KDE Plasma: What is it and how is it installed on DEBIAN 10 and MX-Linux 19?

KDE Plasma: What is it and how does it install on DEBIAN 10 and MX-Linux 19?

We periodically publish the latest news from KDE Plasma (5.17, 5.16, 5.15, 5.14, among others), or on some Theme striking of it, or a interesting app for said Desktop Environment.

In this post we will focus especially on What is it? y How do you install?. Emphasizing, of course, the current DEBIAN GNU / Linux meta-distribution, in its most recent version, number 10, code name Buster. Which is also currently the basis for the Distro MX-Linux 19 (Ugly Duckling).

KDE Plasma Like many others Desktop Environments (Desktop Environment – DE) that make life on him GNU / Linux Operating System, It is one of old data, which over time has become one of the most used, for being beautiful, light, complete and functional.

From its current version 5, is known by the name of Plasma. And the same what GNOME comes like Desktop Environments default (default) of many GNU / Linux Distros.

All about Plasma

Description

Among the most important that can be highlighted from this Desktop Environment we can mention the following points:

KDE at their version 1.0 was released on the date of July 12, 1998 and in its current version 5Known as KDE Plasma was released on July 15, 2014.
It is currently a Desktop Environment intended to provide a renewed viewing experience familiar looking and easy to use for any user and on any GNU / Linux distribution.
From the beginning, he has focused on facilitate the user use and domain of all the functions, features and applications that comprise it, through a clean appearance and excellent readability (presentation), in such a way, to provide an updated interactive user experience, modernized and cleaner.
Your name (WHERE) is an acronym for "Kool Desktop Environment". It is made up entirely of pure Free Software and Open Source (Free and Open Source Software - FOSS).
It is part of KDE project which depends on the KDE Organization. And it is based on the toolkit QT.
It has excellent integration with the X Window System display server, and has good support and integration with wayland, to the extent that it allows you to use the fractional scaling, or in other words, it allows the adjustment of the size of all the elements of the desktop, of the windows, of the fonts and of the panels in a perfect way for the monitor of HiDPI.
Among the characteristics that currently stand out is, its beautiful and functional Desktop and its huge ecosystem of applications. And despite that, it is very light and requires few resources to function optimally.
The current stable version of the GNOME Desktop Environment is version number 5.17.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

Una solid track record historical.
One enough well structured documentation and updated online.
An excellent, complete and updated ecosystem of tools and applications.
Una giant community of users and contributors backed by a strong recognized organization.
A Graphical User Interface (GUI) highly customizable, very similar to Windows, more than GNOME and other better known.

Disadvantages

It is usually considered the second most resource consuming Desktop Environment, then GNOME.
Usually require a graphics card or good graphical power to show its beautiful and powerful Graphical User Interface in all its splendor (MISTLETOE).
Its high level of customization and multiple configuration options can become complex or susceptible to failure due to mishandling.

For learn more From the same you can visit the following web links:

Installation

In case one currently has a GNU / Linux DEBIAN 10 distribution (Buster) or others based on it, such as MX-Linux 19 (Ugly Duckling), the most recommended installation options are:

Using the Tasksel command via Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Run a Console or Terminal from the Desktop Environment
Run the command orders next:

apt update
apt install tasksel
tasksel install kde-desktop --new-install

Continue until the end on Tasksel Guided Procedure (Task Selector).

Using the Tasksel command via the Command Line Interface (CLI)

Run a Console or Terminal using the Ctrl + F1 keys and start a super user root session.
Run the command orders next:

apt update
apt install tasksel
tasksel

Select the KDE Plasma Desktop Environment and any other utility or set of additional packages.
Continue until the end on guided procedure de Tasks (Task Selector).

Installing the minimum necessary packages directly via CLI

Run a Console or Terminal from the Desktop Environment or using the Ctrl + F1 keys and start a super user session root.
Run the command orders next:

apt update
apt install kde-plasma-desktop sddm

Continue until the end on procedure guided by Apt Package Installer.

Note: You can also install a Desktop Environment based on KDE Plasma simpler or complete by replacing the package kde-plasma-desktop by plasma-desktop, kde-standard o kde-full.

Other 2 official variants of Installation via CLI

tasksel -t install kde-desktop
aptitude -q --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install ~t^desktop$ ~t^gkde-desktop$

Extra or complementary actions

- - Execute actions of optimization and maintenance of the Operating System running the command orders following:

apt update; apt full-upgrade; apt install -f; dpkg --configure -a; apt-get autoremove; apt --fix-broken install; update-apt-xapian-index

localepurge; update-grub; update-grub2; aptitude clean; aptitude autoclean; apt-get autoremove; apt autoremove; apt purge; apt remove; apt --fix-broken install

- - Restart and login by selecting the KDE Plasma Desktop Environment, in case of having more than one Desktop Environment installed and not having selected the SDDM Login Manager.

Note: After testing the KDE Plasma Desktop Environment installed, you can install the additional native apps and necessary plugins of the same, such as, for example:

apt install akregator amarok amarok-utils ark baloo-kf5 basket bluedevil cantor digikam dolphin ffmpegthumbs filelight gwenview k3b kaffeine kate kde-baseapps kipi-plugins kmag kolourpaint4 konsole kppp krita krita-l10n krusader kshutdown ksshaskpass ktorrent marble okular qapt-deb-installer pkg-kde-tools qbittorrent skanlite smplayer speedcrunch udevil yakuake

For more additional information visit the official pages of DEBIAN y MX-Linux, or the DEBIAN Administrator's Manual online in its stable version.

And remember, this is the second post of a series about GNU / Linux Desktop Environments. The first was about GNOME and the next one will be about XFCE.

Conclusion

We hope this "useful little post" about him «Entorno de Escritorio» known by the name of «KDE Plasma», formerly known only as «KDE», another of the most currently used in the world of «Distribuciones GNU/Linux», is of great interest and utility, for the entire «Comunidad de Software Libre y Código Abierto» and of great contribution to the diffusion of the wonderful, gigantic and growing ecosystem of applications of «GNU/Linux».

And for more information, always do not hesitate to visit any Online library as OpenLibra y jedit to read books (PDFs) on this topic or others knowledge areas. For now, if you liked this «publicación», don't stop sharing it with others, in your Favorite websites, channels, groups, or communities of social networks, preferably free and open as Mastodon, or secure and private like Telegram.

Or simply visit our home page at DesdeLinux or join the official Channel Telegram from DesdeLinux to read and vote for this or other interesting publications on «Software Libre», «Código Abierto», «GNU/Linux» and other topics related to «Informática y la Computación», and the «Actualidad tecnológica».