MIKE POWELL wrote to MORTAR <=-

I have a couple of boxes that run debian variants without a GUI. No obligations there, either. Most distros should be that way but not all are. :(

I *really* like running Debian like that. I'm running an SAP environment at work, and we had two choices of distro - RHEL or SuSe. I'm trying the latter for the first time in 25 years.


--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Nightfox wrote to Accession <=-

Why not? You can install any desktop environment on any Linux distro.

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-kde-plasma-on-linux-mint

Yeah, I've actually installed KDE on Linux Mint, and it does work. I
was just a little skeptical after seeing people recommend against doing so. Also, years ago, I had installed Cinnamon on Ubuntu..

It works, I think the only problem is bloat - with needing libraries for multiple desktop environments.



... A group of chipmunks is called a Chalupa.
--- MultiMail/DOS v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Hey Nightfox!

On Tue, Feb 03 2026 19:33:52 -0600, you wrote:

Yeah, I've actually installed KDE on Linux Mint, and it does work.
I was just a little skeptical after seeing people recommend against
doing so. Also, years ago, I had installed Cinnamon on Ubuntu..

I don't know of the type of people that would recommend against something like that, and I don't want to know them. ;)

Also, while it works, the version of KDE Plasma included in the repo
for Linux Mint is a 5.x version, which is older than the one
included in KUbuntu 25.10 (6.x). I also noticed a couple features
in the display settings that weren't available, which are available
in the 6.x version included with KUbuntu. I imagine it would
probably be fine, but for now I decided to install KUbuntu as it has
the newer version of KDE Plasma. And I think it looks & works
fairly well.

Probably just a restriction of their repos, and the age of their packages. If Linux Mint leans more towards something like stable Debian repos, everything is going to be older. It all depends on which distro you choose to go with.

I was mainly wondering about what would happen when I try to update
to the next major version of the distro and if anything would
break.. I haven't tried that with an alternate DE installed.

I would imagine nothing major these days. So long as all dependencies the DE requires comes at the same time. I imagine just about every distro has some kind of a "howto" for separate DEs, including ones that don't come by default with said distro.

If anything, you can try it in a VM or on a PC or laptop you're just tinkering with anyways, first, so there's no chance of losing stuff you don't want to (in case something were to possibly happen).

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
---
ï¿­ Synchronet ï¿­ _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin)

Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs. Ci
By: poindexter FORTRAN to MIKE POWELL on Wed Feb 04 2026 03:13 pm

I *really* like running Debian like that. I'm running an SAP
environment at work, and we had two choices of distro - RHEL or
SuSe. I'm trying the latter for the first time in 25 years.

that's really strange to see someone talk about an OS preference with sap.

i've worked with SAP and other ERP's for a very long time. it doesn't matter what OS you are running.


--
"Before using Wildcat....This Company did not have a convenient way of
looking after some of the richest clients in the world...Now we do!"
---
þ Synchronet þ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

On 04 Feb 2026, Accession said the following...

Probably just a restriction of their repos, and the age of their
packages. If Linux Mint leans more towards something like stable Debian repos, everything is going to be older. It all depends on which distro
you choose to go with.

i looked and the packages ARE the KUbuntu ones, not from/intended for Linux Mint at all, so nobody maintains anything KDE for Linux Mint. somehow i doubt anyone would have much luck convincing the KUbuntu package maintainers to fix something just for Linux Mint.

that's why everyone recommend against it. there are just better (and supported) options for something huge like KDE

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi

On 04 Feb 2026, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...

Yeah, I've actually installed KDE on Linux Mint, and it does work. I was just a little skeptical after seeing people recommend against doi so. Also, years ago, I had installed Cinnamon on Ubuntu..

It works, I think the only problem is bloat - with needing libraries for multiple desktop environments.

KDE is nasty IMO

if you just wanted to borrow something like their calculator, or the neat little task manager, you would need to install almost the entire desktop environment. for one little program.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi

Hey Fusion!

On Wed, Feb 04 2026 20:00:00 -0600, you wrote:

i looked and the packages ARE the KUbuntu ones, not from/intended
for Linux Mint at all, so nobody maintains anything KDE for Linux
Mint. somehow i doubt anyone would have much luck convincing the
KUbuntu package maintainers to fix something just for Linux Mint.

It would have nothing to do with the KUbuntu maintainers. The Linux Mint maintainers would need to keep it updated in their repositories, and then, would also have to support it.

However, Nightfox mentioned that KUbuntu runs KDE 6.x, whereas the packages available for Linux Mint is KDE 5.x, so they're either behind whatever KUbuntu is using, or Nightfox hasn't checked what is offered in Linux Mint in awhile.

that's why everyone recommend against it. there are just better (and supported) options for something huge like KDE

Seems like a Linux Mint problem, and I can definitely see how Linux Mint followers/users would recommend against it, then.

I haven't used a distro that comes with a specific desktop environment in quite some time, so I'm pretty clueless as to whether or not they support other DEs. I choose to install a base system with Arch, and install whatever I want from there. Hell, I never even knew about the "archinstall" script that can install your entire system with whatever you want (including DEs, WMs, audio drivers, anything) until about 6 months ago or so. ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
---
ï¿­ Synchronet ï¿­ _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin)

Hey Fusion!

On Wed, Feb 04 2026 20:03:00 -0600, you wrote:

KDE is nasty IMO

Gnome is quite a bit the same way in this regard. Just switch out Qt for GTK+, etc.

if you just wanted to borrow something like their calculator, or the
neat little task manager, you would need to install almost the
entire desktop environment. for one little program.

Not even close to the entire desktop environment, but definitely more than one cares to install for one simple calculator. Arch gives me 56 packages total just to install 'kcalc', which include mostly xcb-*, qt6-*, libraries, Qt themes, and gui related stuff I don't have installed. This is on a system with no GUI/DE/WM/X/Wayland installed whatsoever.

The meta "plasma" package wants to install 482 packages, but I completely get your annoyance about it all. I'd rather pull out a pocket calculator than install all of that crap. :)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
---
ï¿­ Synchronet ï¿­ _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin)

Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs. Ci
By: Accession to fusion on Thu Feb 05 2026 06:49 pm

i looked and the packages ARE the KUbuntu ones, not from/intended for Linux
Mint at all, so nobody maintains anything KDE for Linux Mint. somehow i
doubt anyone would have much luck convincing the KUbuntu package
maintainers to fix something just for Linux Mint.

It would have nothing to do with the KUbuntu maintainers. The Linux Mint maintainers would need to keep it updated in their repositories, and then, would also have to support it.

However, Nightfox mentioned that KUbuntu runs KDE 6.x, whereas the packages available for Linux Mint is KDE 5.x, so they're either behind whatever KUbuntu is using, or Nightfox hasn't checked what is offered in Linux Mint in awhile.

It looks like there are two versions of KUbuntu released at any given time: One is a LTS (long term support) release which is supposed to be more stable, and another is their more cutting-edge version with newer versions of things. I'm using the one that has the newer versions (currently, 25.10).

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, so I believe it uses the same repositories of software. And Linux Mint probably uses the ones that Ubuntu LTS uses, so IMO it's no surprise that it has the older version of KDE. I believe the current KUbuntu LTS version also has KDE 5.x (according to their web site).

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

fusion wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

if you just wanted to borrow something like their calculator, or the
neat little task manager, you would need to install almost the entire desktop environment. for one little program.

Ditto for Gnome - when I ran Lubuntu, loading a single nifty applet
would need a ton of supporting files and libraries. I don't recall if
the *second* applet was any lighter...



--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Hey Nightfox!

On Thu, Feb 05 2026 20:24:47 -0600, you wrote:

It looks like there are two versions of KUbuntu released at any
given time: One is a LTS (long term support) release which is
supposed to be more stable, and another is their more cutting-edge
version with newer versions of things. I'm using the one that has
the newer versions (currently, 25.10).

Ah yes, that would explain it, and I didn't even think about that during this discussion.

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, so I believe it uses the same
repositories of software. And Linux Mint probably uses the ones
that Ubuntu LTS uses, so IMO it's no surprise that it has the older
version of KDE. I believe the current KUbuntu LTS version also has
KDE 5.x (according to their web site).

That makes sense. I haven't followed anything *buntu related in quite awhile, so thanks for the reminder.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm, because beating people up is illegal.
---
ï¿­ Synchronet ï¿­ _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin)

Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs. Ci
By: Accession to Nightfox on Tue Feb 03 2026 06:12 pm

Why not? You can install any desktop environment on any Linux distro. You

Word. I'm using OpenBox with Ubuntu Server on my laptop.

---
þ Synchronet þ TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO TACOPRONTO.bbs.io

Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs. Ci
By: fusion to Accession on Thu Feb 05 2026 02:00 am

Mint at all, so nobody maintains anything KDE for Linux Mint. somehow i doub anyone would have much luck convincing the KUbuntu package maintainers to fi something just for Linux Mint.

One way around this is to build from source.. and an easy way of doing that is, install the src package for the thing you want to build. The package manager will install all of the libraries and other requirements. Then get the source from .. the source (KDE's website or github repo or whatever) .. and build
that following the README.

---
þ Synchronet þ TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO TACOPRONTO.bbs.io

Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs. Ci
By: fusion to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Feb 05 2026 02:03 am

KDE is nasty IMO

The old one was. It was held together by strings. The new one, Plasma, seems pretty nice.

---
þ Synchronet þ TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO TACOPRONTO.bbs.io

Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs. Ci
By: phigan to fusion on Mon Feb 09 2026 08:00 am

Mint at all, so nobody maintains anything KDE for Linux Mint. somehow i
doub anyone would have much luck convincing the KUbuntu package maintainers
to fi something just for Linux Mint.

One way around this is to build from source.. and an easy way of doing that is, install the src package for the thing you want to build. The package manager will install all of the libraries and other requirements. Then get the source from .. the source (KDE's website or github repo or whatever) .. and build that following the README.

Could that complicate things on Linux distros that use a package manager? If you get the source and build it, the package manager would be unaware that that software is installed, so if you upgrade your OS to a newer version, that software might no longer work as there may now be different versions of libraries installed that it's incompatible with, etc.. Also I imagine you could also (perhaps accidentally) install the same packages from the package manager and cause issues, maybe? And I'm not sure if there would be a clean way to remove it if you wanted to.

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs. Ci
By: phigan to fusion on Mon Feb 09 2026 08:01 am

KDE is nasty IMO

The old one was. It was held together by strings. The new one, Plasma, seems pretty nice.

Yeah, I hadn't used KDE for years until recently when I tried Plasma. I think KDE Plasma is nice.

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs. Ci
By: Nightfox to phigan on Mon Feb 09 2026 08:30 am

Could that complicate things on Linux distros that use a package manager? I

Yes, a little. You'd have to remember that you manually built that one thing and keep updating it from source, should its dependencies get updated and it no longer runs. Of course, compiling statically would alleviate most of that too :). By default, stuff you build manually wants to put itself in /usr/local, so if you were to install the same package you could still remove or use either. You'd have to purposely install the source-built one in /usr to have the package manager one interfere (again, mostly.. depends on what it is).

---
þ Synchronet þ TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO TACOPRONTO.bbs.io