousands of widgets, many apps, a plethora of settings you can adjust. I can’t use Wayland because the screenlocker crashes when using wayland on a plasma version before 5.23 and I had 5.23 on OpenSuSE, but not on Kubuntu. wayland works great with plasma 5.23 and above.
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Kubuntu is more aimed at stability rather than on providing the very latest features. If you want these, KDE-Neon, which is very similar, might be the better option.
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@Mina I like KDE but I don’t know Why its very buggy on my device GNOME works very well but as I switch to KDE .
It is something beyond Science . 
My devices love GNOME very much that they act abnormally when I switch to KDE 
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I have the same problem with KDE Neon and Kubuntu. The Manjaro (Arch version) is the best one I have come across for stability, no matter what hardware. Though I have never ever been a fan of Dolphin file manager and thought that it might break the system if I tried putting Nemo in, but was pleasantly surprised with results, making Nemo file manager default, it never griped. All the screen effects worked with Nemo, it booted fine. Apps opening and running fine. What I love about Linux is it’s versatility, it will keep saying yes no worries I can do that for you watch me go?
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I’m currently experimenting with Linuxfx, a windows 11 look-alike, and it uses the Plasma desktop. So far the combination is really interesting and attractive. My Canon printer depends on a .deb configuration file so Linuxfx must belong in the Debian side of Linux. Everything works, and Plasma makes it look pretty good. Nothing seems buggy or unstable. The collection of applications includes a mixture of KDE and Gnome programs, but the default browser is Microsoft Edge. It’s an entertaining stew.
I’ll try it tonight. Thanks.
@berninghausen
Hi Bill,
Let us know what you find in KDE?
I am currently taking a look at KDE ( in MX Linux) because I have not used KDE for a long while, and I made some comments which were probably biased by being based on an old version.
So far I have found it still has a number of items in the applications menu which simply do not work. Not too serious, but would annoy a new user.
Regards
Neville
I’d be curious to know which ones these are.
Having used KDE for >10 years, I have never seen a single menu entry pointing to a non-existing app. Maybe, the makers of MX, didn’t provide all standard apps.
Will do. Like to finish checking first.
Not non-existing, simply not functioning at all , or not able to do all the functions.
And you are right, it may be MX. You could probably settle that.
I used MX-KDE because I wanted the KDE to be more uptodate than Debian. Maybe I should have been brave and used Neon.
My initial impression is they have done a lot of improvement since I last saw kde, but they still have some of the old hangovers like several apps to do one job. I can use it ok, that is not the issue.
Will respond in detail
Neville
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Sounds like a distribution issue, not affiliated with KDE.
You may also install KDE without any applications. However, if your distribution decides to ship with commonly used default KDE applications, it does not mean it’s forced by KDE or anything.
You can install KDE even without Dolphin or anything essential like that.
You should complain about the distribution that “bloats” KDE, not KDE itself.
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Neville, I’ve tried KDE in many distributions and never encountered an application that didn’t work. Naturally, I didn’t try all the applications. But I haven’t had any trouble with KDE in any of the distros.
Right now, I’m using an installation of Xubuntu in which I used Synaptic to install the desktops for Lubuntu and Kubuntu so I can log in and out of all of them. I didn’t try Ubuntu, because I don’t like Gnome3. The only thing that I don’t like about KDE is that I haven’t figured out how to set up a workspace switcher in the panel so I can have four windows open, with app icons in each, and I can switch between them.
I’m with Mina (of course) in that KDE has never presented an app that didn’t work. You might give Neon a shot, since it seems to be close to the bleeding edge of KDE distros.
Cheers!
Good point. It probably is an MX issue mostly.
Including apps that do not work well is not a good look, no matter who is responsible
I am making a list. Will show to you and Mina first
Neville
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Perfect. I am curious about it. The KDE community is very open to see and potentially fix issues noticed by users who are not fans of KDE. It helps the project a lot.
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When you install apps from different desktop environments, consider all the dependencies. I always check the amount of packages and the disk space requirement before installing any app. Sometimes a small app pulls too many dependencies and takes hundreds of Megabytes of disk space. Also Qt and GTK+ don’t play well together. With KDE there are plenty of apps available, but LXDE doesn’t even have a power manager, so XFCE or GNOME apps are used. KDE and LXQt are Qt based and GNOME and XFCE are GTK+.
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Deby – Thanks, that’s useful information. I have indeed noticed that installing a KDE app to a Gnome system can bring quite a bit of “baggage” with it.
Today I did “boot one” with Kubuntu 21.10 / Plasma – so far it looks good. I don’t see workspaces, but I usually only use one workspace; I like the panel icon that immediately minimizes all open windows. The software catalog “Explorer” offers not just the “K” ones but so far, but all the ones I’ve wanted to install so far. Now I need to find how to stop it from locking the screen after 10 minutes or so of inactivity. I’d like to change that to 1 or 2 hours.
Most Desktop Environments have the panel icon that minimizes all windows. I also use only one workspace. I prefer to use Synaptic Package Manager to install and remove software. You can search by the package name or the app’s name as long as you know which app you’d like to install. To change screen locking time look for the Power Manager > Display Power Management in the main menu. I don’t use Kubuntu, but Power Manager should be installed by default.
Thanks for the suggestions. Today in Kubuntu I did manage to find a “workspace” manager, but KDE calls them “virtual desktops”. I also found that cursor in the upper left corner shows a full screen grid of all open windows, regardless of which “virtual screen” they are on. So there is no lack of capability for that stuff. I also found the “power manager” but it is found under “workspace behavior” / “screen locking”. The document scanner app worked seamlessly with my multifunction printer, found it right away and worked. I’ve not seen ANY other distro that would do that. With others it required a “dance of the drivers” to get it working. The one thing I have found that doesn’t work with Kubuntu / Plasma is that I cannot install the Vivaldi browser. It’s not in their repository, and downloading a .deb file from the Vivaldi site results in “Error - dependencies not met”, with no instructions on what to do. I may have to settle for Firefox. I have used Synaptic before, and will take your suggestion to see if it opens some closed doors. Thanks again.
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As for Vivaldi on Kubuntu I found I had to manually install it via dpkg then it works fine. So I’m not sure what dependency is missing. But it does not bother the program once installed.
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Muchas gracias! dpkg did successfully install Vivaldi on Kubuntu / Plasma.
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