Linux @lemmy.ml

1y ago

what's a normie KDE distro?

Looking for a normie KDE distro that works out of the box and is stable without issues.

91 comments

Kubuntu is most normie. Its just Ubuntu but with KDE instead of Gnome. KDE Neon has the latest KDE but the update process is a mess so I can't recommend it.
Personally I use EndeavourOS with KDE and find it very easy. Updates are literally just typing yay. But I understand that Arch based distros aren't for everyone.
- I'm using kubuntu right now. Test it out fedora for about 3 hours before I ran into a bug and went back to the KUbuntu hard drive. Normie means it just works, or at the very least googling the answer leads to good solutions. Only ubuntu has that
- I find that endeavor is pretty nice as someone who typically uses windows...I just can't wrap my head around not having a GUI for software installs. Like, I want to install jellyfish, but when I search for it, there were like 30 different ones to choose. Installed a package that I don't want, where do I go to find the exact name of the package and then uninstall?
  It was enough to send me to kubuntu, which is what's on my laptop now. Basically only use the laptop for the web too, so likely no reason to change anything up.
- Does Plasma on EndeavorOS include Discover? For those that want GUI updates

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, great KDE defaults - up to date - stable. Does things a bit differently than most distros but it's pretty easy to get used to.
- That what I use, and it's perfect

openSUSE Tumbleweed. It's rolling and reliable.

Fedora KDE spin.

Fedora kde

Fedora kde spin, kubuntu (ubuntu but with kde), kde neon (kde's distro). I've never used neon or kubuntu as a daily driver (just when I was looking for a distro) although they are supposed to be quite good, but I use fedora gnome as a daily driver and fedora kde should be fairly similar. You can also use distrochooser to find a distro that suits.
- Well, judging by the fact that it gave me my favorite (and current (Mint)) distro on the first try, I'll say this tool is pretty solid lol

openSUSE Tumbleweed
- I've been using this for a few months now. It's really good. A normie might want to look in to Slowroll though for extra stability. Is Slowroll even out yet?
  
  It's available, but still experimental I think.

I highly recommend Kubuntu. I don't use any snaps though. And I always install the LTS version. Been using it for over a dozen years.
- Same. I just keep my head down when the distro wars start, but it’s so easy to fix, never wiped it for like at least 10 years.
- I don't use any snaps though.
  Oh sweet summer child...

I'm using Manjaro because SuSE Tubleweed didn't want to install that day. People like to hate on Manjaro but I honestly don't know why - the defaults are fine and I very rarely have issues despite using software from the AUR
- This is why: https://manjarno.pages.dev
  
  It has been 442d 15h 07m 53s since Manjaro !$%&?# up.
  So a year and a half? That's not all that bad really. And that time it was a (admittedly bloody stupid) cock up involving the SSL certificate of their website not of the distro itself

I think fedora kde is the one you should go with.
If you go with kubuntu you'll be using snaps by default (which can be removed entirely with some tweaking) and they aren't actually good (as with the recent steam issues)
- Anything *ubuntu is not good for gaming.

KDE Neon is pretty nice, it's probably my favorite KDE-based distro.
You can also check out:
Fedora KDE
openSUSE
Kubuntu

Debian 12 stable with KDE is smooth sailing

Rolling release: openSUSE Tumbleweed Semi-annual release: Fedora KDE Spin LTS: Kubuntu (3 years), Debian (5 years), AlmaLinux (10 years)
I personally think semi-annual is where it's at. You get packages that are mostly up-to-date (and with Flatpak user-facing software is up-to-date anyway), and you don't have to fear that something will break/be incompatible with every small update.
- I'm running TW and it's great. If you don't want a rolling release, OpenSUSE created Slowroll, that is supposed to release major updates every one or two months, which would probably be my go to if I were to start over.
  
  Slowroll is experimental and it's still a rolling release that tracks tumbleweed. It might be less maintenance, but not necessarily more stable in terms of bugs. I've seen some people report pretty major issues with it in the last couple months.
  Leap is the version you want if stability is your priority. You can even get the tumbleweed nvidia driver if you have an Nvidia card and want the latest driver. The only os I've used that was more stable than leap was debian. But Leap is much more flexible than Debian.
  
  Everyone is waiting for Slowroll I think.
- Kubuntu is also semi-annual, but LTS releases only come every two years. Regular releases have a year and a half of support.

You're going to get a million answers, mostly people saying to use which distro they're currently using. In my experience, KDE works just fine on any distro that allows you to install it out of the box, so I would choose based on other attributes of the distro, such as:
Package manager: which are you used to?
Update cycle: KDE 6 is out soon, so you want something which updates often enough to get it fairly quickly (at least semiannual).
Stability: unless you want to have to manually maintain your system and learn how it works, avoid arch and arch-based distros. I have run it, its fine, but it's not "normie", and unless you really know what you're doing, daily driving it can be stressful. Manjaro has the same issues, but takes away some ability of the user to fix them.
For instance, I personally like Debian and apt, but I would not recommend base Debian right now, since KDE 6 is about to come out and Debian will take a loooong time to get it. I have not personally used Kubuntu, but if it gets rid of any the bloat canonical has been adding to Ubuntu lately, it sounds pretty good to me.
- Yeah, Kubuntu's fine. It has some of the Snap stuff, but the "minimal install" greatly strips down unnecessary bullshit to the point where I even find vanilla Debian Plasma to be more bloated in comparison.
  I used Kubuntu for most of my time on Linux before switching to Debian. Still fully recommend it as a basically "plug and play" distro with a quick installer that works OOTB.
  There's also a KDE-specific backports PPA which gets you new Plasma and Qt stuff fairly quickly, but that works best on regular releases rather than LTS releases. (The only issue is that, because it uses Launchpad, the Plasma updates can be super fucking slow to download, regardless of your network speed).
  Then again, if someone's going to be using LTS versions only, there's not really that much of a difference between it and Debian Stable in terms of DE updates.

Fedora Kinoite, specifically the version from universal-blue.org.
It comes with all codecs (and even baked in Nvidia-driver if you want!).
Why that and not the normal (mutable) Fedora Workstation KDE spin?
Very simple by default. You basically only "own" your home directory, the rest is indestructible and taken care of.
Has less bugs due to better reproducibility, and if something major should break, you can easily roll back without any waiting time (as opposed to Tumbleweed)
And you can even rebase to Bazzite, a gaming distro, that's based on the uBlue KDE version, or any other spin it you want cleanly
- This. Or, nowadays secureblue Kinoite!
  Its a hardened Variant of ublue kinoitr, but I tested it and especially using the "userns" variants, a lot works
  flatpak
  virtual machines
  fingerprint sensor
  "userns" means user namespaces, a technology used by browsers, flatpak and Podman/Docker/Toolbox/Distrobox to create Sandboxes, isolating processes. It is used by default on Fedora, so these variants are pretty much like regular Fedora.
  Dont think a secure Distro is user-unfriendly. It works pretty normal, but is simply way more secure.
  If you want to use Firefox or Torbrowser, install their binaries.
  https://github.com/trytomakeyouprivate/Recommended-Flatpak-Apps
- Fedora Kinoite is the first time that I felt at home (besides Arch). It feels so stable and I never have to mess with it. KDE is also at the point now where it feels genuinely better than Windows or Mac

Debian
- stable or unstable?
  
  I use stable but if you need more up to date software not in backports unstable would be better suited. Neither are really "unstable".

Kde neon isn't bad. If I'm remembering right, it's based on Ubuntu and made by the kde team
- neon is amazing

KDE Neon

Manjaro.
- "Stable", really? Delaying packages isn't stable, in fact it can break AUR packages.
  
  I never had an issue and I've been using Manjaro exclusively for 3+ years.
  I think Arch has had issues that Manjaro was able to avoid in the meantime because Manjaro doesn't push updates as quickly as Arch.

Kubuntu, KDE neon, Debian with KDE.

I've had an excellent experience with endeavor OS, which can install KDE as well as some other DEs from the installation options. It's based on arch

MX Linux with KDE?
If you have an AMD machine it even has a "advanced hardware system" iso for high end pcs
- You have to reinstall mxlinux every time a new debian version comes out. Not really "normie" IMHO.
  
  Do you really have to reinstall from scratch or is it sufficient to update the sources.list to the new Debian release and perform dist-upgrade like for Debian?

Tuxedo OS

Fedora KDE spin. One of the easiest to use distros without all of the annoyances of Ubuntu (e.g. snaps).

TuxedoOS

Probably the most normie would be KDE neon (Ubuntu) as it's made by the KDE community https://neon.kde.org/
Personally, I use EndeavourOS (Arch-based) with KDE and it worked out-of-the-box for me.

Endeavour OS with KDE
- Normie and Arch based don't fit together in the same sentence tbh
- stable
  without issues
  Arch

ArcoLinuxB KDE.
I've learned from Brodie's video that Ubuntu upload schedule is basically slightly different gnome's schedule. So, KDE with rolling releases is what I think is best.
Though IIRC the scheduling of plasma 6 onward will follow gnome's 6 month period to synchronize with bimonthly releases of distros that does it.
I'll need some input on this

Feren OS. A bit more unknown, but it's pretty good.

91 comments