How to try out the latest version of KDE

I haven't had much time recently for messing about with Linux (rather than actually using it on my PC and laptop), but I came across an article recently on DebugPoint.com (via linuxtoday) which talked about a bug fix release in KDE with "almost all the bugs... squashed already". The KDE Announcements page says this is the third bug fix release after an "absolutely massive release" with "tons of new features and improvements."

I haven't tried KDE for years, so time for a play.

Here's how to try out the latest version of KDE. It's a live USB - so no need to install. These instructions assume you have Linux already. There are other guides available for other OSs.

1. Go to KDE neon and download the latest version. KDE neon is a "rapidly updated software repository" for KDE, based on Ubuntu. It's not a full Linux distribution - just a good way to try out the latest version of KDE if you are not running a rolling release distribution, like the Gnome release based on Fedora which you can download to try out the latest Gnome. Running Debian Stable as I am, I would have to wait over a year for the latest KDE to hit the repositories.

2. Find an old USB drive or SD card. 2GB would be ideal. A good way to make use of  those old memory devices at the back of your draw now that 128GB drives are as cheap as chips.

3. Plug it in and check the device name with this command:

$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-id

Look for the name of the USB drive: in this case it's sdb. (Note: not sdb1 etc as these are partitions of the disk.) Be sure to get this right, or the next step will destroy your hard drive.

4. In your terminal, navigate to the download folder and become root:

$ cd ~/Downloads

$ su

NB: the su command is similar to the su - command except it leaves you in the same folder. It also leaves you with whatever environment variables your system administration has set up for your user. As I'm the administrator and I have set any variables, that is not an issue.

5. Burn the image to the USB drive with the following command:

# dd if=neon-user-20201203-0947.iso of=/dev/sdb

Where if is the source (the file name of the iso image) and of is the destination (in this case the USB drive name we determined earlier). Make sure to get the destination right or you could overwrite your hard drive!

After pressing enter, you may not notice anything happening for a few minutes. If your USB drive has an LED, it will flash. At the end of the process, the terminal will report the successful completion.

6. Reboot the computer. Go into the BIOS if necessary to allow USB boot. There are many guides out there if you need help.

7. Enjoy playing with the latest version of KDE.

So what are my impressions? Well, it's very beautiful, and seems very fast and stable, even on my old and low-powered laptop. It seems to be more mature than KDE of the past, with less of the over adornment of bells and whistles, although it still has the abundance of configuration options of KDE. 

A look at KDE in Debian Wheezy

I don't think anybody who likes the minimalism of Gnome is going to feel entirely at home in the configuration heaven of KDE, and the other way round. However, this is a matter of taste: I prefer Gnome's minimalism, but if you enjoy configuration options, you'll enjoy KDE. I've been trying the latest Debian beta version from a Debian Wheezy Live USB available now.

The last time I tried KDE, the Task Manager icon previews were not working with my graphics card; now they are. This was the main feature I wanted to take a look at.

I've been using Windows 7 quite a bit recently, and the similarity is obvious. In KDE the default setting is not to group windows, but this can easily be more changed. I like this way of switching between windows. The GIMP's modal windows don't behave well with Task Manger- they go off and do their own thing, which is annoying, but Libre Office behaves well.

The main menu will also be familiar to Windows users.

The default theme looks good, although Iceweasel need the Oxygen theme to blend in.

This is certainly a desktop I could live with. It will appeal to anybody familiar with Windows 7, as well as Linux users looking for a very configurable desktop.

I have to say, it doesn't seem like a very lightweight desktop environment. I can run a Live USB session of Crunchbang and hardly notice I'm not running from the hard drive, but with KDE the laptop fan was blowing frequently, and the computer locked up a couple of times. I don't know what it would be like installed, but I suspect not too zippy on this laptop's meager 1G of RAM; should be fine on more modern machines.

A more lightweight desktop for older machines (perhaps more appropriate for this computer) is XFCE. I've been using the Squeeze Live USB recently and have just downloaded the Wheezy version, which I'll be comparing and reviewing tomorrow.

Configuration heaven

I've been trying out KDE on a Fedora Live USB after reading this review comparing it to Windows 7.

[U]sers moving between KDE and Windows 7 won't find many differences in basic navigation. However, the differences in how features are implemented are obvious as soon as you start configuring.

They certainly are. Every application in KDE seems to have one hundred configuration options, as does every panel, widget or window. It's clearly aimed at "power users". Fiddling with configuration options is not my cup of tea. I like the minimalism of Gnome, and Gnome applications.
Give me Gnome 3 with its almost complete lack of configuration options any day.