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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Fedora proposal to change default desktop to KDE (fedoraproject.org)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (5 children)

In theory, I would love to use KDE and use Gnome only with many plugins and tweaks (like IMHO the majority of Gnome users out there, see Ubuntu desktop).

In practice, KDE has still too many unsolved problems:

For years now, I try KDE from stable mainstream distros in standard VMs, always something from the vanilla KDE setup segfaults within the first 30min w/o me even starting to customize it. It seems this is not only a personal anecdote, but the experience of a lot of people trying KDE. (Gnome in these VMs runs stable w/o any segfaults, these VMs sometimes are running for days)
KMail ... even the KDE community themselves point out all the trouble with KMail: It works, until it doesn't, no support for GMail OOTB, etc ... This problems with KMail are known/reported/experienced for years now, w/o being fixed. Thunderbird/Evolution work OOTB and stable for my needs since a decade by now
Online-Accounts for Gnome works on every distribution OOTB for me, for all my professional/private needs. Again, in theory Dolphin is a much better file manager than Nautilus, in practice I can remote mount everything in Nautilus

In summary: I am not a big fan of Gnomes UI and would much prefer KDE, but in practice Gnome works stable, lets me setup my online accounts/connectivity and email and simply works. The KDE community ignored too many of this issues for too long (stability) and is still ignoring the widely known issues with KMail (fix it, dump it or at least communicate it is not ready for general use). I lost trust that these issues will ever be fixed by now. (Was a happy KDE 3.X user back in the day.)

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I believe these problems would be sorted out pretty quickly if big player like Fedora really switched. We can only dream for now...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

I agree, it would give KDE a boost.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

How are you running the VMs, with VirtualBox? I can't say I've run a DE on a VM very often, but it's always been under libvirt and I've not seen segfaults. I don't disbelieve you, but I wonder if its the hypervisor.

Not sure why you're fixating on Kmail; Thunderbird works fine on KDE and is the preferred choice across most distros IME. I'd use it before Outlook even if it were available on Linux.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I run my VMs with QEmu or VMware.

My fixation on KMail is simple, that I want to have an email client which is truly integrated in my DE and uses mostly the same libs. (Running Evolution btw.).

If I just run KDE as an application starter, I honestly rather use Xfce or even more minimal. The whole selling point of an DE (for me) is that things are integrated.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I'm sure kmail used to work (a number of years ago). But something happened to it and I never managed to get it to work again. I tried again recently and no luck.

Of course Thunderbird worked immediately on a basic Imap account.

And don't even get me started on Google integration. Although Google probably shares the blame (or is responsible for most of it) given the hoops they make you jump through to (very reluctantly) allow anything to talk to their apps.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Merkuro Mail might fix some of KMail's issues. It still uses the same backend though, and isn't really stable yet.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

I know you mean good, but exactly this is the problem: Fix known issues with KMail or with KMails backend? - Nope. Write a new E-Mail client which someday, in the far future might work and have all the features we need? Let's go!

IMHO Evolution had the benefit, that it initially was written by Ximian and brought up to be good enough(TM). Honestly, I don't see anyone investing this time, money and energy in a new KDE email client (or in KMail).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Building KDE on gnome is not feasible