Hello everyone,

I've been looking to change distro (using kubuntu, mint kde and opensuse atm) and would like a recommendation. There are thousands of distros out there to look at them all. Ideally, I'd like a distro with all the following. The ones with a star * are required.

-*KDE as the main desktop. Kubuntu feels as if KDE was just an afterthought.
-*Uses systemd.
-Rolling release, or at least not as hard to upgrade as mint. I like bleeding edge but not ultra-bleeding-edge. That is, I want KDE 4.9, not a daily update from KDE-git. Latest *stable* is my goal.
-*A good package manager. I like some things about apt (kubuntu) like tab-completion from command line, and I like some things about zypper (opensuse) like 1-click-install and being able to just type zypper install thispackageihaveonmyharddrive.rpm and that's it, but I don't like that zypper takes forever to update sources every time I run it. Command line is ok, but I'd also like a good graphical front-end where I can do complex searches (like synaptic or yast).
-*Nvidia, codecs, flash, java, etc. should just work. I'm not an open-source purist. This is what I like most about mint.
-*Many, many packages. Preferably it should be compatible with a "big" distro (like ubuntu, suse, etc). I often use obscure packages.
-*Good smplayer-mplayer2 support. I don't understand why not many people use this great player.
-Easy to install is a plus, but I prefer power in the long run. Here kubuntu, mint and opensuse are all good, except that for some reason opensuse doesn't ask me for a computer name.
-*Easy way to create "native" packages from source code. checkinstall is a great package for this in kubuntu, but I've been reading and it looks like "archlinux" is more suited to this... I'm not sure.
-*firefox-kde-support. For a while kubuntu didn't have it and it suuuuucked. I want firefox but I don't like gnome file managers.
-*Some way to install non-native applications, like with "alien". Most things are packaged for ubuntu, which is the main reason I don't want
-*Good performance. And not just the phoronix-test-suite type of benchmarks. The system should feel responsive. Here my mint machine beats my opensuse one, even though my opensuse machine is way more powerful.
-A plus, but not required, would be compiz or some other desktop effects that let me zoom in (with the mouse wheel, not the stupid keyboard, like KDE-effects) and invert the colors. These are very good usability features I miss from when compiz worked nicely with KDE.
-Friendly community that doesn't call you stupid when asking a question.
-Dark color-support. This mostly works out because KDE has great dark-color support, but there are some things, like yast in opensuse, that I just can't get to use my desktop theme. Maybe it's my fault, but I couldn't get it to work.

I guess that is all. I've been looking to chakra, but it doesn't have a graphical front-end, and at mageia, but it doesn't do rolling release and it seems to me it has oldish packages. Arch is scary, I don't know if I want to edit too many configuration files. Maybe a derivative of some well-known distro...

Thank you!

look at openSuse's Tumbleweed, it a sort of rolling release as it needs to resync with new openSuse releases iirc http://en.opensuse.org/Tumbleweed

couple notes:
- Compiz, I think it's problematic with newer KDE's (maybe not Kubuntu as Ubuntu I think sponsors it, no idea)
- firefox-kde-support I think is an openSUSE project (again iirc)
- Alien, not in openSUSE repo's, I either installed someone else's rpm or compiled but it's a pretty iffy process better to compile and package with checkinstall
- Checkinstall is not distro specific (you seem to imply it)
- Package management, in openSUSE you have Yast, Zypper, Packagekit and plain ole rpm
- Zypper and refreshing of all respo's, I agree it's time consuming so you could use the option " --no-refresh", personally I tend to dl the rpm and use rpm if no dependency issues - not sure this is a true statement

I would suggest that you give Arch Linux a try in e.g. a virtual machine. It has a steeper learning curve than many other distros, but most of the time you'll find the answer in their excellent wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/). Failing that, you can also ask in their forums or IRC channel; as long as you've done your homework you'll most likely be treated well.

Some comments about Arch:

-*KDE as the main desktop.
Arch doesn't have a default desktop, but KDE applications are just a pacman -S away. Personally I like that packages are mostly vanilla (i.e., few distro-specific patches).

-*Uses systemd.
Not yet by default, but can easily be installed (see wiki).

-Rolling release
Yep!

-*A good package manager.
Pacman is nice, there are graphical interfaces (don't know if Shaman is still alive).

-*Nvidia, codecs, flash, java, etc. should just work. I'm not an open-source purist. This is what I like most about mint.
Well, you just have to install them.

-*Many, many packages. Preferably it should be compatible with a "big" distro (like ubuntu, suse, etc). I often use obscure packages.
Arch has many packages, and if yours isn't there, look in AUR. One of my favorite features of Arch!

-*Good smplayer-mplayer2 support. I don't understand why not many people use this great player.
Don't know, I guess you could just install that.

-Easy to install is a plus, but I prefer power in the long run. Here kubuntu, mint and opensuse are all good, except that for some reason opensuse doesn't ask me for a computer name.
Arch just god rid of its menu driven installer, but if you're comfortable with the command line and have access to the wiki it shouldn't be a big problem.

-*Easy way to create "native" packages from source code. checkinstall is a great package for this in kubuntu, but I've been reading and it looks like "archlinux" is more suited to this... I'm not sure.
Simple with PKGBUILDs in Arch! https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PKGBUILD

-*firefox-kde-support. For a while kubuntu didn't have it and it suuuuucked. I want firefox but I don't like gnome file managers.
There's a AUR packge for that, but it seems like it needs to be updated: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?I ... mments=all

-A plus, but not required, would be compiz or some other desktop effects that let me zoom in (with the mouse wheel, not the stupid keyboard, like KDE-effects) and invert the colors. These are very good usability features I miss from when compiz worked nicely with KDE.
Well, you could use xbindkeys to get it with KWin's effects as well: http://hanschen.org/2009/10/13/mouse-sh ... xbindkeys/

Thanks for your replies. I did know about tumbleweed (btw, best name ever!), but this put me off:
"Due to the Linux kernel being updated very frequently, users who rely on proprietary graphic drivers should not use the Tumbleweed repository unless they are familiar with updating these drivers from source on their own"

Heh.

Anyway, it sounds as if arch has virtually everything, although a bit hard... I'll try it when I have a free day.

Keep em coming!

Thanks again.

Also do a trial with ROSA Marathon 2012 LTS which uses KDE as the main distribution. It responds nearly all your needs except that it's not a rolling release

-*KDE as the main desktop ==> YES
-*Uses systemd ==> YES
-Rolling release ==> NO but latest stable KDE ==> YES
-*A good package manager ==> YES (Mandriva tools inside)
-*Nvidia, codecs, flash, java, etc. should just work ==> YES
-*Many, many packages. Preferably it should be compatible with a "big" distro (like ubuntu, suse, etc). ==> YES and if a packet is missing, just ask, ROSA teams are very reactive
-*Good smplayer-mplayer2 support ==> YES
-Easy to install is a plus, but I prefer power in the long run ==> YES
-*Easy way to create "native" packages from source code ==> Not sure but don't see why it would not be possible.
-*firefox-kde-support ==> YES (+1000)
-*Some way to install non-native applications ==> Not sure but don't see why it would not be possible.
-*Good performance ==> YES
-A plus, but not required, would be compiz ==> I never understand why some people insist on installing features "non-optimized" for KDE. Kwin is excellent and much better than compiz today
-Friendly community that doesn't call you stupid when asking a question ==> YES

http://linuxadvantage.blogspot.fr/2012/ ... -rosa.html

Chakra fits the bill if you remember it's primarily Gtk free (but catered for) and is being heavily developed at the moment. If you wanted a distro to get on the ground floor with and learn as you go, then it would be my KDE choice (in fact it is my choice lol). However I'd take a serious look at what Sabayon Linux has to offer.

There's always an element of compromise in picking the right distro, it's usually a lengthy trial and error process for most end users.

Just one thing to note about Arch: sometimes it may get unstable. You upgrade your system and KABOOM! X does not start anymore and you are left with command line only. Or kernel panics. Or app segfaults. Or something else.
In most cases fix is simple (downgrade or wait for already uploaded updated version), but still - this is something that needs your attention. If you are not used to fix problems by yourself and you are not willing to learn, then Arch may not be the best choice.

This is the price you must pay for Arch design decisions. They avoid distro-specific patches, they do rolling releases and they don't have branch for early adopters (as Sid is in Debian). In such configuration, problems must happen from time to time.

(I base my message on my personal experience with Arch from 2007. Things might have changed since then.)

Thanks everyone. I'll definitely try ROSA and see. Later I'll try Chakra and then Arch.

One more thing I'd like in a distro:
-It needs to be easy to install and set-up GRUB. Grub 2 is very much preferred. I dual boot to windows (for gaming) so this is important. Kubuntu and Mint were very good at this, but opensuse wasn't. I had to manually go in an edit stuff, and it detected windows as just "windows 1" and "windows 2", not as in kubuntu, "Windows 7 blah".

Thanks.

Minio wrote:Just one thing to note about Arch: sometimes it may get unstable. You upgrade your system and KABOOM! X does not start anymore and you are left with command line only. Or kernel panics. Or app segfaults. Or something else.
In most cases fix is simple (downgrade or wait for already uploaded updated version), but still - this is something that needs your attention. If you are not used to fix problems by yourself and you are not willing to learn, then Arch may not be the best choice.

In general you shouldn't run into much problems as long as you read the announcements prior to upgrading - some upgrades require manual intervening. I've had problems a few times, the last one with kernel panics due to a new kernel version.

With that said, I should have mentioned that Arch requires you to merge updated config files manually. There may be tools for this, but it's not something Arch does by default. So if you want something that "just works" and not have to deal with config files yourself, Arch may not be for you. More about the Arch way here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way

Sabayon (a gentoo based distribution) offers ability to install both binary packages (via sulfur or rigo) and source based packages (via portage). It's not as big as some other distributions but it's a rolling release and there are quite a few different desktop environments available including KDE. I switched to it from openSUSE six years ago. Command line installs are as simple as "equo install *packagename*" for binary or "emerge *packagename*" from source via portage. It might be worth looking at. The disc images produce live/installer discs and can also be run from a flash drive. With due caution DD works great for creating a bootable image on a usb drive.

Personally, I use regular openSUSE and add a handful of OBS repos to get a semi-rolling release (eg. latest KDE releases, latest LibreOffice, latest Mozilla releases).

Well, after Mint Debian Edition, Mint 12 KDE I put Mint into the waste bin, due to the fact, that the development team absolutely refuses to integrate KDE into its DVDs. Installing KDE on top of Cinnamon or Gnome is not what I want. Add to that quite an arrogant approach to their Debian Edition (without the Ubuntu part), so the boat was full to delete. I then tried Sabayon. However a distro who boosts to be top bleeding edge and has in July 12 still Gimp 2.7.x in the repos is not really trustworthy. Not that some people did not inform the developper, telling him that 2.7.5 is purely the Gimp-way to have release candidates and should not be in distros at all, they also «forgot» to include the real new real stable release 2.8.0. so no longer Sabayon for me. Then I tried out Chakra, but I do not want a distro in development. Debian Wheezy has to old applications, I'd like to get the new versions of about half a dozen apps like OpenOffice, Gimp, FF and TB, Scribus, Digikam, KDE quite soon. I really did not fancy going back to the stone-age. Fedora was also tested but I did not like it. All of them with KDE.

Result: I went back to Kubuntu and am happy with it. Since then, I am back at a good productivity and have no real problems, just from time to time a question due to not understandig the one or other issue.

I completely agree with Hans and everything that he said about Arch Linux.
Many people say it's a bit hard distro but this view is complicated imo. I would define it as a different. For example, lets say that I make a switch from Debian (Arch or anything else) to openSUSE (or vice versa). Well, it will be not easy to make the switch cuz they are totally different but this is not a reason to assign openSUSE as hard, right?

Yes, Arch Linux comes without DE and only basic stuff but we do pacman -S xorg kde and voila (or you can choose exactly which packages to install)! Plus for the newbies and not so, one of the strongest sides of Arch is Arch Wiki where everything is well documented. Whatever is not there, it probably is in Arch Forums.
So don't be aware to try it, it's not so scary

About configs (which in fact are not so many), you edit them once and forgot about them for years. For everything else, Hans already gave you answers so I won't repeat the list.

To be clear, I do not recommend you Arch as my personal favor distro or something but as distro that may fit your needs. I really appreciate that you know exactly what you want. The freedom to choose, try and use is in your hands, use it boldly.

Regards and good luck!

Xorlium wrote:...

-*KDE as the main desktop. Kubuntu feels as if KDE was just an afterthought.
...
-Friendly community that doesn't call you stupid when asking a question.
...

You mention lots of things that are good about Kubuntu, and not much bad - I question the points above:

Kubuntu has no GNOME or Unity on it; in DE terms it's pretty much pure KDE. The ubuntu infrastructure of apt, repositories, ppas, launchpad etc is pretty good, and Kubuntu uses all of that.

If you get your "community" support from one of the largest ubuntu forums (I won't name it...) then I agree entirely - KDE/Kubuntu are very much second-class citizens, and there certainly can be negative reactions to posts (from moderators too - basically because it's just too busy). But I can strongly recommend kubuntuforums.net as friendly and knowledgeable.

That said. Arch is definitely on my to-try list.

I second the line of questioning from above. The KDE in Kubuntu seems to be pretty well integrated and speedy. I tried OpenSUSE but I had issues like missing packages and having to manually add repos for software like VLC. It isn't a bad distro by any means but when the system offers to install additional software (codecs) and then asks me to manually add a repo to continue, I'm more than a little disappointed. I guess I've been spoiled by the user friendliness of the various Ubuntu distros.

The additional niceties I get like the Message Indicator are just icing on the cake.