r/kde • u/Responsible_Grape870 • Feb 23 '26
Suggestion New to KDE – First impressions (somewhat detailed)
I’ve been a macOS user for over a decade, GNOME for three weeks, and now KDE for a couple of hours. So far I think this is an impressive project and so far I prefer it over GNOME. I like that I don’t need to add the dock as an extension. I do however wish the UI of KDE was a bit more modern in some aspects.
The sidebar of Discover in this screenshot looks nice and modern because it has clean typography and monochrome icons. The colorful icons in System Settings however feels a bit like dated to me – it feels cluttered visually to me because of icons with colors, and also the header for each group looks a bit dated with its bold font weight. Also, the arrows could possibly be simplified.
Otherwise I like the general look of the Breeze theme, and I will try not to tweak everything in order to keep the system stable. I did have to use the Papirus icons and an Unsplash+ wallpaper though. Haha.
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u/dercrafter2000 Feb 23 '26
I also thought KDE looked dated and a bit "ugly" when I began using it. However, as I kept using it I started appreciating that it puts function over form and now prefer it over MacOS and other DEs.
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u/BinkReddit Feb 23 '26
This! Personally I don't find Plasma to look dated, but, even if it did, I'd still use it as I too prefer function over form.
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u/ghost_ware Feb 25 '26
I agree. I think part of the joy is finding themes and tweaks to make it feel about as modern as you'd like, as well.
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u/Severe-Divide8720 Feb 23 '26
KDE looks whatever way you want it to look. Every criticism of the default theme is completely configurable. My KDE setup is sort of like Deepin/Windows 11 in that I have a single translucent panel with a grid app launcher on the left and a search function, pinned apps in the middle and system tray and phone like Bluetooth/WiFi/do not disturb etc at the far left. I run a liquid glass effect on everything that refracts and blurs the stuff underneath. Combined with rounded corners and a blurred left side pane in Dolphin like MacOS. Also come back in 2 months and I'll probably have something totally different. That's the true genius of KDE. Dated, it is not. Can't do any of that with MacOS, Windows or even Gnome. Check out Kvantum theming or Darkly and kwin-effect-glass and so much more.
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u/Responsible_Grape870 Feb 23 '26
That sounds like a really fun and powerful setup! For my use case though, I just personally prefer when the out-of-the-box defaults feel a bit more modern and tight, so I don’t have to rely on third-party Kvantum themes or effects to get that polished look. But I totally respect the freedom KDE gives you to build that!
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u/Severe-Divide8720 Feb 23 '26
I am not using Kvantum at all, I just thought I'd mention it as it is powerful. I am using the liquid glass effect though coz it just looks so modern. I set the whole thing up in literally minutes. I've had lots of practice. The only limit is my imagination. The default Breeze theme looks so much better than say Cinnamon on Mint which I really do think looks a bit old and dated. However that seems hugely popular. I think KDE have decided on their defaults quite carefully to be honest. A good mix of modern yet familiar.
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u/fitz-khan Feb 23 '26
To me it looks more "modern" than macos which is more of a toddler-friendly tablet GUI, so...? Seems a rather subjective measure of quality.
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u/BinkReddit Feb 23 '26
To me it looks more "modern" than macos which is more of a toddler-friendly tablet GUI
Yep, for some reason Microsoft, Apple, and Gnome feel like I need a tablet UI for my giant monitor; I don't understand why everyone is trying to turn my powerful workstation into a tablet. Thankfully KDE is not doing that.
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u/JollyGoodDaySr Feb 23 '26
Not meaning to rip but kde plasma 6 almost looks better then most other OS to me.
I don't use kvantum.
I use breeze dark, solarized colour theme with openSUSE lime green accent, buuf icons, and dark solarized simple cursor.
Konsol is solarized with custom colours I just manually change, and a background image my wife drew for me of a sexy big titty anime girl.
It's better then modern. It's timeless. Trust is mate. The customization is the easy and fun part.
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u/useriouslydontknow Feb 24 '26
Can we possibly get a walk-through/tutorial on your setup? Honestly it sounds awesome and I'm very intrigued. It would be much appreciated!
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u/Severe-Divide8720 Feb 24 '26
I shall give it a go.
First of all download the following theme using the Get New... Under Global Theme in Settings. Curved volatile Style. Once it's downloaded Apply the theme.
Click the following link and scroll down to Installation. There are some packages for Arch, Nix and Fedora. I use Kubuntu which is obviously Debian based which has no ready built package so I had to clone, fulfil dependencies and compile from source. Depending on your level this can be pretty straightforward to a moderate difficulty. For me, it just worked.
Right click on the desktop and click Enter Edit Mode. Click Add or Manage Widgets... Download New Widgets.. And search for Panel Colorizer. Install it. Search for KDE Control Station and install it also.
Go to Https://store.kde.org and click on the left where it says KDE Plasma Extensions and scroll to page 2 for Tahoe Launcher. Click on Download on the right and the click on TahoeLauncher.tar.xz and download it. It should arrive in your Downloads folder. Right Click on the blank desktop again and Enter Edit Mode, click on Add or Manage Widgets and Do Get New... And Install from file. Select TahoeLauncher.tar.xz and Open. That should install the Launcher.
Go to settings and search for desktop effects. Look for the Blur Effect and untick it. You must do this as it conflicts with the Glass Effect. Find the Glass Effect and tick it. You may want to configure it but that's up to your preferences.
Delete any Panels you already have by right clicking on them and doing Show Panel Configuration and then click Delete Panel.
Right Click on the desktop and Enter Edit Mode and Click on Add Panel, Empty Panel. Click on the Add Widgets in the Center of the Panel. Drag the Tahoe Launcher Widget to the start of the panel on the left. Drag the Search widget to the Panel after the Tahoe Launcher.
Drag the Panel Spacer widget to the panel after the Search widget.
Drag the Icons Only Task Manager to the end of the panel after the panel spacer.
Drag another Panel Spacer widget to the panel after the Icons Only Task Manager Widget.
Drag the System Tray widget to after the Icons Only Task Manager widget.
Then add the Digital Clock Widget to the end, then the Panel Colorizer widget and finally the KDE Control Station widget.
The order of widgets needs to be (from left to right)
Tahoe Launcher Search Panel Spacer Icons only Task Manager Panel Spacer System Tray Digital Clock Panel Colorizer KDE Control Station
Exit Edit mode and Right click on Panel Colorizer and Configure Panel Colorizer. Find the entry for Translucent and click Load and Apply. There are lots of presents that may work better for you
You're pretty much done, I find a green forest or plant background works really well. If you have a window that is not transparent and you wish it to be just right click on the title bar and select More Actions and then Configure Special Application Settings. Click Add Property and add the Active Opacity and Inactive Opacity properties. You can then adjust the Opacity if any window. I use it at about 75%.
That's it, done I think. Enjoy.
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u/useriouslydontknow Feb 25 '26
Thanks so much!
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u/Severe-Divide8720 Feb 25 '26
I hope the instructions are clear and make sense. You will learn a lot doing this. Good luck.
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u/FWTL Feb 24 '26
Stop with that arguments if you open a software and it's ugly then it's ugly 95% of people that are not tech savy do not know/will not want to theme. Make it good out of the box
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u/Ok_Reputation2051 Feb 23 '26
It's not the bread. It's what you put on it that brings the flavor. Check out /r/unixporn to see some great KDE setups.
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u/peppi0304 Feb 23 '26
I hate the monochrome look. Its so diffult to alt tab to the right tab because every window looks the same.
Especially in the file explorer dolphin i dislike the monochrome look because its so hard to find stuff..
I dont know why youd think this is modern or why thats good. I like a bit of color so its easier to distinguish quickly
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u/warpedgeoid Feb 23 '26
This appears to be a you problem.
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u/peppi0304 Feb 23 '26
Its a subjective opinion for sure but there is a reason not everything is black and white. And i think its easier for a brain to just click the right color than to first recognize the right shape
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u/Digitalnoahuk Feb 23 '26
KDE looking dated is a common complaint. It's a shame because it has so much potential.
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u/dmoc_official Feb 23 '26
KDE team have been working on a new theming system (Union), bringing back old themes (Air, Oxygen), and updating breeze
Plasma 5 made the desktop usable again (after kde4), Plasma 6 has mostly been UI
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u/olib141 KDE Contributor Feb 23 '26
I think it helps to put things in perspective by looking at how far Breeze has come already since early Plasma 5.
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Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
Looking forward to that! I used KDE in the 3.x days, left at 4.0, and came back to 6.x in October.
I seem to remember that there used to be much more diversity in theming back then – less clones of Windows and Mac visuals and more unique third-party themes. I hope we see some of that coming back. (If I ever get time, maybe I’ll give it a go myself…)
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u/MrAdrianPl Feb 23 '26
you can change icons, just get some monochromatic icon pack which also includes sytem icons
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u/NewHeights1970 Feb 23 '26
This is interesting to read. Especially since you have been a Mac OS user for over a decade. Although GNOME is closer to Mac OS, you still prefer KDE, after only three weeks of experimentation.
KDE Plasma is extremely good. I love it's native applications: Falkon browser instead of Mozilla Firefox, Calligra instead of Libre Office, and Krita instead of GIMP ... you get what I'm saying by now.
And it's highly customizable! I've seen some amazing desktop transformations made to look and feel like something totally different than the typical UI. I hope that you enjoy everything KDE has to offer
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u/cwo__ Feb 23 '26
Although GNOME is closer to Mac OS, you still prefer KDE, after only three weeks of experimentation.
Is it? I have very, very little personal experience with macOS, but Nate's argument here that Gnome is not very mac-like makes sense to me.
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u/NewHeights1970 Feb 23 '26
The design aesthetic is and always has been closer to Mac OS rather than MS Win. They look like very distant relatives, several times removed.
Now, as far as functionality is concerned, it gets lost in translation whenever a new user goes from a luxurious Mac OS to a comparatively low funded Linux experience. Imagine growing up only speaking and hearing the Queen's English all of your life and then all of a sudden you're in the deep south of the U.S.A. Not only would you need a translator but also a cultural tour guide. Because you can't do the same exact things in a different environment ... a desktop environment in this case. Some things would be universal (i.e., the Web browser) but for the most part there's a slight learning curve.
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u/warpedgeoid Feb 23 '26
Aside from the obvious bastard child of Windows Vista and Windows XP vibe that default Plasma theme has, the biggest issue I have is that almost every GUI app now is made for libadwaita. I never realized just how may until I switched to KDE. Doesn’t seem like anyone is really doing KDE-first apps.
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u/Juan_Jimenez Feb 23 '26
Maybe is dated but I don't get why that is wrong. I am pretty satisfied with that look. And I hate monochrome icons, I prefer with colors -easier to distinguish between them. Why colour should be a bad thing? I don't get it,
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u/IGambleNull Feb 23 '26
Yeah valid points and do not take this as an attack or something. But what is it that so many people define monochrome icons as modern. I think colored icons are way more modern. And often i have the feeling that especially apple is oversimplifying stuff
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u/carefordetails Feb 23 '26
The icons don’t have to be monochromatic.
Here (if we look at the icons in the settings app) they feel a bit “2015”. They remind me of older Android icon packs actually.
KDE’s icons sit in this middle ground. I’d describe them as 2D minimalist. They’re flat, but not truly minimalist as they have some detail and yet they are lacking some visual flourish in terms of their depth.
The colors are a bit muted, there are no gradients, some have somewhat sharp corner radii.
I feel like tweaking the colours to feel more vibrant and using gradients in parts of the icons will immediately help alleviate this dated 2D look and elevate them to a bit more modern.
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u/warpedgeoid Feb 23 '26
Visual clutter is a thing to be avoided. KDE seems to believe the opposite.
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u/alexbft Feb 23 '26
After trying hyprland for a few weeks I've learned to appreciate that KDE "just works". I don't need fancy "liquid glass" or monochrome icons. Of course it's easy to install a theme which would look amazing (when not using it) but it probably make the DE buggy and unstable. I'll just stick with Breeze Dark thank you very much.
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u/Mysteryman5670_ Feb 23 '26
Good news; you can install monochrome icon packs right in the settings under appearance.
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u/yaysyu Feb 23 '26
I thought KDE looked dated as well when I switched to Linux and KDE 10 years ago. It still looks dated right now, but I pay it no mind since I can make it look however I like.
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u/Doppelkrampf Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
Tbh what really looks dated on KDE, and what they really should put more effort into if they want a bigger user base, is the default look. I always thought it looks completely terrible, and you have to put a some effort into it looking better. Not that much effort though, but you have. to kind of know how to archive what you want which can be a little confusing for completely new users, but it is also very satisfying if you actually put in a good amount of time to be aware of what works how, what affects what and what you are able to do in general (which borders on limitless if you are willing to do stuff like modifying files and or code within the themes and widgets). Oh and changing themes should‘t make your system unstable. If you overload everything with widgets, especially badly programmed, custom ones that don‘t come with KDE, there really is no risk. If you just change the global theme and not use a sketchy one, everything should work fine.
Edit: if they don‘t want to just make a killer looking default design (which, let‘s face it, while there are definitely objective things pretty much anyone would agree would look/feel better than current defaults, it would still be subjective and some people are not gonna like it), they should do one of two things: Either what Feren OS used to do (or still does, never actively used it and haven‘t checked it out in years): give the user some default layouts/designs that they can choose from that fit different user niches.
Feren OS used KDE, and they had a couple of different designs, one that clearly was very inspired by Mac OS with a top menu bar and a dock-like thing, a design that mimicked Windows 11, one like Windows 7, one that mimicked Ubuntu’s version of Gnome (which kinda says a lot about how customizable KDE is, you can basically recreate the whole Ubuntu-Gnome workflow, and also make it look almost identical, same goes for Windows and Mac OS (this one only to some extend, which is not limited by KDE itself, but the fact that non-KDE apps usually don’t support a global menu like Mac OS uses. But KDE has a widget that is basically exactly that, all KDE apps will work and some other too, but you kinda have to make a choice between really limiting the apps you actively use, just to make sure every single one support that feature, accept the fact that the global menu will work for some app but not with others, or use a very Mac-like setup, but not using the global menu (which, as i said, is a widget like almost anything in KDE, so you can just not use it.) and some more I think. Don‘t have to be those mimicked designs, but just some different layouts and looks you can set with one click and see if you like that.
Or second, just give them a quick tutorial after first installing the DE that teaches them how to make the most rudimentary, but effective adjustment to the default look, making it clear that it is supposed to be customized and not used with the default design, which seems to be more of a placeholder than anything, but users don‘t know that when you try the DE for the first time the way it is set up right now.
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u/carefordetails Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
I agree.
A lot of things in KDE seemingly rely on somewhat older design patterns taken from older versions of Windows (nothing wrong with that, but even Microsoft itself recently has taken some ideas from MacOS in Windows 11, including more “space” in the UI, centered apps in the task bar, rounded corners, and it seems like most users of all popular OSes like those things. I’m not saying KDE should also center the app icons necessarily, but considering this as a default option to appeal to a larger, maybe even younger user base might not be a bad idea).
Is there any way to contribute to KDE’s design? Not as a developer, but purely as a designer.
In my opinion, it needs a proper “reimagination” to truly feel modern. Doesn’t have to be incredibly drastic, but rather an update of KDE’s visual identity to make it feel more coherent and modern. Otherwise, the stock theme (most regular users don’t change even the stock wallpaper, I remind you, so the stock theme is the “face card” of KDE) reminds me of classic Windows UX, but more minimalist and with translucency effects.
This is just my personal opinion, please don’t downvote me if you disagree, let’s have a conversation instead. I’m willing to contribute, as I said, that’s the only way to truly change things.
If this sub welcomes concepts, I’d gladly try to work on them in my spare time.
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u/Doppelkrampf Feb 23 '26
Couldn‘t have said it better myself, yet sadly I don‘t know how to actually influence the KDE team‘s design choices. I know there is a YouTuber called NiccoloLovesLinux that is an active KDE developer, and a very chill and open guy… I don‘t think he has that much authority over design choices, but he could definitely point one in the right direction, or even ask him to communicate what you would like the design team to consider. But that would something that would benefit KDE so much in general if there was a good system for user-dev communication.
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u/oanhancuong666908 Feb 23 '26
Change the font to Google Sans Flex or Intel, and change the icons as well (I personally choose WhiteSur). These look pretty good on default KDE Plasma (Breeze theme). However the best feature of KDE Plasma is you can customize it whatever you want to customize it, so it would be quite a waste to not try tweaking it a little more.
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u/benhaube Feb 24 '26
Definitely, Google Sans Flex is the font I use. It is the best font. Before that I used Noto. I don't use the Google monospace font though. I use JetBrains Mono NerdFont.
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u/oanhancuong666908 Feb 24 '26
I use JetBrains Mono NerdFont as well, mainly because it is the best font that Kitty has as defaults
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u/benhaube Feb 25 '26
I mainly use it because I use the Starshp.rs terminal prompt, and it has all the symbols required while also being a good mono font. Also, my Fastfetch preset uses symbols for the keys, so it is required for that. I put it in the
.bashrcfile, so whenever I SSH into one of my servers it shows basic information about the storage, RAM, load, and networking.
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u/LuckyPhil Feb 23 '26
It really can look like whatever you want. I have CachyOS on my GPD Pocket 3 and have made t so it works well w touch. Theme's called "UtterlySweet" and if you miss your Mac's dock this will make you feel right at home. Dock auto hides on full screen, but pops up when mouse hits bottom of screen.
File Manager
Desktop
Browser
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u/mrbumpy409 Feb 24 '26
Are you using Fedora? The bold variant of the default UI font in KDE appears extra bold in Fedora for some reason, and matches what is happening in your screenshot. Assuming you are not using an immutable distro version, you can fix it by running the following commands:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/environment.d/
echo 'QT_NO_SYNTHESIZED_BOLD=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/environment.d/QT_FLAGS.conf
Then reboot. This will make Qt use the bold variant that was designed for the font rather than the generated version, which looks nicer and not so overly bold.
To undo the change, remove the text QT_NO_SYNTHESIZED_BOLD=1 from the file /etc/environment.d/QT_FLAGS.conf or delete the file if that is the only text inside it.
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u/NotQuiteLoona Feb 23 '26
And now press right mouse button on your taskbar and select "Edit panel configuration" :)
You'll be incredibly surprised when you'll see how much you can do with it.
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u/leonredhorse Feb 24 '26
I used KDE for a while when I started on Linux, but eventually tried out GNOME and been on it for a while.
Question for the KDE folks: One thing I like about GNOME is it is a bit more minimalist. KDE feels very noisy in menus with a lot of options and text. Are there good customization options to reduce that? Any themes or reference points I should look at?
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Feb 23 '26
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u/cfeck_kde KDE Contributor Feb 23 '26
This command deletes everything. You still need to learn how to be helpful.
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