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My KDE Setup

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This is an article describing my KDE setup. It gets updated on new changes.

Brief background: I've been using the XFCE desktop environment for more than 15 years until 2025-08 when I wanted to try out something new with some additional armenities and better styling. Then I set up a new GNOME desktop environment with GNOME 48 of Debian 13 (Trixie).

However, I've face some issues I could not fix over a couple of months. So I tested Debian 13 Live KDE on 2025-10-26 and found out that most things I had to add GNOME extensions and manual workarounds were built-in with KDE 6. So I migrated to KDE and this is my system configuration just like I did with my GNOME setup before.

With the switch to KDE, I also started with a dotfile management tool called chezmoi. In particular for KDE ini file management, I also installed chezmoi_modify_manager. The latter allows for ignoring KDE ini file settings that are host/user-specific and should not be synchronized across hosts. My settings for chezmoi+chezmoi_modify_manager will not be public as they contain too much personal settings where I don't want to spend too much effort for obfuscating before publishing. So far, I really, really like this kind of dotfile management concept.

General Remarks

I was using KDE maybe 20 years ago. I can not recall why I left KDE as a desktop environment and finally ended up using xfce for so long.

After my issues with GNOME 48, I tested KDE 6.3.6 on my Debian 13 machine: Lenovo X13 Gen5 2-in-1.

When GNOME shines with extensions, KDE shines with "almost anything is possible with out-of-the-box functionality". I think that's the better approach for people like me who need to adapt their system to their requirements][adapt their system to their requirements. There are less side-effects and its much better tested.

To my surprise, KDE is way faster than GNOME shell when it comes to switching windows, virtual desktops or opening up the "start something" windows. KDE adds an enourmous amount of nice-to-haves to the Linux desktop. I need to play around with:

As of 2025-11-11, I'm running KDE just for a few days. I still need to test it for the upcoming weeks/months in order to come to final conclusions. So far, it's looking great. When the dock unplug instability and other oddities aren't happening any more, this could be a very promising environment to me.

Transition from GNOME to KDE on Debian 13

Software-wise, the transition was quite easy to do: 

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade       ## update the whole system before migration
reboot                                    ## to make sure latest software is running
sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop sddm  ## install KDE and its login manager
reboot                                    ## reboot into sddm and KDE Plasma Wayland

There is some cleanup I could do but so far, I kept GNOME just in case: 

sudo apt remove gnome-shell gnome-session gnome-shell-extensions gdm3
sudo apt autoremove

System Settings

Here are my settings for KDE System Settings:

Plasma Widgets

KDE 6 on Debian 13 comes with a wide variety of widgets. However, some functionality is still missing for me. You can install additional widgets using the "Get New Widgets" tool.

As with GNOME, the Widgets get installed for each user separately via its particular install mechanism. So updates aren't done via system update mechanism. Furthermore, each user has to update them separately.

Desktop Indicator

I prefer a minimalistic indicator, showing only dots instead of previews/windows/... and thus, maximizing screen space for the "Icons-and-Text Task Manager".

Cursor Eyes

I like this method to easily spot the mouse pointer when using multiple screens.

Note that by default, wiggling the mouse does highlight the mouse pointer by temporarily making it huge.

Panel

Spectacle

This is the name of the KDE screenshot tool.

Nice to Know

Bugs and Oddities

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