KDE not only stands out for its desktop, Plasma, although it is one of the most important projects of the company. This organization also has many other projects (all of them free software) that are very important within the Linux ecosystem. Some of the most important are:
- KDE Frameworks
- KDE Applications
- Calligra Suite
- Amarok
Regardless of the desktop we use, we can download and install most of these programs from the official repositories of the main distros. In any case, in order not to complicate things, we are going to see which are the most important KDE distros that will allow us to get a better idea of how important this organization has been since its creation, 25 years ago.
Try the first KDE desktops
The people in charge of the KDE project have created a specific website to celebrate his birthday. In it we will be able to find a list with all the celebration events that they have planned to carry out these days, as well as some other surprises.
One of the most curious are a series of virtual machines, created and configured by them, thanks to which we will be able to test the first versions of this desktop, from KDE 1 to Plasma 4. At the moment, we can only find the images for KDE 3 and Plasma 4, but versions 1 and 2 of this desktop will also arrive very soon.
All we have to do is have it installed on our PC VirtualBox, download the OVA images that they provide us and open them with the virtualization program. Nothing more. The access data is kde / kdeproject, and thanks to them we will be able to remember what this desktop was like in its origins and see how it has evolved to become what we know now.
Modern distros with this desk
If what we want is to test KDE more thoroughly, and incidentally take our first steps into the Linux world, we can also do so by betting on one of the many distributions that come standard with this desktop.
Kubuntu
Ubuntu is the best known and most used distro in the world. This distro, developed and maintained by Canonical, uses the GNOME desktop as standard, one of KDE’s biggest rivals. However, the community maintains one of the official flavors of this distro, which stands out for its Plasma desktop: Kubuntu. If we like Ubuntu, and we want to savor the flavor of Plasma a bit, what better way to do it than with this excellent distro that brings us the best of both houses.
We can download it from its official website.
KDE Neon
KDE Neon It is the best option we have to be able to taste, first hand, the purest KDE style. It is a distro also based on Ubuntu that stands out for always having the latest version of Plasma, as well as each and every one of the features that, little by little, are reaching this ecosystem with each update.
A very well optimized system, with perfectly integrated Plasma and very careful in absolutely every way, which we can download from the project website. Of course, the best way to have our desktop up to date.
Manjaro
And finally, we want to talk about Manjaro. While the two previous options are based on Ubuntu, this distro is based on Arch Linux, one of the most minimalist and customizable systems that we can find. This distro allows us to choose the desktop we want to use, with KDE Plasma being one of the available options.
Manjaro is installed with the most basic things to be able to function, and it is up to the user to install the programs and packages that they will need on a day-to-day basis. If you are looking for the best, most stable and fluid, look no further. Go down Manjaro right now and give Plasma a chance.