How well does KDE work with Debian Lenny?
 

I've been using OpenSuSE for a while now, and I like it. However, I'm kinda missing aptitude (after using Ubuntu for a year). Ubuntu was way too buggy for me, so I'm thinking of trying Debian, but with KDE. Do any of you have much experience with this, and what are your thoughts on it? I know OpenSuSE is really good for KDE, so I'm not really sure I want to switch.

Many people use KDE, or one of the many other desktop environments that are available. KDE works just as well with any type of Debian as it does with any other linux. I use KDE personally without issue. The desktop environment isn't really "tied" to the OS at all, meaning you won't see functions on Suse that you won't with Debian. KDE on Debian, Ubuntu, Suse, and Fedora all side by side would look and behave identically on identical hardware.

Peace,
JimBass

Debian functions equally well with Gnome, KDE, XFce, etc. You shouldn't have a stability problem with Debian and KDE, it has always worked well for me.

works great for me

<rant>
Well, if you don't like buggy, then by all means don't install Debian testing (a.k.a. Lenny). I detected no less than seven (for my purposes) critical bugs within two days after installing it. How ironic that I'm now back to Ubuntu because I got fed up with the instability (including several nautilus crashes and its gparted failing miserably). Now maybe it's just gnome that is buggy but creating .kde with incorrect permissions doesn't sound like a gnome feature, nor does a constantly crashing jvm (the one I downloaded from sun in the end worked perfectly fine, by the way), nor does reporting drives as corrupt when all my other distros don't find anything wrong at all. Your mileage may vary, just bear in mind that it can apparently vary a lot.
</rant>

Unfortunately, jay73 is right. ATM, Lenny is quite a PITA to install. I managed to do it, with only KDE (see debian.org for the d/load). You have to start all services anew when you upgrade from etch (because a straight Lenny install never completed for me), and use KsysV if you don't want to edit the init file by hand.
But once it is installed, you can keep it working by installing apt-listbugs as well.
cheers

Not my experience. I did various fresh Lenny installs on i386 and AMD64. Always running KDE, no problems at all.

I have to admit that usually Lenny runs better with a fresh install that after a dist-upgrade, which sometimes gave problems, mainly with configuration files which were not upward compatible.

On the other hand, I once did an upgrade from a mixed Sarge/Etch/Sid system to Lenny and that worked flawlessly as well.

When comparing Debian to Ubuntu, Debian should be preferred. It is more stable, and most important Debian is managed the Linux way, while Ubuntu tries to hide that.

jlinkels

I'm running debian lenny with gnome atm, but i installed it on a friend pc as web, mysql server for our thesis, i'm used to gnome and he wanted KDE, instead of using the default instalation from dvd i download the netinst cd and choose without graphic interface, then at prompt i typed and all went smooth, no errors, nothing. It's pretty stable as any other distro with kde.

Perhaps if you have the cd/dvd choose without desktop enviroment and then install kde via aptitude, kde will install the x-server and all that you need by himself.

I don't know if kde4 is on repos now, didn't check it out, but you can check and if there is you can install it and try it :D

KDE works just fine. Heck if it works in sid it should work perfectly in Lenny.

Qt: 3.3.8b
KDE: 3.5.8
kde-config: 1.0

KDE4 is only in experimental at the moment as it is rather broken and not all the apps/functions work.

I run Lenny/Sid and am running fine. I use XFCE, but Gnome and KDE will work fine too.

I have found Debian installs well on 4 very different boxes age from 1998 to 2008, and have had some problems with ubuntu, but, as has been said mileages vary. I like ubuntu as a live cd.

Debian Lenny has an installation bug at the moment: see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=704107&page=2 for fix & don't let it put you off, no doubt a later iso will eliminate it. I prefer lenny iso to etch + upgrade, result has been a more comprehensive system.

Graphics card & monitor configuration seems to be an issue with several Linux distros & it's hit & miss which ones work best, fortunately there are fixes.

Ubuntu has users with admin privileges whereas Debian requires root user for system changes, I think it's a better discipline.

I think desktop options are available in Ubuntu? Anyway in Debian you can have what you want. I use K on the modern boxes & Gnome on older ones to keep the system lighter (there's about 1gB difference).

-Phil

Go with Debian Etch and KDE if you prefer rock solid stability. With Lenny, I got a little tired of daily mega updates and reading bug reports to see if I was going to break something. Etch is a dream for me and KDE is lovely on it!

apt-listbugs lists critical bug reports and integrates with apt-get/aptitude.

No kidding dude - but you still have to read to figure out what's what at least I did. But thanks for stating the obvious.

YO......Debian Testing work flawless and and very easy to install...nothing has stopped working or is broken so not really sure what all the fuss is all about it being hard to install or not working prolly the operator :D