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Sorry but lost faith in the KDE project ... IMHO they're mostly caring for mobile forgetting the normal / power desktop user. And i get the impression that they only test it under virtual machines. This impression comes from observing lot's of bugs related to graphic cards / display. I have been a KDE user from 98 to a year ago. Left it mostly because of this bug, which i just checked right now and is not yet solved after at least two years: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....

KDE Plasma is very nice. It is currently the most advanced and polished desktop, of all o/s (not just Linux).

I agree. It's the best desktop on any OS now.

It still has flaws though, including some functionality from the 4.x days that isn't back yet. But every time I try anything else, it seems very primitive compared to KDE. It is also maybe the last desktop env left that hasn't tried to stop you from configuring it. It has a vast number of config options you can use, including some unheard of on other desktops.

Anyone who wants to donate to the KDE project can do so here. I believe it is important to put your dollars/euros/yen/whatever to support good OSS.

Try reading this page https://community.kde.org/Get_..., it seems to describe more what you want to do, you can communicate with IRC or mailing lists
they suggest a few ways to get started "A good place to start is with a small bug or feature in an existing piece of software that affects you personally ("scratch your own itch"). "

I've been trying to figure out why all Linux desktops suck so much. I think it must be due to barriers to contributing.

I looked at working on KDE, since it's the least bad one I found. They have a page that tells you to start by spending hours on IRC, hoping that helpful people are in your time-zone and suffering from the same level on insomnia as you are. The relevant section on their forum is dead, hardly anyone gets replies. They then start talking about how you should do all the boring, trivial bug fixing crap they can't be bothered with as a way to get started.

Sod that. I want to fix the start menu, fix it opening slowly and sort out the half-baked Windows-clone layout. I'm an experienced programmer. The barriers are too high, KDE loses a potential improvement.

GNOME is basically the same, their guide eventually just tells you to go on IRC and ask someone, and they don't seem interested in fixing the horrible mess they have created. In fact their current goal seems to be to remove as many options and alternative settings as possible.

Maybe one of the other desktops is better. How long am I supposed to spend checking them? This is the kind of thing that keeps people on Windows, because the pain that Microsoft inflicts is not quite as bad as the average Linux desktop.

I've been trying to figure out why all Linux desktops suck so much. I think it must be due to barriers to contributing.

I looked at working on KDE, since it's the least bad one I found. They have a page that tells you to start by spending hours on IRC, hoping that helpful people are in your time-zone and suffering from the same level on insomnia as you are. The relevant section on their forum is dead, hardly anyone gets replies. They then start talking about how you should do all the boring, trivial bug fixing crap they can't be bothered with as a way to get started.

Sod that. I want to fix the start menu, fix it opening slowly and sort out the half-baked Windows-clone layout. I'm an experienced programmer. The barriers are too high, KDE loses a potential improvement.

GNOME is basically the same, their guide eventually just tells you to go on IRC and ask someone, and they don't seem interested in fixing the horrible mess they have created. In fact their current goal seems to be to remove as many options and alternative settings as possible.

Maybe one of the other desktops is better. How long am I supposed to spend checking them? This is the kind of thing that keeps people on Windows, because the pain that Microsoft inflicts is not quite as bad as the average Linux desktop.

Available here

I wonder which one you've never actually seen. KDE, Windows 3.1 or OS X.

I'm over 60 years old. Do you think I've seen (and used) Windows 3.1 at some point?

And as far as macOS/OS X goes, take a look at my Username...

I'm least familiar with KDE; but I've seen enough to realize it WANTS to be Windows (well, newer version want to be more like macOS than Windows > ver. 7), but is even more clumsy and childish. I will admit, it is more Windows 95 or Windows 7 than it is W 3.1; but when I last looked, it seemed like it was closer to 3.1 than 95 or 7. For example, here's KDE 2, looking like Windows 95/7:

https://www.kde.org/screenshot... ...And here's a sample of KDE screenshots over several versions:

https://www.kde.org/screenshot...

So, yeah, maybe not W 3.1; but DEFINITELY a Windows clone.

I wonder which one you've never actually seen. KDE, Windows 3.1 or OS X.

I'm over 60 years old. Do you think I've seen (and used) Windows 3.1 at some point?

And as far as macOS/OS X goes, take a look at my Username...

I'm least familiar with KDE; but I've seen enough to realize it WANTS to be Windows (well, newer version want to be more like macOS than Windows > ver. 7), but is even more clumsy and childish. I will admit, it is more Windows 95 or Windows 7 than it is W 3.1; but when I last looked, it seemed like it was closer to 3.1 than 95 or 7. For example, here's KDE 2, looking like Windows 95/7:

https://www.kde.org/screenshot... ...And here's a sample of KDE screenshots over several versions:

https://www.kde.org/screenshot...

So, yeah, maybe not W 3.1; but DEFINITELY a Windows clone.

I am hanging onto my Windows 7 machines until MS releases an OS with a Windows 7-like UI.

While you're waiting, you can dual-install Linux and have that right now. (KDE)

2. Install seven apps.

3. Use an application that supports multiple protocols such as kopete, pidgin, miranda-ng, ...

Even Android has basically done away with this over the years, then Google fought a war on SD Cards and semi-lost, but had a victory in the way they encrypt them. I believe in Androids case it's to arm-twist people into using and paying for Google Music.

I have found KDE Connect to be a reasonable and useful replacement for using the phone as a USB device. I can do more than 90% of what I used to do while using it as a USB device, and the fact I'm using a Google phone makes the other 10% not matter, now that I no longer have carrier/manufacturer bloat to forcibly remove.

As for the iPhone - not being able to do this sort of thing is a lot of why I abandoned the platform when my 3G gave out.

You've pretty much outied yourself as someone who has C++ on their resume in spite of having only a limited reading knowledge at best. Why don't you start by reading some code for the Kate editor? Seems pretty approachable to me. QT centric, but that's not a bad thing.

I think you missed his point. Kate editor might be a clean C++ codebase specifically because it is Qt code base and not a crazy (and typical) template nightmare C++ project where someone implemented a new language using templates.

This is the main problem with C++. C++ language is very powerfully, however, with great power comes great responsibility. And people are idiots so the power gets abused.

You've pretty much outied yourself as someone who has C++ on their resume in spite of having only a limited reading knowledge at best. Why don't you start by reading some code for the Kate editor? Seems pretty approachable to me. QT centric, but that's not a bad thing.

It's hard to erase something that never existed. The original announcement mentions using windows design features, but not the goal of a perfect clone.

There was another Linux desktop whose name escapes me at that time that had that stated goal, not KDE. Most open source projects in the 90's wanted to avoid being sued by Microsoft.

KDE took ideas from many desktop environments, with a strong influence of Windows. The screenshots of KDE1 show a strong visual similarity. The goal was to make it easy for Windows users to switch. KDE had a start menu and task bar which were the biggest innovations in Windows 95. Even apple eventually copied the taskbar. KDE also had the minimise/maximise/close widgets in the same place as MS Windows, and unlike most other graphical environments at that time. However KDE was never limited to copying Windows and even those early versions had features that were better than Windows 95.

https://www.kde.org/announceme...

And it's free, and safe, and pretty.

https://neon.kde.org/

So Windows will finally have a good UI?

Been using KDE for years, had not heard of KDE Connect. So thank you!
Per their site https://community.kde.org/KDEC...
KDE Connect is a project that aims to communicate all your devices. For example, with KDE Connect you can receive your phone notifications on your computer, or just use your phone as a remote control for your desktop. To achieve this, KDE Connect implements a secure communication protocol over the network, and allows any developer to create plugins on top of it. Currently there are KDE Connect clients on KDE, Android and Blackberry, and soon we will support iPhone as well.

Great to see KDE and its improvements over the years. If you want to give KDE a go then I suggest trying KDE neon. You get the latest KDE on top of the stability of Ubuntu LTS. https://neon.kde.org/

Maybe you should try Neon? It's the latest Ubuntu LTS with the latest KDE binaries on top.

KDE4 is still maintained for a long time, very stable and usable. Why not just keep using that?

How much i wish what you wrote were true, but i am afraid it isn't:

Back in August 2013 we promised to do Long Term Support for kde-workspace for
2 years.

This means this August is the last release for kde-workspace.

Anyone has a strong reason we should keep doing kde-workspace 4.11.x releases?

Yes, some distributions still offer KDE4, but i am wondering how secure it is when i read things like this

"Many popular KDE applications use QtWebKit, which is old and deprecated. These deprecated versions of WebKit suffer from well over 100 remote code execution vulnerabilities fixed upstream that will probably never be backported. (100 is a lowball estimate; I would be unsurprised if the real number for QtWebKit was much, much higher."

"QtWebKit is still maintained in Qt and is getting some backports, but from a quick check of their git repository it’s obvious that it’s not receiving many security updates. This is hardly unexpected; QtWebKit is now years behind upstream, so providing security updates would be very difficult. There’s not much hope left for QtWebKit; these applications have hundreds of known vulnerabilities that will never be fixed."

I have been a longtime KDE user, and their refusal to continue supporting KDE4 while KDE5 is being developed is precisely what infuriated me to the point of wishing to abandon it and making me actively look into alternatives. Up until KDE3, i was willing to accept some bloatness and features that i never used because of KWin's configurability and internationalization (there was a time when other DEs would lock you out of your session for good if you were using a non-latin keyboard when you locked the screen!). Then i swallowed the fiasco of the transition from KDE3 to KDE4, during which KDE developers abandoned support of KDE3 long before KDE4 was in a usable form (except perhaps on their own laptops?) telling myself that perhaps this was an error in judgment caused by their inexperience (they are not professionals, after all), and that they would learn their lesson... And let's not even get into the semantic desktop crap...

So we finally arrive at KDE5, where KDE developers shove down their users' throats a half-baked product once again by refusing to keep maintaining KDE4. I cannot even remember how many bugs this thing had when i was forced to install it some months ago, many of which have not yet been fixed to this day... Konsole, my workhorse application, crashing with a mysterious combination of key strikes; the screen going black when opening a new window; things like the session manager autostart sometimes working and sometimes not; irritating taskbar bugs too many to mention here; "focus follows mouse" sometimes working and sometimes failing... To compound the misery, KDE settings are no longer saved under ~/.kde5 but are spread all over the place in ~/.config and other directories; possibly to comply to some desktop standard, except KDE is so bug it overwhelms these directories and it's no longer to rename ~/.kde5 to make an easy fresh start when trying to figure out what's wrong...

I reported some of these bugs, but i must confess that at this point i have very little good will vis a vis KDE to be a happy bug reporter! After all, i am not doing it out of my own free will: KDE5 was forced down my throat, and i find myself obliged to spend hours and hours on their project instead of *my* projects, and at a time that was certainly not of my own choos

More than 10 years ago I wrote something similar for KDE. It was called Knapsack. It monitored all keys pressed on the X desktop, all text on the clipboard and the title of the active window. It used all that text to show files related to the users current activity.

Every time a user would click a suggested file, the system would get positive feedback about that suggestion in that context: it learned.

https://mail.kde.org/pipermail...

And some sort of marketing strategy. Especially finished FOSS.
KDE was matured, by just about all metrics. Konqueror was one of the most brilliant pieces of software, unmatched in utility and power, both as a filemanager and as a browser. They had to fiddle with it and take 5 steps back with dolphin.

Same goes for quite a few other components. Instead of constantly rehawling everything, they should iterate and replace dated but working components only when the new thing is truly finished and a worthy replacement. Branding and marketing is also all over the place. There's this new shiny flat design with plasma and Kubuntu and simular project, but the logos, icons and websites of some appstacks and toolkits go back to the year 2000.

Just compare these four websites to see what I mean. In my opinion that says everthing about the state of KDE and quite a few other software projects. Look at the Gnome disaster a few years back. A little marketing and brand management and all would have loved the new strategy. Gnome did a half-assed thing - at least that was the perception and perception is everything - and all hell broke lose and the Gnome project fragmented beyond repair. Mate, Cinamon, Evolution, Whatnot. ... That's a shame.

People are fed up of fussing about with new totally redone software packages that break existing workflows and intoduce new ones that are only half finished. Especially the FOSS experts.

KDE isn't dead, but if they are interested in gaining traction, they need to offer a compelling system and present it consistently. That doesn't even mean they need to develop much - a brand strategy and a working consistent and complete distro and the will to keep it easy to install and up and running would be enough. KDE is good enough to take it from there.

Bottom line: It's like I've said before - "It's called marketing." FOSS projects need to learn the neccessity of that, or else they will die of lack of attention, users and finally maintainers.

My 2 cents.

People actually use Konsole? Given that Yakuake is a thing?

The KDE transition sure seemed to coincide with developers losing interest. Sure there's Krita, and Konqueror makes for a pretty good file explorer, but in the list of apps made for KDE, there's nothing that's, you know, killer. Instead, most K apps that don't look derelict look more like demos, half-baked to show off a feature of the toolkit-under-development rather than something you'd actually have confidence to rely on for the foreseeable future.

This is disappointing. I've used it for years in the 2.0-3.0 days and always felt that KDE had the edge over GNOME. But for one reason or another, the apps aren't there, so a K desktop is basically a K window manager + file explorer, on which you run GTK apps and LibreOffice (i.e., another GTK app), even though the K team posts one announcement after another how KDE's underpinnings are cutting-edge.

The KDE transition sure seemed to coincide with developers losing interest. Sure there's Krita, and Konqueror makes for a pretty good file explorer, but in the list of apps made for KDE, there's nothing that's, you know, killer. Instead, most K apps that don't look derelict look more like demos, half-baked to show off a feature of the toolkit-under-development rather than something you'd actually have confidence to rely on for the foreseeable future.

This is disappointing. I've used it for years in the 2.0-3.0 days and always felt that KDE had the edge over GNOME. But for one reason or another, the apps aren't there, so a K desktop is basically a K window manager + file explorer, on which you run GTK apps and LibreOffice (i.e., another GTK app), even though the K team posts one announcement after another how KDE's underpinnings are cutting-edge.

Because of this stupid bug https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....

If they could fix it I could stop using XFCE.

At US$17,000 a clip, how many people did iApple think would buy one...?

BTW, been using OSx Yosemite. What a throwback to the stone age... KDE much nicer...

CAP === 'stubby'

WTF you smokin', Jackson? And can I have some?

From what I have seen, KDE is nothing more than a cheap Windows UI clone, down to the Start Menu and Taskbar. How in the HELL can that be better than OS X? Its tools to manage multiple windows and multiple "desktops" (Spaces) are second-to-none.

Every UI has its good points and its annoying points. But KDE is simply just derivative.

You can still use Oxygen theme, or I don't know, download any other theme.

As another comment said, why are the defaults so poor?

Anyway, clicking on "Get New Themes..." on Desktop Theme in System Settings (which seems like it should / could be under "Look And Feel":

System Settings Add-On Installer

Loading of providers from file: http://download.kde.org/ocs/pr... failed

Fucking wonderful.

Okay, on 2nd or 3rd try it shows some options.

And that's not immediately satisfying:

The downloaded file is a html file. This indicates a link to a website instead of the actual download. Would you like to open the site with a browser instead?

Just feels unpolished.

Shock and surprise, I'm going to try and be helpful. I don't know who I am anymore.

Here you go.

I would like plasmashell to not crash every time I turn on the screen (there's actually hope for this one), or at random when I open/close windows. If plasmashell/kwin could also refrain from crashing when I run WineTest that would be nice. Though lately WineTest has been crashing the all-open-source Intel graphics driver so hard that using the screen required a reboot (am I glad I'm not using an NVIDIA/AMD graphics card with their proprietary unreliable and impossible to debug drivers). Anyway hard to make sure that plasmashell/kwin survived right now.

I'd like to be able to sort the songs per artist, album, etc in JuK, and for it to have a working Manage Folder dialog. Adding support for PTP cameras (you know, most of them), that would really be great. Means I would no longer have to connect them to either my GNOME or LXDE laptop to then transfer the photos over the network.

Oh, and icing on the cake, fixing the bugs in the bug reporting applet?

Not sure if these are fixed (I gave up on Desktop Linux and moved to Windows for desktop stuff).
#1) https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
#2) https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....

As for openoffice - it took them quite a while to fix this: https://bz.apache.org/ooo/show...

I assume it's fixed by now. :)

Not sure if these are fixed (I gave up on Desktop Linux and moved to Windows for desktop stuff).
#1) https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
#2) https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....

As for openoffice - it took them quite a while to fix this: https://bz.apache.org/ooo/show...

I assume it's fixed by now. :)

Not sure if these are fixed (I gave up on Desktop Linux and moved to Windows for desktop stuff).
#1) https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
#2) https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....

As for openoffice - it took them quite a while to fix this: https://bz.apache.org/ooo/show...

I assume it's fixed by now. :)

Not sure if these are fixed (I gave up on Desktop Linux and moved to Windows for desktop stuff).
#1) https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....
#2) https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....

As for openoffice - it took them quite a while to fix this: https://bz.apache.org/ooo/show...

I assume it's fixed by now. :)

Sounds a bit like part of KDEConnect's functionality, which I've been enoying for a while now.

I've been doing this for a long time now using KDE Connect.

As far as I know, kde5 still not stable.
If distros choose to included anyway is not KDE fault.

source:
http://download.kde.org/stable...

1) Appears to not be a problem in 5, I jam my mouse to the right of my screen with a maximised window and can scroll.

Good to know, thanks.

2) Works for me on three monitors.

I was terse, this issue is when the vertical panel is "between" two monitors. Discussion on the KDE forums:
https://forum.kde.org/viewtopi...

3) There is a system load viewer - not sure if that's the same thing.

Only shows CPU load, not network or memory use. There are a few third-party widgets, but none are nearly as functional or useful as the KDE 4 widget or it's KDE 3.5 heritage.

4) As a hotkey? Works for me.

I cannot seem to set Win-] as Volume Up. I have Win-[ as volume down, Win-{as mute and Win-} as pause. Us VIM users take our keyboard shortcuts seriously!

5) This works for me, it has a 'command line' option that runs the given text.

Thank you, somehow I missed that one!

6) Hasn't happened to me, I've been running for quite a few months now. 7) I had one crash so far, as I say, a few months of runtime. The crash may not have been plasma's fault though, as other things died and it happened working with something experimental.

The crashes seem to be only for some people, not for others. Like most desktop software, those who happen to run hardware similar to that of the devs get a rock-solid experience. All others: airbags and seatbelts.

8) There is one of these enabled in the keyboard options, works for me, I swap between dvorak and qwerty with it.

Mine disappeared and stubbornly won't come back. Here is the KDE forums thread:
https://forum.kde.org/viewtopi...

9) Don't know that widget, couldn't test.

1) Appears to not be a problem in 5, I jam my mouse to the right of my screen with a maximised window and can scroll.

Good to know, thanks.

2) Works for me on three monitors.

I was terse, this issue is when the vertical panel is "between" two monitors. Discussion on the KDE forums:
https://forum.kde.org/viewtopi...

3) There is a system load viewer - not sure if that's the same thing.

Only shows CPU load, not network or memory use. There are a few third-party widgets, but none are nearly as functional or useful as the KDE 4 widget or it's KDE 3.5 heritage.

4) As a hotkey? Works for me.

I cannot seem to set Win-] as Volume Up. I have Win-[ as volume down, Win-{as mute and Win-} as pause. Us VIM users take our keyboard shortcuts seriously!

5) This works for me, it has a 'command line' option that runs the given text.

Thank you, somehow I missed that one!

6) Hasn't happened to me, I've been running for quite a few months now. 7) I had one crash so far, as I say, a few months of runtime. The crash may not have been plasma's fault though, as other things died and it happened working with something experimental.

The crashes seem to be only for some people, not for others. Like most desktop software, those who happen to run hardware similar to that of the devs get a rock-solid experience. All others: airbags and seatbelts.

8) There is one of these enabled in the keyboard options, works for me, I swap between dvorak and qwerty with it.

Mine disappeared and stubbornly won't come back. Here is the KDE forums thread:
https://forum.kde.org/viewtopi...

9) Don't know that widget, couldn't test.

Fixed: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug....

Yes, this seems to be problematic. The developers are aware of these (see this as well) but it'll take some time to fix the problems.

Still can't (won't?) do this. And as for Activities, "We don't need no stinking Activities."

No

That's interesting. In the past, KDE has tried to make their software not dependent on linux functionality so that KDE can work in other places, like BSD and -- god help us -- Windows.

Since I only used KDE on linux, that's kind of frustrating. E.g. KDE refused to use FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) to access remote files because FUSE wouldn't work on all their platforms (back in 2006). Instead, KDE rolls its own remote access solution which only truly works with KDE-aware applications. In contrast, GNOME uses FUSE behind the scenes so that non-GNOME can seamlessly access the remote files.

So, KDE refused to use FUSE because that was too linux specific (at the time) but now requires systemd? Ugh.

I don't have a problem with systemd, and I'm all for focusing on functionality for the setups that most users actually use (e.g. Windows' lack of FUSE shouldn't stop KDE from using FUSE on Linux, BSD, etc.), but they should come up with a consistent policy for when they rely on an external dependency and when they don't.

(Aside: I wish there was some way users could fund fixes for specific bugs/implementation of specific features on KDE. That way we wouldn't have to wait a decade to get features users have been clamoring for.)

That's interesting. In the past, KDE has tried to make their software not dependent on linux functionality so that KDE can work in other places, like BSD and -- god help us -- Windows.

Since I only used KDE on linux, that's kind of frustrating. E.g. KDE refused to use FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) to access remote files because FUSE wouldn't work on all their platforms (back in 2006). Instead, KDE rolls its own remote access solution which only truly works with KDE-aware applications. In contrast, GNOME uses FUSE behind the scenes so that non-GNOME can seamlessly access the remote files.

So, KDE refused to use FUSE because that was too linux specific (at the time) but now requires systemd? Ugh.

I don't have a problem with systemd, and I'm all for focusing on functionality for the setups that most users actually use (e.g. Windows' lack of FUSE shouldn't stop KDE from using FUSE on Linux, BSD, etc.), but they should come up with a consistent policy for when they rely on an external dependency and when they don't.

(Aside: I wish there was some way users could fund fixes for specific bugs/implementation of specific features on KDE. That way we wouldn't have to wait a decade to get features users have been clamoring for.)

Sigh.

First, only an idiot would want a monoculture, particularly in the Linux world, so to those saying "just to systemd full bore or go to (someplace else)" the rest of us need to respond with a very loud and resounding: Fuck You.

That said, things aren't nearly as dire as this post implies. Reading from the responses to the bug he himself linked to, I find the following:

> Unless KDE is prepared to make a statement that it depends on systemd

of course not. Powerdevil recently also gained support for ConsoleKit2, see: http://commits.kde.org/powerde...

Which turns it into a distro problem. Your distribution configured the system in a way that suspend/hibernate is broken. It doesn't come with any of the supported solutions Plasma provides. Which makes it a distro problem. The distro integrates various parts of the software stack. This includes it's the distro's task to ensure that components work together. It failed here by ripping out systemd and replace it with well nothing.

So while I'm sure the systemd zealots would love to see KDE, Gnome3, etc. only work with systemd and drop support for all other distros, this doesn't appear to be happening. In the case of KDE, ConsoleKit2 is supported (and therefor Funtoo, Gentoo, Arch with OpenRC, etc. will continue to work just fine).

Sigh.

First, only an idiot would want a monoculture, particularly in the Linux world, so to those saying "just to systemd full bore or go to (someplace else)" the rest of us need to respond with a very loud and resounding: Fuck You.

That said, things aren't nearly as dire as this post implies. Reading from the responses to the bug he himself linked to, I find the following:

> Unless KDE is prepared to make a statement that it depends on systemd

of course not. Powerdevil recently also gained support for ConsoleKit2, see: http://commits.kde.org/powerde...

Which turns it into a distro problem. Your distribution configured the system in a way that suspend/hibernate is broken. It doesn't come with any of the supported solutions Plasma provides. Which makes it a distro problem. The distro integrates various parts of the software stack. This includes it's the distro's task to ensure that components work together. It failed here by ripping out systemd and replace it with well nothing.

So while I'm sure the systemd zealots would love to see KDE, Gnome3, etc. only work with systemd and drop support for all other distros, this doesn't appear to be happening. In the case of KDE, ConsoleKit2 is supported (and therefor Funtoo, Gentoo, Arch with OpenRC, etc. will continue to work just fine).

I don't use Firefox anymore. Thunderbird is shitty; I've tried switching to Evolution, but it chokes on gmail.

I've been enjoying Gnome 3 for years. Its local menu bars are a refreshing alternative to Ubuntu's stupid global desktop menu thing. I wrote a complete explanation of why top-of-screen menus are stupid--both from a spatial location sense (the menu's position relative to the working space changes when the working space moves on the desktop) and from a multi-window interface sense (you only need one click to activate a window and access its menu bar, versus two and a lot more mouse movement to activate a window and access the global menu bar). I do dislike its alt-tab behavior.

Even the KDE developers noticed my coverage of Michael Meeks's work in speeding up the loading of slow, bloated, clunky C++ applications. The C++ ABI is a horrible mess.

First, if they are moving from 7 to 10 they are learning a new OS

In what world? For the basic user very little at all has changed between 7 and 10. The interface looks a tiny bit different, "All Programs" is now called "All Apps" in the start menu but otherwise there's absolutely nothing about windows 10 that needs "learning".

To the extent that they're moving from Windows 7 to Linux, the learning curve may be less than that from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Things are less screwed up in the user interface, and probably more familiar to a Windows user.

If they're moving to a KDE or xfce distribution, there might be a (very small) learning curve. It might take longer if there's a highly customized xfce configuration (as we have). Similarly for Gnome distributions. Of course, I agree that the learning curve for Unity is quite long, and might require as much as a whole hour. Oh, and you can change the user interface later, if you want.