****** INTRO
I've been learning Linux for the past few months. One of the distros i tried initially was Kubuntu and I hated it, but now I tried Fedora KDE and this one is defiantly manageable (or maybe i just understand Linux better now ).

Reason I'm looking to switch is because GNOME seems to be removing features here and there. Also, consequently, the two media viewing apps which I think are the best are Gwenview (image viewer) and Smplayer (video player), and they seem to be originating from KDE.

****** FILE MANAGER FEEDBACK
When it comes to the file manager though I think that all Nautilus, Nemo and Dolphin aren't good, and the only good one is Thunar because it seems to be able to handle lots and lots of files without a hitch and load them instantly. Despite being so fast, it still allows things like thumbnails, and has very easily configurable and intuitive custom actions.

When it comes to Doplhin in particular, I do like that it can easily open split screen, but custom actions (context menu items), are nowhere near as intuitive if you want to make them yourself as opposed to downloading them. Another thing is it counts the number of items inside of child folders, with no way to disable, which is one of the things I believe kills performance (though in Nautilus, which gives an option to disable this, it still performed noticeably worse than Thunar, even with it disabled). Aside from that, I can care less about stuff like tree views (in fact I believe it's utterly useless), and Dolphin's list view is pretty bad IMO. In list view, you have to click directly on the file's text to select it, as opposed to anywhere on the row dedicated to it like in Thunar and Windows Explorer.

****** QUESTION 1 - Transparency
So I was playing around with Fedora KDE in a VM, and so far I can tell there will be a list of apps I will be erasing / purging if I install it, and a whole bunch of things disabled. I really don't like animations and transparency. I figured out how to disable animations, but I can't figure out how to disable transparency. So that's the first thing I need help with. I don't necessarily need it disabled with everything (for example if some god knows what third-party app has it), but in as many places as possible. Like for example QT applications (and potentially GTK).

****** QUESTION 2 - Local Privacy
Then, there is what I like to call "local privacy". Simply put, I don't want apps, except for maybe a few to collect any valuable information about what I do, what I open etc. I specifically remember noticing this was quite prevalent when I tried Kubuntu months back. The start menu was collecting search data, and quite a few apps were as well. Does toggling the thing in Privacy settings address all the KDE "system" applications / extensions? I know it does Dolphin. I'm not expecting it to address "third-party" apps of course like VLC for example. And even if it doesn't, but I can do it manually (and backup those settings), I'm perfectly ok with it.

--- Feedback
Note that my post-install script for Fedora GNOME is quite long too and it removes / changes quite a few things. So nothing strictly against KDE.
The only four things I'm ok with collecting any form of data / history are my web browser (everything), image viewer (thumbnails), file explorer (thumbnails) and vscodum (to restore the files I had opened). 4 super easily manageable things. I don't need anything else like "per-folder" display settings in the file manager and all those fancy things.

****** QUESTION 3 - File Indexing
Additionally, another local-privacy related thing is file indexing. I don't want that either. In GNOME I figured out how to mask a systemd service called "tracker3" and I can only assume KDE has something of the sort as well. If so, how do I get rid of it?

****** QUESTION 4 - System settings backup
Lastly, once I install KDE and configure it I wanna backup my system settings, so I don't have to set them up again. In GNOME I figured out a bunch of "gesettings" commands that let me set everything up exactly how I want. For KDE I read people recommending backing up your entire config and local folders in the home directory, and I don't want to do that. I wanna know exactly what everything is and copy only the things I wanna copy. I think it was on Reddit I found a link to this Github page, where if you scroll down, some person has supposedly figured out all the file locations of system settings files and what they are for. Can you guys confirm these are right? https://github.com/shalva97/kde-configuration-files

****** QUESTION 5 - Disable App Launcher hover
Actually, one final thing I wasn't able to figure out. I want to disable hovering. For example the start menu (app launcher I think it was called), I don't want for the different categories to open when I hover over them.

--- Feedback
To be completely honest, I don't even want any of those categories in the first place. I use the start menu simply as an application launcher, where I have a bunch of apps pinned, as opposed to filling my taskbar up with icons. I've been doing it in Windows too, and it's especially easy for me since one of the keys on my mouse is mapped to the Start/Super key. This way I have a taskbar where every icon is guaranteed to be something that's opened, and it's really clean. Combine that with virtual desktops and my panel never has more than say 4-5 icons in it (per desktop). In any case though if I can at least disable hovering I'd be more than happy.

****** QUESTION 6 - Disable Panel icons hover
Same thing with application icons in the panel. Clicking on an icon toggles minimize/show if a single instance, and shows all opened instances with multiple instances.

--- Feedback
Overall IMO, hovering, and especially with the delays = cancer, and feels just like animations, which like I said I hate. By the way I've been able to achieve exactly that in GNOME with Dash to Panel and ArcMenu and a bunch of tweaks to their settings.

Hi!

To have everything under control it would be better to not use a big desktop environment like GNOME oder Plasma. Instead look for a window manager that you like and does nothing special. I'm on sway as I prefer tiling window managers and added only the services I wanted. Most things are done in a graphical terminal instance using shell aliases or helper scripts, so I am not distracted by anything while working on it.

A lot of stuff depends on the distribution you use. You should check all autostart possibilities, systemd-units (in userspace too with `systemctl --user`), PolicyKit and login managers scripts. Some of them are needed to allow desktop environments to work properly.

Back to KDE/Plasma:
Systemsettings → Appearance
→ Launch Feedback, check no feedback
Systemsettings → Workspace → Workspace Behaviour
→ General Behaviour: uncheck "Display informational tooltips" and "visual feedback", set the animation speed to "instant"
→ Desktop Effects: Check what they are for and enable/disable them to your needs.
→ Virtual Desktops: Disable animation on switch
Systemsettings → Workspace → Search
→ File Search: uncheck "Enable File Search"
→ Plasma Search: Disable History, check only plugins you need: Most of them using any search won't work as you disabled baloo (file search/indexing)
Systemsettings → Personalization → User Feedback: Check what you want to send or not, default is everything disabled (perhaps depending on the distro)

To clean possible indexed files, use

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balooctl purge

Configuration files: I didn't check the list you provided, but in general you can search for (k)appnamerc files in ~/.config`. Data is stored in ~/.local/share/appname. There is also a helper available at KDE Store:Plasma Customization Saver which also takes care of your wallpapers and stuff.

Editing configuration files is not supported but may work. To be sure that your changes won't be overwritten use `kwriteconfig5` command line tool.

Concerning your graphical feedback, I cannot help. I'm very rarely using a file manager. Perhaps you may switch to openbox to have a more 2D-desktop feeling, or simpy disable the composer (think this only works on X).

Ok thank you very much for the info. That kwriteconfig5 you mentioned might be the thing to use if copying the config files doesn't work. I will have to test that when I have the time.

As for tiling windows managers and terminal-focused, I tried, but can't really use them productively. When it comes to tiling managers, I don't have a specific workflow. I have many completely different and opposing workflows, many of which require a full on GUI to be productive.

Overall, I only use the terminal for simple one-liners, testing stuff and installing apps. It's way too barebones for anything else. For example, imagine you have a directory with hundreds of files, you need to select 5 of them, which have nothing in common (name, size, type etc.), long names, and run a custom script that takes a bunch of user inputs and does something. Hence why Thunar + custom actions is what does it for me.

Oh and that other thing you mentioned about disabling composting to fully remove transparency works. The first distro I stayed on was Mint Xfce. There I simply disabled composting and all transperancy was gone. Literally the only thing that prevented me from staying on xfce was that the notifications log was not interactive. In other words, if you receive an email notification, you can't click on it, so it opens the app it came from. Especially if you have multiple emails and other apps sending you notifications, this makes a big difference.

I should defiantly be able to mask the indexer service I believe. I didn't break anything in gnome. Masking it basically sends all the data it produces to /dev/null, as opposed to actually disabling it. So essentially, it will be indexing stuff, but nothing will be saved. In GNOME, the commands to mask tracker3 were:

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systemctl --user mask tracker-extract-3.service tracker-miner-fs-3.service tracker-miner-rss-3.service tracker-writeback-3.service tracker-xdg-portal-3.service tracker-miner-fs-control-3.service
tracker3 reset -s -r

By the way, I do have to ask, do people actually use stuff like recent files, file indexing, per-app history (except for browser) enabled by default? Windows has it, Linux has it, Android has it, I can only assume Mac and IOS have it as well. Not once have I had to use recent files my whole life. If you have well-named, organized files and bookmarks, It's literally useless.
I'm not gonna go after animations and transparency because I know a lot of people like them, but when it comes to animations, I do have to say:
Lag = delay
Animations = delay
Lag = Animations

kde-random wrote:As for tiling windows managers … which require a full on GUI to be productive.

Why isn't a tiling window manager a full GUI? Most of my applications are comfortable usable in full-screen-mode, thats where tiling has its strength. I usually have two or three browser windows for different purposes, Emacs as my main tool for all around text files and some free virtual desktops for other tools. In Plasma I have activities for different tasks with up to four virtual desktops to get the same (but honestly much more cluttered).

Overall, I only use the terminal for simple one-liners, … 5 of them, which have nothing in common…

Well, if you make heavy use of aliases, you have a lot of simple one-liners. Yakuake (drop-down Konsole) comes in handy there. For the special case of selecting multiple different files that are not related to an application, e.g. renaming or similar, I'm using Dolphin too. It also has custom actions named servicemenus, see Creating Dolphin Service Menus where you can add stuff like merging PDF or convert formats or whatever you need.

… if you have multiple emails and other apps sending you notifications…

I hate notifications and normally do not use them as they distract me from what I'm doing. Email check is enough two times a day for me. I only need a notification on the laptop to not run out of power.

I should …

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systemctl --user …

Thats what `balooctl disable` or the checkbox in "Search" does for KDEs baloo. There is no service to mask or disable besides it. disabled is disabled and persistent disabled. After indexing you can still search the contents, what I really like about baloo. I need to disable it and reindex it from time to time as my external mounts via nfs and sshfs are reindexed every time due to changed inodes or whatever baloo checks for.
What I really don't like about desktop environments is that strange multimonitor behaviour. This is much easier in a simple wayland environment like sway, where you adjust your settings on the monitors name and not the connection type and don't have clean, new desktops after a reconnect.

By the way, I do have to ask, do people actually use stuff like recent files…

On Plasma I'm using the baloo index as I have file content indexed as well on my external storage. Its easy to search for special textual content as I often reming that I've written down something but not where exactly… brain is getting older…
The recent file stuff I only use in Okular to reopen some PDF files or as in recent folders in other applications like Krita/Gimp, but I don't rely on having them. Most things are just I write, I'm writing in Emacs which has a superb project and workspace management and file search. Admittedly, it takes a lot of masochism to set up the editor — but it's worth it.

Animations… well, the first linux distribution I used was Suse which had KDE3 with jumping and bouncing icons which was that horrible that I fled to gnome2 Some animations are useful, e.g. switching virtual desktops as it sometimes happens accidently if your fingers are faster than your brain. But I don't need them too.
Some of them are much more useful on touch screens. But I recently got my first laptop with touch and besides playing the small kde games I do not use it in a meaningful way with gestures or so.

Ok thanks. i guess I could use a tiling window manager like Sway. Though it would be much more useful if I could open stuff in full screen by default than for things to tile automatically. I will look into it some later date. Workspaces would need to work good too, specifically the ability to isolate them from one another (the app list etc.)

As for the notifications, I do agree in a way. The emails I have currently do not receive many emails. Additionally, I have unsubbed from all mailing lists, and I delete new emails, keeping my inboxes mostly empty. GMAIL's trash is kept for 30 days so if I need to restore something in that time period I can. So when an email is received, if needed I take note of it and delete it. Years ago I was selling stuff online and I'd get new emails non-stop. I sure as hell would not want notifications for that lol. Like you said, check a few times a day.