Just wait until you open KMail and see that horrible button there
I recently heard lots of good things about KDE and tried it on the past weekend in Debian 11 (going to be released on 14/08/21 AFAIK).
I was quite frustrated with how KDE handles email and I could not even try Evolution as a flatpak app, for some reason it could not access my gpg key, even though flatpak showed clearly during installation that it should be able to.

I'm a Thunderbird man through and through, the last time I saw KMail was maybe 10 years ago.

I'm a long time kde (3,4,plasma) user.
Kde is great overall, but every now and then the team works to implement new things and does that without putting enough resources (lack of manpower) to test them before release (traumatic switch from the good kde3 to 4, then when 4 was finally perfect and bug free... BANG! Switch to the still broken plasma 5).
So you end up with weird bugs, expecially if you are on rolling releases distro like arch or fedora.
Example: right now, we're unable to access the very same removable medium after disconnecting it and reconnecting it again.
They're also working to make kwin work well on wayland, and doing that, they introduced graphical glitches in the X11 counterpart (i've spent last 2 days bisecting them, now they're fixed).
In the end I always feel like a beta tester, and I pray everytime a new release comes up :)
In the past i tried to switch to something else, but even considering all of the bugs, plasma remains the first choice for me.

(PS: You can have vertical panels and top taskbar in kde,
quick random examples:
https://store.kde.org/p/1167792/
https://store.kde.org/p/1176904/ )

Last edited by kokoko3k on 5 August 2021 at 4:34 pm UTC

Quoting: damarrinLike everything in KDE, it's clunky and awkward and much more complicated than it needs to be, but I got everything the way I want it fairly quickly in the end.

Strange. I find KDE lean and easily configurable. To me, modern Gnome feels like trying to work wearing a straitjacket while in a rubber room.

(Yes, I have personally used KDE 3, 4, 5 and Gnome 2, 3)

The thing is, I like Gnome the way it is. I don't need to configure practically anything. I can work in pure Gnome, or Ubuntu's spin on it, it's all relatively similar and looks good. It shows a lot of attention has gone into making it look professional and clean.

In contrast, in KDE distances between elements seem too small for me, text is tiny, it loves opening windows with content not fitting in horizontally and scrollbars (especially in system settings) or windows which are tiny and show no content at all and have to be manually resized. I know it's all configurable and I can move everything everywhere I want it and make it fit, but in Gnome I don't have to, it's all laid out perfectly for me from the start (unless it's running at something like 800x600, then it's as much a mess as any other modern DE).

Oh, and KDE's Polish translation is TERRIBLE. Really awkward and rushed.

Anyway, I'm trying to show my appreciation for KDE here. :-) I can now see why most people on this site (as per statistics) use it. Besides, isn't that one of Linux's many strengths, the diversity and the choice? I'm so glad we get to choose whatever suits us best, be it something that's all fixed and immovable or something that can be adjusted pixel by pixel.

BTW, I've now discovered all the window controls they give you, like fixing them in place and in size or setting constraints. So much power! \o/ Amazing stuff.

Quoting: damarrinBTW, I've now discovered all the window controls they give you, like fixing them in place and in size or setting constraints. So much power! \o/ Amazing stuff.

I once had to brag with this to a Windows user. Don't know if it has similar stuff, but the "I want this to be fullscreen, no matter what the window thinks about it!" is great!

Quoting: no_information_here

Quoting: damarrinLike everything in KDE, it's clunky and awkward and much more complicated than it needs to be, but I got everything the way I want it fairly quickly in the end.

Strange. I find KDE lean and easily configurable. To me, modern Gnome feels like trying to work wearing a straitjacket while in a rubber room.

(Yes, I have personally used KDE 3, 4, 5 and Gnome 2, 3)

I tend to agree with this. If you want to seriously customize anything, it requires a "regedit" like system, or a separate "tweaking" tool. It reminds me very much of MacOS and the restraints/constraints imposed.

I've been using KDE for pretty much ever, though I've also tried a lot of other desktops over the almost 3 decades of Linux use, but I always come back to KDE. Especially more so now because I've read through some comparisons and KDE has somehow managed to become the leanest of all the major DEs with GTK3 (no idea how that happened, but I believe it to be true given my own experiences).

Quoting: kokoko3kI'm a long time kde (3,4,plasma) user.
Kde is great overall, but every now and then the team works to implement new things and does that without putting enough resources (lack of manpower) to test them before release (traumatic switch from the good kde3 to 4, then when 4 was finally perfect and bug free... BANG! Switch to the still broken plasma 5).
So you end up with weird bugs, expecially if you are on rolling releases distro like arch or fedora.
Example: right now, we're unable to access the very same removable medium after disconnecting it and reconnecting it again.
They're also working to make kwin work well on wayland, and doing that, they introduced graphical glitches in the X11 counterpart (i've spent last 2 days bisecting them, now they're fixed).
In the end I always feel like a beta tester, and I pray everytime a new release comes up :)
In the past i tried to switch to something else, but even considering all of the bugs, plasma remains the first choice for me.

(PS: You can have vertical panels and top taskbar in kde,
quick random examples:
https://store.kde.org/p/1167792/
https://store.kde.org/p/1176904/ )

When they move major versions things don't always go smoothly and it usually takes several minor versions into the major version release before things start to smooth out, but I feel like that typically always holds true of any major software rewrite.

When you rewrite large portions of code, you're bound to end up with mistakes/bugs or problems. Sometimes no amount of testing will find them because much of the testing ends up revolving around how it should work, not how it could work with end users doing "weird" things.

That said, I'm running Manjaro (Arch derivative) and have had basically zero issues with KDE for the last 3-4 years. (I've literally been "rolling" since late 2017/early 2018.) Now if they move beyond "plasma" into the next major release, I'll certainly expect problems then, but otherwise, aside from UX changes that are somewhat jarring at first, it's been smooth as butter for me.

Quoting: omicron-bJust wait until you open KMail and see that horrible button there
I recently heard lots of good things about KDE and tried it on the past weekend in Debian 11 (going to be released on 14/08/21 AFAIK).
I was quite frustrated with how KDE handles email and I could not even try Evolution as a flatpak app, for some reason it could not access my gpg key, even though flatpak showed clearly during installation that it should be able to.

I'll agree that Kmail isn't great. I tried using it a couple times recently. That said, I don't think Kmail is a reflection of KDE itself, just of that particular app, and where it can improve in usability and such.


In any case, I'm glad the OP is getting some good use out of KDE, even if it's not "UX perfect" OOB for them. The fact you can change/customize just about anything means if you don't like it, you can typically fix it without a lot of fuss IMHO, which for many is a con, but for me, is a pro. Makes my system my own.

Quoting: nightspaladinThat said, I'm running Manjaro (Arch derivative) and have had basically zero issues with KDE for the last 3-4 years. (I've literally been "rolling" since late 2017/early 2018.) Now if they move beyond "plasma" into the next major release, I'll certainly expect problems then, but otherwise, aside from UX changes that are somewhat jarring at first, it's been smooth as butter for me.

There are tons of reported bugs on their bugtracker, and no one touched you 'enough'.
I wish I was as lucky as you.

I've finally begun to really enjoy KDE Plasma myself now, seems most of my previous issues are gone.

The only current problem I see is that after exporting an image in GIMP, the taskbar freezes for 1-2 seconds. I often export, then hit the firefox icon to then upload the image but it catches me out and i often end up doing an extra frustration click that then opens and minimizes firefox <_<

I'm going to assume it's another edge-case of KWin+NVIDIA.

I get a taskbar freeze when switching back from another user. For me it lasts some 5-10 seconds, but then it’s a much slower machine.