Linux Mint Is Killing the KDE Edition (betanews.com)

BrianFagioli quotes a report from BetaNews: While both the Cinnamon and Mate versions of Linux Mint are decent choices for computer users, there was one version that was always utterly bizarre -- the KDE Edition. Don't get me wrong, KDE is a fine environment, but Kubuntu already exists. Having a version of Mint using KDE was redundant and confusing. Thankfully, today, the Linux Mint team announces it is finally killing the KDE edition. "In continuation with what's been done in the past, Linux Mint 18.3 will feature a KDE edition, but it will be the last release to do so. I would like to thank Kubuntu for the amazing work they have done. The quality of Plasma 5 in Xenial made backports a necessity. The rapid pace of development upstream from the KDE project made this very challenging, yet they managed to provide a stable flow of updates for us and we were able to ship good KDE editions thanks to that. I don't think this would have been possible without them," says Clement Lefebvre, Linux Mint.

Lefebvre further says, "KDE is a fantastic environment but it's also a different world, one which evolves away from us and away from everything we focus on. Their apps, their ecosystem and the QT toolkit which is central there have very little in common with what we're working on. We're not just shipping releases and distributing upstream software. We're a product distribution and we see ourselves as a complete desktop operating system. We like to integrate solutions, develop whatâ(TM)s missing, adapt what's not fitting perfectly, and we do a great deal of that not only around our own Cinnamon desktop environment but also thanks to cross-DE frameworks we put in place to support similar environments, such as MATE and Xfce."

Comments

As a Linux Mint KDE user

[Anonymous Coward]

I am writing this comment from Linux Mint KDE and I am wondering why the derisive tone for this distribution in The Fine Article linked. It was marginally better than pure Kubuntu and I was anticipating the next version. Sadly I'm more inclined to KDE than Mint so if they part ways I'll look for another KDE distro.

Captcha: repelled - is there an AI in this? :-)

Re:The Year of the Linux Desktop

[Daemonik]

Yeah, I don't understand that sentence. Mint has Cinnamon and Mate.. how are they not "bizzare, redundant and confusing"? After all, doesn't Ubuntu have those too?

It's amazing how much some of the community still can't get over how KDE is a better, healthier project than any of their GNOME babies.

KDE vs GNOMElets

[Daemonik]

I love the geeks who complain about KDE's stability or being bloated.. as if you run a real time system and painfully notice every nanosecond. KDE is a well built, well designed desktop that has been on Linux from the very beginnings. If it weren't for some licensing issues in the early years of Linux, GNOME would never have gotten started.

The fact is, if you have a wonky KDE desktop, it's because the people who maintain your distro are biased towards GNOME and half-ass their KDE builds. If KDE is so bloated and terrible, why is it that it has never been forked (other than Trinity, which is just a continuation of KDE 3), yet there's what, 3? 4? GNOME forks going, most of which were sparked by GNOME being such a clusterf*** to build.

ONE KDE environment is "bizarre and confusing" but 4 GNOME environments are not? Biased much dude?

Re:KDE vs GNOMElets

[StormReaver]

Biased much dude?

Relax. The Linux Mint developers are chained to GNOME, which they mention in the article. They have inadequate resources to maintain two major desktops that require diametrically opposed skill sets, so they chose to drop the desktop for which they have inadequate skills and resources to maintain.

It's not a big deal, as there are several desktop distributions that either favor or at least maintain a KDE desktop.

I am glad, though, that I didn't waste time test-driving Mint. My preference to date has been Kubuntu, even though it has a few minor wrinkles. I try using GNOME from time to time, but it is as absolutely terrible for my workflow as KDE is absolutely awesome for it.

KDE really F'ed themselves

[DickBreath]

I was a KDE lover back in the early 2000's. Until KDE 4. I had no choice but to switch to a desktop that actually worked, even if not as nice as KDE. Now, more than a decade later, I sometimes think of trying KDE again. Looking back fondly to KDE 3. How integrated everything seemed. But I just can't get over the inertia to even give it a try.

Now one of my favorite distros, Mint, that was the one that might have let me dip my toes into the waters of KDE, is abandoning KDE. Oh, well. It was nice knowing KDE. Like Apple back in its heyday (I mean the 1980's and early 90's) it was great. But things change.