KDE's KWin Reworks Its DRM Code, Many Other Improvements

[schmidtbag]

Valve launching the Steam Deck using KDE is one of the most exciting news for the KDE Project in a long time!

This will make KDE available to a whole new group of users and consumers who never used or even heard about KDE before. I really hope that this can bring a lot of benefits and improvements to KDE and a larger user base and that other companies take notice and consider creating products using KDE.

I hope consumers buying the Steam Deck gets intrigued and opts for a KDE-based Linux distribution on their desktop and laptops too.

Knowing that Valve went with KDE, I suspect this explains the significant increase in progress for the past couple years. Whether that be Valve pitching in their own devs or just throwing money at the devs to fix problems, I'm sure Valve is helping out.

[skeevy420]

Not really, baloo_file crashes on each system boot and I don't care trying to figure out why.

As a desktop user I never used file indexing for anything useful so I generally try to disable it upon OS install, often I don't because the GUI options constantly change.


Using KDE Neon.

That's probably why. Neon is one of the worst KDE desktops to use because it's Rolling Release Plasma that usually developed on rolling release distributions running on Ubuntu LTS. I'm usually a pretty chill let a person use what they want to use kind of person in regards to distribution or OS used, but you should consider something else if you want a KDE desktop.

Fedora, Tumbleweed, and Arch all make good choices because those are what a lot of KDE developers use. Basically, anything rolling release since KDE really prefers up-to-date software. I suggest Arch because the AUR makes it easier to try out things like KWinFT.

This is anecdotal, but in the past 7ish years I've been a Plasma user the times I ran Neon were the worst Plasma experiences I've ever had.

[skeevy420]

Knowing that Valve went with KDE, I suspect this explains the significant increase in progress for the past couple years. Whether that be Valve pitching in their own devs or just throwing money at the devs to fix problems, I'm sure Valve is helping out.

If they haven't I'm sure they will be.

It also probably helped that Arch/Manjaro and KDE were pulling in enough numbers in survey results to put them near the tops of the charts for a good while now. If your OS runs X with Y but half your customers switch to A with B there's probably a good reason why they switched so I'm glad Steam looked into it.

[MadWatch]

Fedora, Tumbleweed, and Arch all make good choices because those are what a lot of KDE developers use. Basically, anything rolling release since KDE really prefers up-to-date software. I suggest Arch because the AUR makes it easier to try out things like KWinFT.

Just out of curiosity, would you recommend raw Arch over Manjaro? Does it makes any difference?
I'm stuck with Kubuntu and it sucks. I will have to replace it but I'm not sure what to pick yet.

[stormcrow]

Not really, baloo_file crashes on each system boot and I don't care trying to figure out why.

As a desktop user I never used file indexing for anything useful so I generally try to disable it upon OS install, often I don't because the GUI options constantly change.


Using KDE Neon.

I've found KDE Neon generally unusable along with most rolling release based distros. It wasn't just Baloo crashing, either. I've been trying to find out if any of the newer software-base distros had a fix for AMD GPU bugs. Not only are they all exhibiting the same alpha texture bugs, but they have other problems as well. Fedora 34 can't even resize windows correctly. Neon had random pieces of software crashing regularly, and it won't even boot on an old Haswell Xeon workstation I have. Tumbleweed had its own issues that made me want to pull my hair out. Pop_OS 21.04 wouldn't boot on most of my machines. The only workable distros I've used are Ubuntu LTS (and by extension Debian), and Kali which I use on an old but still useable HP Elitebook. I mean, come on people, Pop_OS and Neon were having problems with a 7 year old Haswell era Xeon Thinkserver. That's pathetic! What's even worse is this texture bug has existed in AMD GPU drivers in Linux for 18+ months and still no fix.

[reba]

KDE Neon is terrible in so many ways (outdated, Ubuntu-based, broken/weird KDE, ...)

I'm fine with Valve using Arch because it is probably a nice fit: very up to date, AUR, pretty customizable.

Personally I am using KDE on Debian/unstable. It does not provide the most recent version of KDE but it's very solid and that's what matters to me most.

If I wouldn't be so lazy and content with the status quo I'd probably break out Arch sometime - but I'm really not interested in configuring every damn package myself before I can even use it.

[skeevy420]

Just out of curiosity, would you recommend raw Arch over Manjaro? Does it makes any difference?
I'm stuck with Kubuntu and it sucks. I will have to replace it but I'm not sure what to pick yet.

Ever since arch-install came out, Arch. It makes it so easy and fast to get an Arch system running. It's nice not having to run all the commands manually and hoping you don't get a tpyo somewhere. The best new Arch user advice I have to say is that it helps to read the Arch main page before doing a system upgrade because you're expected to manually intervene when issues arise. And to keep the LTS kernel installed. If linux-stable has an issue Arch is one of the likely binary distributions to get it because of its rolling nature.

Manjaro used to be a great way to get a quick Arch-like system but they've added so many Manjaro helpers and quirks that you can't necessarily follow the Arch Wiki 1:1. A lot of the Manjaro system tools seem to be done with GTK and last year I started getting the feeling that KDE was more of a secondary desktop after GNOME and XFCE. That last part is why I wouldn't suggest it in regards to KDE. On a technical side, when Manjaro does their repo freezes it doesn't necessarily jive with other projects or things in the AUR so you'll find yourself waiting an extra week or three for Manjaro to update so you can use or update your AUR packages.

I used to really like Manjaro, but the more they make it Manjaro-ey and less Arch-ey the less I seem to like it, if that makes sense. It's like Ubuntu and Debian -- Ubuntu brings more fluff and stuff while Debian is plain. I prefer the plain Arch over the fluff and stuff with Manjaro.

[Jaxad0127]

If I wouldn't be so lazy and content with the status quo I'd probably break out Arch sometime - but I'm really not interested in configuring every damn package myself before I can even use it.

Uh, what? Arch distributes precompiled binaries like Debian does.

[MadeUpName]

I know it is AMD but does any one know what processor they are using in the Steam Deck?

[QwertyChouskie]

Be Gnome, destroy your user base chasing the screen touch fad with Gnome 3... The first mass commercial device using Linux with a touch screen goes with KDE.

Win.

Am I the one to find this amusing?

I'm not a KDE fan by the way.

Contrary to popular belief, Gnome sucks as a touch OS, It's not really made for touch, but rather a keyboard-centric workflow. I'm not a fanboy of any DE, they all have their place, but I get annoyed everytime this common misconception is used to hate on Gnome. Gnome is far from perfect, and it's not for everyone, but I gotta say, the touchpad gestures make Gnome 40 super nice (For anyone on Gnome but needing/wanting X11, try the X11 Gestures extension, it works great.)