I began distro hopping in 2021, with a slight break in 2022, before coming back full swing this year. After a while of trying almost anything that seemed interesting to me, tinkering, and learning about Linux as a whole, I've absolutely fallen in LOVE with KDE as a whole. I'll mainly be talking about the desktop, here.
I've a hard time using other stuff now, with how well Plasma fits my use-case as well as just how customizable it is. I even made my desktop sorta like GNOME, in a setup I jokingly call 'KNOME'. Yes, name 100% stolen. Works just like Plasma with some of the looks that I like from GNOME.
Beyond that, I do need to mention I run Arch [btw] for this, but I absolutely love how quick and efficiently updates are delivered as well as how the community is kept-up with. I know there are distro differences, but from my experience on Arch, KDE updates typically go great and SUPER quick / painless.
The community being kept-up with the development process also really helps everything feel more engaging and, therefor, easy to engage with. I was VERY scared about posting on Linux forums, boards and threads, but the KDE community was honestly a large part of the reason I opened up at all, and I've made some great friends along the way!
I look heavily forward to using a KDE phone as soon as possible, as well as Big Screen. I'm fully invested in KDE from here on out. Thank you to everyone for working so hard to make KDE what it is!
For the last bit of this, I'd like to give special thanks to Nicco Loves Linux on YouTube, for making such great KDE and Linux content in general. Their videos are a big reason I'm so comfortable with KDE today! If they happen to be here, thank you so much! Love your videos!
Picture of desktop for those wondering what KNOME is. As for the point of this post? Just wanted to show some love to the devs, kontributors, and the kommunity. Hope that's okay!
One thing that surprises me is the level of "aha" moments using the additional apps. Gwenview and Okular have so many power-user-friendly shortcuts that are intuitive. Lot's of "Oh that's nice but it would be perfect if..." moments followed by seeing the option in the settings and/or programmable via a shortcut key