KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

bin · 2025-09-01 13:21

I've been playing with Plasma 6.x in both the Q4OS Trixie betas and also in a couple of other distros. I have to say it is a major improvement over 5.x.

I had to alter some settings on a 5.x machine yesterday and it was like playing a piano in boxing gloves...!

Not sure how well Debian is going to track changes in the Plasma 6 but hope it stays with it - 6.5 is already out!

crosscourt · 2025-09-01 18:04

Ive been running a couple of other distros and 6.4 was very good and 6.5 looks even better. Debian never seems to keep up with changes , which is going to make it a tough decision. I dont want to go backwards after enjoying what Ive been using so far.

tlmiller76 · 2025-09-01 23:16

crosscourt wrote:

Ive been running a couple of other distros and 6.4 was very good and 6.5 looks even better. Debian never seems to keep up with changes , which is going to make it a tough decision. I dont want to go backwards after enjoying what Ive been using so far.

This is my biggest thing. Plasma 6 has made noticeable strides with every new version, so sticking with 6.3 for the next 2 years is just...not likely. I may drop away from Debian for ~8 months to let forky mostly stabilize, then switch over to testing. Not sure.

crosscourt · 2025-09-01 23:58

Im leaning towards dropping Debian as I want to stay with the latest version of KDE. Really dont want to go to testing either.
Agree tlmiller76, that they have made noticeable strides and its been a great ride so far, the best KDE Ive ever used.

@bin, I wanted to mention that KDE 6.5 wont be out till October 21, 2025. Beta will release September 18, 2025.

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-09-02 00:04)

q4osteam · 2025-09-02 08:46

Debian, it's about uncompromising stability, not about versions rolling. User has to choose.

bin · 2025-09-02 11:10

What you say is true but I think that is the dichotomy facing Debian users with KDE (and GNOME). There was a guy who used to backport KDE from upstream but got pilloried by the core Debian crew and so stopped doing it. Fast moving projects tend to include a lot of fixes. KDE 6.4 fixed various bugs in 6.3. Having to follow 6.3 because it is The Debian Way is just silly when 6.4 will be no more or no less 'stable'. Likewise 6.5 - which I brilliantly misread the Beta release date - thought it said 1 September not 18 September - is in the wings. Again more fixes and more features.
KDE 6, like Cinnamon 6, has finally brought the good bits together and removed a lot of the 'why did they do it that way?' niggles of 5.
We'll have to wait and see I guess.
Up till recently I was using EndeavourOS (Arch) in a VM but with the problems in AUR which have been well publicised I decided to give it a miss for the time being. I've also been tracking SolydKee which is the Debian Testing version of SolydK - probably one of the best kept secrets in linuxland. Running in a VM and on a spare laptop and so far not a single problem. Only thing I have noticed is that updates for FF-esr and TB are always a couple of days behind Trixie.

Having said all that I will be using Q4OS Plasma for proper stuff when it hits GA because I know it will work.

crosscourt · 2025-09-02 18:13

Agree with your comments bin, and as tlmiller76 brought up, not sure if I want to wait and use a Debian testing distro instead.
In my case Ive had zero issues with a couple of distros Ive been using with Plasma 6.4.

q4osteam · 2025-09-02 18:49

What works in Q4OS won't break or change with updates. This is the certainty we want to bring to our users.

crosscourt · 2025-09-02 19:33

@Q4OSTeam, I dont disagree with the desire to create a very stable OS but the functionality has to suit the user's needs as well and sometimes that means a bit of compromising.

q4osteam · 2025-09-02 21:10

There's not much space for compromising. Major upgrades can always break things or change paradigm. Most of ordinary users require consistency, they don't need new functionalities once the system is configured and running fine. They just need to use it and work.

If you have a time to spare and you are ready to fiddle with your OS, a rolling release distro may be your choice.

crosscourt · 2025-09-03 01:49

Ive been running KDE Neon and openSUSE Tumbleweed for quite sometime, both rolling releases and have had no real issues with them.

Ill wait awhile to decide what to do.

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-09-03 02:08)

tlmiller76 · 2025-09-03 04:34

I actually moved from Tumbleweed to Tumbleweed Slowroll. Suits me WAY better than standard Tumbleweed so far. And I have VERY few AUR packages, so haven't been hit with (many) issues, mostly just AUR packages becoming abandoned and having to replace it with a new (and different named) AUR package. But also have 1 machine with KDE Neon, as well. So plenty of machines running the latest Plasma, and you can already see the improvements from 6.3.6 to the (currently) most recent 6.4.4

Last edited by tlmiller76 (2025-09-03 04:38)

ydek · 2025-09-03 13:51

Hello!
I'm a basic user and when it comes to stability versus new features, I prefer the stability of a Linux distribution, and Q4OS meets these principles very well.

ydek · 2025-09-03 14:00

I like to test Linux distributions with news, but I use the pendrive for these tests.

crosscourt · 2025-09-03 18:47

Ive been running KDE Neon and openSUSE Tumbleweed for a long time and havent had any issues at all, very stable, fast and Plasma 6.4.4 is a joy to use. I think you can have stability and still have a desktop environment that suits your needs. It also doesnt mean that you have to change to a newer version immediately but sometimes waiting many months to years, simply isnt realistic.

@tlmiller76, I havent tried slowroll, will take a look.

q4osteam · 2025-09-03 20:35

Debian, therefore also Q4OS is definitely more stable and immutable than rolling distros mentioned above. Again, we would never recommend such rolling distros for ordinary users neither for production use. While they might work well for some time, they erode more and more over time. Hidden issues could load under the cover throughout updates and burst out unexpectedly.

crosscourt wrote:

I think you can have stability and still have a desktop environment that suits your needs.

Yes, with Q4OS you can have long term stability and a desktop environment that suits your needs:) But we would disagree that rolling distributions are stable. We have to warn our users not to rely on rolling distros, they are not immutable nor stable in the long term by principle.

crosscourt wrote:

Ive been running KDE Neon and openSUSE Tumbleweed for a long time and havent had any issues at all, very stable, fast ....

If you want to praise or promote other distributions, please do it on their forums.

BonusBrain · 2025-09-12 13:35

As someone who helps other Linux users (or tries to) this type of argument frustrates me the most. By example one guy recently complained the mini pc he’d just bought with an N97 was no better than the older unit he was replacing. Not surprising since as soon as I hit the ‘info’ button up popped N95 for the processor. On investigating his online purchase the unit appeared with either CPU so he miss-read the ad and picked the wrong one. Same goes for those who get suckered into buying units advertised with i5’s or 7’s when hidden in the small print states 2nd generation as in one step up up from steam powered compared with modern processors. Extending this into the debate between desktop versions I guarantee around 90% of those I encounter couldn’t tell you which version they have yet they all demand the latest even without knowing the differences or how these might impact their stability or productivity. IMO since presumably people coming here already know the objectives behind Q4OS it’s totally unfair to gripe about Plasma versions which more or less obliges the devs to respond when they have better things to do with their time.

Q4OS Forum

#1 2025-09-01 13:21

KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#2 2025-09-01 18:04

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#3 2025-09-01 23:16

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#4 2025-09-01 23:58

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#5 2025-09-02 08:46

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#6 2025-09-02 11:10

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#7 2025-09-02 18:13

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#8 2025-09-02 18:49

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#9 2025-09-02 19:33

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#10 2025-09-02 21:10

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#11 2025-09-03 01:49

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#12 2025-09-03 04:34

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#13 2025-09-03 13:51

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#14 2025-09-03 14:00

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#15 2025-09-03 18:47

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#16 2025-09-03 20:35

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

#17 2025-09-12 13:35

Re: KDE Plasma 6 vs Plasma 5

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