You could've just installed KDE on top of mint? Ain't that the freedom of linux?
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
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I've heard this is quite a mess to maintain.
Ideally I want to find the best out of the box solution so that I can switch friends and family over to when I feel they and the software are ready
Woah, woah, woah... Are you trying to dissuade distro hopping?
Yep, Mint with KDE is how I roll
Yup. I use KDE on Debian. Works great.
Oh yeah, KDE Plasma is where it's at. I love the DE. Glad you found something that works for you!
KDE is great but do give some "better" distros like Fedora, or EndeavourOS (basically Arch) a try. Canonical, the company in control of Ubuntu, is a little bit shady.
Thanks I'll give them a try, EndeavoursOS is next on my list.
I know it's dumb but I just really don't like the name Fedora so I've strayed away so far 😅 Names matter
Nah Kubuntu is fine. Look up the reasons people don't like cononical to see if you personally care (I do but I'm weird) but sincerly kubuntu is chill.
If you're new I can't fully reccomend endeavor. Well made, great distro, but built for people who are ok with managing their system manually. If that's your vibe though great choice. Want something that looks like Kubuntu, is easier to manage, not cononical, with a rolling release model? OpenSuse tumbleweed with KDE plasma is chill.
Still though nothing wrong with sticking to Kubuntu.
~~now switching to Gentoo on the other hand will make you 2x hotter~~
Thanks solid advice.
I do care about why people don't like cononical, but it's a marathon not a sprint.
Every step in the right direction is a win.
I really want to find a nice distro that just works and that I can eventually switch friends and family onto.
It might not be the MOST ethical or best distro, but it's better than Microsoft and to me that's enough.
I’d recommend CachyOS over EndeavourOS
I would personally suggest looking into CachyOS or Manjaro.
KDE is fantastic. It’s such a polished and full-featured DE. I could see why some people prefer something simpler or different like a tiling WM but for me KDE feels comfortably familiar while having everything I need.
Which distro do you use KDE on? I'm on OpenSUSE, it's quite nice
I use NixOS. It has some sharp edges but the advantages are worth it to me. I’ve never had better working Linux machines.
Kububtu was also rough around the edges even until 22.04 LTS, but 24.04 LTS finally delivered a stable, far more customizable desktop than regular Ubuntu.
I’m eager to try 26.04 LTS next year.
I was Mint for years (Cinnamon was ahead of its time) but I'm on Kubuntu now and it's very slick. I switched because I wanted Wayland, but I'll be staying.
Glad you like it!