The most important thing I want to know about is the stability. Has the number of crashes in KDE decreased lately? Any improvisations will help of course.

I also like to know whether I can handle KDE from Debian itself or do I have to make the switch to openSUSE as well? I'm familiar with the apt-get system, but I've heard that openSUSE makes the KDE much better. What are the pros and cons of using KDE in Debian vs openSUSE?

So far, KDE 4.14.10 Plasma in pclinuxOS is stable. I have one app called spotify and it freezes KDE once in a blue moon. A quick kill command on spotify un-freezes my KDE desktop. Also, KDE in pclinuxOS is cosmetically better looking than in other distros.

hi.

Debian in both; I have KDE4 in Vitualbox on KDE5, (over the years) for me it is usability but stability has not been an issue.

Have not used OpenSUSE for a while now but some distros depend on the .iso like with Debian you can start with a netinst CD and add KDE++ or get the DVD preset to KDE\plus one with non-free firmware (then there's wheezy, jessie, sid &c.) On that note they are free to try (even live) so try them both++.

I tried KDE on my Debian desktop, but I couldn't live with it. And I certainly couldn't live with Gnome. I'm running Xfce, and happy with it. If I were forced to choose between KDE and Gnome, then KDE would be the easy choice. Gnome is an abomination.

KDE-4.14.3, running on Slackware64-current has been perfectly stable.

To add we can make any DE* more or less stable by adding or subtracting and tweaking software and settings in too many directions, ain't it grate?

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I test KDE from time to time on various distros just to see how it's doing. I still find it to be unpredictable in the reliability department. But for that matter I simply don't like the KDE Plasma paradigm.

I use and enjoy Gnome Shell with a handful of extensions to tweak it to my preferences. Fast, efficient (for what I do), rock-solid, uncluttered.

I switched from GNOME to KDE last summer and hadn't any problems with it's user interface. If you are especially interested in stability the answer is that if you will immediately update to any newer version there may be some bugs or crashes but if you will choose to stay on a stable release (maybe even KDE 4) everything will be okay. As for me I'm using KDE 4.10.5 on Slackware 14.1 and there wasn't any trouble with it during almost a year.

I want to warn you that there exists some problems with USB connection to Android devices (if you use them, of course) in KDE due to old MTP in it. Usually the solution is to use special programs like "Android File Transfer for Linux" or "go-mtpfs" (you can easily find both of them on GitHub). It isn't something terrible but better if you will know.

KDE-4.14.3, offers many improvements over 4.10.5, and one of the senior Slackware developers has made it available for Slackware-14.1. You can find it at,

http://alien.slackbook.org/ktown/14.1/4.14.3/

Be sure to read and follow the instructions on that page and in the README file.
Enjoy.


BTW, while some distributions are pushing KDE-5.xx, as they did with the alpha quality KDE-4.0, KDE-5.xx is not mature enough to be considered, IMO, stable. You won't see KDE-5.xx in the forth coming new release of Slackware 14.2. Release date? Don't know, but it shouldn't be too much longer.

I've never tried KDE in Debian, but I'd feel happier using SUSE if I wanted KDE. After all, Gnome is the default for Debian because the developers voted for it. If you're using the same desktop as the majority of developers, you're likely to get better service.

Similarly, SUSE has always been a KDE distro. A couple of times, I've found that the Xfce version of SUSE had a missing component, and that even happened once with the Gnome version. In the same way, Fedora and CentOS don't do as good a job with KDE as with Gnome -- as for their Xfce, don't get me started!

I use KDE5 on Fedora and Debian. Neither is truly stable, or complete yet. Fedora is CLOSER, but there are still the occassional program crash (although plasma desktop itself I can't remember the last time it crashed on either OS). It's definitely USABLE, but not stable.

Oddly enough, I find that I usually have both sets of libraries installed, since apps generally use one or the other.

Me too, at lest at home. On the go I like neither, until an app calls for one.

KDE4 is wonderful (and for the purists, I'm referring to Plasma). Stability-wise, KDE5 is still buggy and I'm not a great fan. To be honest with you, I don't get a great feeling either that KDE listens to their users, nor resists from making fundamental changes for the sake of them. The transitions from KDE3 to KDE4, and from KDE4 to KDE5 have been painful and long drawn out, needlessly so.

The whole feel around the Cinnamon, Xfce and MATE developers and communities is much warmer, the developers seeming to be more in tune with their users. Stability is very important for them.

Many distros will be dropping support for KDE4, given that KDE has themselves. I personally am hoping that those great guys at Mint will tame KDE5 into a more placid animal in time for Mint 18 KDE. If not, I think I'll resort to Xfce.

A switch from Gnome to almost anything is worth it though.

Except Unity.

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Agreed!
After being a KDE user from almost the beginning of the KDE project, KDE-4.0 drove me to Xfce. With KDE-4.13.x they were finally back on track, IMHO, and by 4.14.3, I had switch back to KDE.
KDE-5, may drive me right back to Xfce.
I guess one could compromise and use Xfce along with some of the excellent applications bundled with KDE, but, then, that loads KDE libraries, etc. in the background.