I just installed Fedora KDE for the first time from gnome and goddamn all these fucking Ks lmao! Gotta say though I didn’t like elisa, installed Clementine almost immediately. I definitely don’t need all these apps but I have to figure out what they all do before I go removing them willy nilly.
And it refused to update my default browser to Librewolf so I had to uninstall Firefox to force it.
And NetworkManager wouldn’t work with the official fedora recommendation of how to randomize mac addresses, no clue why, it worked on gnome.
Ever since KDE made their software more modular with Plasma 5 / Frameworks 5, a Plasma session can be cut down by a lot. Personally, I don’t think it matters much because as soon as you browse the web, the RAM demands of the web browser dwarf that of even a fully decked out desktop anyway, but the options are there – perhaps for certain use cases that don’t involve web browsing.
I brought my KDE idle RAM usage down to 500MB just by using the GUI options that come with it. That’s about the same amount a default Xfce or LXQt needs.
I disabled all animations, the baloo file indexing and all services that start automatically at login.
I also installed not the full KDE Suite but just Plasma Desktop and then uninstalled all parts I don’t need.
So technically, I’m not running KDE but Plasma. From the KDE application Suite I use Dolphin, Konsole, the archiver, the image viewer, the PDF viewer and the system settings tool.
I love being in control, I use neovim for this reason. But I remember when I bought my laptop I originally wanted to use awesomewm again as I was on my family PC but I remember spending so much time on basic features like brigness control and such that I moved to KDE insteadd which had these features out of the box. Am I missing something here? Or do people who use window managers actually implement every feature they need from scratch? No offense to anyone or any project, they are all awesome
I’ve had to entirely wipe my kde config folder enough times because I dragged a widget and created phantom toolbars taking up space I couldn’t interact with or completely broken toolbars that I just don’t have the patience to use it anymore.
KDE has a really nice suite of applications and utilities. No other desktop environment really compares on that level (and Amarok is back!).
XFCE &etc are also good if you are running lightweight hardware (not just old hardware) but still want a desktop environment.
CLI is best for servers and remotely managed/headless systems.
KDE has crazy complex apps like Krita, digiKam, KDEnlive, Kate, Konqueror, etc etc.
They went more minimal and dedicated over time
Amarok -> Elisa, Kasts
Konqueror -> Dolphin, Falkon/“just use Firefox”
I dont get why we have Gwenview, Kolourpaint, Spectacle edit and digiKam though, this feels absurd
Missed opportunity for krazy and komplex.
I just installed Fedora KDE for the first time from gnome and goddamn all these fucking Ks lmao! Gotta say though I didn’t like elisa, installed Clementine almost immediately. I definitely don’t need all these apps but I have to figure out what they all do before I go removing them willy nilly.
And it refused to update my default browser to Librewolf so I had to uninstall Firefox to force it.
And NetworkManager wouldn’t work with the official fedora recommendation of how to randomize mac addresses, no clue why, it worked on gnome.
Other than that it is neat, though.
There is a new Qt app called Vvave, a tiny music player.
I also dont like Elisa, I personally use G4Music but also tried Strawberry.
There also is Qmmp, which is still developed and also pretty minimal
Yeah Fedora KDE is very bloated.
But no, changing the default browser under “default apps” in the settings works very reliable.
NetworkManager should default to randomized MAC since F40.
Have a look at my debloat guide
Was Amarok gone?
I used to use it maybe 16-17 years ago even though I used GNOME rather than KDE. It was the best music player I’d found on Linux.
I’m finally switching back to Linux so I’ll have to try it out again! These days I usually use Plexamp though.
Development was dead for years, so dead that it wasn’t included in new release repositories
Clementine was a fork that was pretty good, but I think had more ambitions than active developers.
Strawberry later forked from Clementine and is still being developed, and they’re doing well, but they aren’t building on the KDE framework.
Do you know if Elisa is related?
Crazy that we can use 3 forks alongside each other, feels wrong.
I think latly, especially in plasma 6, KDE got as viable on old machines as XFCE and surly mint and cinnamon.
Ever since KDE made their software more modular with Plasma 5 / Frameworks 5, a Plasma session can be cut down by a lot. Personally, I don’t think it matters much because as soon as you browse the web, the RAM demands of the web browser dwarf that of even a fully decked out desktop anyway, but the options are there – perhaps for certain use cases that don’t involve web browsing.
I brought my KDE idle RAM usage down to 500MB just by using the GUI options that come with it. That’s about the same amount a default Xfce or LXQt needs.
Damn can you list some of the options you remember changing?
I disabled all animations, the baloo file indexing and all services that start automatically at login.
I also installed not the full KDE Suite but just Plasma Desktop and then uninstalled all parts I don’t need.
So technically, I’m not running KDE but Plasma. From the KDE application Suite I use Dolphin, Konsole, the archiver, the image viewer, the PDF viewer and the system settings tool.
Yes baloo is a hog. Note that the background services systemsettings page will be hidden in the future but accessible from the global search.
Do you think installing extensions is really that difficult on Gnome?
I love being in control, I use neovim for this reason. But I remember when I bought my laptop I originally wanted to use awesomewm again as I was on my family PC but I remember spending so much time on basic features like brigness control and such that I moved to KDE insteadd which had these features out of the box. Am I missing something here? Or do people who use window managers actually implement every feature they need from scratch? No offense to anyone or any project, they are all awesome
Installing an extension by itself? That’s easy.
Finding all the extensions you need, actively maintained and quickly updated? Yeah, that’s really difficult, depending on your needs.
Fluxbox ftw!!
Cinnamon isn’t that lightweight. You will probably find KDE uses less resources.
I prefer KDE for touchscreens. What is it about GNOME you feel gives it an edge?
I’ve had to entirely wipe my kde config folder enough times because I dragged a widget and created phantom toolbars taking up space I couldn’t interact with or completely broken toolbars that I just don’t have the patience to use it anymore.
It does look and act like a cellphone OS :P