What is up everyone? So today we're talking about KDE Linux and that it kind of represents
something in its own way, kind of genuinely exciting in the desktop computing space as a whole that
I think deserves a little bit of attention. For what I'm always happy to see like a new Linux
distro actually out there. It's kind of like a kid with a shiny new toy. Unfortunately that
attention span sometimes goes with it. But it's really true when it actually comes from people
like this, meaning the KDE team specifically. But this video is still a bit different. Like
I'm not necessarily doing this video because I'm super excited about the distro because I'm
really not if I'm going to be honest with you guys. I'm not going to actually use this
in my daily life. I'm making this video then in turn because I actually know that there are those of
you out there who watch my videos who are hyper intelligent and a ton of the time I actually
get to learn from you guys and I'll tell you my thoughts first on it which is fair and in
exchange I'd love to actually have a chance to read what you actually think about this distro.
And this can be like positive or negative. In fact, I'd prefer to hear both if you actually
want to write all that out. But in any case, let's get right to it. So for three decades
basically KDE has created some of the more sophisticated desktop software that's actually
available that's out there. But users never really actually experienced it. I think the way that the
devs probably wanted them to actually experience it. Every distribution that shipped KDE, no matter
what it was, applied their own kind of modifications and sometimes branding and configuration choices
in other cases. Users essentially wound up with kind of these filtered versions of KDE really.
Instead of the actual like undistilled versions. And this is basically KDE delivering their software
directly to users without any intermediaries that are actually they're like meddling around
and modifying the experience, which is going to be in my opinion, kind of interesting to see.
Because in turn that means there's no more like waiting months for distribution
maintainers to actually package updates or wondering like if that bug exists in the upstream
KDE version or just in your actual distributions version of KDE. And yes,
to its credit, Nome already has its own OS as well with lightly builds. That's not
side issue, but whatever. KDE built an immutable system where the core components
remain protected from accidental damage, but they implemented intelligently in my opinion.
Now the system caches like five previous versions. So basically, if an update creates issues,
you can instantly roll back without reinstalling or troubleshooting for hours, which
is definitely cool. Basically, your own directory remains completely under your control.
Software installation works through multiple methods that exist from Flabpack, which provides the kind
of primary mechanisms, but snap and app images and containerized environments through distro box
and toolbox also give you pretty extensive options for running whatever software you
actually need to have development advantages with KDE Linux also exist here. Developers
working on KDE software save something like 45 gigabytes of space compared to traditional
source building kind of setups build times, therefore also decrease pretty dramatically,
because you only compile specific opponents that you're actually modifying in that case,
rather than like the entire dependency chain. Now most important for developers anyways is
that they can test their code in the exact environment where their users will actually run
it. And this eliminates those kind of frustrating bugs that basically only appear in specific
configurations. The technological choices that we saw in KDE Linux in some ways are forward
thinking, I would say in terms of engineering, Wayland, which whatever you want to say about
that in a lot of cases does provide superior security in a few ways and performance to boot
compared to legacy x11 systems and when it works that is and I don't want to give
too many for that in the comments. I don't care. I said it anyways like Wayland
has constantly been ready and almost ready for like almost a decade now. So whatever like
I can I can say whatever I want about it. Anyway, pipe wire handles both audio and video streams
through a unified modern kind of architecture and btrfs, which is a file system for those of
you that don't know, enables automatic snapshots, compression and really efficient storage
management, which that I really cannot say enough good things about in all seriousness,
like if you don't know what that is, you should definitely check it out, especially if like
you're using like time warp or whatever like it's really it's really cool system de integration
also is great for service management and updates as well. All of these kind of really
cohesive modern platform built with current technology versus maintaining compatibility
with systems from the 1990s, which I get it it does make sense that again like I also really
like ex Libre for more than a few reasons that you can see if you want to look it up on this
channel I have a whole video on it. Anyways, unlike the tour project this volunteer driven
project operates without advertisements data collection or hidden costs and its volunteer
run, which should earn them a fair amount of respect and I'm right off the rip. KDE has spent
like 30 years basically creating free open source software and they're applying all of that expertise
to this operating system and its development in general from what I've seen. The development
process remains completely transparent with clear funding through KDE, EV and community
contributions. Now, multiple planned additions kind of accommodate whatever your use case really is
right so like different user needs can be adapted intelligently based on whatever one you end up
picking. So for example, there's the testing addition, which provides daily builds from
development code for Q&A testers and developers who actually want immediate access to the new
coolest features and the enthusiast addition kind of targets power users with beta and stable releases
following KDE's actual development schedule and stable addition will more or less serve users who
prioritize things like reliability over the like cutting edge bleeding edge kind of
features that we see or the other additions. So basically like whatever box you belong to
they try to sort you into whichever one that you should be it and the atomic update switching
between additions seems to be completely safe. So developers can use testing additions during
active development periods then switch to stable additions when focusing on productivity
without risking system stability or whatever. Now hardware support follows a kind of simple
batteries included type of approach. What I mean by that is that it has really extensive
driver coverage to say the least and these get preinstalled more or less so that you have maximum
compatibility right. Things like modern NVIDIA GPUs receive preinstalled open kernel modules
and user space drivers which in turn provides a kind of fairly seamless functionality in regards
to like other operating systems that are out there. We have to do it all like manually
which can suck. By doing that they basically make it so that users have to worry less about
screwing up but more or less the alpha releases primarily geared towards like devs and
hardcore enthusiasts that alone kind of shows the KDE as a community as a volunteer community
have their commitment to quality over say rushed rubbish releases right and if you grab it you
should keep that in mind. Also keep in mind like this is an alpha release right. So what are some
of the known limitations. So from what I saw there are some rough edges in some of the
applications. I think it's missing secure boot but don't quote me on that and the manual
configuration requirements for say older NVIDIA hardware in other words it's kind of like your
regular alpha stage limitations. Another thing that I found was that supposedly if you reviewed on the
site they're like oh like we don't support virtual box like you can't run this in a virtual box.
They said that on the site I think or maybe they said it somewhere else
but I saw it and I didn't like it so like I figured out a way to run it in virtual box mainly
just because I don't like to be told what to do so I did it anyway. So if I still have the commands
for that and how I did it I'll try to pin put in the pin comment if I don't forget.
I'll probably forget so you guys can just yell at me like you did in the other video
like then I went and fixed it either way so it does run but it takes it's kind of hackery right.
But even in like the hackery environment that I had it in with virtual box it worked really well
like it was really fast it was really responsive and that was cool. Anyways one of the cool things
about like the entire thing that KDE basically can now recommend their own operating system to
hardware manufacturers without actually showing like any kind of favoritism towards actual distros.
So direct relationships with OEMs kind of becomes possible along with consistent hardware
compatibility testing and update delivery on KDE's own schedule on like the micro level
of this right users which is the micro level this provides like the most authentic KDE experiences
that you can have without any kind of like modifications or compromises or a particular
distros agenda because a lot of them have agendas which is insane but whatever on the macro level
like downstream distributions benefit from improvements developed from KDE Linux while
maintaining like their own kind of unique value propositions. What I mean by that
is basically because they are running their own OS they themselves will run across improvements
that actually need to be made and in turn will be able to do so which will actually benefit
other users who use their desktop software still by another distros right. So the immutable
architecture addresses a couple of different persistent reliability problems that have definitely
affected traditional distributions package conflicts become basically impossible this way
update failures that leave systems completely broken get totally eliminated the whole like
works on my machine problems between different installations disappear which obviously is huge
however it also means that if you have like any kind of supply chain a check for example
you're totally screwed the volunteer community that actually created this distro basically
really shows us what happens when skilled and motivated people can accomplish when they come
together right when working towards a common goal anyways and the same community that has
refined desktop Linux for decades basically is now applying that kind of expertise to
a complete operating system and the development of that operating system which is going to be
interesting to watch and I for one definitely look forward to seeing what the end result will be
when it's out of beta and it hits that year mark that five year mark future development
includes things like automatic home directory encryption in btrfs based backup systems
with intuitive interfaces now these features will obviously enhance security and protection
but at the same time they also maintain the user's experience quality that people expect
from things like modern computing platforms and the project creates new possibilities for
how desktop environments can actually be developed in the future and like tested and delivered basically
to users and the kind of direct connection between software creators and users I think
really strengthens both like the software quality and in the end will probably strengthen
user satisfaction as well by kind of eliminating those traditional layers of modification
in delay that exists as well as eliminating the politics that now infects like so many different
distros in so many different ways where like they actually block improvements many of the times
just they don't have the same political views as me it's moronic at best if you actually want to
contribute to the development community kde will no doubt welcome contributions ranging from
testing and bug reports to documentation and code development I really look forward to reading
you guys's comments in this video so please let me know what you think do if you've used kde in
the past feel free to mention that and in case thank you for watching at the end as always i'll see
the next video