KDE launches its own distribution (again) [LWN subscriber-only content]
Welcome to LWN.net The following subscription-only content has been made available to you by an LWN subscriber. Thousands of subscribers depend on LWN for the best news from the Linux and free software communities. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to LWN. Thank you for visiting LWN.net!
At Akademy 2025, the KDE Project released an alpha version of KDE Linux, a distribution built by the project to " include the best implementation of everything KDE has to offer, using the most advanced technologies ". It is aimed at providing an operating system suitable for home use, business use, OEM installations, and more " eventually ". For now there are many rough edges and missing features that users should be aware of before taking the plunge; but it is an interesting look at the kind of complete Linux system that KDE developers would like to see.
Development and goals
KDE contributor Nate Graham wrote an announcement blog post on September 6 to accompany the release of KDE Linux. Harald Sitter had introduced the project as "Project Banana" during a talk (video, slides) at Akademy in 2024, and has been leading its development along with major contributions from Hadi Chokr, Lasath Fernando, Justin Zobel, Graham, and others.
KDE Linux is an immutable distribution that uses Arch Linux packages as its base, but Graham notes that it is " definitely not an 'Arch-based distro!' " Pacman is not included, and Arch is used only for the base operating system. Everything else, he said, is either compiled from source using KDE Builder or installed using Flatpak.
Some may wonder why another Linux distribution is needed; Graham said that he has expressed that sentiment himself in the past regarding other distributions, but he thinks that KDE Linux is justified:
KDE is a huge producer of software. It's awkward for us to not have our own method of distributing it. Yes, KDE produces source code that others distribute, but we self-distribute our apps on app stores like Flathub and the Snap and Microsoft stores, so I think it's a natural thing for us to have our own platform for doing that distribution too, and that's an operating system. I think all the major producers of free software desktop environments should have their own OS, and many already do: Linux Mint and ElementaryOS spring to mind, and GNOME is working on one too. Besides, this matter was settled 10 years ago with the creation of KDE neon, our first bite at the "in-house OS" apple. The sky did not fall; everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.
Speaking of neon, Graham points out that it is " being held together by a heroic volunteer " (singular) and that no decision has been made as of yet about its future. Neon has " served admirably for a decade ", he said, but it " has somewhat reached its limit in terms of what we can do with it " because of its Ubuntu base. According to the wiki page, neon's Ubuntu LTS base is built on old technology and requires " a lot of packaging busywork ". It also becomes less stable as time goes on, " because it needs to be tinkered with to get Plasma to build on it, breaking the LTS promise ".
Architecture and plans
... continue reading