While we do not need to focus on the order of these events, it is exciting to hear that!
KDE Linux: What About It?
The plan for KDE's Linux distro code-named "Project Banana" 🍌 was first shared during a talk by a long-time KDE contributor Harald Sitter at the Akademy 2024 summit.
The idea is to introduce an official KDE Plasma distribution based on Arch Linux.
But, you might wonder — what about KDE Neon? Would it replace it?
KDE Neon is different from the planned official Linux distribution in two meaningful ways:
It is Ubuntu-based
It is not aimed to provide a stable user experience, but to showcase KDE's feature set
And, whether the new KDE distro will replace KDE Neon, we cannot confirm that.
So, with that confusion out of the way, let me highlight what KDE plans to do with their official Linux distribution:
Be the recommended KDE operating system with stability and user experience as priority
Offering a secure experience
A focus on modern technologies (kind of like Fedora)
Immutable core
Wayland by default
Close to rolling release schedule
To me, this sounds like an excellent deal, with Arch Linux as its base. I can easily consider it to be a nice alternative to Fedora.
As per its official documentation, they plan to have three different editions for it (similar to KDE Neon). A testing edition, an enthusiast edition, and a stable edition.
An Arch base + stable set of KDE components (easy to recover) + officially KDE tested — what else do you need if you are KDE Plasma fan?
Currently, it is under development, and not ready for beta testing. However, if you are feeling adventurous, you can always follow the instructions on its documentation page to test the prototype available.
GNOME OS: A Testing Option Turned as a Daily Driver
GNOME OS, which we use to test the latest GNOME desktop releases, is being pitched by Adrian from GNOME to be made as a daily driver distro.
And, the reasoning behind it is the increasing popularity of immutable Linux distributions, and Adrian's own carbonOS, which was one of them (the development for it stopped after this announcement).
So, Adrian intends to use the expertise from his carbonOS project to make GNOME OS for end-users a reality, with the following goals:
Stock GNOME desktop experience
Flatpak packaging at its core
Immutable
Secure experience
To include modern tech like Wayland and Pipewire
Rolling release and LTS options (to give the best/latest of GNOME), yet to be decided
Unlike KDE's distribution, GNOME OS may not be based on Arch Linux, instead it could be an independent distro (judging by carbonOS).
But, of course, the work for it has only been announced, we shall see bigger announcements with real changes to GNOME OS in due time.
Until then, we wait.
What Happens Next?
With official distributions by the desktop environment teams, third-party distributions featuring their desktop environment as the 'selling point' will have to find something extra to offer to retain their user base.
On the other hand, it is good news for fans who love these desktop environments. They do not have to fiddle around various distros. If they want the best stock experience, they will have the official distro to rely on.
Only time will tell, what kind of positive, and negative impact this could have.
💬 What do you think about KDE and GNOME making their official distributions? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Ankush Das
