KDE Connect: Enabling communication between all your devices

At least in my use case (as link between Android devices and both Linux/Win PCs) KDE Connect is a real killer app. It enabled seamless integration and saved me lots of hassle and time. It really should get more exposure.

I see reports that it doesn't work. These are mostly for distros where Plasma is either rather old or taking a backseat after other environment (usually Gnome). I'm having great results with the latest Plasma 6 on Slackware-current and also in a standard Windows 11 environment.

How is Slackware doing nowadays? Last release was several years ago, but I need a replacement for Win 10 on my PC.

Slackware’s last release was 2.5 years ago.

Look at Fedora (if you like RPM distros) if you’re after something pretty nicely put together that stays reasonably well up to date. Very well maintained. Influenced by Red Hat (or “led by” or even “owned by”), which works for some, not for others.

CachyOS is trendy these days. EndeavourOS is basically Arch with an installer.

There are a few distros targeted at Windows refugees. ZorinOS is well regarded. AnduinOS is a newer entry. But if you’re willing to walk away from a Windows-like UI, skip these.

Arch has an installer these days. It works pretty well and you can have a system up and running in about 20 minutes if you have a fast internet connection.

For people that want a Windows like UI, I would probably suggest Cinnamon. It works pretty much like Windows 7/10 without all the visual nonsense that KDE typically has.

My experience is that KDE 6 has very little visual nonsense right out of the box. 4 and 5 did have a lot more, but most/all of it could be disabled. Most other Linux DEs don't really let you customize them to your own personal level of nonsense at any rate.

I probably see a lot more than other people since I spent a good few years doing pixel perfect web dev.

I am not being hyperbolic when I say that I can see a pixel out of place on a webpage on the other side of the room.

https://kde.org/content/home/main.jpg

This is a screenshot from their site. Just in this screenshot I see the following:

1) there is an horrendous text shadow effect on the text under the "Home" desktop icon in the top left.

2) Clock text is too large compared to the rest of the interface, especially the icons next to it.

3) Trash Icon looks like out of place compared to the other icons.

4) Drop shadow effect on the window and the start menu thing. It kinda too dark really.

5) Every single gap between interface elements seems different and off. The icon sizes seem a bit all over the place.

6) There is a gradient on the window title bar and rounded corners. Cinnamon does this as well. I dunno it is very Window XP Luna (which I never liked).

7) The window control icons look off to me and don't fit in with the rest of the interface IMO.

A lot of this I appreciate can be probably be changed. But that is how it comes OOTB if it is an official screenshot. It feels like a Windows Vista ripoff.

Generally I find KDE lacks "taste". None of the Linux GUIs are that great tbh. People put up fancy screenshots, but I guarantee the moment the windows are arranged in any other way it looks not so great.

I agree with your assessment of KDE lacking "taste". Imo, it looks like a system designed by engineers, not designers.

GNOME has the opposite problem imo. I feel like it has "taste", but it feels like a system fully designed by designers, with no engineers giving practical pushback. It's the same issue macOS has, but amplified: Designers have some grand idea about their vision being the one true way of using the system and made it hard to impossible to customize.

I currently use KDE, but am not happy with it for the reasons you described. I used to use GNOME, but wasn't happy with it for the reasons above.

I have high hopes for Cosmic [0]. It seems like that one might get the balance right.

[0] https://system76.com/cosmic

> I agree with your assessment of KDE lacking "taste". Imo, it looks like a system designed by engineers, not designers.

TBF, I was linked their more up to date screenshots in a sibling thread and it does look more consistent but it still seems off.

> I currently use KDE, but am not happy with it for the reasons you described. I used to use GNOME, but wasn't happy with it for the reasons above.

I don't like any of the Linux DEs tbh. They all have issues.

I might give KDE a go. But I think Debian does a poor job at packaging it and I don't really want to change distros.

> I have high hopes for Cosmic [0]. It seems like that one might get the balance right.

I tried compiling Cosmic on source on Debian 12. I ran out of memory on the VM I was doing it on. I also found out that on Debian 12 their rustc was broken!

Do you think GNOME has similar UI issues? In my view, it's "pretty", but just doesn't let me configure it the way I want it to without hacking around way too much.