Speaking of QT...I've wanted to switch to a QT-based DE for a while but I don't like lxqt or Plasma. It would be really cool if there was another option.
Admittedly haven't tried KDE in a few years but I don't like their apps and although I think the UI has come along quite well when I tried it last I thought it was very ugly at first boot.
I have never needed a KDE app since I've used Linux. So the idea of running a DE that has developed a million apps I don't need instead of putting that dev time in the DE itself has always been a put-off for me.
Crucify me for this if you want, but I just want a GNOME clone built in QT. Or a XFCE clone built in QT that isn't ugly as sin like LXQT.
KDE does have a long tail of (more or less maintained) apps, but there's nothing stopping you from installing the WM and plasmashell alone, along with a small selection of apps like Dolphin and Konsole. (You will spend a lot of disk space on KF5, and you might want to avoid Akonadi-based PIM apps too.) Do you think KWin/plasmashell is bad software (admittedly KWin has bugs, and plasmashell is worse off for being based off QML/JS and using janky drag-drop interfaces instead of traditional widgets), or are you avoiding it just because developers spend effort on apps?
You could try liquidshell as a plasmashell replacement, but I didn't like it (can't right-click to customize the panel, no Windows 7 style taskbar-dock IIRC).
There's Deepin too, but that's developed in China (which might be fine) and comes with a suite of applications (you probably won't like it either). I don't understand why you're fine with GNOME or XFCE though, since they also come with a suite of applications (GNOME has a file manager, text editor, terminal, IDE, browser, and VM GUI, and XFCE has a file manager, text editor, and terminal).
If you are privacy-minded, KDE (with the kuserfeedback) should put you off, due to the user data it collects and sends back. You can disable the sending back, but not the collection.
There are a number of packets that depend on this, so you can't just remove it. Although you can recompile it to disable data collection, it's not something everyone just does.
Which indicates it's opt-in so off by default. Also there's a pretty clear (IMHO) configuration in the settings that states what is send based on the level you select. So what's the problem? It's only a way to contribute usage feedback if and only as much as you want to.
This is correct. KDE's user feedback collection is:
* Opt-in.
* Has several different levels of sharing and pretty clear about what is being shared.
* Even at the most relaxed level, it's fully anonymized.
The only criticism I've heard about it a long time ago was that even if you turn it off, it still will collect the data, locally on your machine. Which was a technical matter at the time and may have already changed.
KDE people are among the most privacy respecting bunch. Grandparent is spreading FUD (or has been misinformed as result of FUD). In a world that people are comfortable with Facebook and Google I find it funny that people would have privacy complaints about KDE.
I think it’s responsive enough, it just doesn’t do very much... e.g. app launcher is just a full-screen grid of icons in seemingly random order. At least being able to sort by name or something would be better.
