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Fedora Workstation with GNOME is the main edition of the Fedora Linux distribution, but their Fedora KDE Desktop Spin just got approval to become a lot more important.

As noted on their issue tracker, a proposal titled "Request to upgrade Fedora KDE Desktop Spin to Edition status under the Personal Systems WG" has now been approved! From the proposal:

"As discussed at Flock, the Fedora KDE SIG and the newly forming Fedora Personal Systems Working Group that will oversee the SIG are requesting that the Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop spin be upgraded to Edition status for Fedora Linux 42.

This includes the following:

  • Listing Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop Edition at the same level as Fedora Workstation Edition on fedoraproject.org
  • Production of a flagship site page for Fedora KDE similar to Fedora Workstation on fedoraproject.org
  • Marketing support in a similar vein to Workstation at events

The Fedora KDE SIG will withdraw its Change for Fedora Linux 42 to replace GNOME with KDE Plasma on Workstation with the acceptance of this request."

It was opened 2 months ago, and was formally approved about 16 hours ago.

Now the work begins for the KDE maintainers at Fedora to get it all ready, and sometime soon hopefully it will then be prominently listed on the Fedora website.


Pictured - Fedora KDE

As someone who mains KDE Plasma as their desktop environment, because I think it's fantastic, I'm really happy to see this happen.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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26 comments
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I am pleased that KDE is becoming more and more valued in the Fedora community. Fedora + KDE is a win-win combination, in my opinion.
Quoting: no_information_here
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualA member of the Quality Assurance team for instance is concerned about being able to assure the quality of KDE:

QuoteFor KDE, this would be extra 51 apps! Compare the scope. I believe it's impossible for us to have the same quality bar here. And even if we had a huge surge of volunteers to test those regularly, it would just mean that we'd hardly ever release, because the likelihood of discovering a broken functionality in 73 apps (22+51) is much higher than in 22 apps. Workstation is quite lean on pre-installed apps, and yet we already struggle with this, and many people get irked by the whole compose being blocked on a bug in gnome-clocks/gnome-contacts/gnome-calendar/etc.

Thanks for the quote. I am not a Fedora user -- what do they mean by "apps" here? Other than the core plasma bits (settings, kwallet, etc.) the only "KDE apps" I have installed on my Neon system are Okular, Dolphin, and Gwenview.

Edit: I forgot Kate.
There are quite a lot of them: https://apps.kde.org

I don't know which ones Fedora's KDE SIG thinks are core.
Quoting: hell0
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualA member of the Quality Assurance team for instance is concerned about being able to assure the quality of KDE:

QuoteFor KDE, this would be extra 51 apps! Compare the scope. I believe it's impossible for us to have the same quality bar here. And even if we had a huge surge of volunteers to test those regularly, it would just mean that we'd hardly ever release, because the likelihood of discovering a broken functionality in 73 apps (22+51) is much higher than in 22 apps. Workstation is quite lean on pre-installed apps, and yet we already struggle with this, and many people get irked by the whole compose being blocked on a bug in gnome-clocks/gnome-contacts/gnome-calendar/etc.

And concluding:

QuoteEither the quality requirements won't be the same, or we need to lower the Workstation one and meet somewhere in the middle for both.

Seems solid at first but the entire argument hinges on the fact all "apps" are of equal complexity and quality.

Either way, pretty happy about the news. Right when I was thinking of giving KDE a spin after fixing gnome's search tracker for the umpteenth time.
I'm sure they've managed to figure it out as they've since approved the change.

I tried out KDE for a while due to a missing feature on GNOME, but KDE then broke a similar feature, so I went back to GNOME. I agree that presenting two options will lead to a lot of confusion for users. But Fedora is already a distribution that leads to a lot of confusion with the codec limitations, so this is paltry in comparison. I'm interested to see how they present KDE.
ShuShay Nov 9
As a current user of Fedora KDE, I am looking forward to the future of the KDE Edition.

I wouldn't be surprised if Workstation ends up being renamed to "Workstation - GNOME Edition," with the Plasma edition renamed similarly, in order to reflect the change. Of course, I can't speak on behalf of the Fedora Project or any of its internal groups, but there already seems to be some discussion of future branding on the issue tracker, at least.
poiuz Nov 9
QuoteFor KDE, this would be extra 51 apps!
The last time I tried Fedora KDE it was an awful experience, it literally felt bloated like Windows with lots of pre-installed applications I just don't need. It was some time ago, but this doesn't read like much has changed. So I wonder if Fedora KDE is really a good show case (for Linux in general) & deserves the edition upgrade.
fagnerln Nov 9
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualI tried out KDE for a while due to a missing feature on GNOME, but KDE then broke a similar feature, so I went back to GNOME.

Yeah, that's exactly my experience. I really like the Gnome workflow, but because of disliking some of the dev's attitudes/opinions, and the fact that there's a lot of people hyping KDE (and now companies like Valve funding it), I keep an eye on every KDE release, but it's always the same: I try it, it breaks, I regret.

Maybe it's a "me" issue, but even on Windows, if I use it a bit, I find some bugs, even doing nothing. Gnome is just fine.

I just hope that Fedora Cosmic become a fantastic distro.
Bumadar Nov 9
I think opensuse solved this whole equal question years ago very simple, one installer and you simply select, neither is preselected.
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualThere are quite a lot of them: https://apps.kde.org

I don't know which ones Fedora's KDE SIG thinks are core.

Including all of those as core apps would be lunacy. What I was implying was that only a skeleton number of them is required to make a perfectly usable desktop OS.

I have been glad to see a trend that some Linux distros install fewer things by default and leave more choices up to the user.
Quoting: no_information_here
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualThere are quite a lot of them: https://apps.kde.org

I don't know which ones Fedora's KDE SIG thinks are core.

Including all of those as core apps would be lunacy. What I was implying was that only a skeleton number of them is required to make a perfectly usable desktop OS.

I have been glad to see a trend that some Linux distros install fewer things by default and leave more choices up to the user.
This page has a list of applications that are likely in Fedora KDE's core: https://fedoraproject.org/spins/kde/

I think the more apps installed, the better, generally. It's beneficial to new users to not need to search for and install applications.
Quoting: fagnerln
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualI tried out KDE for a while due to a missing feature on GNOME, but KDE then broke a similar feature, so I went back to GNOME.

Yeah, that's exactly my experience. I really like the Gnome workflow, but because of disliking some of the dev's attitudes/opinions, and the fact that there's a lot of people hyping KDE (and now companies like Valve funding it), I keep an eye on every KDE release, but it's always the same: I try it, it breaks, I regret.

Maybe it's a "me" issue, but even on Windows, if I use it a bit, I find some bugs, even doing nothing. Gnome is just fine.

I just hope that Fedora Cosmic become a fantastic distro.
I really like GNOME, but it has a few deficiencies that are unlikely to be fixed for a very long time. I like KDE too, but the UX is not as good. In some places it's much better, but overall it's not as well-constructed. Both have bugs.

COSMIC is a great desktop. I ran it as my main desktop for a few weeks. I'd love to try it again when it's stable and has more features like support for graphics tablets and integrated input methods :)
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