KDE opinions from anyone who knows about Linux please?

Question

Hi I'm a big fan of Linux and recently I've been trying different desktop environments. As most people know the most commonly used are GNOME and KDE. I've come to discover that I really like KDE. I've only tried Kubuntu so far as a KDE base distribution. It seems that Kubuntu has a few bugs in it and I'm not too crazy about them. I would like your opinions on your experience with KDE. Which KDE distributions have you used before and why did you like them? Which distributions have the most pros and the least cons? Which distribution will most likely be a good success with KDE in the future? Also it seems that KDE on Kubuntu runs slowly on my computer with three gigs of ram. Is three gigs of ram enough to run KDE properly? Another thing I'd like to know about is the program applications. Does KDE have stable programing? Is installing restricted drivers and extras difficult? Well I think I've covered about everything. Please let me know your feedback on the matter of the KDE environment. All opinions are appreciated and please forgive me about asking so much in this yahoo question. Have a great day and God bless you.

Answer 1

I have searched for ages to find a distro. with a default KDE desktop and finally found one in the shape of Pardus 2011

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pardus

http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2011/01/31/pardus-2011/



I am certain KDE has a lot more to offer but I found the release of OpenSUSE 11 a major disappointment with the what was then the all new KDE 4



If you want to try out a few Linux distros. Grab a budget pack of CD-R's and start creating some LiveCD's

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto



Next stop is DISTROWATCH.COM where you will find a whole host of distros.that are available for download. The second link lists the most popular distros.

http://distrowatch.com/

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major



Wonderful things are LiveCD's and an ideal way of trying out a distro. without committing yourself







LUg.

Answer 2

You have to be aware that when KDE (or any large open source project) releases a new version there will be bugs and problems with it. KDE 4.0 (a new major update) had lots of problems and the later releases 4.1 and 4.2 etc sorted them out until most people feel that now 4.5 is pretty stable. If you google for kde 4.0 +problems you will get a lot of hits about the many problems with it; but notice that most of them are from 2008. That is the cost for living on the bleeding edge.

Bottom line is that it takes time to get all the problems out of a new release and a lot of linux users will refuse to update to any new major release (the number ends in .0) but will wait until version .3 or so is released.

I use KDE and stuck with KDE 3.5 until just recently when I moved up to KDE 4.5. It is working well for me. I do not expect to upgrade to KDE 5.0 until it get to at least KDE 5.3 or so.

I also use ubuntu and stay with the LTS 10.04 (long term release) rather than upgrading every 6 months to the new releases to avoid all the bugs. I prefer stability to the leading (bleeding) edge.

Good luck

Answer 3

i use kde4 with mandriva linux, at the moment with 3gb ram and 4gb swap space along with a 2.6 single core cpu



i've found it very stable and reliable for all my needs, works as it should with no lagging or slowness,

using the 'kick off' style panel is better (i-m-o) than classic style as its easier to find your applications,

programs are virtually the same for all kde desktops,

all will have k3b, konqueror, amarok, kmail, kwrite, etc,



i have pclinuxos2010 kde4 installed on a laptop with only 512mb ram, does the job well - although a little slow, but not slow enough to be an annoyance



as for pro's and con's - any user can only comment on the version that they use,

i use mandriva and it has never let me down,

pclinuxos had a problem on the lappy with sound but alsaconfig from a terminal fixed it, otherwise no other problems



on the other side - i have never got any ubuntu derivative successfully installed on my system without a lot of command stuff,



restricted and proprietary software is mainly down to the version of linux you are running,

pclinuxos comes with most,

mandriva comes with restricted drivers but for other proprietary software then an extra repository has to be added (the plf repo's)