Hi all!

Until now I have used other desktop environments and window manager than KDE but i followed KDE with a lot of interests and I think now it is the time to switch.

If you use GNOME there are a lot of first-class distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu. But for KDE i'm not sure. For me Kubuntu always looked like the "toy-ubuntu". Hope I don't affront someone with the previous sentence, it's just personal feeling.

For me it is also important that the distribution differs between free and non-free software because by default i want to install free software only and want choose non-free software only knowingly.

Therefore I think distributions like Fedora, Debian and (k)Ubuntu could be a good choice. But I would like to hear some experience from you, as (long time) KDE users.

Which distribution do you use?
Which one would you recommend to have a good KDE experience?

Thanks!

this is pretty much a duplicate of viewtopic.php?f=63&t=62541&start=0&hilit=which+distro

I really don't understand what the beef is with Kubuntu. When I first switched to KDE, I tried Kubuntu and I tried openSUSE. I wanted to install openSUSE first, but eventually ended up on Kubuntu. It was a more user friendly experience for me. Now it gives me my KDE without causing me to miss out on the many .deb packages made for Ubuntu.

However, it's clear Kubuntu receives less attention from Canonical than Ubuntu, but that's not all bad. If you want a heavily modified version of Gnome, you can get that from Ubuntu. If you want a heavily modified version of KDE, you won't find that in Kubuntu.

Edit: Typo.

i agree, i stick with kubuntu (and arch) after trying out a bunch like mandriva, opensuse, fedora... kubuntu and arch offer the most clean "upstream" experience with the least modifications... and kubuntu is pretty good these days even though its like a stepchild to ubuntu.

My own beef with Kubuntu was with a few flaws;

1. Installation from LiveDVD/USB somehow installs Pulseaudio (though it shouldnt)

2. KNetworkManager cannot connect to WPA2 networks. This is bad, esepcially when multiple systems aren't provided to back it up. Apparently this has been fixed in bugs.kde.org, but I don't know if Kubuntu 9.10 will come out with it (currently in SVN)

3. KPackageKit; experimental, at best. Horrible at worst. Needs a big BETA sticker.


I'm currently on Linux Mint KDE Community edition. No, it may not be the true KDE experience (a lot of GNOME apps, including, oddly, the GNOME keyring, have been put in by default) but it's as stable as anything.

vishalrao wrote:kubuntu and arch offer the most clean "upstream" experience

Thats a good point.
It depends on what someone wants from a (good) KDE Distribution.

If you want a clean upstream KDE without modification (and integration) you may should use Kubuntu, Debian or Arch.

If you want a distribution which perfectly combines the OS with the Desktop Environment than you should use Mandriva or openSuSE.

Regards,
TeaAge

TeaAge wrote:

vishalrao wrote:If you want a clean upstream KDE without modification (and integration) you may should use Kubuntu, Debian or Arch.

If you want a distribution which perfectly combines the OS with the Desktop Environment than you should use Mandriva or openSuSE.

Thanks. Too bad Mandriva also uses RPM. I want something as good as OpenSUSE, but with debian package management. Kubuntu is not it.

EDIT: Is PcLinuxOS available with KDE 4.3.2?

arch linux

it requires minimal tech skills and is not very stable (sometimes not functional packages come in the updates) but if you accept this its the best disro of them all

vishalrao wrote:kubuntu and arch offer the most clean "upstream" experience with the least modifications

Really? I read something about including a backport of a really pre-alpha version of the netbook containment on next kubuntu, and remember trying kubuntu last year to find they broke the plasma menu disabling activities (among other things I don't remember any more). Not to mention it seems they are introducing a new, not upstream, notification system.
Not sure about arch, but AFAIK there is no distro close to "upstream" now. Maybe on gentoo you can choose not to build a modified version. Maybe when kde 4.5 is released distros will not feel the need to backport any more, but now...

RGB wrote:Really? I read something about including a backport of a really pre-alpha version of the netbook containment on next kubuntu

Partially true. It will be available but only as a technology preview. That is, it won't be marketed as being ready for end-users.

But otherwise I agree. I don't think Kubuntu (whatever its pros and cons are otherwise) can be considered a clean, upstream version of KDE.

I think Kubuntu is pretty true to form over KDE. It's just KDE+Linux. Whereas most other KDE distros are KDE+Linux+Their preferred software+Their own branding/mods. Kubuntu, as far as I can see, does very little of that, if anything it augments, rather then modifies, KDE.

Also, I can confirm that the netbook technical preview is....well, still a preview. Very pretty, though.

My experience with Kubuntu (which I have installed next to PCLinuxOS with KDE 4.3.2 from their kde4 repos) is that it is still Ubuntu + KDE - gnome desktop. It still uses gnome/Ubuntu apps where they can make use of KDE apps/technology. Yesterday I was ripping some CDs, and when I popped in the CD it was a gnome/ubuntu prompt which asked which (gnome) app I wanted to use to open the CD (one for playing and one for ripping). No KDE apps in the menu. I had to do some digging to find K3B to rip the CD.

airdrik wrote:My experience with Kubuntu (which I have installed next to PCLinuxOS with KDE 4.3.2 from their kde4 repos) is that it is still Ubuntu + KDE - gnome desktop. It still uses gnome/Ubuntu apps where they can make use of KDE apps/technology. Yesterday I was ripping some CDs, and when I popped in the CD it was a gnome/ubuntu prompt which asked which (gnome) app I wanted to use to open the CD (one for playing and one for ripping). No KDE apps in the menu. I had to do some digging to find K3B to rip the CD.

I haven't found this with Kubuntu. Was that Ubuntu with the KDE desktop installed into it or a clean Kubuntu install?

I'm testing with a Kubuntu 9.04 updated to 4.3.2 here.

OpenBSD
http://www.openbsd.org/

Which KDE distro has the best Firefox integration? OpenSUSE seems to do a great job with that, but their package management isn't to my liking. I'm thinking about trying Chakra, but I'm concerned Arch might be too high maintenance for me. If that isn't the case, and I can stick with Chakra, what would it take to get the equivalent level of Firefox integration that I enjoy in openSUSE?

Also, has there been any discussion in the KDE camp about making Chromium a default browser?

I hope these topics are not hot buttons. I'm not trying to start an argument. I simply have browser preferences that don't match the current KDE defaults.

Any recommendations? Thoughts? Thanks.