KDE Plasma 5—For those Linux users undecided on the kernel’s future

jeremy · 08-18-2014, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Finally, the KDE project has released KDE Plasma 5, a major new version of the venerable K Desktop Environment.

Plasma 5 arrives in the middle of an ongoing debate about the future of the Linux desktop. On one hand there are the brand new desktop paradigms represented by GNOME and Unity. Both break from the traditional desktop model in significant ways, and both attempt to create interfaces that will work on the desktop and the much-anticipated, tablet-based future (which may or may not ever arrive).

Linux desktops like KDE, XFCE, LXDE, Mate, and even Cinnamon are the other side of the fence. None has re-invented itself too much. They continue to offer users a traditional desktop experience, which is not to say these projects aren't growing and refining. All of them continue to turn out incremental releases that fine tune what is a well-proven desktop model.

GNOME and Unity end up getting the lion's share of attention in this ongoing debate. They're both new and different. They're both opinionated and polarizing. For every Linux user that loves them, there's another that loves to hate them. It makes for, if nothing else, lively comments and forum posts in the Linux world. But the difference between these two Linux camps is about more than just how your desktop looks and behaves. It's about what the future of computing looks like.

GNOME and Unity believe that the future of computing consists of multiple devices all running the same software—the new desktop these two create only makes sense within this vision. These new versions aren't really built as desktops for the future, but they include a hybrid desktop fallback mode for now and appear to believe in devices going forward. The other side of the Linux schism largely seems to ignore those.

And unlike the world of closed source OSes—where changes are handed down, like them or leave them—the Linux world is in the middle of a conversation about these two opposite ideas.

More at Ars...

What are your thoughts on the topic?

--jeremy