End of KDE

[catweazel]

Antergos is also worth a look if you haven't finalised on Manjaro. It has KDE out of the box also and I found it just as stable (in fact moreso) than Manjaro - based on admittedly limited experience.

I took a look at Antergos but its mirrors are limited and very slow from this part of the planet. Also, the default application installer was absolutely terrible and very buggy. I'm certain the Antergos default DE was gnome 3 and I really don't like gnome 3 at all. A frankendistro with a buggy app installer was out of the question so I ditched it.

[jglen490]

O.K., interesting.

[Fred Barclay]

I took a look at Antergos but its mirrors are limited and very slow from this part of the planet. Also, the default application installer was absolutely terrible and very buggy. I'm certain the Antergos default DE was gnome 3 and I really don't like gnome 3 at all. A frankendistro with a buggy app installer was out of the question so I ditched it.

I tried Angergos once a bit back... I don't recall much trouble about the installer but I think it put my /home in a weird location or something like that.

About Arch - the worst part is the first few days. After that I've pretty figured out all the packages I need/want.
(I did the opposite of you a few years back - jumped into Arch before I'd even heard of Manjaro. I've never gotten over the wonder of realising a ready-made Arch-based distro existed, much less one so nicely put together as Manjaro. That's probably why I have such a soft spot for the distro even though I almost never use it.)

[MadmanRB]

Cinnamon is Clems baby, KDE

That's pretty much all you got right. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Mint KDE.

Eh I had a few issues with it, it wasnt perfect.
But i think that is due to Ubuntu more than mint, again ubuntu's kde maintainers have never been the best at it.
Especially compared to distros like Maui or Manjaro.

[Jedinovice]

Oh no, Jedonice is going to have a meltdown.

Naw. There are plenty Linux dostros out there.

It was a shock when I read the news having JUST returned from Jakarta having made my visa renewal application. So it was a bit double take.

I grant it's a pain for me. But it's not that much of a surprise. Mint has been a Gnome edition at heart and the move from Plasma 4 to 5 seems to have so steep that it's broken the dev teams back. So I always figured KDE would be dropped after Mint 18.0. That's why I have had an eye on other KDE based distros.

Fortunately, I have bought in laptops and so I have room to test and check. Downloading PCLinuxOS now.
I never really wanted a rolling distro i days gone by but it's getting to be more of an advantage than a disadvantage now and I have liked what I have seen of PCLinuxOS. A lot actually. PCLinuxOS has done some things I wish Mint had. Also, PCLinuxOS is a semi-rolling distro and its a KDEcentric distro. Mint ws also Cinnamon/Mate first.
Clem has decided that that's the way for Mint. I actually always believed that eventually KDE would go.

Yes, KDE is all but essential for my needs and, frankly, it's a right royal pain transferring to another distro but... it's Clem's call and at least with Linux I have choice!!

Given KDE is my wish and not Mint per say, I can move to another distro where KDE is king. I could go Neon if I have to!

Thanks to Clem for all the work to date. Yes,I will be moving on and as fast as I reasonably can [Gads,I have to fight the Acer broken BIOS again. I gotta find time to get Acer to update the BIOS] but I am very grateful for a great distro to date. But while I could patch KDE into the distro,it's not smart when dealing with the non-technical... like my wife. So I will go where KDE is loved!

[Jedinovice]

They can all come join the XFCE side of the force

"May the mouse be with you."

Not until XFCE features keyboard shortcut support like KDE and the file manager is updated to match the power of Dolphin...

...which isn't going to happen because the system overhead in XFCE would turn what is supposed to be a relatively lightweight DE into a 'meaty' one.
Such is life. I liked what I saw of XFCE - I did trial it briefly - but Thunar is weak (even though I have it installed on Mint KDE as a 'quick and dirty' file manager for certain purposes) and I live and die by the keyboard shortcuts support. "May the mouse be with you" sums other DE's up for me. Lots of mouse/touchpad movement which when you are taking the laptop with you on trains, planes and automobiles like I am, and carrying the laptop with one hand (I have to use small, light, minimal power netbooks) it's not A1.

Also... it seems KDE and LXDE are the only DE's that allow for changing of the screen colours without loading in something like 'Gnome-color-changer' (which has not changed/been updated in years.)

The Gnome minimalist approach is not for me. I'll go slow and powerful over fast but limiting.

It's OK. To each their own. Linux is choice. "A man's desktop is his castle."

[Jedinovice]

I'll just switch to Kubuntu. No problem.

Tough decision. I ran Kubuntu on my desktop for a years, and Mint KDE everywhere else. Finally switched to KDE everywhere.

Hard choices coming up. Switch to XFCE/MAte Mint, or go back to Kubuntu. Even Ubuntu MAte is a solid distro these days.

I don't like the idea of pulling in KDE on top of Mint. If I'm going to do that, might as well start with Ubuntu minimal or serevr as the base OS.

I am downloading PCLinuxOS right now and have a brand new laptop which is not configured yet. I had installed Mint on it but the machine can be re-installed. I'll trial PCLinuxOS and report back. I have booted it up in the past and liked it. It's a rolling distro but, as I understand it, only for KDE and OS - not apps and geared towards stability.

Given how Plasma is developing these days (very fast and it seems some distros can't keep up!) I figure PCLinuxOS is a good way to go. And you still get PPA's!

I'll report back after trials.

[Jedinovice]

I've started a new topic for giving feedback on other KDE distros to try and aid choices/decisions.

So as feedback does not get mixed in with this thread. Hopefully will prove an information mine in due course.

viewtopic.php?f=60&t=256128

[samriggs]

I moved to manjaro last night...

Sorry to see you go. Will you still stick around these forums?

I been using manjaro for quite some time now, you should enjoy it catweasel, it's pretty solid on most points, the rest of the family gets mint to make my life easier on fixing stuff.
I use the xfce version but kde is also a base system for them so they put effort into it.
I went the opposite route, I used arch first for some time, but it's to unstable for my work station, but I did love it, manjaro is more stable, plus I been getting lazy lately and not using the terminal as much but I keep doing upgrades once in awhile through the terminal to keep me in practice.
For me it's arch based from now on, I put the wife on arch once, although she loved the speed, and didn't mind taking care of things through the terminal all the time, she prefers using software managers and upgrade managers instead like mints. Plus if something got broke it was up to me to fix it.

[xenopeek]

I put the wife on arch once, although she loved the speed, and didn't mind taking care of things through the terminal all the time, she prefers using software managers and upgrade managers instead like mints.

There's a whole bunch of software & upgrade managers that work on Arch Linux. Anything packagekit based. Specifically for the topic at hand, KDE Discover. Bit preppy music, but a video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxdRx8btkK4. Similar to what Gnome Software, Pamac and other such front-ends let you do.

I think for most people staying on a (K)Ubuntu based distro will be easiest; same hardware compatibility because you're using the same kernel, same stability and performance as you're using the same core operating system packages (maintained by Canonical) and same desktop environment packages (maintained by Kubuntu), same compatibility with 3rd party software as you're still on Ubuntu package base, and so on. The learning curve is shorter.

And Linux Mint 18.3 KDE is usable for a good long while yet, no need to throw anything out just yet

If there is interest around the time of Linux Mint 19 release I would also be happy to write a tutorial on how to upgrade Linux Mint 18.3 KDE in place to Linux Mint 19 KDE.

[samriggs]

I put the wife on arch once, although she loved the speed, and didn't mind taking care of things through the terminal all the time, she prefers using software managers and upgrade managers instead like mints.

There's a whole bunch of software & upgrade managers that work on Arch Linux. Anything packagekit based. Specifically for the topic at hand, KDE Discover. Bit preppy music, but a video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxdRx8btkK4. Similar to what Gnome Software, Pamac and other such front-ends let you do.

I think for most people staying on a (K)Ubuntu based distro will be easiest; same hardware compatibility because you're using the same kernel, same stability and performance as you're using the same core operating system packages (maintained by Canonical) and same desktop environment packages (maintained by Kubuntu), same compatibility with 3rd party software as you're still on Ubuntu package base, and so on. The learning curve is shorter.

And Linux Mint 18.3 KDE is usable for a good long while yet, no need to throw anything out just yet
posting.php?f=60&mode=quote&p=1381281&s ... bef83236aa#
If there is interest around the time of Linux Mint 19 release I would also be happy to write a tutorial on how to upgrade Linux Mint 18.3 KDE in place to Linux Mint 19 KDE.

I use pamac for manjaro it's making me lazy lol, I used to only use the terminal for arch the wife likes mints tools for the software and upgrade managers or ubuntu's over any arch based tools, we tried a few of them when on arch. although pamac has icons now at least
Got to admit Clem and the team did a great job with their tools to make it user friendly.
I agree with you xenopeek on using kubuntu for those with less experience or better yet write that tutorial for mint lovers, I'm sure it'll be used.
Catweasle can handle arch base though for KDE

[chiefjim]

Dropping the KDE edition doesn't impact availability of KDE programs in the repositories. You can still install KDE programs on the other editions, same as now.

My system has long been a hybrid. Mate being the DE but I've included a few KDE apps along the way. Two I consider essential; Kmymoney and K3b.

If the KDE edition is being dropped how long might it be before the repositories disappear as well? Am I wrong to suspect updates to the apps and their dependencies would be sidelined as well?

[catweazel]

If the KDE edition is being dropped how long might it be before the repositories disappear as well? Am I wrong to suspect updates to the apps and their dependencies would be sidelined as well?

Mint doesn't have a KDE repository, it uses the kubuntu backports.

[xenopeek]

Linux Mint 18.x MATE uses the the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS repositories as a package base. Those repositories are supported till April 2021. However, while the KDE programs you'd install come from that repository, the Kubuntu developers do the maintenance on those packages and they only provide 3 years of support and not 5 years like the other packages for your operating system get (source: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/Rel ... t_lifespan).

That means KDE programs on Linux Mint 18.x MATE will receive updates to April 2019 while the rest of your operating system will receive updates till April 2021.

Catweazel got things mixed up: only the Linux Mint 18.x KDE edition uses the Kubuntu backports PPA. All other editions of Linux Mint 18.x just use the Ubuntu repositories for installing and updating KDE packages. While the Kubuntu backports PPA gives you newer releases of KDE programs, for both the Ubuntu repositories and the Kubuntu backports PPA the KDE packages are maintained by Kubuntu developers and receive security updates till April 2019. After April 2019 there are no more updates to KDE packages if you're using Linux Mint 18.x (or *Buntu 16.04).

[catweazel]

Catweazel got things mixed up: only the Linux Mint 18.x KDE edition uses the Kubuntu backports PPA.

That's precisely the statement I replied to, "..the KDE edition..." It was redundant to say that Mint KDE didn't have a KDE repository.

[felemur]

I'm sorry for those that like and use Mint KDE.

However, there is an upside for those of us that have found the Cinnamon DE to be perfect for our needs: The Mint team will be able to spend more time on Cinnamon, making it even better.

To those that need/want KDE, I have tested many, many distro's with a few different desktops on real installs (not VB installs), and actually used them day to day, and my personal opinion is that Manjaro KDE was the best of the KDE patch. To those that are not sure about Manjaro, Antergos or Arch, I would say Manjaro has all the advantages of Arch with a simple install. Antergos does not have the community momentum behind it as much as Manjaro. Just my opinion of course.

[KBD47]

I started using Linux with a KDE desktop. These days I mostly use Xfce. The old KDE MEPIS group mostly uses Xfce now, many were previously fans of KDE and migrated to Xfce. Might be worth giving Linux Mint Xfce a shot before moving to something else.

[Retic1959]

I stared using Linux with a KDE desktop. These days I mostly use Xfce. The old KDE MEPIS group mostly uses Xfce now, many were previously fans of KDE and migrated to Xfce. Might be worth giving Linux Mint Xfce a shot before moving to something else.

I ran LM XFCE 17. on my old duo core out of necessity and it ran perfectly , but since upgrading my system I moved to Cinnamon and then KDE , KDE just flows better for me . Truth be told though the only DE I actively dislike is Gnome .

[catweazel]

Might be worth giving Linux Mint Xfce a shot

I'm installing it now to see if there's anything I can't do with it that I use KDE for. I have Mint Xfce running on a headless server but don't need the UI except for the occasional VNC session so I haven't used it all that much.

[Jim Hauser]

I have spent the last few days checking out the alternatives and I am not finished yet. I am running each choice on separate hard drives. Kubuntu (current) did not work well with my "newer" equipment. Kubuntu (LTS) was much better but still a long ways from my needs. Currently, XFCE (with KDE) is installed and it does look promising. Tomorrow I plan to install Manjaro to see what it can do. Arch is on the list but way down the road for me...

I did try Cinnamon but that is not my cup of tea.

Edit: I looked at the Manjaro live disk and it looks extremely promising.

There is plenty of time before anyone has to really worry but I have turned this into a project. As of yet I am still a die-hard Mint KDE fan and will run it as long as I can.