I've used KDE exclusively for a month, here's my opinion - KDE Plasma Review

hey guys this is nick and welcome to my linux experiment i've been using elementor os for the best part of three years now and while i gave a fair shake to kde plasma in the past making a full dedicated video series about it it's been a while since i used it in production and i've been secretly using it on my new desktop which i'll definitely make a video about for a month now so i think it's time we take a look at what i liked what i disliked and if i'm gonna keep using it skillshare is an online learning community that gets you access to thousands of classes to learn a new skill master a new hobby or just improve on something that you already know real world skills are otherwise learning about linux for example is easy thanks to a bunch of courses on improving your skills on the command line becoming a sysadmin or just generally learning more about linux's internals personally i'm taking these classes on color correction in davinci resolve skillshare is affordable with free account creation and your access to skillshare premium being only eight dollars a month this gives you access to all the chapters in all the classes and offline viewing now the first thousand subscribers that click the link in the description below will get a free trial of skillshare premium so head over there and start learning so to begin with i used kd plasma on manjaro for the past month i customized the interface to my liking emulating some kind of elementary os layout if you want to have this kind of customization linuxcoop made a dedicated video which i definitely followed to make this and i left a link to that video on the description below so check it out if you want something that looks like this it kind of looks even better what he did but i didn't want to go to the trouble to do all of these customizations let's begin with what i liked about kde and the first thing that really struck me is how customizable the desktop is now i started using the default layout but after a while i wanted to customize it and i kind of emulated the layout of elementor os but went a little beyond that i created one that looks and feels completely different using latte dark but apart from completely changing the layout the number of small things you can change is just amazing from how the task manager looks and behaves to which notification icons you want to see and when or the clock style you can really change everything you want now my needs are pretty simple but i like to get rid of small annoyances like having too many notification icons visible at the same time and kd lets me do that the default alt tab look wasn't really my favorite so i changed it as well to a thumbnail style i like my windows appearing at the center of the screen because i'm not an animal so i changed that as well i wanted buttons on the left side of window decorations and i could do that as well i could list all options here no honestly no i couldn't there are too many but generally if you see something you don't like in kde you can change it it's that simple now this is kind of incredible in and of itself because whether you just want to change a few things that annoy you and keep the default experience intact or if you want to completely create your whole new desktop environment or desktop experience you can do that with kde there's nothing stopping you from creating something entirely different or just using the default layout and tweaking a few things here and there to remove the small annoyances that you have with it now also enjoy the widget system that you can add to your desktop i added my video folder and a few system monitoring ones but that's just the tip of the iceberg here there are hundreds of widgets you can download from the plasma let's call it store for lack of a better word from crypto trackers to different menus clocks docs resizable browser windows you can really create the desktop you want to use now that's always been one of the main selling points of plasma customization and this get new stuff button is pervasive throughout the interface whether it's application themes plasma themes icons cursors wallpapers widgets you name it you can download some new ones from an online library in one click and use them immediately afterwards it's super well integrated and it's a really nice feature that i enjoyed it was also nice to rediscover notification icons especially as they've been integrated in plasma they all feel part of the same interface which is pretty rare usually you get a disjointed collection of icons of varying shapes sizes and colors but here they're all looking nice and similar and i must admit i had missed them quite a lot on elementor os among the best ones the media player applet is just fantastic listing all your video or audio playing apps in the same place so you don't have to hunt for them the removable media applet is also cool popping up when you insert something so you can open the contents in one click the ones you don't need or want to see can be tucked away in an overflow menu which is also very nice now having a full-fledged menu is also something that i truly missed on elementor os you don't just get an app grid or an app list you get access to your places to your recent files to your history and also more importantly you get access to file search system wide now that's something that most of you will find pretty normal but on elementor ios there is no dedicated way to search for files at the system level you have to open a file manager for that and having this integrated into the menu makes a whole lot of a difference and please elementor ios devs if you're reading this please integrate file search in your menu it is solely needed please now another thing that i had missed was kde connect i used it on elementor os but there is no way to really integrate it all that well especially since the elementary os notification system doesn't really support actionable notifications so there was no way to answer messages or share files so it was a glorified remote control now i get access to the power of a fully operational cadi connect running on my slash e-smartphone and it is amazing i can do anything i want it's just apple levels of integration between your phone and your desktop love it now of course not everything is roses and rainbows and there are some things that i really don't like about kde the default theme in light mode is pretty bland and looks a bit old especially the buttons i'm using the dark theme which kinda resolves the issue but the default application's theme really needs an update in my opinion of course that's only an issue if you don't change it now my main issue with kde is the applications those are very inconsistent they don't look or feel the same at all on the one hand you have apps that have really simple defaults and a lot of power under the hood if you need it like dolphin on the other hand you have applications that really want you to see every single feature panel and option available right out of the box like the calendar now dolphin is a great example of how you can get an app super simple and still have a lot of power under the hood by default there is no menu bar very few toolbar icons and a simple layout but if you live in your file manager you can show a folder list an info panel and even a terminal that's what i'd like all kd apps to be a simple layout without too many panels but for users who really need something more powerful just keep the options to show more panels more toolbars the menu bar everything but out of the box please make simpler layouts it's really really a better experience for somebody who gets used to your app to add features instead of trying to remove them because you don't use them now there also seems to be a less sizable community of application developers for kde than for gnome or at least gdk applications a lot of apps look pretty old like k organizer or kmail they don't look updated visually to look like something like dolphin or discover i also couldn't find a to-do list application along the lines of getting things gnome or planner and i couldn't find an equivalent of audacity for the kde desktop now generally all the smaller utilities like a very simple one purpose image resizer or file format converter don't seem to exist on kde you have big monolithic applications with ton of options but if you want a simple one-purpose two clicks application then you're out of luck now of course you can always install non-kde apps on kde and that's what i did with the planner audacity i also installed the gnome disks app because for some reason the kde partition manager just wouldn't want to let me restore an disk image into an sd card which gnome disk did in two clicks now that's where kde grabs the advantage again it integrates gtk apps a lot better than gnome integrates cute apps the fact that you can choose any theme you want for gdk applications under kde is great because it means that these things will look a lot better integrated and not feel so alien using kde apps on gnome or elementor os is a weird experience those applications do not look integrated and they do not look native but using no maps on kde is a more simpler experience and it honestly looks good to the point that i was wondering if i could just run a plasma desktop with gnome apps behind instead of the kde ones now i praised the avalanche of settings before and i'm not going to apologize for it but it's also a bit of a hassle sometimes to find a specific thing you're looking for the system settings have a handy search feature but it looks for the category names and not the settings inside if for example i want to know where i can enable the fact that i can move my window to an edge of the screen to move it to another virtual desktop i was trying to type sliding i was trying to try to type moving or virtual desktop it only showed me categories that were named using one of these words or that had sub categories that matched this request the setting i was looking for is in screen edges but it could just as easily have been in window behavior or virtual desktops now these settings are awesome but finding them if you don't know where they are can be a bit of a hassle and that's about it for what i didn't like now if i needed to conclude i'd say i really enjoyed using kde rediscovering the power of notification icons really well integrated with the system rediscovering the power of a full fire search in the menu and rediscovering the power of kde connect really made a whole lot of a difference compared to my experience with elementary os previously though i also rediscovered the power of having desktop icons and no i still think that having a desktop folder with tons of icons and files inside that are displayed on top of your wallpaper is a horrible user experience it looks terrible it's bad for file management you're going to lose or delete stuff it just should never be done but having a specific little window that is always visible on your desktop choosing the folder that you want to display things is a great experience and that's something that really should be done on every desktop environment i know you can do it on elementor os with the desktop folder app but it should be the default not just putting a parameter mishmash of files that you just stored inside of a folder and that are displayed with no consequence and no rule at all it's just not good now widgets are also impressive and they are really well integrated inside the panel inside your desktop they just add a lot of power and functionality so to conclude i'm to keep using kde plasma for a while at least until amentorius 6 releases because that's probably what i'm gonna be willing to use when it's out let's be honest but i will definitely keep plasma on one of my devices because it's an amazing system super powerful and i really enjoy using it daily that's it for this video guys if you enjoyed don't hesitate to like or dislike if you didn't you can also subscribe and turn on notifications if you want to see more videos like this one if you want to watch somewhere else than on youtube you can also follow me on audi say i left a link in the description below if you want to help support the channel you can also join my amazing patreon subscribers and youtube members and get access to a weekly patreon cast and the right to vote on the next topics i'll cover thank you guys for watching and i'll see you in the next one bye [Music] you

Channel: The Linux Experiment

Views: 95,120

Keywords: linux, elementary os, open source, distribution, linux distro, linux help, linux 2021, kde plasma review, manjaro KDE review, plasma kde review, manjaro kde, kde plasma opinion, kde connect, kde plasma 5.21, linux tutorial, what i like plasma kde, kde applications, kde apps, lack of kde apps, bad kde apps, good kde apps, kde is good, kde is terrible, i like kde, kde plasma is good, lde plasma is worse than, kde is better than, kde is worse than

Id: aVTvG1YYEJk

Length: 12min 0sec (720 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/throwaway6560192]

Nice review.

Also reminding us that there's still a lot to be done in improving System Settings usability.

[u/Schlaefer]

That was impressive, unexpected Latte ricing. Someone did dive deep.

[u/NayamAmarshe]

Not surprised that he liked it. KDE is awesome!

[u/idjoe]

Never ever have I had the problem with KDE Partition Manager.

[u/Xarkam]

Personally, I would like so much to have a real assistant mail, contact, tasks, ect ... like Gnome Evolution.

I am forced to use Evolution because kmail just cannot work properly with an office365 (outlook.com) account.

akonadi to a duplicate key bug in a table when we want to add an office365 (outlook.com) account.

[u/darkbloo64]

Nick's comment about KDE not having a wave editor like Audacity got me to do a little digging, and today I learned that KDE does in fact have one - it's called KWave - but the interface looks just as outdated as Audacity's.

[u/clickwir]

I've used KDE/Plasma exclusively for years, here's my review.

It's awesome.

[u/ben2talk]

Video's like this remind me just how much I have over-ridden most of the annoying aspects of desktop control by installing Easygestures - so I not only have keyboard shortcuts, but when I'm on the mouse I can do a squiggle to activate them - so I don't need to click silly titlebars, or 'x' to close, or menu's to launch... (i.e. I use an 'h' gesture to launch a fresh Dolphin at home, or a 'd' to launch dolphin remembring the last session - stuff like that).

[u/zeanox]

I don't understand why people are beginning to hate desktop icons? i find them incredibly useful and is one of the main reasons as to why i will not use Elementary os.