The good folks at KDE managed to engage a market of Linux desktop users underserved by other distribution models. Or, maybe it’s just me.
KDE has a long history in the desktop ecosystem. It was the first Linux desktop I was exposed to back in 2006. Back then, it was on OpenSUSE and it was clean and functional. For some reason after that, installing KDE had never really appealed to me. I’ve tested it out briefly when poking around at what the OpenSUSE guys were doing and I’ve run Kubuntu for brief snippets. For years, I’ve been trying to find out what type of desktop user I am and which distro fits my needs.
I’ll admit that I’m a moving target. What I like changes depending on workflow expectations and machine capabilities. I’ve started to notice that I expect a desktop to have modern features while still maintaining a familiarity that doesn’t cost me days to adjust to the new environment. In this space, there are a lot of really neat contenders. Gnome has got a great desktop, but it renders slow on X. Budgie on Solus is a cool project with a lot of momentum, but isn’t ready for what I’d like to do (yet).
Continue reading The Novelty of KDE Neon at Freedom Penguin.