Plasma/Live Images
Try and install Plasma from a live medium provided by several Linux distributions.
You can run the KDE Plasma desktop and KDE apps by booting your computer from a USB drive in "live CD" mode without modifying any of your SSDs or hard disks. You do not need to install the operating system.
Ships the latest code from KDE git repositories
Some of the Linux operating systems shown below do not yet provide KDE Frameworks 6 and KDE Plasma 6.
KDE neon Unstable Edition
KDE neon builds Frameworks, Plasma and Applications on a continuous integration system.
openSUSE Krypton
https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Medias/images/iso/?P=*Krypton.*.iso https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Argon_and_Krypton#Krypton is an installable live image based on openSUSE Tumbleweed with the latest KDE software from Git master (unreleased) on top.
Ships the latest KDE release
KDE neon User Edition, Testing Edition
KDE neon builds Frameworks, Plasma and Applications on a continuous integration system.
OpenMandriva Lx Cooker (development)
OpenMandriva is a desktop centric, completely Plasma focused, distribution.
OpenMandriva Lx is available for x86_64 and znver1 (optimized version for AMD Ryzen/Threadripper CPUs).
Temporarily suspended. Intends to ship the latest source from KDE git repositories
Kinoite Nightly
Kinoite Nightly is based on the latest stable Fedora release plus nightly packages for KDE software (Plasma desktop and a base set of apps).
See instructions at https://tim.siosm.fr/blog/2023/01/20/introducing-kinoite-nightly-beta/
Kinoite Nightly is temporarily paused.
Ships Plasma 5.27
KaOS
KaOS is a sophisticated and independent distribution which focuses completely on KDE. A modern packaging approach leads to stability and freshness at the same time. Small and helpfully community.
Slackware
Alien BOB (Eric Hameleers) provides an installable Live image for Plasma 5 which is re-generated at each update of the development tree "slackware64-current" using the liveslak scripts. Two login accounts/passwords are "live/live" and "root/root". Use su or sudo to become root (using the "live" password).
TUXEDO OS
Based on the KDE plasma desktop, TUXEDO OS creates a user experience that is also suitable for beginners, with a large and flexible feature set for Linux professionals. TUXEDO OS is a so-called "continuous release", being based on Ubuntu LTS with lots of perks and backports added. In addition, it brings the latest versions of KDE Plasma, Frameworks and Gear.
More on the differences to upstream Ubuntu: https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Infos/Help-Support/Frequently-asked-questions/What-is-the-differences-between-TUXEDO-OS-and-Ubuntu/Kubuntu-_1.tuxedo
Ships Plasma 5.27 Beta
Arch with kde-unstable repository
This repository contains the latest beta or Release Candidate of KDE Plasma and Applications.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Official_repositories#kde-unstable
Fedora Rawhide
Fedora Development Release ships with the latest Plasma, including Beta releases.
https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Spins/
Fedora stable releases via COPR
You can install the latest packaged Plasma backported from Rawhide via the KDE SIG's COPRs:
See https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/g/kdesig/kde-beta/ for packages for KDE Beta releases.
See https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/g/kdesig/kde/ for packages for KDE stable releases pending an official build/update in Fedora.
Kinoite Beta
Kinoite Beta is based on the latest stable Fedora release with KDE Plasma Beta packages.
See instructions at <https://tim.siosm.fr/blog/2023/01/20/introducing-kinoite-nightly-beta/>
Kubuntu with Beta PPA
The Kubuntu Beta PPA contains Plasma 5.27 Beta for Kinetic 22.10 and Lunar 23.04 Development release.
https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+archive/ubuntu/beta
openSUSE Argon
Argon is based on the latest stable release of openSUSE Leap (currently Leap 15.4) and includes the latest release (including Betas and Release Candidates) of KDE Frameworks, Plasma and Applications.
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Argon_and_Krypton#Argon
openSUSE Leap/Tumbleweed with extra repositories
There are repositories available for Tumbleweed, Leap 15.4 and Leap 15.3 as well:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:KDE_repositories#KDE_Frameworks_5,_Plasma_5_and_Applications
Ships Plasma 5.26
Fedora 36 & 37 and Fedora Kinoite 36 & 37
Both supported versions of Fedora and Fedora Kinoite currently offer KDE Plasma 5.26 in their repositories.
See https://spins.fedoraproject.org/kde/ and https://kinoite.fedoraproject.org/.
Ships Plasma 5.25
Kubuntu 22.10
Kubuntu 22.10, released in October 2022, includes Plasma 5.24. The Live ISO is available for download.
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/22.10/release
openSUSE Tumbleweed
openSUSE's rolling distribution "Tumbleweed" ships the latest Plasma release tested with openQA.
Both 32 bit and 64 bit versions are available.
openSUSE Leap 15.4 (Argon)
An installable live .iso with the latest Plasma release on Leap 15.4 is available as Argon.
It's possible to install Plasma 5.25 on Leap 15.3 and 15.4 system using the provided repositories on the openSUSE wiki page.
See also https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Argon_and_Krypton.
Ships Plasma 5.24
Kubuntu 22.04 LTS
Kubuntu 22.04 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish", released in April 2022, includes Plasma 5.24. The Live ISO is available for download.
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/22.04/release/
openSUSE Leap 15.4
The latest released Plasma LTS version is available on openSUSE's stable branch "Leap":
CentOS Stream 8 & 9
The EPEL repository (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) include KDE Plasma packages for CentOS Stream 8 & 9.