I tried out the brand new KDE Linux distro, and it's already my favorite

If you've been following along with my Linux adventures, you'll know that I recently ditched Windows and found my new home over on Fedora KDE Plasma. The biggest reason it kept me around was that I really enjoyed KDE, and out of all the distros I used that came with a desktop environment, Fedora was the most stable. And all was happy.

However, I was then informed that the people who created KDE were also developing their own distribution, called, surprise surprise, KDE Linux. So, I grabbed one of my older laptops, threw KDE Linux on it, and gave it a spin. And you know what? I think they're onto something very cool.

KDE Linux is, well...KDE

And that's perfect

So, if I told you that using KDE Linux looked and felt like using a different distro with KDE, how surprised would you be? Hopefully, not very, because that's what it's like. You make a bootable KDE Linux drive, boot it up, go through the setup process, restart your PC, and bam - all the familiar KDE features and UI that you know and love.

Given how the part I loved most about Fedora KDE Plasma was the latter half, having a system that's just all KDE is great for me. Not that I dislike Fedora (I don't), but I like that the UI that I enjoy is a core part of the OS and not just a desktop environment.

KDE Linux is nice and lightweight

My aging laptop loves it

Before I put KDE Linux on it, I had Windows 11 installed on my laptop, which I purchased back in 2018. It's by no means a powerful device; it has an i3-7100U CPU and 4GB of RAM. You may be asking yourself, "Simon, why did you install Windows 11 on such a device?" to which I can only respond with a shrug and say, "Because I could."

The point is, my laptop hated Windows 11. When I booted it up to prep it for KDE Linux, it would sit there idle with Windows 11 loaded, and the fans would be spinning. It sounded like I was using it to stream something or play a gam,e except I was just looking at the desktop. I wasn't even moving the mouse. Honestly, I should have expected it.

So, when I got KDE Linux on this device, it felt like a whole new computer. It was responsive, it didn't spin up its fans during idle, and the OS didn't tax its hardware at all. Granted, it's still an i3-7100 with 4GB of RAM, so it's not like I can suddenly use it to render high-quality video and play Cyberpunk 2077 on it, but it's now a very decent workstation that doesn't lag like crazy.

It's still in development, though

Don't grab it unless you're brave

That all being said, KDE Linux is still very much in its early stages. The fact that the "current state" section of the KDE Linux wiki happily declares that "Getting apps from Flathub works" shows you what kind of state the operating system is in right now. The wiki also says that the "manual partition" feature in the installer just flat-out doesn't work, and when you update the OS, it downloads the whole thing.

Also, I had a nasty surprise when I booted up Konsole and tried using Fedora commands in it. Of course, they didn't work; I've been far too used to using Fedora KDE Plasma that I forgot this operating system doesn't have Fedora on it.

However, from what I saw, I really, really liked KDE Linux. For now, I'm going to keep it on my laptop and see how it evolves over time. Once the operating system gets up and running, I can easily see myself making the jump and using pure KDE Linux instead of Fedora.

I can't wait until KDE Linux is fleshed out

Right now, I'm in a strange paradox where KDE Linux is my favorite distro so far, but I'm not using it as my workhorse OS. While I really love KDE, the Linux distro is still missing some features that I'd really like to see. Fortunately, it seems the KDE team is hard at work ironing out all the wrinkles, so once that's done, I'll be more than ready to make the jump.