Which is the best kde distro
 

Ok guys, let's settle this debate, what do you guys think is the best kde distro. Please post replies to state why you think the one you choose. Please don't post/vote if you've no/little interested in kde. Lastly, sorry if i haven't included 'X' distro, i can't include all of them.

Guess.


<====================================== Ssshh! BIG CLUE in brianL's profile. ;)

Like all "best distro for whatever" questions, all answers will be subjective.

Every day I genuinely dislike Slackware a little bit more. And this is today's bit.

There is no such thing as the best KDE distro, it is a nonsense question.

Why? What's Slackware done? Bob provides up to date kde builds.

I was inspired to make this poll after reading a web page by the Kubuntu team that refelcted obvious envy towards the reputation Opensuse have as a kde distro. I use kde, and Opensuse. I had issues with Mandriva in the past, and My issues with Kubuntu, are more with the Ubuntu side of things than the kde side of things. I like Mepis, but being based on Debian stable, it's main objective is obviously not to bring bleeding edge kde; wether that's a good thing or bad thing is another, but i find Opensuse provides up to date and stability at the same time.

May "Bob" forgive you! :)

That's why I posted this:

Slackware is just a pointless evolutionary cul de sac of self congratulation and ego stroking. Simples!

Flattery will get you nowhere.

I have voted openSUSE; KDE just seems to get a bit more TLC at oS than it does at some distros for which it isn't the first choice environment.

@knightron
Well, I like Mepis too, but, A does not necessarily imply B. That is, when KDE 4.x first came out (and was a total disaster for the first few escapes of the software, making the much awaited transition to a partial disaster after a several more escapes :rolleyes: ), for some reason I decided that I wanted to be an early adopter (and, I'll admit, that was one I got wrong), so I ran a 'KDE 4 rolling' on top of a 'stationary' version of oS. The point being that there is no fundamental reason why, just because you are running a tried 'n tested OS, you have to have the version of environment that was current when the OS was released.

Of course, it was still a pain, but you did get new and slightly improved pain every month.

There is no such thing as best. I use KDE in more that one distribution. I happen to like "KDE", I prefer it. I don't see that many differences between the two distributions I use. For me it really doesn't matter which distribution I am using as long as it has KDE.

I voted for the OS I am typing this from.

There may not be a best but there can be a worst...

My rule for beginners is "always use a distro with its default desktop". If you don't believe me, try using PCLinuxOS, OpenSUSE, or CentOS with Xfce. That eliminates Debian, Mint, and Fedora. I think Kubuntu is probably marginal here: the people who put it together are depending on the repository of Ubuntu, and Canonical are hardly interested in KDE.

My own experiences?
Arch: A tinkerer's distro for people who prefer repairing things to actually using them.
PCLinuxOS: The last time I tried the KDE version, they'd forgotten to provide the help files.
Mandriva: What, are they still alive?
Mageia: Where do they keep their codecs?
Slackware: Why bother when you can get Salix?
OpenSUSE: OK
Mepis: The best (of a bad job: nothing using KDE can be really described as the best)

Thanks for your opinion.

Thanks for the comment salasi. I'm aware that kde can be updated regardless of distribution, but you can't deny that some distros make it a lot easier than others. I'm pretty sure, that because of dependencies it is hard to upgrade kde to 4.6 let alone, beyond; in mepis.

Yeah, sure, and that's one of the reasons that I'm using openSUSE. But it still doesn't make the following true:

If you look at something like Bodhi/Bloathi, you get a recent Enlightenment on top of a now-ancient Ubuntu LTS. While I can't think of a distro offhand that takes that approach with KDE out of the box, it is simple enough to make openSUSE, for example, to do it (see here), so its not impossible.

In fact, this might be one of the few areas in the 'if it can be done, someone will do it' area of distros that someone doesn't seem to have done it, just because it can be done (whether there is any potential user demand for it, or not). I wish that I didn't think that there were too many distros already, or I might be persuaded...

Enlightenment is a Window maker, not a desktop environment, and thus, is a much smaller piece of software with a lot less dependencies, which would make it easier to port, without affecting the base lts to much. I am not speaking from experience, but if you were to update kde in Debian stable/mepis, to 4.8.1, the amount of things that would have to be upgraded/edited to make the update successful would make it pretty pointless to be running stable in the first place.
I will acknowledge, you are right.
Mepis users, like Debian users, can just as easily upgrade there Mepis system to use the Sid/Testing repos, and then have access to a newer kde.
I stand by my previous statement though. I don't think Mepis's main objective is to bring bleeding edge kde. You can argue with this all you want, but the facts stand, Mepis doesn't try to bring the latest, and I do not think this is a bad thing. Mepis just tries to be good at what it does, and i think it does well. I gave it a good review here at LQ, along with DavidMcCann.

Enlightenment is most definitely NOT a Window Maker.

Enlightenment is a window manager
Window Maker is a window manager too

That may be true, but the bit that I was objecting to was:

It seems to me to be neither obvious nor true that being based on Debian stable prohibits a distro from also having 'bleeding edge' KDE. That Mepis doesn't do it means that if this is what you are looking for, Mepis isn't 'the one' for you, and may even be good marketing on the part of Mepis, because there may not be many people joining you in this particular quest. I just don't see that A (being based on Debian stable) implies B (no bleeding edge KDE) as some kind of a priori assumption.

Can we let this go now?

My bad; wasn't thinking when i typed that. I meant Window manager.

Sure thing buddy, you made your point. Thanks for contributing to the conversation. (-:

Well only have experience with KDE using Mint. So that's the one I've voted for.

For me it just works and it's speedy as well. :)

I voted Mageia. I've migrated through Mepis, PCLinuxOS and Mandriva to Mageia, and I find it capable, stable and good looking.

Wrong Question
 

The question should be, Which Distro Keeps KDE Under Control The Best?
I've recently tried the current releases of OpenSuse, Fedora and Debian Testing. In each one KDE exhibited different annoying unresolvable quirks and issues. The whole thing felt fragile and I've now given up on it.

I think that must be included only that distributions which have KDE as its main supported or primary developed DE, as Kubuntu or Mandriva

I don't use Slackware, so I can't judge. But gosh that's picturesque speech! I'm tempted to submit it to Reader's Digest.

Huh? I choose the best of each. There's no confusion.

@ KenJackson where did you pull that last quote from? i can't see where commoditytipsfree has participated in this thread.
On a side not, i'm using pure kde now but go through stages of mixing desktop environments too. My latest one which no longer exist was a gnome2 session with nautilus completely removed from the system (i hate nautilus), and then i had plasma-desktop and kwin set for autostart. I'd post a link here to the opensuse forum where i've post a pic, but my internet has gone over it's limit and therefor has been slowed, and that forum for some reason has a lot of lag, and i won't be venturing into it until my data gets refreshed.

Hey! I don't see it now either. It was right between my two posts above.

But I can guess what happened. I didn't pay attention to the name, but with a name like that, it was probably an attempt to post a spam link that the moderator deleted. You know what they do--they sign up as a user, and maybe post a couple comments and then add a signature with a link to their spam site. Often the comments are text grabbed at random from any online book, which escapes automated detection. In this case, it looked legit.

A spam post, deleted by the Mods?

Another vote for Magiea. Started using Mageia 2 Beta 3 and I won't say there aren't issues..(codecs & drivers mostly), but as far as a distro that brings out the best of KDE & qt, I really don't think it can be beat. Runs e17 ok when KDE is too heavy too. 've only run those two and razorqt and I look forward to Mageia 2's official release. I loath Mint & Kubuntu, the only Ubuntu (not Debian) based OS I ever turn to is Bodhi. PCLOS, SuSE & Slackware are both solid with kde as well IMHO. Professionally I lean towards fluxbox or no WM, but as a desktop I've always been a KDE guy. I don't know why, but I have always hated GNOME, even before the advent of version 3.

Yes, Mageia is a nice distro. I use it for some months, hoping between KDE and GNOME. KDE works stable. But it seems, that this distro is more Gnome oriented. Look at repository! There are not some KDE applications (KDE partition manager for instance). By default, you can not call some Gmome applications in KDE? in KDE menu there aren't links for them, you must make them manually editing menu, or through the console call out these programs. They work not alway good. So gparted sometimes fails. Gnome is better equipped with packages, and more apt for some system administration tasks, such as partitioning.

I don't know if you referring specifically to mageias kde or kde in general. I haven't tried mageia yet (i'm holding out till version 2) but using kde in Opensuse, i don't have this issue, and i've never had it in any other distro either.

That's rather a strong statement to make, and very debatable. I tend to disagree. I get what your saying, but i don't tend to use gui tools for admin tasks, (except Yast on rare occasions) and i think kdes programs are generally of better quality.

My Notice, which one can consider too critical, refers exclusively to KDE in Mageia. In Open Suse the matter is entirly different. There KDE is most balanced DE, and I it as my favorite DE, especially after introducing GNOME3. More over Open Suse project pays most attention for KDE.

PCLinuxOS: best for me!
 

Hi,
I have been a PCLinuxOS user for quite a long time. I have found the support good, & when I needed special program to load my Samsung phone Texstar got it working for me. (I now run an ex-US ATT Motorola Atrix running Nottachtrix: love it too!).
Before PCL, I used Mepis: I cannot remember exactly why I changed, but I was surprised that with PCLinuxOS everything just worked. I almost moved distro a couple of years ago when PCL seemed to stagnate, but everything came back together just in time to make me stay (The old saying: If it aint broke, dont fix it!) I bumble my way around Linux, so like the stability of a system that always works. The only time I have done a reload is when my Computer breaks (usually due to a lightning strike! The joys of living in the country). My current system is a Dual core Atom: slow but low power, & easily fast enough for what I want, added to which it was relatively cheap!

regards Doug (Australia)

PC-BSD, Chakra and Sabayon are my favorite KDE's, none listed in voting options :D

I'm one of those guys that customizes everything anyways so I haven't noticed this. 90% of the time I launch all my apps in KDE from GLX-Dock/Cairo.

KDE is Mageia's official default DT according to Distrowatch, but I know exactly what you mean. If they start to go GNOME-Centric I will be thoroughly disappointed.

KDE on Slackware
 

Done about 20 upgrades of Slackware, 32 together with 64bit, including slackware-current in the past. AFAIR I started to use KDE on Slackware 9 or 10. Since I never do full upgrades (upgradepkg --install-new */*), it usually ended up in unusable system. :D Nevertheless after a few missing library postinstallations finished with usable one. That's why I like KDE on Slackware. Allows you to make whatever mistakes and still repair them easily. Without the need for system reinstallation. Used also KDE on Mandriva from 2008 to 2009.1 sometime before.

I would have voted for Netrunner. I use it regularly with no problems whatsoever. I am not as experienced as others in the thread and there may be sound reasons Netrunner gets little to no attention, but I like it very much.

"Best" is always going to be subjective. I used Suse a few years back and it was great until suddenly a critical program failed to run, so I had to jump ship in a hurry. I liked the stability of the current Mepis, but after a hardware disaster I found myself with Mint 12 KDE, which is very good, with few problems. On my spare machine I loaded Netrunner out of curiousity, and it looks promising. OpenSuse still bears the stigma of Novell's accommodation with Microsoft, and I am vague on the realities of the separation. I voted for Mint, but I suspect that my next "work" OS will be Netrunner.

No
 

Really, just no.

KDE is good or bad. Perhaps distributions may be good or bad.
There are no KDE distributions, only distributions that include (or do not) KDE as one of the desktop options.
KDE and how it is configured by default does not make a distribution good or bad.
Distributions that support or include KDE do nto make it good or bad.

Just: No.

thats not true. although its not included, and I can't remember why (I could probably only include a limited amount of options.)
either way it is arguable that chakra is for sure a kde disto. and as for others well some distributions definitely focus more or only on kde. mepis for example puts a focus on kde, providing an updated kde than what is shipped with its debian cousin which its based on, but gnome for example isn't even provided in an ISO. if you desire gnome or xfce or whatever's in mepis you will have to download it from the repos, and then you'll more than likely just get the original debian version, no extra attention given.
Ubuntu is an odd one in the bunch. it offers its kubuntu experience which is its attempt to focus on kde. I have not used the latest one and the last kubuntu I gave a fare shot at was 10.10 and it was terrible. it would freeze and programs downloaded from the repos would not seem to work correctly but would if I had gnome installed.
there are distros that will give more attention to kde.

I ran ArchLinux with KDE as fast as I could run Lubuntu, Archlinux gives you soooooo much more torque than ubuntu gives you when installing any DE

oh, I chose Arch

I have *Pentium 4 (single core processor) and 2GB of RAM

Didn't see Gentoo in the list... that get's my vote.

i vote for Chakra Linux

I voted for Mepis, a nice KDE distro on top of Debian Stable. But Kubuntu and Mint's KDE are noteworthy.

And of course, no one should respond to the poll who has not used KDE in all the choices. :D

Just kidding; I voted for Debian, because that's what I using for KDE now, although I've used Kubuntu with satisfaction in the past.

Lane

I have used six of the chices with kde, and others that i didn't list as well.
I am curently using Debian Wheezy. It is nice. I generally am not bothered with having up to date packages and plan on using Wheezy until it is no longer supported. It seems very stable already and i must admit that although i voted for Opensuse, I'm finding debian Wheezy very very nice. Little things that bothered me aren't here, like cheese (gnome app) failing when i select effects. I know that, that's a gnome application, but in Opensuse it worked perfectly in gnome, but no quite with kde. I won't entirly discount Opensue which i am still very fond of though, because in reference to kde, they do mantain a kde repo, (and several others) to keep the kde software suit up to date, and that is something very nice.

My own requirements from a distro' is Stability, Reasonable speed, and connectivity. I do not need a bleeding edge system any more than I need a Ferrari to do the weeks shopping in, neither would be used to their full ability. I have been using Ubuntu for the past 18 months purely because it fits my criteria, sadly the latest version does now slow my system down a bit. I need a faster computor or a lighter distro', methink its time to go to a mooching and see whats around nowadays, however I have tried KDE in the past and it was o.k. I have not tried the latest version yet. Bob.

w
 

I had reason today to dig out an old HP laptop and install a dual boot setup of Win XP and Linux. For some reason, modern distros always hang during boot of the install CD/DVD. I found that Legacy OS (a derivative of Puppy Linux) would do the job, and it turned out that it is a KDE distro!

In spite of its low hardware requirements, it is a very nice system with a full set of applications.

Another big recommendation for me was the fact that it enabled wireless automatically with no input from me. How many distros will install an old NIC with no tweaking?

Lane

Best KDE linux distro
 

My choice for best KDE linux distro is openSUSE.Novell spends a lot for the development of KDE.
http://www.bestlinuxdistros.com/2012...ions-2012.html