I've installed KDE on my Ubuntu system instead of Gnome and it is pretty nice. It feels slightly more integrated, so lots of regular UI actions feel slicker and simpler.

It feels good to donate to a high quality sane default that has been serving my needs as a daily driver. The more I see the mistreatment of Windows users by Microsoft, the more I am grateful for Linux and KDE.

Amazing DE, daily driving KDE(Kubuntu) on my desktop for couple of years now and I can't imagine anything better.

I've been running KDE plasma with wayland in arch for over a year now, it's been an absolute dream come true. Everything just works. Gaming with Proton, dual monitors with different resolutions, Japanese input, I only need to hop onto windows when my son wants to play Minecraft.

I am used to having "Emacs key-bindings" on both gnome and Mac (so that for example ctrl-a will always go to the beginning of a textbox no matter the application, such as chrome).

For some strange reason this seems to be very hard thing to set up on KDE or am I missing something?

I donate monthly anyway. KDE is amazing and I love the extensive options in this day and age of horrible opinionated design.

I just wish they weren't in such a hurry to deprecate X11 because Wayland isn't quite there yet on my OS (FreeBSD)

Started regularly donating last year and it is well worth it. KDE Plasma is the best desktop in existance and they also make one of the best FOSS applications.

Thanks KDE - I always liked the Windows-like design (that's what I would call it coming from Windows like many people).

Instead of hiding "power-user" features so well you have to google them to find them, I can interact with the OS on gui or command-line level - really depending mostly on my mood.

Although KDEConnect to easily connect a Windows PC, a Linux laptop and an android phone to share files and control my pc while watching a movie was the "step-up". When they are in the same network and approved, they simply connect.

I used Linux for a long time (since ~2002), but for the past years I've been daily-driving a MacBook.

I'm now switching back, and will likely go with either Gnome or KDE. I've used XFCE, i3wm, etc. for years before – and briefly tried Sway too before I switched to Mac – but from what I've read it sounds like the "big" DEs make life easier post-Wayland.

Anyone want to share why you currently choose KDE over Gnome?

My first experience with KDE was the beta release that came with SuSE 5.2 in the late 90s. I still daily drive KDE, though very much has changed since then, it still is familiar.

It's been well over a decade (maybe closer to 2 in fact) since I have used KDE, and I'm happy with my more minimalist setup based on Arch+AwesomeWM, but I think KDE is a great project and like to follow its progress. It seems to have a great suite of software - the KDE versions of common applications often seem to be among the best FOSS options out there.

Donating montly and so happy to do it! <3

I use KDE on my home PC since about a 15 years, exclusively. I like it a lot but it still has some rough edges here and there. For example, the network config interface is a bit messy. Sure you can configure many things with it, but it's hard to understand). Dolphin is the best file manager I have ever used, nothing come close nowadays (I have tested windows and macs). The desktop configuration is quite nice and the look and feel is really good too.

Unfortunately, it still crashes sometimes (about 2 or 3 times over 500 hours of usage, but my PC is 15 years old, so this may explain that).

And as many here, I sure don't think about changing.

Thank you KDE team !

I'm still surprised at how smooth KDE Plasma + Wayland + Input actions on Arch feels on a fresh install on my new HP AMD laptop.

The Only slightly wonky thing has been the fingerprint reader. Other than that my Linux set up now feels smoother than my office Mac. AND I get way better battery life compared to Windows on the same machine.

Special call outs to: kwin, dolphin, yakuake, kde-connect

I'm absolutely loving KDE since I returned to desktop Linux after a long absence.

What really shocks me is how few of the big distros make KDE a default or "first class" DE choice. If I was a novice user coming from Windows, I'd much prefer KDE, which if you stick to the GUI is very navigable and similar in some ways.

Happy birthday KDE, outside XFCE, KDE is the desktop I would go back to if I ever reconsider building a Linux desktop again.

Has all the developer goodies with KDevelop, written with tooling that empowers UI/UX development workflows, has a proper component system with much better tooling than COM, quite configurable without extensions all over the place.

Signed, a disillusioned former Gtkmm user, with how GNOME turned out.

Glad they keep using the mascots to help brand and punch up their images.

Both artist links are either private or show closed commissions, so the artists aren't fishing for exposure to do lead gen, they have a passion to help make KDE be a better marketable product.

I daily drive KDE, but I'm glad that in part thanks go the KDE projects approach to accessibility to newcomers and these artists' desires to help out, we get visual aids for the masses, which are pleasant for those of us who live in walls of text and can help humanize an otherwise dry technical subject, aiding newcomers considering joining the project to have an easier time understanding what they are looking at.

Amazing project my only gripes about KDE is that while the customization is great it can feel overwhelming and opaque. For example multiple different ways to get transparency (Kvantum & qt6ct) but nothing built in or large amount of different but seemingly connected config files with confusing syntax in .config

I hope the work on union will help fix some of that