I'm quite happy with Fedora. It has kde support, many apps (especially with rpmfusion), and is quite stable because it is still a 6 month ish major release schedule. Wobbly windows, kde connect, and krunnuer will definitely work. Good customization is subjective, and honestly I consider c/unixporn to be weird but cool wizardry, but I'm happy with it. One thing to consider is if you have a newer amd CPU with an iGPU being used it will get slow and crash every now and then (few months). It's a bug in the linux kernel starting around 6.10.
this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2024
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Good customization is subjective
Yes, but I mean you can customize a lot in settings, themes, icons, etc
I have a 5800x and a 6950 so it should be okay
Yeah, that's a kde thing, so I doubt it would be very different than neon.
If it doesn't crash for no reason I'm happy with that
Nothing crashes for no reason. Until you identify the reason, you’re employing stochastic problem solving.
Except my KDE OS. No idea what causes freezes and sometimes (like yesterday) it happened while idle
Yeah, I was being trite but still there is a reason. Idle doesn’t mean doing nothing. Perhaps it’s obscure, perhaps as impenetrable as some combination of machine state and number of milliseconds since 1970 being an even number. But you could try to track it down.
And sometimes the easiest thing is to reinstall from scratch.
The problem started after they pushed an update that broke my install and others too. Reinstalled and started to get these problems, probably due to the new update
the Bazzite KDE flavor sounds like what you need
OpenSuSE with default filesystem configuration
or kubuntu
Try Aurora DX (it means the developer edition). It's KDE but with a Fedora base and immutability. It means that even if an update breaks something (unlikely but still) you will always have a working system available to fall back to. It does mean that development is meant to be done via containers, but I find this solution to be way cleaner and easier to work with than traditional package conflicts madness. Give it a go.
It also means updates are just full system images, so no way for a package manager or differential update to mess anything up. It also means no way of downloading tiny differential updates (if I understand everything correctly).
If you don't need DX or would like to switch off of KDE, there are other fedora atomic desktop based distributions available.
Oh right, a distribution is just an image, so switching distributions is as simple as switching the base OS image and rebooting.
Fedora KDE spin might be suitable for you.
why not arch? it's a fun distro to try if you haven't yet
Because I'm used to Debian and the features listed? Krunner, Wobbly windows (useless but heh), full KDE connect support
Krunner, wobbly windows and KDE connect are features of KDE Plasma, not Debian. You can install KDE plasma on arch and use all of the things you listed. Arch also has good app support through the AUR. Plus the wiki is called the Linux bible for a reason
I know. I'm also used to install package with apt
Is there an arch based distro with KDE support?
EndeavourOS is Arch with an installer and a few utilities. You can install offline and it will use KDE or you can install online and choose KDE. The major difference is whether you need to update after installing.
I can also recommend EndeavorOS, mostly seamless install even with a Nvidia Optimus GPU (well that one took a bit of research on what to install exactly, not that it's easier on other distros)
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i mean arch supports kde?
you can even have the automatic arch installer ($ archinstall in the live usb) set up a kde environment just like in the debian netinstaller
Atomic distros were created to solve exactly that problem. I like Bazzite because it also has seamless background updates (among other reasons).
I'm looking for good apps support so Debian?
Any Debian fork will run .deb packages. But plain Debian is just very vanilla and will be missing a lot of stuff you'll probably want.
Wobbly windows (yes useless but cool lol) Good customization KDE connect support (a must) Krunner or equivalent (MacOS like search)
These are all going to be features of the DE, and you can install any DE on any distro (AFAIK).
I tried Bazzite as my first try with Linux for a while and liked it; it was super easy. I didn't like that the immutability went so far as to lock me out of some parts of the OS that I thought should be open, like lock screen customization.
Now I am on Garuda Arch and it has been really easy too.
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you should take a look at TuxedoOS it's KDE with quality control
Do I really want KDE again? Not sure. The "recent" (a few months old) update broke my previous install and I had to format and now it freezes my whole PC out of nowhere. I'm tired of restarting it at least twice a week for this
That's the quality control piece, since tuxedo uses it on their computers and wants the customers to have a seamless experience they test all updates
I wish people at KDE neon did the same. Broke mine and others installs
Out of curiosity, can I have /home/ in a separate disk? So if I have to reinstall I don't lose everything nor I have to back up everything
That's a thing with Neon. It's the "testing ground" for new KDE releases so they won't guarantee stability. It literally is just Ubuntu LTS with a KDE repo thrown on top, and the Neon devs themselves only maintain that repo, with just a short delay after the new Ubuntu LTS release comes out. In Neon, the users are the quality control for KDE releases. I was using it for a little over a year until the rebase to Ubintu 24.04 broke my install. I went to Nobara, a gaming focused distro based on Fedora that uses a custom version of KDE as the default. I just upgraded to the newest version not realizing it wasn't official yet, and it must have been the smoothest major version upgrade I've ever had in a non-rolling distro. It's maintained by GloriousEggroll, who also builds/maintains the customized GE versions of Proton on Steam. I'm finding it's not just a good gaming distro but a solid and stable distro overall. GloriousEggroll puts a lot of work into ensuring that on top of the Proton work he does. If you don't want the gaming performance customizations he makes, try Fedora KDE spin, it's likely to be pretty similar and I rarely ever hear someone have a problem with Fedora.
On your other question, next time you reinstall you can create a separate Home partition on your drive that should allow you to do what you're looking for. So you have your boot and swap partitions and the one you install your distro to, and then your home partition, so you just install the new distro over the old distro and it should leave your home partition alone.
i know and I wish there was an update to address the problems/revert them but after months of freezes, I have Christmas vacations to change OS.
I went to Nobara, a gaming focused distro based on Fedora
What do you use? Official? What does "gaming focused" means here?
The official looks tempting but not sure if has any of my "requirements" but I could try the KDE version
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I (after a lot of prior distro hopping) went from neon to tuxedo OS and have had very few issues, and only one that was major (was my own fault).
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For what you call 'MacOS like search' I'd recommand Recoll, working on any OS (and perfectly on my Debian install, for years on) : really can find ANY text string inside any document, from almost any app (e. g. Joplin, that I'd bet nobody heard of here), also including e. g. words within attachments within zipped backup email databases, pictures located on unpermanent backup volumes etc.
Regularly updated, that the one thing that definitely had me 'finally forgetting' MacOSX.
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it sounds like you're looking for kubuntu since it checks off every one of those bullet points.
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If you like KDE your night find endeavouros with KDE pretty good. It is an arch derivative so it is rolling release, if that is acceptable then I would say give it a try.
I don't like the recent update and all the problems it has but I like KDE as OS yeah
KDE is a desktop environment, you can install it on almost all distributions and it will look and behave same (yes can use wobly windows and krunner). I do not recommend KDE on Debian12 as its outdated enough that you can't install themes from kde's settings anymore.
Personally I recommend Fedora's KDE Spin, I believe its a distribution that you can install and forget and occasionally check for updates on kde's software center.
There's also arch based distros like cachyos or endeavouros with calamares installer that let you choose desktop environment before install.
Everyone is recommending KDE, but forgive me if I'm missing something, I don't see it needing to be KDE support as a requirement on your list?
Any mainstream GNOME distro, eg Fedora, will have all the features you need through extensions (compiz window effect, gconnect for KDE Konnect, GNOME has the search you want by default and supports lots of customisation via shell themes, GTK themes, icon packs and extensions.
Edit: )
Why cripple Gnome to something Knomeish when OP is already familiar with KDE and there are gazzillions of KDE distros?
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Nixos, never have that break happen again
I can highly recommend Bazzite for your needs. It has a KDE version which is clearly your favorite Desktop Environment (DE), it's extremely safe/stable due to being an Atomic distro (you can always boot into the previous image if a system update broke something), has incredible documentation, supports almost any traditional app through Distrobox (VPN requires rpm-ostree for now), has a scripted easy install of Waydroid for native android emulation, and has a few tweaks preconfigured to ensure the desktop gaming experience is a little more seamless out of the box than a stock distro. It really seems to tick all the boxes for what you're looking for.
If you want more focus on development and less on gaming, the Universal Blue team also makes Aurora for more developer-focused workloads, but Steam not being included in the image does introduce some usability regressions - Steam running via Flatpak or Distrobox is just plain less capable than a native install, though work is ongoing to make native installs Just Work even on Atomic systems.
My only problem is I'm used to Debian and I find arch/fedora/etc very confusing, do you have any tips/guide to help transitioning?
Have you ever seen Linux Journey? It's a very informative set of tutorials on how Linux fundamentally works under the hood; all the separate systems that together create an operating system. The concepts you learn there will apply to almost any distro in some way, even if some distros (like Atomic ones) don't let you mess with all of it.
For more top-level transition concerns, given that you're coming from stock Debian running KDE... Bazzite can also run KDE, so provided you select KDE when you download it, your GUI experience should be pretty much identical. Some minor but important differences would include themes, but there are guides for that, too.
When it comes to package management, the intent on Atomic systems is you basically don't install traditional packages (Flatpaks are the preferred option), but Bazzite has frameworks in place such that you can install pretty much any package from any distro, as laid out in their documentation I linked in my previous post and just now. Work is also ongoing to make traditional package-based software installations more seamless with an incoming switch from rpm-ostree to bootc, but that's getting into the weeds. If you have a deb file for a GUI program that's not available as a Flatpak, you'll be using a Distrobox to install it.
If you have any specific concerns about the differences, let me know and I can hopefully give you more details.
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