I Declare KDE Plasma the Best Desktop Environment in the World
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The Transformation of an Old Alienware Laptop
Recently, taking advantage of some free time, I performed a comprehensive upgrade on this Alienware laptop that has been in service for many years. The machine originally came with Fedora 36 Gaming Edition and the Xfce desktop environment, but I later installed KDE separately. At the time, I had a strong preference for KDE, but actual usage revealed numerous issues — the most frustrating being frequent lag: the entire desktop would freeze suddenly for a while, and sometimes even crash directly after running for a bit. Fortunately, the SSH connection remained stable throughout, so the problem clearly lay within the desktop environment itself. The stability of KDE back then was far from satisfactory.
The Upgrade Journey Across Seven Generations
A few days ago, on a whim, I decided to perform a thorough system version upgrade — jumping from Fedora 36 all the way to 43. Incidentally, Fedora 44 was also officially released just these past couple of days, but I decided to hold off and stay stable for now.
This upgrade came with its share of minor pitfalls. Since the upgrade span per step shouldn’t be too large (the official recommendation is to skip no more than two major versions at a time), the upgrade path had to be broken down into several segments: 36 → 37 → 39 → 41 → 43, completed in batches.
Starting from such an old version brought another complication: the Tsinghua TUNA mirror no longer hosts versions below 38. After searching around, I found that the Aliyun mirror still had archives, and only after switching sources could I proceed smoothly. Additionally, this upgrade gave me a new perspective on NVIDIA driver installation. Previously, on Ubuntu, I was used to running the official .run files directly, but after researching, I learned that Fedora recommends installing NVIDIA drivers via the RPM repository. This allows for better coordination with the kernel compilation process and supports automatic upgrades along with the system.
The entire process required approximately four or five reboots. Each upgrade step required downloading around 7,000 packages. The Aliyun mirror performed exceptionally well, with download speeds stabilizing around 10 MB/s. Even when interrupted occasionally, downloads could be resumed, making the overall progress quite smooth.
KDE’s Glorious Transformation
The biggest surprise came after the upgrade was complete. The stability of the latest KDE Plasma is night and day compared to years past — it has reached production-ready standards. This flagship laptop from 2017 used to suffer frequent lag when running older versions of KDE, but after upgrading to the latest version, it runs like a dream, smoother than I could have expected.
Beyond stability, a suite of new features was unlocked: multiple virtual desktops, 3D desktop effects… the visual experience is quite striking. Compatibility with common software is flawless as well; whether it’s literature management tools or Cursor / VS Code, everything runs perfectly. Regarding the theme ecosystem, I am currently using Sweet KDE, which has a gorgeous style that suits my taste perfectly. Desktop widgets are also significantly more stable than before.
The qualitative leap in KDE’s stability is impressive. I personally speculate this might be related to the widespread adoption of AI-assisted programming — productivity within the open-source community has been significantly boosted as a result.
Who Is This For?
Cool as it may be, based on my current experience, the KDE + Linux combination is still better suited for enthusiasts and developers. The reason is simple: many professional software tools for vertical industries do not offer Linux versions, and the system’s stability in certain scenarios still requires long-term verification.
If you enjoy tinkering and seek novel experiences, give it a try — after all, this is indeed the most visually stunning desktop environment with the most eye-popping effects I have ever used.