Project Banana ripens into a pre-alpha for KDE Linux, and you can test it
- Reference: 1754307906
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/04/kde_linux_prealpha/
- Source link:
[1]KDE Linux is an all-new desktop Linux distro being developed as a showcase for the KDE desktop project. The project is still in a pre-alpha testing stage, but recently [2]went public on the KDE website. Versions are available to download and try out.
KDE Linux is an entirely new and experimental OS. There's lots of room for confusion here, because KDE already has a demonstration distro, [3]KDE Neon . KDE Linux is a totally separate and far more ambitious project. In terms of its underlying design, it's intended to be a super-stable end-user distro. This is in contrast with Neon, which is an experimental showcase for the latest and greatest code. Neon isn't meant to be anyone's daily driver. There's a little more to it, but an executive summary of Neon could be "the latest KDE Plasma pre-installed on top of Ubuntu LTS."
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KDE Linux is a very different beast. It's not based on it, but several aspects of its design are clearly influenced by [5]Valve's SteamOS 3 . Like SteamOS 3, KDE Linux is an immutable distro, with dual read-only Btrfs-format root partitions that update each other alternately. Regular Reg readers may recall this because [6]we discussed it nearly a year ago in the context of both of the two biggest names in Linux desktops – KDE Plasma and GNOME – working on their own showcase distros.
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KDE Linux isn't based on Ubuntu or Debian. It's built using Arch Linux, but it's different enough that it doesn't really count as an Arch variant. As an immutable distro, there's no package manager, for instance, so the user can't install Arch packages. This also applies to other native OS packages, including, for instance, Nvidia proprietary drivers. That means KDE Linux only supports recent Nvidia GPUs for which Nvidia supplies FOSS drivers. In [9]Big Green's own words , "Nvidia Grace Hopper or Nvidia Blackwell" and "newer GPUs from the Turing, Ampere, Ada Lovelace, or Hopper architectures."
As it's an immutable distro, it shares some attributes with other OSes that have read-only root file systems. You can only install sandboxed apps that go in their own corner of the OS, and here the plan is that users will install Flatpak (and possibly Snap, "if it's not too hard and the UX is OK") packages using the KDE Discover app store. Aside from them, you won't be able to update individual packages. OS updates come as a whole new system image, with all components updated at once. This is unlike most current desktop OSes. Instead it's more akin to how smartphone OS updates work.
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Right now, there are various serious limitations. This is not ready for production yet. Aside from the Nvidia drivers issue, it doesn't yet support Secure Boot, and right now, updates are big, because updating is managed directly by systemd, and that can't yet handle incremental upgrades – you get a whole fresh OS image every time. Since the current download is over 5 GB in size, this is substantial. Oh, and it's Wayland-only.
However, to our jaundiced eye, the plan seems sound and well considered. Using Btrfs and its snapshots to make it possible to roll back to the previous system state makes for a much simpler updating system than Red Hat's OStree, which looks superficially simple but gets seriously complicated under the hood. In a previous role, The Reg FOSS desk daily drove a Btrfs-based distro for just over four years, and we experienced more fatal file system corruption incidents than in the previous two decades of Linux use. However, a read-only Btrfs system should be much more robust, and the A/B update system with dual redundant root file systems also eliminates whole other categories of potential failure.
[11]Canonical dusts off TPM encryption for Ubuntu 25.10
[12]Linux kernel 6.16 lands without any headline features but 38M lines of code
[13]First release candidate of systemd 258 is here
[14]FreeBSD 15 installer to offer minimal KDE desktop
This is intended to one day be a bulletproof daily driver, not a demo system, which is the intended purpose of KDE Neon. It's not meant for those who want to get under the hood and tinker – plain old Arch Linux is better for that. If you want to install your own packages and customize your OS, then existing tools such as the [15]container-based Distrobox may help.
The idea is good: lean heavily on existing upstream tooling, and draw upon an existing design that's already out there in the hands of millions of users. It's a radical design, and very unlike most existing distros. In terms of how it's designed to be robust and have "no user-serviceable parts inside" (as the warning sticker on many consumer electronics devices says), it has some of the things we [16]wrote we wanted to see in a FOSS ChromeOS last month. For those interested, some of the developers are answering questions in the [17]Reddit discussion about the new OS.
We tried the current work-in-progress test version inside QEMU. You need to [18]follow the steps in the KDE Community Wiki very closely. After a few tries, we managed to install it, and it booted as far as the login screen, but the desktop instantly crashed on login, every time. This is not ready for prime-time yet, and we don't think it will be before the looming Windows 10 support cut-off in a couple of months. But the promise is considerable, and this could turn out to be one of the most radical end-user distros out there. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://community.kde.org/KDE_Linux
[2] https://kde.org/linux/
[3] https://neon.kde.org/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJDZCCyOs7CxP-czG1HKGgAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/27/osseu_steam_os_3/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/29/kde_and_gnome_distros/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJDZCCyOs7CxP-czG1HKGgAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJDZCCyOs7CxP-czG1HKGgAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-transitions-fully-towards-open-source-gpu-kernel-modules/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJDZCCyOs7CxP-czG1HKGgAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/31/ubuntu_tpm_fde/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/29/linux_kernel_616/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/systemd_258_first_rc_here/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/freebsd_15_installer_offers_kde/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/31/distrobox_130_released/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/21/foss_chromeos_please/
[17] https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1mdtwvn/kde_linux/
[18] https://community.kde.org/KDE_Linux
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I'm sure that if you drive, you change your own oil and do all the maintenance on your car yourself as well, correct?
You can't do all the maintenance any more because of designs like this. The whole 'No user serviceable parts inside' thing, systems engineered to be unrepairable or they need specialist hardware/software. It's kinda what the whole right to repair movement has been fighting for quite some time now.
I'm a longtime KDE user. Initially with Kubuntu but now moving to Debian because of Snap issues. I could move to Devuan if I had Systemd issues. It's, what I thought of as the philosophy of Linux - for each part to do their thing well and the sum was the parts the user found best fitted their needs - which will be very different.
Would it not be better for KDE devs just make KDE greater and maybe persuade distros like Linux Mint to re-adopt it? The combination would be ideal for Windows emigres rather than move into distro land themselves. I mean going Arch may be good for Arch users but expecting a company to unlearn Debian/Ubuntu style & Red Hat package managers is a big ask. For what benefit? Instability in the short term. And KDE are doing what they say they didn't want to do - pick a favourite. KDE Linux is now their favourite. The focus goes off all the popular distros. Even the issues they have with Ubuntu LTS will be minor compared to running a major distro themselves.
No, try and make the distro choose KDE as their favourite GUI would be better for the user imho. It's lazy and self-defeating to just let Gnome be the default. The danger is, like Linux Mint, distros will be tempted to drop it altogether in their installation options.
You can already run KDE on Linux Mint, it's not a first class citizen but I've had no trouble with it. I just downloaded the XFCE flavour and then installed KDE and changed it to be the default desktop environment. It is concerning that Mint might drop it entirely from their packages though. I would absolutely ditch Mint if they did drop it though which would be a real shame as I otherwise really like the distro.
Really old man?
KDE is absolutely slaying it right now while GNOME codgers like you are still b***g about Wayland. They're doing a victory dance at KDE with rounded corners while the green team is calling it a waste of time. I don't think the loser of the race gets to make that judgement.
Really, just stay over there clutching your pearls and your perfect systems with perfect users and be quiet. We get it, we suck, but we are trying to build a viable route away from MS and Apple for the common user. You're telling them all to F off or RTFM.
I think a KDE distro is a bit misguided but it would be nice to see a distro that Discover actually works correctly with, lol. Anyways, all effort in this area is good effort IMHO.
Your position though? It is downright awful and useless. The mutterings of a grumpy troll resisting change.
So what if you DO need to access the system and it's beyond the scope of what Flatpak or Appimage or Distrobox can do? For example if you want to install some custom VPN app or the aforementioned Nvidia proprietary driver? I think Snap support could potentially fill the gaps but it doesnt look like they're actually working on it.
Just what I was hoping for!
The world does not have enough slightly different Linux Distros.
Now, A Linux that is a PITA to update and only works with sandboxed apps.
So, now a distro that manages to suck even more that Windows 11! That's hard to do!
Not sure who the intended audience is but it sounds pretty awful to me. Probably an unpopular opinion now but I would prefer the users who can't be bothered to learn about Linux system admin stick to Windows or OS X rather than all this dumbing down of Linux that seems to be happening lately.