Replacement KDE distros... Feedback here!

[Jedinovice]

Given KDE in Mint is disappearing, as such (it was on the cards... as Clem said, Mint is really a Gnome, GTK based distro and KDE pulls in a completely different direction) options need to be considered.

1. Some KDE users will switch to another DE and stay on mint - most likely Cinnamon I would guess.
2. Others will go XFCE and overlay KDE
3. Others will jump to another distro.

But which one? I think I have little choice but to go option 3 but will see.

What I do want to do is collect people's experiences of other KDE distros for consideration by those looking at option 3. I am downloading PCLinuxOS which looks like a good KDE distro for my needs. I will feed back. I suggest others do the same with their experiences/experiments with other KDE distros.

I admit I have played with PCLinuxOS, Kubuntu and Manjaro but never really tried to make the work for me. Mint KDE did the job. But now it's time to roll up the sleeves and get serious with PCLinuxOS.

That's my test distro. Anyone got any others. Let's feedback here to help other KDE users and sort through what's what, what works, what doesn't.
Of course, people's needs are different. When giving feedback I also think it's important to explain what your needs are and not the distro works or does not FOR YOUR user needs.

I'll feedback after I have some proper flying time... assuming PCLinuxOS does not completely crash and die on me in the first 10 minutes...

[minitux]

for my experience PCLinuxOS is a great distro with all DEs

I'm fine with cn PCLinuxOS plasma5

for those who come from ubuntu or derivative, there are synaptic and not other package managers, so it's already a good thing (even if it uses a .rpm packet)

there are many packages available in the repositories, which maybe on buntu or derivatives must be installed with .deb or ppa, for example google chrome, masterpdfeditor, grub customizer and the upgrade of libreoffice and virtualbox managed by scripts that download directly from sites.

in conclusion a great distro, rolling release (but not excessively) that points to stability.

a note for those who are used to buntu / mint, on PCLinuxOS the root user is created during the installation and does not use the sudo

and you should not use it for upgrade the system
apt-get upgrade, but the dist-upgrade

the user must log in as root with

Code: Select all

su

and to upgrade from terminal

Code: Select all

apt-get update

Code: Select all

apt-get dist-upgrade

Or use synaptic.

[Jedinovice]

Hi minitux,

Many thanks for that. That gives me hope. I also like the look and feel of PCLInux OS from tests before. Only I have having great trouble downloading the ISO right now. Installed another download manager and trying again. Currently at 70%.

I NEVER use dist-upgrade!!

Thanks.

[minitux]

in PCLinuxOS if you upgrade from terminal, you must use only update and dist-upgrade, because using the upgrade you could create conflicts between packets, you always have to upgrade everything and upgrade does not.

or updates the system from synaptic, which makes the dist-upgrade

[austin.texas]

I was favorably impressed with Korora, with the KDE desktop.
https://kororaproject.org/about

[Jedinovice]

in PCLinuxOS if you upgrade from terminal, you must use only update and dist-upgrade, because using the upgrade you could create conflicts between packets, you always have to upgrade everything and upgrade does not.

or updates the system from synaptic, which makes the dist-upgrade

Ah, I understand now.

Good thing you're here. I would just use synaptic.

The download keeps stalling at 70%. Using another mirror and starting again. Torrents seem weak. Hmm...

[Jedinovice]

I was favorably impressed with Korora, with the KDE desktop.
https://kororaproject.org/about

What's the software supply like? Can I ensure I get updates to apps like 'Kdenlive?"

I don't like upgrade software if it does the job but I do like the updates to Kdenlive. It's moving fast!

Thanks.

[catweazel]

for my experience PCLinuxOS is a great distro with all DEs

I'm fine with cn PCLinuxOS plasma5

My opinion is the opposite. It has to be the worst looking and behaving distro I've tested in many years. I installed it on a spare SSD just now and all it can do is crash, crash then crash some more.

[minitux]

I used it for about 4 years, when it still had kde4 and in mate and xfce versions and I never had problems while being rolling.

however, as with all the other distros you should try, if the user is comfortable, holding them, otherwise he removes them.

[NietGiftig]

But now it's time to roll up the sleeves and get serious with PCLinuxOS.

That's my test distro. Anyone got any others. Let's feedback here to help other KDE users and sort through what's what, what works, what doesn't.

Putting PCLinuxOS in a Virtualbox.
All started well.
Did an upgrade with Synaptic to get the latest updates .
all was on a small limited screen, other distros come up with my monitor screen resolution
I installed the current VB additions.

After reboot PCLinux will not start because something wrong with xserver, cannot read because message disappears in a few seconds.

That's why I like Mint, also runs in VB

[minitux]

i never use virtualbox if i want to try a system i install it on a partition, i think virtualbox is not useful to see how a distro on your hardware is doing.


if you really want to try a distros , installing it on a partition for me virtualbox is a limited tools in this case

[Jedinovice]

Well, finally got the iso image. I was originally downloaing a busted image. Switched to another mirror and all was well.

That's life. Gotta sleep now. No time for anything else and a packed weekend. I'll do what I can and feedback in die time.
It'll be a while. I don't want to just boot and report a crash. I'll try and solve issues first if there are any. I haven't had trouble in the past but that was with KDE 4 and I never use the OS in anger.

At least I will be installing to an ASUS which I have found highly Linux friendly. Which explains why I have pretty much standarised on them sans the Acer... with the busted BIOS. Gotta get that updated somehow!

[Jedinovice]

Putting PCLinuxOS in a Virtualbox.
All started well.
Did an upgrade with Synaptic to get the latest updates .
all was on a small limited screen, other distros come up with my monitor screen resolution
I installed the current VB additions.

After reboot PCLinux will not start because something wrong with xserver, cannot read because message disappears in a few seconds.

That's why I like Mint, also runs in VB

I don't know exactly how PCLinuxOS runs under the hood but I do know it sports more config options for screen display than Mint. It might be worth re-installing with tiny screen and checking the resolution settings and the like in system settings.

Dunno mind. I'll be testing on real hardware... but it will take a while. Very, very busy.

[mr_raider]

I wish I could get Cinnamon to work for me but it has always been buggy. Driver failures, software rendering mode, choppy video playback etc.... Plus I like my taskbar on the right side and vertical, which KDE does better than any one else.

I would go XFCE before CInnamon IMHO.

Anyway, I'm trying out Kubuntu 17.10 in a VM, and will give KDE Neon a spin. I don't mind getting experimental with my home laptop, but my desktop and work PC need to be rock solid.

[Citizen229]

I would be willing to bet most folks would be happy with Mint 19 XFCE and installing KDE afterwards. I mean in theory, a KDE mint 19 section could be made for folks to gather and communicate to work together. It would be the Unofficial KDE section.

[MintBean]

KDE Neon is well worth a look.

Very polished, very snappy and absolutely rock solid in the last release. It's finally come of age.

Technically they say it's not a distro - what this seems to translate to in reality is that it comes with very little pre-installed software but it's not a major hassle to add what you want and a tiny shell script can automate that. They offer LTS releases on the Ubuntu base so it's much like Mint in that respect.

[mr_raider]

Then what distinguishes neon from kubuntu lts with backports enabled?

[MintBean]

Then what distinguishes neon from kubuntu lts with backports enabled?

No idea, I've only used Neon, although there are quite a few differences according to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDZS1bM8atU

[Retic1959]

I had problems installing PCLinux OS in the past , before Plasma 5 was released , I haven't tried it since but I would have to do it in VB , I wouldn't trust an on metal installation without doing a looksee first . I've run Manjaro in the past and It get's my vote , the AUR is a wonderful feature if used with care and Manjaro has a great community as well . Manjaro KDE's polish level matches Mint's out of the box as well.

[catweazel]

KDE Neon is well worth a look.

Very polished, very snappy and absolutely rock solid in the last release. It's finally come of age.

I've been having great success with Manjaro. No matter what I throw at it, it won't break. I just tried openSUSE tumbleweed, and while it installed and ran well, installing NVIDIA's proprietary driver was a total nightmare. I was getting compiler segfaults on a clean install. Anyway, based on your recommendation I'm downloading Neon now.

On a slightly different note, I'm not going to bother with Mint 18.3 KDE. Updating to that edition merely delays the inevitable. At some point I'll have to move so I might as well do it now. Besides, installing distros and making them run the way I need them to is my idea of fun.