5 Reasons Why KDE Plasma = Best Desktop Environment

5 Reasons Why KDE Plasma = Best Desktop Environment

KDE Plasma is my favorite desktop environment on Linux. In this video, I offer my Top 5 Reasons why I think KDE Plasma is the best desktop environment for me.

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0:00 = I’m A Big Fan of KDE Plasma
0:50 = A Brief History of My DE Adventures
2:05 = Raiders of the Lost DE?
2:39 = This video could have been an hour long 😀
3:00 = #1: Customization & Flexibility
3:52 = #2: Reliability & Consistency
4:50 = #3: KWin – Window Manager
6:47 = #4: Optimization of System Resources
7:52 = #5: KDE Connect
8:48 = Outro

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Global Themes Featured in Reason #1:
WinSur-dark by yeyushengfan258 ►► https://store.kde.org/p/1373646/
Lomiri Theme by wolfgang-z ►► https://store.kde.org/p/1434829/
Sweet KDE by eliverlara ►► https://store.kde.org/p/1294729/
McSur-dark by yeyushengfan258 ►► https://store.kde.org/p/1406038/

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Other Videos:
6 Cool Things You Didn’t Know About Linux’s History: https://youtu.be/u9ZY41mNB9I
How To Use Firefox’s Best Feature, Multi-Account Containers: https://youtu.be/FfN5L5zAJUo
Linux Explained – How Some Distros Are Based On Other Distros: https://youtu.be/OWk3D6x64tk
7 Reasons Why Firefox Is My Favorite Web Browser: https://youtu.be/bGTBH9yr8uw

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Description tags, yo: kde, desktop environment, Linux, distro, open source

Thanks For Watching!

#KDE #Linux #OpenSource

50 Comments

  1. Dean Lawson on May 15, 2022 at 8:04 pm

    Great video! Thanks for this!
    I’m going to try KDE in MX-21 when they have the final release, and also in true Debian 11. I’ll post after I try it out for a while in each Distro.
    Thanks again for this Michael!



  2. NullError404 on May 15, 2022 at 8:05 pm

    I got a weird bug on plasma. Where my logout and shutdown buttons get stuck on black screen with visable mouse. Looking for fix if anyone encounterd this brfore



  3. Uroš on May 15, 2022 at 8:06 pm

    There is no "best" in anything 🙂



  4. pescadorCardoso on May 15, 2022 at 8:06 pm

    1/3 of the video is vague bullshitting Jesus Christ



  5. Someone says: on May 15, 2022 at 8:07 pm

    I have been changing trough desktops and KDE connect was my first reason to stay with KDE. Since then I have found more and more reasons to stay with this great desktop. The update manager also works like a charm!



  6. David Wayne on May 15, 2022 at 8:07 pm

    I’ve tried it with Zorin 16, POP OS, MINT, and Netrunner… messed it up every time– could NOT get it to do right- or look anywhere NEAR what the videos had… 🙂 NEED HELP— basics- usage, etc…. THANKS



  7. Mikael D on May 15, 2022 at 8:07 pm

    Good video, honestly i’ve not use KDE since kde 3 since it was too greedy, and it was, it was around 2007 or 8 with kubuntu, and i’ve spent most time on Gnome, even if i tasted Crunchbang for my eeepc also E17. Still coming back to Gnome, and Mate didn’t like gnome 3 at the genese), a few cinnamon,…. Kde is still an hungry WM, and i honestly disagree when you compare this to xfce…. no absolutely NO, you can tell that with some customs Kde is less ressources user, but in this case Kde will be worst than xfce. so it’s for quite new systems.



  8. steveu235 on May 15, 2022 at 8:08 pm

    I use KDE Plasma neon and Arcolinux with plasma I love the look it is fantastic and the best part it is also free



  9. Brian on May 15, 2022 at 8:08 pm

    I need that shirt in my life!!! New sub



  10. Vikas V on May 15, 2022 at 8:11 pm

    Is KDE plasma getting close to the quality and stability of KDE 3.x?



  11. Chief Master on May 15, 2022 at 8:11 pm

    My laptop is mediocre. A 10th gen core i3, 8 gigs of ram, a 128gb ssd and a tb of hdd. Yesterday night, I had enough of windows 10 and I actually wanted to upgrade to windows 11. But watched videos about it being buggy and with choppy animations. I decided to move away from windows as i don’t really use apps that require windows. Installed manjaro os kde and it was simple affair. After discovering all the customisation that’s in it, count me a kde user for life. Plus it literally flies being installed on ssd. Windows was fast too, but this is on another level. Where windows used 3 to 3.5gigs of ram on idle, this puppy uses only a gig. Can’t be any happier.



  12. Lynn Geek on May 15, 2022 at 8:11 pm

    I used Kubuntu for 12 years. It’s a great distro and it’s devotion to KDE attracted me. 20.04 is great but I decided I wanted to be a little closer to the development edge, not the bleeding edge, so I switched to KDE Neon and its rolling release. Every since Kubuntu 16.04 I’ve used BTRFS as my root filesystem and I continue to do so on Neon. I wouldn’t use a distros that doesn’t offer BTRFS as the rootfs. I’m 80 and BTRFS gives me the chance to recover from forgetful acts or shaky keystrokes.



  13. Zenik Torres on May 15, 2022 at 8:12 pm

    I think I’m a bigger fan of KDE Plasma 🙂, too long on Gnome made me that way. Customisation of colours and the like is not important to me, its the configuration, the info it tells, its flexibility. Window rules are fantastic. Gnome is just too dumb, and I have the right to call Gnome that after 16 years on it. (currently on openSUSE Tumbleweed KDE)



  14. Steve Laminack on May 15, 2022 at 8:14 pm

    I have "played" with Linux for years but never used it that much. With Windows 11 looking like trash I decided it’s time to give Linus a serious try. Contrary to many I want something similar to windows, I don’t want to relearn everything and there many drag-N-drop features I will not do without (I found for instance in Ubuntu it appears you have to do back flips just to put an icon shortcut on the desktop, no thanks). OK to the point, I am currently using Solus Plasma and really like it. Do you think KDE Plasma is as good or better?



  15. Arndt on May 15, 2022 at 8:15 pm

    My experience with kde is quite mixed. I really like it but there are a few issues I don’t know how to deal with. The main thing is that I use 2 monitors. One at 1080p, the other at 1440p. The 1080 monitor is on 60hz and the other is 120hz.
    In addition to that I use an nvidia gpu. I heard nvidia doesn’t play nice with kde.
    The main issue I have is that windows don’t remember the size and position I closed them in.
    Also, at login, it doesn’t seem to remember which my main display is.
    I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to linux but have tried to solve these issues myself by googling. No luck so far. Is there something I’m missing?



  16. HectorGrey on May 15, 2022 at 8:16 pm

    I only recently returned to KDE, having been using i3 for quite some time, and I’m definitely liking what I’m seeing. When it comes to customisation, I love it really does allow a great deal of changes to the layout. You can make it look like damn near any other DE, and many of the tools are far more powerful than you might expect. In i3, I didn’t really bother with a file manager, because it was easier to just use the terminal commands to cd where I wanted to go. Dolphin has a built in terminal emulator should you choose to use it, so you can switch between the gui and the terminal seamlessly.



  17. maciejka on May 15, 2022 at 8:16 pm

    Yes it is. I wanted to install i3 on my thinkpad x260 but plasma is just working. All functions are good like keyboard light.



  18. Remmidy on May 15, 2022 at 8:20 pm

    Just tried kde plasma and i got to say it’s a really awesome desktop environment



  19. Jesse on May 15, 2022 at 8:24 pm

    The thing that bugs me about KDE Plasma is that if you have two monitors and are in the Desktop settings module, it doesn’t even acknowledge that another monitor exists. "Set the wallpaper? Oh you can just set it to this monitor. I don’t know anything about the other monitor." You want to change that wallpaper? Open Desktop settings on that monitor – now KDE doesn’t know about the other monitor. Just seems counter-intuitive.



  20. Indi Page on May 15, 2022 at 8:26 pm

    KDE isn’t that light weight. I have an old tower and it’s very slow on it. Edit: Well if XFCE is as light as plasma I’ll have to try it again.



  21. Steve Walker on May 15, 2022 at 8:28 pm

    Yeah, it’s NOT Gnome! Great!



  22. Lava Git on May 15, 2022 at 8:30 pm

    6:40 This is why I personally don’t like KDE. The UI is just so inconsistent and it’s ugly to me. Why is the "Software properties" font so much larger than the other window titles?



  23. MIke Haubrich on May 15, 2022 at 8:32 pm

    I’ve been using KDE neon now for at least 2 years. It just works, and it’s easy to configure my way. I had been using Mint Cinnamon before that.



  24. irfan_the_grey on May 15, 2022 at 8:34 pm

    I always enjoy your videos, Michael and probably always will, but I don’t understand why Youtubers keep on saying "if I did that, the video would be x time long" like it’s a sound argument? If I’m interested in a topic or YouTube or whatever, I’d watch 2 hours long video with no problem whatsoever. I’m genuinely interested in knowing why do YouTubers keep on saying this? Is it cause of the algorithm?



  25. boom shakalaka on May 15, 2022 at 8:36 pm

    Yes, a video on your distro if choice and certainly another on kde hidden gems



  26. Peter Schmidt on May 15, 2022 at 8:37 pm

    I tried KDE Neon about 18 months ago and generally liked the DE, but not so much other things that went with it. Two months ago I tried Manjaro’s KDE and like it. There’s still a few things I’m getting to grips with, but haven’t had to boot into Windows in so long I almost forget it’s there. For me, it’s got the familiarity of Windows so you’re not totally lost but the freedom to do what you like with it.



  27. stanislav bozhikov on May 15, 2022 at 8:39 pm

    KDE NEON – will try



  28. John Arnold on May 15, 2022 at 8:40 pm

    What do you think of KDE Plasma Dr46onized?



  29. Hellscream Games on May 15, 2022 at 8:40 pm

    Good video.



  30. Ayush Shaw on May 15, 2022 at 8:42 pm

    kubuntu consumes less resources than ubuntu gnome



  31. ifell3 on May 15, 2022 at 8:43 pm

    Good stuff that’s me with gecko and KDE then 😁



  32. xqr on May 15, 2022 at 8:45 pm

    Intresting video overall, but frequent jarring cuts midsentence distract me very much to the point I only listen to audio… Especially in this kind of "talking head" video this is not a very good experience. Please use a prompter or sth and try to make longer runs without cuts or at the very least make them between sentences.
    Subscribed nonetheless. I hope newer videos will be better. About to change to KDE plasma because gnome3 is just not user friendly and sometimes the design decisions they took are just asinine and dumb to the point I’m wondering they did it out of pure spite…



  33. Darius Han on May 15, 2022 at 8:47 pm

    I do think it takes a lot of work and time to configure Plasma, also I still get alot of crashes while setting it up via the GUI systemsettings app. (Theming, compositing options, systemd services via kcm integration).
    I do believe that what most people see it as bloated as it is impossible to be installing a "minimal" version as the apps are dependent on at least one or more, where most packages users deem useless for them. I wonder if you do install every single apps from KF5, Plasma Desktop & KDE Applications?
    I also find the appearance of Plasma a little bulky to my liking, thick Window borders, panel, where it consumed most property of my laptop screen.
    An addition to conclude my preference, I kinda dislike the "mouse busy" cursor icon where it bounces up and down. Just my own preference anyway.



  34. David Wayne on May 15, 2022 at 8:48 pm

    i love the LOOK of KDE PLASMA– but try as I might, I can NEVER get it to look nice – the way I want… I try to fix it and make it worse… OH well– I’ll stick with my POP OS- and gnome tweaks.. 🙂 At least it WORKS for me.. 🙂



  35. David Wayne on May 15, 2022 at 8:49 pm

    Do you by chance have a video on how to basically use KDE PLASMA– for dummies like me? KDE PLASMA for DUMMIES??? I need some help– as I said- I like it- and it looks great– but every time I’ve tried it- I get messed up and can’t get back to the original start point.. or just mess up stuff.. and I’m sure I’m not the ONLY one.. 🙂



  36. Godfather on May 15, 2022 at 8:49 pm

    Not only Linux, it’s much better than windows,
    I think customisability plays a huge part, I’m not a guy who rices his Desktop, but every once in a while, you will find that this or that modification will make your work faster or fits better for you, I don’t really care about looks, but if you do, kde is really good.



  37. chococandy on May 15, 2022 at 8:50 pm

    I am going to use KDE plasma in my KALI Linux machine 🙂



  38. Jesse on May 15, 2022 at 8:51 pm

    Michael, which distribution would you recommend for using KDE Plasma?



  39. Ghoul Tek on May 15, 2022 at 8:51 pm

    Great video. I’m on manjaro 21.1.2 but I’m having some trouble adjusting to the move from win 10. My work flow is vastly different on windows. So, I want to see a video on these hidden gems you mentioned. Also I want to see how you and others actually use/work in KDE and not just flashy setups that are good for just making a demo video on YouTube.



  40. Michael Tunnell - TuxDigital on May 15, 2022 at 8:52 pm

    KDE Plasma is the BEST Desktop Environment . . . for Me. It might not be the best for everyone but if you haven’t tried it before or in a while I do think you should absolutely give it a try because I think it is freaking awesome! 😀 If you do give a try, please let me know what your experience is like. I am always curious to hear how people experience KDE Plasma.



  41. ancay on May 15, 2022 at 8:53 pm

    I think gnome 40 is better



  42. John Pallan on May 15, 2022 at 8:53 pm

    Been to gnome… plasma is in a different level.. never going back to Gnome..



  43. HolyWrath on May 15, 2022 at 8:54 pm

    When someone puts their many many many years of experience in one video, this is what happens. Great stuff. Thank you.



  44. Saksham Ray on May 15, 2022 at 8:58 pm

    A dare for you, speak without moving your hands



  45. Non Native on May 15, 2022 at 8:58 pm

    My first experience with linux was Mandrake, and KDE is the first thing that makes me love linux more than any other OS.



  46. Cipricus on May 15, 2022 at 8:59 pm

    Beside Kwin, which is the best window manager, Plasma users can enjoy the best file manager (Dolphin) and the best PDF reader (Okular). All these simply operate at a superior level of maturity, with a larger scope and larger capabilities than what other DEs can offer. — I felt I had to make a video about how good Plasma is (and I have never made a YouTube video in my life). Thank you for taking care of that task. I am a desktop hopper and only Plasma can cure me. Every time I try a second desktop other than Plasma I quickly realize it’s simply pointless, a quirky choice of trying to imagine for a while that Plasma doesn’t exist. I am about to seriously start seeing other Linux desktops as a foolish waste of developer’s effort and of users’ time…



  47. Sam Gray on May 15, 2022 at 8:59 pm

    Plasma is the most mature desktop out there next to Unity which both are stupid powerful and low resource. It’s why the two are my daily driver. I mean Plasma KDE seems to out perform XFCE and now Mate in terms of resource usage. I was able to get Kubuntu running on my grandpas old laptop from 2007 (first gen i5) and it was chugging along no problem, but it couldn’t run Gnome 41 to save its life. Unity it was able to do it well, but sluggish (it also had one core disabled because it suddenly started acting up)



  48. wilwad on May 15, 2022 at 9:02 pm

    Having issues with window shadows. Overall it’s a better experience



  49. M&L Sharp on May 15, 2022 at 9:02 pm

    You have a new subscriber. I agree. KDE is what I started with back in the days, (probably 20 years ago) and after trying everything it’s where I want to return. Now I run Manjaro with Cinnamon, but I avoided reverting until I found a tutorial for going from Cinnamon to KDE Plasma without breaking anything. Have you done a tutorial on it?



  50. Gastón Alegre Stotzer on May 15, 2022 at 9:04 pm

    5:50 KDE Plasma + Bismuth tiling in 2022… I’m not looking back. Bismuth should be included in KDE’s Plasma by default.