Perhaps.
My point was that other distros do take years between releases and end users don't lose their minds when that happens. However, we lose our collective minds when Slackware moves beyond a few years between releases.
Slackware 15.0 will arrive.

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Seems this thread is all people who want others make job for them due to Plasma 5 is still hm,...Just like KDE 4 at the early stage - once Plasma 5 will be included it all will be to for developers, contributors - while will just sit and wait for new patches - maybe not everyone is willing to spend a lot of time to tinker possibly important enhancement but not crucial - maybe it is the question: who will be maintaining Plasma 5 in future? Also the question should be asked to KDE developer - about their own road map. Do they have a one?

I like to measure how out of date a stable release is based on how usable it is without tweaking things on a fresh install (Not counting things like maintenance or even installing software.. just install it and start working. In this case Slackware 14.2 cannot be installed on an NVME drive without some work around and in my case my desktop hard locks during boot when trying to load the nouveau driver, can't even blacklist it in modprobe.d without booting something else up to mount the file system and do it there.

-current lacks these problems, the only major concern to me is if it's still going to ship with a dead family of KDE as the top most listed option in xwmconfig when there's a very good successor available, one with a major dependency (qt5, of course) that I have to install for programs that rely on it (in my case bsnes, filezilla, mumble, vlc, obs studio and openshot.. probably others too). Obviously if Slackware never incorporates at the very least QT5 I can always install it on my own but I am at the mercy of there always being somebody willing to maintain it. If maintenance stops (a real possibility given Eric's eroding patience) I will have to move on as I can't commit the time to maintaining it myself, nor can I deal without having it.. this isn't some niche dependency.

Then there's perception.. I know Slackers don't generally care about what others really think but I've found that when people (often running some flavor of Ubuntu or Manjaro) ask me what distro I run and I tell them Slackware.. it's not the installation process, the package management, the expectation of using the terminal to do things, the default run level that doesn't start x automatically, or even the expectation of modifying config files by hand at times leading to intimidation and stifling interest.. no, it's "Oh god it uses kde4 still?"

I really couldn't say anything else that isn't just beating a dead horse.

Pat, you don't owe us anything and never have to answer to us for anything.. but if you could would you please tell us what's going on with Plasma?

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That's very similar to what my brother said [who introduced me to Slackware], except that 'god' had an extra 'o'.

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kde4 has its fans I suppose.. maybe Slackware even has users that migrated to it just because of kde4.. but as far as I know it hasn't been forked and kde4 itself is going on 5 years since its last stable release. I personally can't see why it's preferable to 5 at this point.

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I don't care much for either 4 or 5, but if I were to choose it would be 4, based simply on its Plastique and Clearlooks themes. The progressive people at KDE decided to drop these in 5 because progressive people always know better what it is we want.

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I gave KDE-plasma a try when I ran Arch for a few weeks (I'm back with all Slackware). I am impressed by the speed of plasma; it is noticeably faster than KDE4. KDE-plasma is a polished DE. In my unsolicited opinion, based on my experience with plasma, I think it makes sense to bring plasma into the -current branch. I am aware of the dependency load that this will introduce into Slackware.
I respect and value Pat's judgment; my opinions are mine alone. I am happy with whatever Pat decides to do with Slackware and KDE. He is, after all, the man who does the heavy lifting, along with the tireless efforts of the Slackware developers.
I am very grateful for Pat and his team.

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I have no issue with using EOL'd software if it's secure and stable, but is KDE4 even being tested for security and stability issues anymore?

I fail to see how people think sticking with KDE4 is even an option in the long term - the options are: (1) move to KDE5, the groundwork for such migration already having been extensively laid by AlienBob, or (2) drop KDE entirely.

I still feel like, peering into my crystal ball, (1) will be what Pat decides, but something is obviously holding him back from making the decision right now. We may not understand the reasons for that, but we have to accept them because, well, he is the BDFL and all that jazz.

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No, KDE4 is no longer receiving any updates and is completely EOL.

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I think you mistake the word "progressive" and make it sound a bad thing.

Anyway, the Plastik theme goes way back, it shipped with KDE3. Clearlooks is a GTK theme with an implementation for KDE3 (Klearlook) to make GTK applications blend in better. KDE4 has Air as its main theme with Oxygen as alternative (Oxygen used to be the default in early KDE4 releases). Plasma5 has Breeze as default with Oxygen and Air as alternatives.
Each his own favorites I guess.

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There's also the Plastik theme on Plasma5, but certainly I do not tell you news.

And for a better feel of KDE4, the topbar of windows can be reduced as height.

I do not remember right now how, but I did it and my topbars are smaller as height than the default of Plasma5.

I did it from different reasons, thought. Because my monitor have the resolution 1600x900

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Clearlooks in KDE 4 partially emulates the Gtk Clearlooks theme but it's not a Gtk theme. It is native to KDE 4 and is, indeed, a much superior implementation.

Is there any other software in Slackware -current that is EoL or is it just KDE?

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Is GTK1 EOL? Is lilo EOL?

Aren't those Qt themes? I don't think the KDE people control that.

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