Looking for a normie KDE distro that works out of the box and is stable without issues.
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
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
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
Sure, maybe they’re better now, but this long list is why the reputation stuck.
That and EndeavourOS exists
Also I’ve just actually looked at EndeavourOS’ website and it says very clearly front and centre that it’s focused on the terminal, which is entirely not what OP was even asking for. It might be a fine distro, I don’t know, I’ve never used it or checked how many years it is since they cocked up, but it doesn’t present itself as a KDE focused distro which is what OP (and I) want!
That must be why it ships with a GUI installer, that can install any of the popular DEs and WMs…
Or maybe you just have a weird bee in your bonnet about something that’s not even really a problem as evidenced from your own numbers
I simply showed why Manjaro has that reputation.
You also unwittingly showed why it doesn’t deserve it
Why? Because after a series of negligent incidents spanning multiple years, a couple of which impacted the AUR for everyone they’ve gone a year and a bit without another major incident?
Again, EndeavourOS exists – all Manjaro does for you is hold back packages making things unstable.
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’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 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.
Debian 12 stable with KDE is smooth sailing
KDE Neon is pretty nice, it’s probably my favorite KDE-based distro.
You can also check out:
- Fedora KDE
- openSUSE
- Kubuntu
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
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.
Yep ! From the official documentation of tumbleweed
Who should use openSUSE Leap instead of Tumbleweed?
While every effort is made to build them, at this point there is no guarantee to have all additional modules available in openSUSE Tumbleweed like for example, VMware or VirtualBox. And while the Packman Tumbleweed Essential repository attempts to deliver them there is no guarantee they will always succeed due to the incompatibilities with the quickly advancing Linux kernel. The problems with proprietary graphics drivers are similar and there is no guarantee they will work tomorrow, even if they do today. If you don’t know how to compile your own additional kernel modules and you don’t wish to learn or keep a very close eye on what is being up dated, please don’t use Tumbleweed.
I wasn’t sure about the state of Slowroll. In terms of stability, Tumbleweed ist absolutely fine. It’s the less frequent, but not super low frequent update cycle that’s interesting to me. I could always just ignore updates on TW, but I’ve got the urge to run the updates if there are any.
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.
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”.
