
KDE Plasma
Plasma is a cross-device work environment by the KDE Community where trust is put on the user's capacity to best define their own workflow and preferences.
What is KDE Plasma?
Plasma is the KDE workspace. Actually it is a technology that can adapt to many types of devices. Currently there are two varieties of Plasma: The Plasma Desktop environment which is the focus of the majority of our pages and Plasma Mobile, the new cool environment for pads and smartphones.
An important part of Plasma are the "widgets". Widgets are the individual units of the desktop and they include (although they are not limited to) the application menu, icons, the system tray, the clock, etc. Widgets can exist on the desktop itself, or be inserted into the panel, on the screen saver or on the dashboard among other places. Widgets exist for a large number of tasks besides usual desktop helpers, including microblogging (Twitter, identi.ca), unit conversion calculators, weather forecasts, file sharing and much more. Panels and desktops are also special kinds of widgets themselves, meant to contain other widgets.
KDE Plasma Screenshots












![[KDE PLASMA 5.13 -dev] Material Design Colors with Adapta Theme](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wWTXKqIb_2Q/hqdefault.jpg)
KDE Plasma Features
KDE Plasma information
Supported Languages
- English
Comments and Reviews
Category
OS & UtilitiesLists containing KDE Plasma
The software I'll install on my laptop once I ditch macOS for Linux • Personal Software • Linux • apps for linuxRecent user activities on KDE Plasma
- D33pSh33p reviewed KDE PlasmaD3I like it because it is super customizable, lightweight and solid. It works well out of the box but you can customize just about everything. That includes the theming. KDE has a lot of good apps and integrations. It keeps getting better and better and the leadership seem to steer it in a very good direction. The bug squashing initiative have been quite successful and it is seeing growth. It is not perfect, nothing is. But my opinion is that it is the best DE out there.
- D33pSh33p liked KDE PlasmaD3
- RemovedUser liked KDE PlasmaRe
I tried first time Linux a year ago. My first Linux (except of Android) was Ubuntu with Unity, I think this was v. 14... Yeah, my first Desktop Environment was been Unity... I removed Ubuntu on the same day. :D
Than I tried a Debian just servers for a long time. The time Linux Mint 17.02 was been released I tried my second Desktop Environment (Cinnamon). Cinnamon looks very nice, it really is easier for ex-win users. But Cinnamon used 15% of my CPU and in addition it was really buggy.( I mean it crashes for me every 2h.)
Than I tried out MATE. I wonder it look's so strange like Win2 winNT (never tried on of these). But MATE is working very well, and it is stable. Just I want something what isn't really hungry for resources AND looks good.
Yesterday I bump into KDE. Installed the 300 MB on my Linux Mint 17.3 and "WOW". It do not look like a Tablet like Unity, don't overheat my CPU like Cinnamon and is looks modern. I really want to know why you don't setup the feature for the Desktop Folder to default. Also why some windows looks the same like MATE.
Now my experience to these DE's. Unity: This DE is for Tablet's and 100% not for PC (and totally not for a gaming computer) MATE: Really powersaving, light DE, best for "Pentium 4". Cinnamon: This DE is a developing, and I think it will take time until it is really stable. KDE: It is really nice, but there is everywhere Add for KDE. I mean you just installed it and see everywhere a dammed letter "k". The most standart software is also different, you hasn't thunderbird like in every ether version of Linux Mint, no you have K-Mail.
Really recommend all of the desktop environments! Choose yourself, support Freedom!
[Edited by Translator5, January 24]
KDE Plasma helped me love using Linux again. It's much lighter on resources than it ever has been and is endlessly tweakable to your heart's content. You can make it look truly stunning with little effort and you can make the UI look like nearly anything you desire.
I like it because it is super customizable, lightweight and solid. It works well out of the box but you can customize just about everything. That includes the theming.
KDE has a lot of good apps and integrations.
It keeps getting better and better and the leadership seem to steer it in a very good direction. The bug squashing initiative have been quite successful and it is seeing growth.
It is not perfect, nothing is. But my opinion is that it is the best DE out there.
Customizable as hell but with already awesome presets. Like Windows should be, but you can set everything yourself.
https://invidious.weblibre.org/watch?v=DX_gQTQLUZc
(if you want it to look like MacOS for example)
Together with KDEs great Apps and a stable Distro like Ubuntu, Fedora or others, it provides an awesome Linux experience even for beginners.
It's friendly, not so heavy and highly and easily customizable!
KDE usability is excellent to the point that some features are being copied into Windows, but who the hell wants a bad knockoff from Microsoft?
Why haven't I been using this all this time?
Unparalleled extremes of flexibility, customization, stability, and eye candy!
I have a VERY particular workflow that relies heavily on MANY virtual desktops, expo view, and keyboard shortcuts. Frankly, I tend to overwhelm most DEs. I love Cinnamon particularly, but I seem to keep running into instability and memory leaks on many of my machines. GDM is awesome, but tends to be heavy and the lack of fine controls over the virtual desktops makes it cumbersome for my workflow.
I first used KDE back in 2005, and thought it was nice, but soon found more benefit in using Gnome. I never really looked back, so when I heard about KDE Plasma years ago, I never even looked into it. I've just started using KDE Plasma this week due to my grievances with Cinnamon, as well as attempts to utilize MATE and some other DEs in the same way, but all fell short. KDE Plasma is the ONLY other DE I have come across that allows me to customize the very finest details to meet my requirements with the stability and performance that I need. Well done KDE Team.