Part of the reason I switched to KDE a long time ago was gnome was horribly integrated with KDE. It's probably gotten better, but at the time it was so clanky, and I don't know how I would live without KDE Connect. 😅
Installed Fedora KDE Plasma 42 Beta early this morning as my primary driver, and it's glorious.
The ProtonVPN Linux app is for GNOME, so it looks like I'll need to manually config that for a while since the Flatpak is not an official app and generally not recommended by Proton if you have other options—no big deal.
Now, it's time to have some fun finishing the setup and diving deeper into customization.
One thing I am immediately impressed with is the integration of KDE Connect...
"(Some) Features
• Shared clipboard: copy and paste between your phone and your computer (or any other device).
• Notification sync: Read and reply to your Android notifications from the desktop.
• Share files and URLs instantly from one device to another.
• Multimedia remote control: Use your phone as a remote for Linux media players.
• Virtual touchpad: Use your phone screen as your computer's touchpad and keyboard.
All this without wires, over the already existing Wi-Fi network, and using TLS encryption."
It naturally requires a lot of permissions to do all of this useful stuff, but it's open source and does not collect or share any data.
"KDE Connect never sends any information to KDE nor to any third party. KDE Connect sends data from one device to the other directly using the local network, never through the internet, and using end to end encryption."
https://f-droid.org/packages/org.kde.kdeconnect_tp/
#IKITAO #Linux #Tech
Discussion
I'm loving it. Just the process of guiding users with one click to set up the official and third-party repos in the welcome screen on Fedora KDE Plasma 42 makes one question why other repos don't do the same—instead of having to open VLC and try to figure out why their H.265/HEVC videos aren't playing, etc. Not to mention all the customization that is officially built-in so an OS update doesn't break your user-generated extensions and customizations like with GNOME.
That's actually pretty cool. I haven't ever really used fedora.
Linus famously uses Fedora, which inspired me to try it many years ago. I've found myself consistently returning to it ever since. Don't get me wrong, I love Debian's reliability, but its packages quickly become outdated after each release.
For me, Fedora strikes the perfect balance between Arch's bleeding-edge approach and Debian's stability—a sweet spot that keeps me current with updates and features without sacrificing system reliability.
Also, I still had to manually set up HEVC in VLC (of course)—not sure what I was thinking when I wrote that—but the principle remains about the third-party repositories and ease of setup.
Here's a screenshot from the welcome screen—one click to enable. Very nice.
Yeah, with my new laptop, I needed to use Debian Trixie, which is technically the testing version of Debian Just so it could be compatible with some of my newer hardware. 😅