KDE celebrates the 29th birthday and kicks off the yearly fundraiser

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall sentiment and fundraising

  • Many commenters report donating (some monthly) and express satisfaction supporting KDE as a “sane default” and daily driver.
  • KDE is praised for preserving powerful, non-opinionated design in contrast to trends toward minimal, locked-down UIs.

KDE as a daily driver and app ecosystem

  • Users report Plasma + Wayland “just works” for everyday use, including gaming via Proton, multi‑monitor setups, Japanese input, and better battery life than Windows on the same hardware.
  • Dolphin is repeatedly called the best file manager; features like split views, tabs, terminal integration, and even Windows support via winget install KDE.Dolphin are highlighted.
  • KDE Connect, KWin, Yakuake, KDevelop and the broader K‑app suite are frequently cited as major strengths.

KDE vs. GNOME and other desktops

  • Many prefer KDE over GNOME for:
    • More configuration options exposed in one place.
    • Fewer fragile third‑party extensions to restore basic features.
    • A workflow and appearance closer to “classic” Windows, which eases migration.
  • Strong criticism of GNOME’s feature removals, extension fragility, and simplified core apps; some long‑time GNOME users say they are planning to switch.
  • A minority prefers GNOME’s opinionated, minimal approach and reports it as stable and unobtrusive.

Customization, shortcuts, and complexity

  • Emacs-style global keybindings (e.g., Ctrl‑A/E) are reported as easy in GNOME but hard/inconsistent in KDE due to mixed toolkits (Qt, GTK, Electron).
  • KDE’s shortcut system is seen as conceptually better but unwieldy in practice; some wish for easier, global behavior across all toolkits.
  • Several note that KDE’s vast configurability can overwhelm novices; suggestions include an “Advanced mode” and better “escape hatch” for misconfigurations.

Wayland, hardware, and stability

  • Plasma + Wayland is widely reported as smooth and mature; fingerprint reader support recently improved for some laptops.
  • Some FreeBSD users feel KDE is deprecating X11 too quickly given Wayland’s state on that OS.
  • Occasional Plasma crashes are mentioned but framed as rare.

KDE, Windows, and desktop Linux reach

  • KDE is seen as an excellent Windows replacement, especially given dissatisfaction with Windows 10/11 policies and hardware requirements.
  • Debate occurs over whether KDE’s similarity to Windows helps onboarding or risks confusing users expecting Windows behavior.
  • Broader pessimism is voiced about Linux desktop adoption (institutional inertia, fragmentation), though others note Chromebooks and mobile OSes are changing the baseline anyway.

Storage, backups, and ecosystem tangents

  • For cloud/backup equivalents, commenters mention Dropbox, community OneDrive clients, and especially Nextcloud (often hosted at providers like Hetzner).
  • A side discussion contrasts ZFS-on-root installer support and ZFS reliability versus other filesystems; views conflict, and robustness is contested.

History and evolution

  • Veterans reminisce about KDE 1–3 and Amarok, view KDE 4 as a painful but foundational rewrite, and praise KDE 5/6 as fast, polished, and mature.