Good evening,
I am very new to the KDE desktop environment. I have been using Linux since 2012 but not full time until early this year. Primarily I used Ubuntu and Mint (Cinnamon) as my primary distro and since January exclusively using Mint 18.3 Cinnamon. I recently installed Kubuntu 18.04 on one laptop and installed the KDE desktop with Mint 18.3 on my primary computer and I am debating whether or not to do a fresh install of a distro with KDE as the desktop environment. My questions at this time are:

1. is using Mint with KDE installed as one of the desktop choices different that doing a fresh install of Kubuntu or openSUSE?
2. Since Mint is no longer supporting KDE as an option w/ 19 should I migrate away from Mint?
3. I know everyone has their own "favourite" distro, but what are some recommendations for the best distro in terms of KDE functionality?

Thanks for reading!

J

jlapinski4 wrote:1. is using Mint with KDE installed as one of the desktop choices different that doing a fresh install of Kubuntu or openSUSE?

Yes and no. If everything works fine you can use it until the end of support for this particular Mint release. But Mint team will not support Plasma KDE so you will not receive new Plasma updates and releases. As far as I know Mint team recommended using Kubuntu backports repositories for the last Mint release with Plasma. Kubuntu 18.04 will probably get 5.13 in backports. You can track on Kubuntu website what Plasma releases were available for 16.04 to get familiar with Kubuntu release model. If you want to have fresh Plasma you can use Neon KDE or also use non-LTS Kubuntu releases but I don't recommend non-LTS releases. Just track what is new in Plasma and you will decide if it is worth to reinstall to get new features or bug fixes. So, every distribution may have different approach to releasing new versions of Plasma KDE. It is up to you to decide if you want to stay up-to-date or stay with a little older version.

jlapinski4 wrote:2. Since Mint is no longer supporting KDE as an option w/ 19 should I migrate away from Mint?

If desktop environment is the most important thing and distribution model is less important for you it is reasonable to use distribution that has team focused on good Plasma support, a team that implements Plasma bugs fixes - as for example KDE Neon team. You can use a rolling distribution as for example Manjaro and it will get new Plasma versions. For me it is not so important so I use Kubuntu LTS versions because I prefer a sense of balance between freshens and stability.

jlapinski4 wrote:3. I know everyone has their own "favourite" distro, but what are some recommendations for the best distro in terms of KDE functionality?

I have been using Kubuntu for 8 years and I am satisfied. What I would recommend to you is to think about what distribution model you prefer rolling or not and take time to read forums of each distribution and bug tracking systems and check what problem are reported. This way you will know a real evidence not only someone opinion or personal preferences.

For example users of one distribution with Plasma may have problems that other users don't have.

Thank you very much for your reply! I am still new enough to regular (day to day) Linux use that I am still learning what works best for me (in terms of rolling out, etc). I work in medicine but I am very interested in IT, coding, etc on the side. I have found that Linux works well for me in everyday use and I love the ability to customize my OS and NOT have my computer laden with junk (from Windows) or locked in to Mac OS.

That being said, I have a laptop that I have been using for testing out various distros (currently Kubuntu 18.04) and my main laptop that has Mint with the KDE desktop installed. My main laptop is the machine I am trying to decide which way to go with. I like your advice to try out the various distros and see which works best - and I can do that with my back up machine. I had one hell of a time installing Mint to my main laptop and getting Win 10 off the machine so I will likely keep Mint running until I am settled on a distro.

Thank you again for your time and your response!