KDE and Gnome are the two famous, matured community-driven desktop environments used primarily by most of the Linux distributions. KDE is known as one of the most customizable desktop environment in the Linux world. In other words, we can say it is the top in terms of user customization among Windows and Mac even. Comparing to Gnome, KDE plasma is less resource-hungry, so it feels much faster and responsive in many aspects.
KDE is an international open-source and free software community developing best in class free to use applications developed based on the QT toolkit. Plasma 5 is the fifth and current generation desktop environment and software suite from KDE. Presently, KDE delivers over 200 apps created maintained by a worldwide KDE friendly community that runs on any Linux Platforms. The Photoshop alternative image processing application Krita and Digikam are the best examples for KDE applications.
I have shortlisted the top 6 Linux Distributions, which gives you the best KDE Plasma desktop environment experience out of the box.
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openSUSE Tumbleweed
It is a pure Rolling Release model Linux distribution from openSUSE, which uses KDE as the default desktop environment. Because of the Rolling release model, KDE changes and package updates merged into the official repository quickly. Tumbleweed mainly aims Linux power users, System Admins, Software Developers, and it provides a set of sophisticated tools. All openSUSE Tumbleweed snapshots were tested by open-QA automated testing for better stability. As a result, Tumbleweed become a solid rolling Linux distribution for everyday use.
Apart from KDE, openSUSE Tumbleweed natively supports x86_64, i586, aarch64, and ppc64le architectures. Also, it is available to download in Offline full packed ISO and a network image. With Network image, the installer downloads and installs all packages from the online repositories.
KaOS
A clean KDE rolling Linux distribution built independently focused only on QT and KDE applications. Ka OS only available in one desktop environment that is KDE, one toolkit QT, and supports only x86_64 architecture. Unlike other Linux distributions, KaOS uses all its resources to work on one Desktop Environment. As a result, they provided the top-notch KDE user experience out of the box.
KaOS maintain only a limited set of repositories. Their goal is to provide better quality over quantity of the applications. It uses Pacman as the default software manager to overcome the imitation of applications where it enables you to build your packages. Besides, KaOS Community Packages (KCP) are an added advantage so everyone can share their build created and maintained for KaOS.
Manjaro KDE
We know the name Manajro Linux itself, no need for much introduction. Manjaro Linux is an Arch-based rolling release Linux distribution that officially supports the KDE desktop environment along with Gnome and XFCE. It has a clear vision in terms of User-friendliness, accessibility and also works out of the box with several pre-installed ready-to-use applications.
Manjaro comes with powerful default settings but the user can change whatever he wants, from kernel to visual style everything is possible to customize. One of the major advantages in Manjaro is the ability to install and change multiple versions of the kernel at runtime.
KDE Neon
It is an Ubuntu-based point semi rolling Linux distribution that provides the latest and greatest of KDE community software packages. Recently KDE Neon rebased to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. With KDE neon, you can use all bleeding-edge KDE applications on a rock-solid base. KDE Plasma and applications always up to date with its latest, and the base will update when the ubuntu releases its next LTS version.
KDE Neon has available in different channels User Edition, Testing Edition, Unstable Edition, and Developer Edition, respectively. User edition is ideal for everyday use, also provides the latest officially released KDE software.
Kubuntu
An official flavor of the incredibly famous Ubuntu Linux operation system. Ubuntu uses the Gnome desktop environment on the other hand, as the name indicates Kubuntu utilizes KDE plasma and its applications. Kubuntu follows everything the same as Ubuntu except the Desktop Environment – the naming and versioning, the system core, package repositories, and release schedule.
Kubuntu 20.04 LTS code named Focal Fossa is the latest available release.
Chakra Linux
Like Manjaro, Chakra is also based on Arch Linux and concentrated on providing the best KDE and QT applications experience, using a unique half-rolling release model. Chakra Linux always up to date with KDE upstream changes and periodically updates its system core to maintain better stability.
Chakra follows a One-time installation mode. Hence you will be up to date with the latest changes and fixes when it is available.