What are the best Linux distributions for KDE Plasma 5?

Even though it makes sense to split devel and the actual binary of an application, the splitting has become as mess in debian and its derivates: for example the nvidia driver is splitted into over 40 different packages. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Ridiculous package splitting

PrivateOtso's Experience

Very Stable distro even in testing release... See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

Every Debian Release can either use a Rolling or Release based model. See More

Top Con

Internal quarrels harm the project

Instead of working all together to provide the best Operating System, some maintainers are just ignorant and aggressive to new ideas or new maintainers. That led to many crises and controversy in Debian's history. See More

Top Pro

Wide choice of hardware platforms

Debian has the widest choice of hardware platforms, including: amd64, armel, armhf, i386, ia64, kfreebsd-i386, kfreebsd-amd64, mips, mipsel, powerpc, sparc, s390, s390x, source, multi-arch. See More

Top Con

No choices

Debian basically doesn't give you any choices: for example it is very hard to use a different Sound system than ALSA like OSS4, and the same goes for different init systems. See More

Top Pro

Highly secure system

Known for being consistent in maintaining a highly secure system. Several other popular distros use Debian as a base or core for their own Linux OS, the security being one of the main factors why it's so commonly used. See More

Top Con

Changes from one version to the next are not always well documented

Top Pro

A lot of ways to install software

You can either use aptitude, apt or apt-build to install software from the Debian package archives. See More

Top Con

Stable release contains extremely outdated packages

If you want the newest packages, you'll have to do a minimal installation of Debian stable then upgrade to testing or unstable by editing the repositories. Save yourself time and install a distro that is rolling release by default. See More

Top Pro

Comes with over 37,500 packages

Because of its popularity, Debian has a lot of applications available which range from productivity programs to business software, games and development tools. It comes with over 37,500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. See More

Top Con

Old software is not useful, but is stable

Certainly for the stable and old stable versions. But the testing version has quite up to date software. See More

Top Pro

Install and forget

Once installed you can almost forget about it and start to use your desktop for your daily tasks See More

Top Pro

Big open-source project

The Debian project is the biggest open source project with over 5000 active contributors. See More

Top Pro

Wide choice in desktop environments

Debian offers stable and testing CD images specifically built for GNOME (the default), KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce and LXDE. Less common window managers such as Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox, GNUstep, IceWM, Window Maker and others can also be installed. See More

Top Pro

Extremely easy to find help with any problem

Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distros out there. Debian's popularity means that you will always be able to find a solution for your problem just by searching on Google, or if by chance nobody has had the problem you are having it's very easy to ask the community and quickly get a solution. See More

Top Pro

Great for gaming

As Debian is the base for SteamOS and because Ubuntu is based on it, it's almost certain that all Linux games will run properly and require no hacks like creating symbolic links because of some hardcoded paths. See More

Top Pro

Has a real installer

Unlike the most Distributions that just unpack a predefined base system, Debian uses a real plugin-based installer that allows you to modify the installation. See More

Top Pro

Live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives

Debian releases live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives, for the i386 and amd64 architectures, and with a choice of desktop environments. These Debian Live images allow the user to boot from a removable media and run Debian without affecting the contents of their computer. See More

Top Pro

Well-working team

The developer works very well so the the code is one of the best written out there. See More

Here are the details of it. See More

Manjaro

Top Pro

Everything works out of the box, and is easy to modify

Top Con

Can still be unstable

DecorousShapash's Experience

Stable, good-looking and complete from the word go. Always installed in one of the partitions on my computer. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, GNOME and XFCE

Release Schedule:Rolling Release

Despues de instalar debian kde, kubuntu, kde neon, opensuse Leap, fedora spin kde, mageia, linux mint KDE; puedo decir que la mejor experiencia kde en este momento se puede tener gracias a Manjaro KDE. Lo que quiera instalar esta disponible ya sea por Pacman o AUR. No mas tearing y flickering gracias a su excelente deteccion de hardware. Y al estar basado en Arch Linux se tiene a nuestra disposicion la mejor documentacion y solucionar problemas menores (ninguna distro es perfecta). See More

Top Pro

Selectable kernel

Top Con

Very buggy

ElatedEshu's Experience

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

Manjaro allows the user to access of the Arch User Repository, a very large user-maintained repository of packages for Arch Linux and derivatives. See More

Top Con

Bad dependencies

This is similar to the mac0S experience in that you're not allowed to remove plank. See More

ExpertEndymion's Experience

non of the mentioned cons is relevant. sometimes buggy, but great wikis 4 troubleshooting. can be customised . boots faster than many linux and windows versions i've testes along the years. dual booting with windows can at times be a mess. you may need to rebuild the boot-loader often. very stable and robust See More

Top Pro

Based on Arch and user friendly

Manjaro is an Arch-based distribution with all the benefits of the Arch ecosystem and community but with the added benefit of being much more user-friendly than Arch. See More

Top Con

Does not focus on KDE

it is not a KDE Distro as it uses the same repository as the xfce, gnome <whatever> version See More

ReceptiveProphasis's Experience

Although my (wired) internet connection worked when I tried it on a USB stick, it didn't work when I actually installed Majaro. Plus, it was really buggy. See More

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

The Manjaro community is very helpful, and there are lots of tutorials. See More

Top Con

The Manjaro unstable repository is slow to sync with the Arch stable repository

The Manjaro unstable repository syncs with the Arch stable repository and if any package has moved, it gets moved to stable. Manjaro gets package updates a bit later than Arch. See More

FantasticAglibol's Experience

Having read some raving reviews about Manjaro, I decided to try it out (by ditching Linux Mint MATE). For some odd reason, it worked relatively well when I launched it from the USB stick. However, after installation, the wired internet connection did not work (eventually, it did after a lot of tweaks and research) and the theme crashed after the first reboot. Hence, I could not get into the system :) See More

Top Pro

A rolling-release distribution

Manjaro uses a rolling release method for all updates, so once a system is installed, as long as the user regularly updates there is no need to re-install. See More

Top Con

You can't change the default theme in certain applications

Although it is possible to change the default dark theme, this has no effect on Firefox, which appears to have the dark theme "hard coded". Hardened Linux pros may find a way to change this, but for the rest, it renders an otherwise nice distro a no-go. See More

fabricio lujano's Experience

One of the best KDE distribution. Manjaro is without a doubt a TOP DISTRO in the linux environment. All the work they put on KDE is just AWESOME. A very polished desktop. Smooth. Just amazing. There are some KDE-FOCUSED-ONLY distros like kde neon or chakra or even KaOS but what Manjaro make to your system is just better. See More

Top Pro

Fast booting, fast operation

Top Con

Weak package manger

Pacman is a very weak and slow package manager. See More

IndustriousAbhean's Experience

Easy to install. Stable. Nice community. Serves KDE well. See More

Top Pro

Stable and consistently up to date

Manjaro receives regular updates, but more importantly these updates are stable. The updates are rolled out, which means you can easily update the software without needing to re-install. See More

Top Con

Weekly manual updates

Since it is rolling release, it needs updates nearly every week, which (though are checked for automatically) must be manually downloaded, confirmed and installed. That may annoy or scare off many new users. See More

LogicalAntevorta's Experience

Keep freezing. Full with bugs. I tried to install it to two different PC but similar issues. Must be a software bug. See More

Top Pro

Installation is a breeze

Calamares installer and MHWD is the reason why this distribution is good for desktop user- friendliness! Audio codecs, latest packages,latest kernel and easy upgrade to the latest build makes it the best choice for new users. See More

Top Con

Not the best KDE implementation

Ugly theme that really needs updating. Slow to boot. See More

PreciseKubaba's Experience

installing it on a flash drive for 15 time cant install it ans every time get some error. mint installed in first try , elementary installed on first try, Ubuntu installed in first try and this damn always give me error or hang on installation process See More

Top Pro

Always offers the latest GPU drivers

Top Con

Very slow development for 32-bit hardwares

ArchLinux-32 community maintain their forums every day. They upload new ISO's every month. But Manjaro-32 community upload new ISO's in every 6 month. And provide only a DE-mate. See More

Mark Shepherdson's Experience

Did use this for some time, ran good See More

Top Pro

Friendly community

If you ask questions of users in their forums or on other platforms, they are willing to help you. Also according to the developers, they are open to new ideas in order to make the distro better. See More

Top Con

Nothing new

There is nothing new in Manjaro compared to any other Arch based distribution. See More

EarnestPhaenna's Experience

bad See More

Top Pro

Support for multiple kernels

Manjaro has built-in support for multiple kernels as well as a way to easily install them. See More

IntuitiveCaicias's Experience

1 year See More

Top Pro

Improved stability due to a longer testing period for new packages

Packages from Arch's repositories are tested (about two weeks) longer for stability and compatibility issues. Patches are applied, when necessary, before being made available in the stable repositories. See More

Top Pro

All major desktops and even less common ones like Budgie, Lumina, LXQT, Deepin, Enlightenment, etc. can be directly installed from official repositories

Also available as independent variants. See More

Top Pro

Excellent graphical package manager (Pamac)

Features include: providing notifications of available updates; mirror management; AUR support (with the option to suppress unnecessary confirmations during the install process); update settings (frequency, whether to check for updates from the AUR, packages to ignore updates for); and a history of packages installed, updated, or removed (from the official repositories - AUR packages are not currently tracked). See More

Top Pro

Deepin desktop environment is a worthy attraction

Top Pro

Uses low memory

By using XFCE (or LXDE, Fluxbox, supported by community) as the default desktop on an install, Manjaro is able to have a low memory footprint. See More

Top Pro

Steam installed by default

Top Pro

Manjaro provides its own distribution-specific tools such as the Manjaro Hardware Detection (mhwd) utility, and the Manjaro Settings Manager (msm).

Run automatically during the installation process, it allows for Manjaro to work fully on your system 'straight out of the box', without the need to manually identify and install the necessary drivers or to manually edit the appropriate configuration files. Also usable via the terminal after installation, the features of the mhwd command include: The choice of free (i.e. open-source) or non-free (i.e. proprietary) drivers Identification and listing (general or detailed) of your system's hardware Identification and listing (general or detailed) of installed drivers Listing of available drivers for installation (free and proprietary) Support of hybrid graphics cards (e.g. Nvidia Optimus) Easy removal and installation of drivers (selected automatically, or you can identify and choose your own) See More

Top Pro

Different editions to select from + Manjaro community

You can choose between different Manjaro editions which have their own change in features, and there is also Manjaro community editions where the community can make their own changes. See More

Top Pro

Very good looking desktops

All desktops look good by default. See More

Top Pro

The best cutting edge package base for rapidly developing Plasma

Manjaro that is built on Arch Linux has a minimalistic and future-proof KDE edition. See More

The usage of advanced features like USE flags makes it more customizable than any binary distribution. See More

Gentoo Linux

Top Pro

Fully customizable

Top Con

Not beginner-friendly

You have to read a lot of instructions to start, even if you are familiar with Linux. Furthermore, as you have to configure the kernel and init system, expect some boot failures at beginning. See More

SpontaneousPaivatar's Experience

Top notch. See More

Specs

Based On:None

Default Desktop Environment:CLI

Release Schedule:Rolling

Init-System:OpenRC

There are more than 19.000 packages available in the official repository. And even more with overlays. See More

Top Pro

A very large collection of software is available

Top Con

Has no live images with graphical interface

Full installation is hand-made with a CLI (Command-Line Interface) See More

Top Pro

Full control of the software

You build the package from a source you can see and read. You decide which features you want to build in and which aren't needed. You can choose build options, optimisation and whatever else fancy stuff you want modified. With a binary distribution this simply isn't possible. See More

Top Con

Customized package installation can take a long time and cause installation failures

The Gentoo package management system allows you to configure what compilation flags packages should support - i.e. specific processor flag support (SSE, SSE2, etc.), -O1, -O2, -O3 optimization, etc. If you accept one of the default flags, Gentoo downloads binaries from the server. However, if you decide to optimise, it can and will download all source packages and start compiling allthe programs and libraries on your system. If your chosen flags don't work with a particular library, installation will fail. See More

Top Pro

Can be officially systemd-free

Gentoo's default init system is OpenRC. Gentoo also officially supports systemd-free Gnome and udev. Users are free to choose any init system they want. See More

Top Con

Since everything must be compiled it takes a lot longer to update

And if you have to update the kernel or some heavy software like Chromium it can takes hours if not more on weaker hardware. See More

Top Pro

Great for anyone who is serious about learning the intricacies of Linux

It's useful for both beginners and professionals. For the installation, Gentoo offers various types, which are referred to as stages. Basically meaning how in depth you would want to go into the process of installation. For beginners it's useful to choose for a starting distro due to its various stages that can be very time consuming but beneficial as you learn the composition in general of Linux. See More

Top Con

Somewhat outdated solutions

While being outdated per se is virtually impossible for a rolling-release distro with a large community, a large portion of said community sticks to outdated solutions. For example, Gentoo's primary init system is OpenRC, which is cumbersome and awkward to use and provides little control over the system. While you can just choose systemd, it will require some tinkering. Other examples include stubbornly declaring an initramfs a last resort and an "oh my god 1337 H4XX0RZ surely have nothing better to do than trying for a month to exploit some vulnerability to steal my pony art, I have to fortify so hard my performance and ease of use will suffer" 90s security mentality. Because of just how much freedom Gentoo provides you with, this usually isn't a big deal though. See More

Top Pro

Portability

There are many architectures available for Gentoo : i386, x86-64, PowerPC, PowerPC 64, sparc, DEC Alpha, ARM, MIPS, PA-RISC, S390, IA-64, sh, m68k. See More

Top Pro

Portage's emerge is powerful

Top Pro

Can by optimized to any given CPU by using proper compile flags

Since everything is being built on your PC you can fine-tune the code to make use of your CPU. And all it requires is two lines of string variables in a global config. See More

Top Pro

Freedom

You are free to do whatever you want with it. As a result, its configuration reflects your unique taste and personality. See More

Top Pro

Gentoo does not impose a standard look-and-feel

Top Pro

Documentation and community are second to none

Provides a whole handbook to refer to during setup and usage. See More

This might be a systemd issue or OpenSUSE specific, but changing certain text files does not update things. They must be edited in YaST, or in /etc/sysconfig/ See More

openSUSE

Top Pro

Great KDE integration

Top Con

Some clear differences from other Linux distros

ClassyDelbaeth's Experience

Must better and more stable than Neon Yast has no comparison See More

Specs

Based On: SLS Linux>Slackware>SuSE>openSUSE

Default Desktop Environment:Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, LXQT

Release Schedule:1 year minor releases, 3 years major releases

openSUSE has an unmatched stable and efficient upgrading process. Both removing and adding new repos, or editing existing ones, run smoothly. See More

Top Pro

Stable and efficient upgrading process

Top Con

Software resources could use improvement

Its software resources are still a few steps behind the populous Arch User Repository (AUR). Not really a con, but there's room for improvement. See More

AffableGuanyin's Experience

I use OpenSuse since 10.0 version both with others systems (Windows, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, Mageia, LinuxMint...) See More

Top Pro

Reliable

The packaging team is dependable resulting in system updates that come in a timely fashion and systems which rarely, if ever, break due to packaging. The versions of software that are selected and the configuration of them is typically extremely high quality. See More

Top Con

Patterns are too big

By default if you decide not to personlized your installation, openSUSE will install patterns, which are metapackages on other distribution, but they are too big and might download a lot of packages you don't want or need. See More

SpiritedArgestes's Experience

It was good but I knew what I was getting into. If you're new to Linux or even just to openSUSE, you will need to do some research about openSUSE before installing, not that it is hard or anything, but certainly is different than other Linux distributions and you could benefit of researching those differences before thinking of using openSUSE. See More

Top Pro

One-click install

Much better system then other distros for installing any package. It is as simple as clicking on one button and typing in your password. Adds a repo to your system keeping everything updated at the same time. See More

Top Con

Poor support for nVidia drivers in Tumbleweed

No native driver support and nouveau may be broken, especially for KDE, and not suitable for some GPUs. See More

Jarl Gjessing's Experience

I have used SuSE/openSuse from SuSE 2.0 that is way back! Then SuSE got bought and openSuse came to earth, in the beginning very good. But as time passed on, it got worse and worse, and now.. I would say unsuable. I've desperatelly tried to get it to work for real with the leap version, but honestly too much is broken :-( Crashes all around 3.rd party packages won't install grub fails again and again (depending on what machine I install on) and the list goes on. openSuse - spend more time on stabilizing and less time on all kinds of small apps that unmaintained apps that people do not use anymore. See More

Top Pro

Offers rock-stable Leap and rolling Tumbleweed variants

It gives you a choice between stability and bleeding edge. See More

Top Con

Old kernel by the Leap version

Kernel in Leap 42.3 is in version 4.4, that's pretty old. See More

CreativeWerethekau's Experience

OpenSUSe and KDE are just made for eah other. See More

Top Pro

Computer management

yast is fantastic, on the Linux side - what else is there?? This is the tool I mis the most ! See More

Top Con

Short lived distro

Every release lasts 18 months only before needing a major upgrade. See More

InfluentialBangputys's Experience

Gives a very stable, integrated KDE experience See More

Top Pro

Probably the best KDE desktop experience

Both Gnome and KDE desktop options are well polished to fit with the openSUSE theme and environment, so either desktop is a great choice. See More

Top Con

Limited community support

The community is fairly small, and there is no indication on the forums regarding when a issues will be solved. See More

Top Pro

Easy installation and administration

openSUSE makes use of a GUI tool called YaST to install and setup an openSUSE system. YaST is very easy to use and makes the process of installing and maintaining an openSUSE installation a breeze. See More

Top Con

Too many crashes

Applications crash way too often. See More

Top Pro

One-click install

Much better system then other distros for installing any package. It is as simple as clicking on one button and typing in your password. Adds a repo to your system keeping everything updated at the same time. See More

Top Con

Grub failures again and again

openSUSE has a huge problem making GRUB work, more than most other distributions out there. They SHOULD focus on this since this completely destroys the experience with the distro. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

After choosing shutdown it does NOT shut the computer down, only logs out

Top Pro

"Tumbleweed" Rolling Release

Regular and easy upgrades to stable and well tested software. See More

Top Con

Connecting to the WiFi can be difficult for an average user

Top Pro

Amazing choice for both newbies and power users

OpenSUSE is very easy in terms of installing packages, administration and customization, yet very powerful in the same. Every user should find his own piece of cake in this OS. See More

Top Pro

Offers rock-stalbe Leap and rolling Tumbleweed variants

It gives you a choice between stability and bleeding edge See More

Top Pro

Supports RPM packages

Popular format shared with distros like Fedora, RHEL, Scientific Linux, Mageia etc. See More

Top Pro

Extremely reliable

The packaging team is dependable resulting in system updates that come in a timely fashion and systems which rarely, if ever, break due to packaging. The versions of software that are selected and the configuration of them is typically extremely high quality. See More

Top Pro

Dedicated professional community

Directions on other desktop Linux's often force you to use GUI packages or have steps that introduce security issues. OpenSUSE has a professional community and directions are usually geared toward GUI and CLI with similar steps. See More

Top Pro

Easily get packages from other sources

SUSE Build Service offers packages from the same sources as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE Linux Enterprise and other distributions. This is the most underused package tool in Linux today. See More

Top Pro

Convenient package management with ZYpp

Not the conventional package manager with a GUI but since you get to know it you can have full control over packages. Fast, reliable, powerful and almost impossible to leave a broken system. See More

Top Pro

Outstanding community support

OpenSUSE has a VERY active user community. Questions on forums are generally answered in minutes. See More

Top Pro

Convenient package management with Zypper

Fast, reliable, powerful and almost impossible to leave a broken system. The Yast interface will also give you access to a Zypper GUI if you are uncomfortable with the command line. See More

Top Pro

User selected packages during intallation

Being able to select one by one what packages you want before installing, leaving a very personalized system. See More

Ability to choose your preferred desktop environment on installation. See More

Antergos

Top Pro

Offers choice of desktop environment on installation

Top Con

Rolling release problems

Rolling release is quite pain sometimes. You might face some problem with a bugged application since you always get the latest version. This problem is a little bit solved by Manjaro distro where applications are tested but updates are slower than usual. See More

CredibleErimon's Experience

Running Antergos with KDE Plasma, for around 3 years now, and I was warned about instabilities in ARCH, but it has been rock solid, and a great daily driver. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon / GNOME 3 / KDE / i3 / MATE / Openbox / Xfce/ Deepin

Release Schedule:Rolling Release

ArchLinux is rather hard to install using command line. Antergos's advantage is the easy installation using a GUI. So instead of manual installation of software you can just download Antergos which does things for you automatically. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

Top Con

The installer breaks often

The installer, cnchi breaks all the time. It's very buggy. See More

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

It can visit AUR to build packages. See More

Top Con

Rarely (very) an update breaks some functionality (from the ARCH repos)

The community help is extensive, so help is always close. (Antergos and Arch community). See More

Top Pro

Surprisingly stable Linux desktop

From popular distros of rolling and standard releases, compared to Debian (stable) and Arch, Antergos stability rocks. Debian is stable, however, it's with old packages and Arch. The only thing that broke it, so far, was compiz-manjaro (C++ 0.9 branch) from AUR, but compiz in Antergos repositories is 0.8 and it is working flawlessly. See More

Top Con

Package popularity is not visible in Antergos repositories

Small issue, but would be nice to see package popularity in Antergos repos, just like it is visible for AUR. packages. Antergos with AUR gives access practically to all possible packages, so popularity could help in this sea of packages. See More

Top Pro

Offers minimal ISO download

Top Pro

Rolling release model makes it easy to keep apps on updated versions

Antergos is a rolling release distribution (as it's based on Arch Linux). Your entire system, from the base OS components to the applications that you install, will receive updates as they are released upstream—with only a minimal delay to ensure stability. See More

Top Pro

Extremely fast

Everything runs at the speed of light. Antergos is super responsive and programs/apps runs effortlessly. See More

Top Pro

It comes with every essential utility pre-installed

Arch's goal of simplicity means there's usually one preferred way to get things done - through organized and well documented configuration files. This focus, combined with the community's recognition that configuration files can be intimidating, has resulted in excellent documentation that's accessible to newcomers, and very instructive about how Linux actually works. The documentation is often so thorough that, when searching for solutions to problems while using other distributions, such as with video card drivers, oftentimes you'll find the most effective solution in the Arch Linux wiki or on the forums. See More

Arch Linux

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Top Con

Manual install process

Installing archlinux must be done manually from the command line. See More

Rachel Hutzley's Experience

A customisable distro for a customisable desktop See More

Specs

Based On:N/A

Default Desktop Environment:CLI

Release Schedule:Rolling

If you need to install something, chances are someone in the Arch community has already made a package for it. This makes it incredibly easy for you to install and maintain all of the non-media content on your computer. See More

Top Pro

A package for almost everything

Top Con

Requires expert Linux and command-line knowledge to setup

Going in with zero Linux knowledge is not really recommended when wanting to install Arch, though it can be a good learning experience for those that are dedicated to trial and error as well as reading many faqs. See More

CharmingChernobog's Experience

Great Distro with KDE See More

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

The latest version of the software and the OS itself. See More

Top Con

Instability can be an issue

Sometimes you can have a surprise, but in most cases it can be fixed quickly. See More

James Nealon's Experience

Fantastic rolling release schedule. See More

Top Pro

As slim or copious as you want it

Arch keeps its core repositories slim and free of unnecessary dependencies. At first installation, only a bare system is set up. You can easily get the other applications through the package manager. The repositories are nearly as full as those of Ubuntu, while they are often more up to date. That way, you don't have to waste time with software you don't need or want. See More

Top Con

Not for the faint of heart

Arch only holds your hand a little bit of the way. While documentation is great, you are expected to know what you're doing. The result is that when you find the solution for a problem on a forum or elsewhere, the response may be completely over your head. If you're not well-versed in Linux, what would be a minor issue on another distribution can become a drawn-out research project on Arch, as you learn all the inner workings of the operating system, until you understand it well enough to solve your problems yourself. See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

Arch is mainly aimed at experienced Linux users, there is no hand-holding and not much in a way of UI elements when trying to install or tweak settings. See More

Top Con

Not so great overall

Apart from the ArchBuildSystem/AUR, which brings you very quickly newer package versions, there is not really much where Arch Linux shines. You get better package managers with other systems. The most Linux distributions are far more stable than Arch. You learn more about Linux by using LFS or a source based distribution. You can customize the system much more in LFS or Gentoo. See More

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

Pacman has performance advantages over apt-get and yum in both database operations (thanks to being written for speed) and download times (by virtue of using better mirrors than other distributions tend to select by default). There are also fewer default repositories to download from, and all package management is combined into one tool instead of being split into dpkg, apt-get, and apt-cache like on Debian distros. See More

Top Con

Pacman is a slow package manager

Compared to other distribution packages the extracting of a pacman package archives is taking ages. See More

Top Pro

Excellent package management with the AUR

The AUR is a repository with a very extensive catalogue of build/install scripts that are contributed by users. While these scripts are inherently less secure than conventional packages maintained by a distro's authors, it's still way easier to verify the security of install scripts than it would be to write them yourself. It's very usefull. See More

Top Con

Not ready out of the box

You have to install your day-to-day software requirements manually. See More

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of hardware

From latest wacom pads to obscure wireless cards in laptops Arch's hw support has been and continues to be good. It has worked on laptops where other leading distro's like debian/ mint/ ubuntu failed to detect and work with all hardware. See More

Top Con

Too many package upgrades that require manual intervention

Every year or so there is a update to ArchLinux that will break your system unless you first read the front page of archlinux.org. This happened with SystemD and with a few other updates that require you to do prior steps befor pacman -Syu. See More

Top Pro

Simplicity is absolutely the principal objective behind Arch development

The design approach of the development team focuses on elegance, code correctness, minimalism, and simplicity, and expects the user to be willing to make some effort to understand the system's operation. See More

Top Con

Fragile packages

Updating an Arch system is always a gamble. The problem could be as simple as a package having a bug causing a program to crash on start or it may be something bigger like the WiFi or Bluetooth no longer working. There is also the slight chance the system may not even boot at all after a large update. If the user does not plan to read the forums weekly/daily or update fairly often, things can go wrong very fast. See More

Top Pro

Fast

Top Con

pacman is a slow package manager

Compared to other distribution packages the extracting of a pacman package archives is taking ages. See More

Top Pro

Helpful community

If searching through the wiki or the forums for any problems turns nothing, any question on the official forums, Arch subreddit or the IRC channel will be answered within minutes. There will probably be no hand-holding however, Arch users prefer to point anyone to a resource that may help them instead of trying to outright solve their problem in a forum thread. This is quite helpful for people who want to really learn how their system works but also for other people who may stumble in that thread considering how most problems don’t have a universal solution. See More

Top Con

Rolling release requires bandwidth

Arch uses a rolling release model for updates. Unlike, for example Ubuntu where a new version is released every six months, packages are updated when they are ready. The advantage is a very up to date system and that the work of upgrading can be spread over a longer span of time to a point where it is hardly noticeably effort. However it can be difficult for people without a high bandwidth connection, or with limits on how many GB can be downloaded imposed by their internet service providers. A GB a month of downloads is quite possible. This can be somewhat offset by Arch being lightweight, besides the relatively small core, the user selects what is installed (and has to be updated). See More

Top Pro

Stripped down to the bone

Since its stripped down, it is fast and you don't have to deal with bloatware. See More

Top Con

Documentation only makes sense if you know how to adjust it

While the documentation is a very valuable reference for experts, the recipes often don't actually work on your own computer. Some articles are outdated, incomplete, contradictory or duplicated. Only if you are expert enough to know which steps to skip, to adjust or which other documentation parts to plug in, you can make it work. See More

Top Pro

Helpful for understanding how Linux is installed

Arch does not come with an automatic installation process. The user is expected to walk through the installation steps published on the Arch wiki. This is very useful if, later, something happens to the installation as the user will be more familiar with the foundational steps required to get a full blown Arch installation working. See More

Top Con

Multiple Aur helpers

Arch has strict reasoning behind what goes into the official repositories accessible by pacman. As a result, many other projects end up in the Arch User Repository (AUR). Effectively using Arch, and getting easy access to all of the available software, means either manually downloading and installing from the AUR, or installing an AUR helper - these work along side the main package manager (Pacman), but are a bit less standardized or heavily supported. See More

Top Pro

It is Linux at the core

This distro is barebones enough to make a new distro from. See More

Top Con

Bleeding edge design

The rolling release schedule, and the perhaps eager decisions in arch packages can make building software outside of repositories very difficult. See More

Top Pro

Good overall system quality

QoL of Arch is generally good. You get something more consistent and doable in Arch than you would get with most other OSes. See More

Top Pro

Arch Linux Wiki

The Arch Linux Wiki is very useful not just for Arch Linux users, but for anyone who uses Linux. See More

Has no installer just a big bloated LiveCD that gets unpacked to your disk. See More

Chakra

Top Pro

Keeps Gnome apps tidier even than Gnome distros

Top Con

No real installer

Holo Deck's Experience

Its a great KDE distro that is always recent, however: I don't like that dead and abandoned Packages stay in the CCR. There is no minimal install, you will always get the full KDE package(but you also need to update all those packages after an install). I ran into several issues after an update, often related to systemd or pacman, so I would really love if they would use something more simpler(eg openrc/runit - pacman is just a poor package manager even rpm would be a better choice) See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:KDE Plasma

Release Schedule:N/A

its not just another Arch Spin-off See More

Top Pro

Independent from Arch

Top Con

Weak base

Sometimes updates will not execute hooks(full update always misses to run mkinitcpio) so you get an unbootable system. See More

EnterprisingAmeNoKoyane's Experience

Es muy buena See More

Top Pro

Focuses on KDE/Qt Apps

comes with none GTK apps per default See More

Top Con

Pacman

Compared to deb or rpm it takes ages to update the system, it's also very dumb in dependency tracking. See More

Top Con

Only available for x86-based CPUs

Top Con

Small development team

The team is very small See More

Top Con

Uses systemd

Which is very hard to debug and not a *nix standard. See More

Top Con

Overwrites your default EFI config

It overwrites your default EFI config wich can make you PC unbootable if something goes wrong. See More

Top Con

Unreliable Servers

The CCR or the community forums are often down or unreachable. See More

One of the best KDE distros. Latest plasma in repo at the time of writing this (5.10.5). Easy to install and maintain. See More

Fedora

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Unstable

Some packages may break, because there isn't an option to test them before rolling them out. See More

RespectableVellamo's Experience

Stable, good software selection, customizable, easy to set up. See More

Specs

Based On:Fedora

Default Desktop Environment:Gnome Shell

Release Schedule:6 Months

Fedora is backed by RedHat, the biggest Linux kernel contributor in the world. Using a distribution made by RedHat means that it will be fine-tuned to work as efficiently as possible since it's made by the same people who work extensively on the kernel and know its ins and outs. See More

Top Pro

Backed by the biggest Linux kernel contributor

Top Con

Proprietary drivers are unsupported

Fedora does not support proprietary drivers, meaning that users may have problems with a lot of hardware when using Fedora. The software to make that kind of hardware work can be installed, but it can be done only through third-parties and it's not easy for the average user. See More

SplendidGaia's Experience

10 years See More

Top Pro

Strong commitment to free software philosophy

Top Con

Updating to a new release can be problematic

While there are a few tools on offer that will upgrade an old Fedora release to the newest, there can often be problems with these methods. Some that may not even crop up at first but will show later down the road. Being that upgrading can be an issue, it can be exacerbated by the fact that Fedora updates every six month, which means twice a year there is a risk of completely borking ones install. See More

Tuncay Çam's Experience

perfect choise for kde. See More

Top Pro

Fast and stable updates

ArtisticIdiyanale's Experience

nah better neon See More

Top Pro

Focuses on innovation

By using bleeding edge software, Fedora allows for innovation to take place by testing out things which other distros are not willing to try due to fears of having instability issues. See More

Top Pro

Integration with GNOME

It perhaps has the best integration with GNOME (GNOME software works out of the box). See More

Top Pro

Frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints

Fedora has a relatively short life cycle: version X is supported only until 1 month after version X+2 and with approximately 6 months between versions this means that a version of Fedora is supported for approximately 13 months. This promotes leading-edge software because it frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints. See More

Kubuntu has the largest package repositories and arguably the most well-maintained ones in all of desktop Linux, by virtue of being a derivative of Debian and Ubuntu. See More

Kubuntu

Top Pro

Access to Debian and Ubuntu repositories

Top Con

Often unstable

There have been several bugs reported. Some of these bugs are: shutting down randomly, refusing to boot, refusing to shut down, menus acting strange, icons disappearing, etc. See More

ExpertAbora's Experience

continiuously upgrading my kubuntu desktop since 2006... without real problems. only 2-3 times fresh install because of hardware changes in this time. great. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Default Desktop Environment:KDE

Release Schedule:2 Year LTS/6 Months Releases

Unlike some abandoned, unfinished distros, Kubuntu is up to date and offers a fully functional desktop environment that targets workstation users. See More

Top Pro

Full featured desktop environment that is actively developed

Top Con

Not as updated as KDE Neon

EarnestResheph's Experience

I personally run Arch with KDE Plasma desktop. But setting up Arch might be a bit time consuming for the average person, and you'll run into some minor issues along the way. Manjaro to me, is a tangled Arch. What it achieves in giving you a fully-built Arch, it takes away in it's bugs and issues. Really, it's easier to deal with Arch than with Manjaro. And Arch's documentation is much, much better and up to date. However, if you want to set up a nice, working Desktop with KDE without issue, I'd recommend Kubuntu. From the outside, it's just a good stable Ubuntu with a KDE desktop IMO. And comes with useful software out of the box. I've always liked how Ubuntu and it's derivatives make it easier to install software, update drivers and so. So this is great. I personally don't use it much, but I can tell this could please anyone. I haven't spent too much time with KDE Neon, but from what I'm reading it seems to be similar to Kubuntu. I'd advise to compare. But I'd be reluctant to pick Neon over Kubuntu. Kubuntu being a direct Ubuntu flavor and all, seems more reliable for someone who just wants things to work without much effort. Kubuntu might be running a little out of date on KDE, but this is for stability. And it won't make a difference to the average user. See More

Top Pro

Set-up is a breeze

As easy to install as Ubuntu, and comes with useful software pre-installed. Definitely a time saver. See More

Top Con

Not as customizable as Arch

Arch Linux is customizable to the bone. Not to mention, it has access to the most recent version of software. But of course, this isn't as easy to set-up. But definitely worth it if it's in your interest. See More

RespectablePodaga's Experience

Best all around See More

Top Pro

Big support from community

Top Con

Generally unstable

ImpartialEnlil's Experience

the last stable version was 10.04 in my experience. This version is no longer supported. Versions 12.x thru 15.x all seemed to suffer from a gradual slowdown over time. I I also tried ubuntu 13.x, same problem. Versions 16.x thru 18.x seemed to cure the slowdown issue, however the power management does not work. The system logs out after 3 minutes of inactivity regardless of the power management settings. Also the slowdown issue has returned in 18.04. I liked kubuntu a lot (10.04), but now I am looking for a different distro. See More

Top Pro

Long term support

Thanks to Ubuntu's LTS releases. See More

ConvivialChibchacum's Experience

The best of KDE on the best of Ubuntu See More

Top Pro

Customizable

You can easily adjust the workspace to your needs. See More

DeterminedPaidia's Experience

Kubuntu has come a long way, and is a very stable and easy OS to use. See More

Top Pro

Better integration with underlying Ubuntu than KDE Neon

Kubuntu takes care of the way other apps (gtk ones, for example) look and work in KDE, which can't be said for KDE Neon. See More

CaffeinatedVesta's Experience

17.10 + backports PPA for Plasma 5.11.3 See More

EnergeticEbisu's Experience

Just positive See More

ArtisticIdiyanale's Experience

ubuntu crap inside See More

Very fast, easy installation, reliable See More

Mageia

Top Pro

A control center that has been consistent over many years

Top Con

Older software in repo.

MerryBarastyr's Experience

Specs

Based On:Mandrake Linux

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, Gnome, Xfce

Release Schedule:9 Months

Init-System:systemd

Top Pro

Very very stable

PhilosophicalKarewit's Experience

Very good See More

Not the best implementation of languages See More

PCLinuxOS

Top Pro

Stable OS with leading edge applications

Top Con

Can not be rolled back if something breaks when rolling

Damian Nik's Experience

Specs

Based On:Mandrake Linux

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, MATE

Release Schedule:Rolling Release

Init-System:SysVinit

Comes with nVidia drivers out of the box. Important if the PC has an nVidia chipset. Most Debian based distros don't have nVidia drivers available at install time. LXDE version works well with older hardware. See More

Top Pro

Excellent hardware compatibility

Daniel Presley's Experience

My distro of choice. It just works. See More

Top Pro

Rolling distribution

The distribution is continually updated, so there's no need to install OS upgrades by hand. See More

InquisitivePhorcys's Experience

Una distro grandiosa! la he utilizado durante años y tiene una detección de hardware excelente y un software siempre actualizado. See More

LearnedMars's Experience

Using it for years and the best did find. See More

Works well. Very similar to my experiance with Manjaro. See More

Netrunner

Top Pro

Everything works well out of the box

Top Con

Very Heavy on resources

The heaviest Linux distro I've ever used. It often gets my laptop fan to fly. See More

Xfce4me's Experience

Netrunner Rolling provided a much more stable KDE experience than other Arch-based distros. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful and faithful KDE implementation

Modified but not overly tweaked (like BlueStar Linux or Ka OS). See More

IngeniousOeyangganshin's Experience

Use it since only 6 months on Sony Vaio (2009) See More

Top Pro

Quick & lightweight

Surprisingly snappy for a fairly fully-featured distro. See More

Top Pro

Always up-to-date

The "rolling" edition of Netrunner is based on Manjaro (an Arch derivative) which offers a semi-rolling release. See More

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, GNOME, Deepin, Budgie, Cinnamon, Apricity, OpenBox, i3, Xfce, Pantheon

Reborn OS

Release Schedule:Rolling

KDE Plasma

License:GPL, LGPL, MIT, X11, BSD

Programming Language:mostly C++

Widget Toolkit:Qt

Available on:*nix

Kaos

Top Pro

Great integration with KDE

Top Con

x86_64 support only

KaOs is strictly for 64bits only. No packages for other architectures in repositories. See More

ChattyNintulla's Experience

This is KDE and QT. Thats the focus. It's like they say one Desktop Environment, one Operating System, and one architecture, KDE - Arch - x86_64. It's a great experience. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:KDE Plasma

Top Pro

KDE and QT5 Focused

It strives to provide only qt5 and kf5 packages. See More

Top Con

Installer is very unstable

Most of the time the installer crashes by creating the bootloader entries See More

OpinionatedTrebaruna's Experience

One of ther best distro out there that manages to make itself apart from all the others. This distro has a focus and may give you a reason to be chosen. If you want a rolling release distro, with a focus on up-to-date Kde, Qt5 and x86_64 . . . well, KaOS may be for you! See More

Top Pro

Very fast

Top Con

Unstable and keeps crashing

CharmingChernobog's Experience

Easy Install See More

Top Pro

Clean UI

Top Con

Too independent

Top Pro

Designated KDE distro

You can install different init-systems (currently with ascii SysVinit and OpenRC are available). See More

Devuan GNU+Linux

Top Pro

Init freedom

Top Con

Only for x86

Devuan is only available for Intel x86-based PC's (namely i586+ and amd64). See More

Specs

Based On:Debian

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce, KDE, MATE, Cinnamon and LXQt

Release Schedule:“when it’s ready” or rolling

Init-System:SysVinit or OpenRC

Devuan is debian just without systemd, it just mirrors the the debian archive and repacks packages that have hard deps on systemd See More

Top Pro

It's debian

Top Con

Impossibe to install on non-free hardware

Unlike Debian, Devuan offers no unfree install media so if your system needs unfree drivers(eg a laptop or a tablet) its nearly impossible to install devuan on it. See More

Top Pro

Binary compatible with Debian

Devuan is fully binary compatible to debian. It also has one compatible release for every Debian release(oldstable, stable, testing, unstable). See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

Like Debian every Devuan install can either be rolling(oldstable,stable,testing,unstable) or release(jessie,ascii,beowulf,ceres) based. See More

Top Pro

Init based

Isn't based on systemd which can spread malware into your system. See More