KDE Linux

“KDE Linux” is a work-in-progress name of a KDE-owned general-purpose Linux distribution proposed at Akademy 2024. Not to be confused with KDE Neon.

Warning

This page serves as a design document, thus information presented here should be considered a snapshot of the ongoing discussion, not final decisions.

TODO: background, motivation

Goals

Create a bulletproof OS showcasing the best of KDE that we can proudly recommend to users and OEMs, with a coherent "here's how you get it" story.

It should never break, and if it does anyway, this should be detectable and roll-backable to the previous OS partition. Maybe even call home and inform about breakage so we can pull the update. Can do this with systemd-sysupdates.

Target audience and use cases

It should have multiple editions suitable for different kinds of users. Ideas:

• Developer edition: built from git master and released daily, including debugging tools and KDE dev environment. Like Neon Developer.
• Enthusiast edition: ships released software, and releases to users on upstream KDE's schedule, like Neon User. Additionally, when there are any beta releases, ships the beta.
• Stable edition: ships only released software on a delayed schedule, based on TBD quality metrics.

Requirements

Does not support the proprietary NVIDIA driver. NVIDIA GPUs must either be new enough to use the open-source kernel modules that can be distributed in-tree, or else use Nouveau.

TODO (UX, minimum hardware requirements, maintainability, independence, etc.)

Architecture

Original architecture ideas for the project included the following:

• Reproducible builds, must-pass CI, automated UI testing
• Base OS is Arch-based. OS updates are some degree of rolling; snapshot based releases with relatively recent libraries
• Systemd-boot as the bootloader
• Btrfs as the filesystem
• Encryption of all mutable data (e.g. user homedir, and cache locations on /)
• Included recovery partition
• Read-only base system, like SteamOS, Kinoite, and MicroOS
• Atomic image-based A/B updates with rollback functionality
• Manual package installation happens transparently using a per-user or systemwide overlay
• Apps are from Flatpak (and maybe also Snap if it's not too hard and the UX is okay)
• Has nice GRUB theming: https://blog.inadvisor.lt/bling-up-your-fedora-grub
• Wayland by default
• Automatic user data backup system using Btrfs snapshots, with a nice GUI around it like Apple's Time Machine
• DConf-like configuration management UI suitable for enterprise and managed environments leveraging KConfigXT for everything
• Simple input method configuration for CJK and more
• "Troubleshooting hub" app

TODO (hardware support, file system, base disro, boot process, software separation, security model, deployment, updates and rollbacks, localization, OEM mode; proposed solution, alternatives, trade-offs for each section)

Related projects

TODO (prior art; how are we different from Neon, from Kinoite, from other immutable distros)

Roadmap

TODO (milestones)

Long-term maintenance

TODO (team and infrastructure requirements for long-term sustainability after release; update cycles; testing infrastructure; architectural future-proofness)

Governance

TODO

Promotion

TODO (name and branding, public image, effect on relations with other distros and hardware partners)

Communication

• Matrix room
• Gitlab issues

Prototype

The code is currently located here. Note that it is not representative of the final product and exists solely as an experimental playground for now.

Resources

• Presentation by Harald Sitter at Akademy 2024 (slides, recording).