You could use KDE neon instead of Kubuntu which provides newer releases of plasma. The current one uses Ubuntu 20.04 as its base. To have it «bleeding edge» use the developer install — but that is not meant to be a daily driver os.
I do prefer arch as my daily driver, as it is a very stable distribution and also provides the current versions of the software I use without having to manually intervent. Although I have plasma installed on arch, I do use sway as window manager on my (current) main account. I'm also using FreeBSD and KDE neon (mainly for playing with it) on my Laptop as I do not use it frequently and arch requires to update often.

So, the questions are still the same: What do you really need? Which software do you use? What are your main tasks? You can use every distribution you want to, but sometimes things are easier with another one. We/I can just give you some hints. The best is to try different systems in a virtual machine (I do use KVM) to know «what feels best». Another aspect is the community of your chosen distribution. For my needs, the best documentation/forums are available for FreeBSD and arch (and I do like small systems more than all-in-one-stuff).

koffeinfriedhof wrote:You could use KDE neon instead of Kubuntu which provides newer releases of plasma. The current one uses Ubuntu 20.04 as its base. To have it «bleeding edge» use the developer install — but that is not meant to be a daily driver os.
I do prefer arch as my daily driver, as it is a very stable distribution and also provides the current versions of the software I use without having to manually intervent. Although I have plasma installed on arch, I do use sway as window manager on my (current) main account. I'm also using FreeBSD and KDE neon (mainly for playing with it) on my Laptop as I do not use it frequently and arch requires to update often.

So, the questions are still the same: What do you really need? Which software do you use? What are your main tasks? You can use every distribution you want to, but sometimes things are easier with another one. We/I can just give you some hints. The best is to try different systems in a virtual machine (I do use KVM) to know «what feels best». Another aspect is the community of your chosen distribution. For my needs, the best documentation/forums are available for FreeBSD and arch (and I do like small systems more than all-in-one-stuff).

Thanks again, you gave me a lot to think about....
I am a retired web designer, my main application is a UK based software package and I am using Evolution for email and some utility tools for video clips - Flowblade, Converseen for batch image processing, Kazam and Pinta.

I have this Intel-NUC as my desktop and a Microsoft Surface Laptop, both with the same OS, don't have much spare time to play, just build websites...

Cheers
Alex

Maybe they'll throw me at the stake for that, but to be honest, you should think about another desktop environment as your software is mostly gtk-based. There is nothing bad at mixing it, but the workflows do not fit together, e.g. the file open dialogs, tray messages, sometimes the clipboard. KDE-Software is much more comfortable if used in a Qt-environment. GTK is just different.
There are options one can use to increase compatibility, but it is a work-in-progress to get a better compatibility between both worlds.

I am using (doom-)Emacs for most of my tasks and this is my «weak point» in an otherwise qt-based environment. But there is nothing like emacs… (I know, I know… but once addicted… ) I used to let both talk over DBus which works to e.g. send global shortcuts to Emacs, but you have to write the emacs part yourself. So I know how it is to combine those worlds and it works. I'm waiting for wayland support to get better, then things will again change a lot and it's time to reevaluate.

To get back to the operating system: Kubuntu should be okay for you. If you want to get newer plasma releases consider using KDE neon. It is basically the same, just with a more recent Qt/KDE-Software/Plasma on top of the ubuntu base. I do not know how another installation would do on a microsoft product, but it seem to need some tinkering, at least for arch: ArchWiki: MS surface pro 3.

koffeinfriedhof wrote:Maybe they'll throw me at the stake for that, but to be honest, you should think about another desktop environment as your software is mostly gtk-based. There is nothing bad at mixing it, but the workflows do not fit together, e.g. the file open dialogs, tray messages, sometimes the clipboard. KDE-Software is much more comfortable if used in a Qt-environment. GTK is just different.
There are options one can use to increase compatibility, but it is a work-in-progress to get a better compatibility between both worlds.

I am using (doom-)Emacs for most of my tasks and this is my «weak point» in an otherwise qt-based environment. But there is nothing like emacs… (I know, I know… but once addicted… ) I used to let both talk over DBus which works to e.g. send global shortcuts to Emacs, but you have to write the emacs part yourself. So I know how it is to combine those worlds and it works. I'm waiting for wayland support to get better, then things will again change a lot and it's time to reevaluate.

To get back to the operating system: Kubuntu should be okay for you. If you want to get newer plasma releases consider using KDE neon. It is basically the same, just with a more recent Qt/KDE-Software/Plasma on top of the ubuntu base. I do not know how another installation would do on a microsoft product, but it seem to need some tinkering, at least for arch: ArchWiki: MS surface pro 3.

A lot of what you say here, sounds to me like another language, emacs, qt, gtk... I have no idea about what all these are... As I said, I have a long way to go.

As it stands, my environment is stable at most times, I have at times a case that Evolution doesn't start and I am forced to reboot, but it happens only seldom and not enogh times to make me want to experiment. Yes, I wanted to install Neon, but could get a good USB bootable, so igave up. I removed and installed various versions of Linux over the past 5 months and I am tired of this...

Cheers, take care

In short: Qt and GTK are software frameworks. That means they provide methods, classes and basic systems for developers to (more) easily create portable, translatable and small software with the same look and feel and without having to implement everything themselve. The KDE/Plasma stuff depends on Qt and contributes a lot of code to it.
GTK is the GNOME pendant, also used by xfce, lxde, mate, …
The «big thing» is, that they both provide advanced techniques to create GUI-Applications (graphical user interface). Handling of keyboard, window building, theming, etc. is different so that there has to be a lot of compatibility work to be done to handle applications of the other framework as the user expects.


Emacs is an old text editor released in the 80s or so. (well, they say: Emacs is the greatest operating system but lacks of a good editor )
Emacs uses a dialect of LISP (a programming language) and is extendable to nearly everything. There is a real big community providing a lot of advanced plugins helping to do everything with emacs that can be done with text files (and more). The doom-Emacs I linked above is emacs with vim¹-keybindings and a good choice of packages to start. Emacs has own repositories, a package management, etc.
Starting with emacs is hard, as it depends on thousands of shortcuts / key combinations and to be honest, the lisp-syntax is a living nightmare but straight forward.
For me org-mode is the killer feature emacs provides, but it is also usable as a development platform for every language (as source code is text).
it does support the mouse in some ways, but I do not really know how it works, as I'm a keyboard-only-user in environments where it is possible.

¹: vim (vi improved) is another great and extendable text editor.

koffeinfriedhof wrote:In short: Qt and GTK are software frameworks. That means they provide methods, classes and basic systems for developers to (more) easily create portable, translatable and small software with the same look and feel and without having to implement everything themselve. The KDE/Plasma stuff depends on Qt and contributes a lot of code to it.
GTK is the GNOME pendant, also used by xfce, lxde, mate, …
The «big thing» is, that they both provide advanced techniques to create GUI-Applications (graphical user interface). Handling of keyboard, window building, theming, etc. is different so that there has to be a lot of compatibility work to be done to handle applications of the other framework as the user expects.


Emacs is an old text editor released in the 80s or so. (well, they say: Emacs is the greatest operating system but lacks of a good editor )
Emacs uses a dialect of LISP (a programming language) and is extendable to nearly everything. There is a real big community providing a lot of advanced plugins helping to do everything with emacs that can be done with text files (and more). The doom-Emacs I linked above is emacs with vim¹-keybindings and a good choice of packages to start. Emacs has own repositories, a package management, etc.
Starting with emacs is hard, as it depends on thousands of shortcuts / key combinations and to be honest, the lisp-syntax is a living nightmare but straight forward.
For me org-mode is the killer feature emacs provides, but it is also usable as a development platform for every language (as source code is text).
it does support the mouse in some ways, but I do not really know how it works, as I'm a keyboard-only-user in environments where it is possible.

¹: vim (vi improved) is another great and extendable text editor.

Thanks again, for taking the time to try and educate me

As it goes in life, the more you learn about any topic, the more questions you have.

I am 75 years "young" IT retired person, living in a retirement village. I run a regular weekly class for the other residents in the village, they keep telling me that they are "Confused" with the technology.... I keep telling them, the more you get to know, the more confused you will be....

Take care
Alex

alexorly wrote:…I keep telling them, the more you get to know, the more confused you will be....

That's it. I'm confused every day And: you're welcome

Good luck with your confused residents and take care too.