By the way, setting up a KDE-based desktop is not so hard with Rocky Linux. While I favor OpenSUSE Leap on the desktop, I’m considering the idea of basing our local school desktops on Rocky with KDE.
https://www.server-world.info/en/note?os=Rocky_Linux_8&p=desktop&f=4
"But as we all know, Rocky is based on RHEL. It’s meant to be enterprise focused and not meant to be an all-purpose distribution like openSUSE or Fedora (whcih is what I use) for desktops. "
Respectfully I sort of disagree. This is a re-statement that “Rocky is meant for Servers”. Were that the case CentOS would have never have made it to CentOS 8. Yes, RHEL, and CentOS were designed for the Enterprise, but in the Enterprise – beyond Servers, – you have Workstations, General Use Computers, Graphics Computers, Multimedia Computers, etc., etc., etc. Indeed RHEL (correctly) saw that their OS had to be multi-purpose. It was designed so that USERS who wanted a more stable OS had an alternative to Fedora which is changing – what? – twice a year? Believe it or not there are people who got sick of living on the “Bleeding Edge” and wanted something more stable that did not change quite as fast. I use to use Fedora for YEARS but finally got tired of being a Red Hat beta tester and dealing bug infested programs that could bring my machines to a screeching halt. So I jumped to CentOS – a stable Bug-for-Bug copy of RHEL without the RHEL price tag. The multi-purpose nature of RHEL (and CentOS) was the reason Red Hat included both GNOME, and KDE (until relatively recently) GUI’s in their releases going at least as far back as CentOS 5.x. If I did not mind being a Red Hat Beta Tester I’d be using CentOS Streams, not either Rocky Linux 8.4 or openSUSE 15.3 Leap
Where we both agree is is that RHEL is an Enterprise Grade Linux. We also agree that both CentOS and now Rocky Linux and Alma Linux are Bug – for – Bug copies of RHEL.
Now we get to SUSE, a distro I know next to nothing about. That said I do know that there is something called SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Distribution ) which competes with Red Hat in the Enterprise space. Now is openSUSE == to CentOS ?!? IDNK, but were I to hazard a guess, I’d say it is (I am sure someone who actually knows SUSE will correct me if I am WRONG!) .IF that is the case openSUSE = SLED == RHEL = CentOS / Rocky Linux / Alma Linux. Both CentOS / Rocky Linux / Alma Linux and openSUSE like their parents – RHEL and SLED – are designed from the get go to be be all purpose / multipurpose OS’s . Why?? Because while both may be designed for the Enterprise, an Enterprise is more that just a collection of “Servers”.
This. Rocky, Alma, and CentOS focus on bug-for-bug. Third-party repos are free to provide content that RHEL lacks.
If EPEL has KDE, then what is the problem?
If KDE in EPEL is not usable, then help EPEL to improve it.
"But as we all know, Rocky is based on RHEL. It’s meant to be enterprise focused and not meant to be an all-purpose distribution like openSUSE or Fedora (whcih is what I use) for desktops. "
I am currently using Rocky Linux as my gaming/ (windows/Linux)server management machine. I have to jump through some hoops to get some game stuff running but I take it as a challenge. I had to do the same when I was using Windows server as a desktop. I like server operating systems because I do not use all of the bloat that is in most desktop distros, plus I like the LTS on a lot of server OS(s). On Linux you can compile and install almost anything (if source is available) unlike Windows where you are restricted sometimes and do not have the source almost 99% of the time. Flatpak and Snap store are great for enhancing the desktop experience on a server OS.
My whole point being is that I agree with you but I have been using Server OS(s) as a desktop for years. I’ll stop rambling now.
I agree with @jlehtone KDE isn’t in RHEL, so it isn’t in Rocky. Rocky is meant to be like-for-like with RHEL. There are third party repos for stuff that isn’t in RHEL/Rocky by default.
This is the same like what I experience with Debian. Bullseye not long came out and I was really hoping it would have PHP8. But no, it’s PHP 7.4, which I found quite odd, since Buster has been out years and has PHP 7.3. I expected more of a change. But then if I want PHP 8, I can get it from Ondrej’s repos - they exist for Debian and Ubuntu as well.
Had KDE been in RHEL, then Rocky would have had it. No point to re-invent the wheel when EPEL already has it. Just use that.
As for SLES, OpenSUSE could be compared to CentOS or Fedora depending on the release. If Tumbleweed, then more like Fedora. Most of the stuff tested in OpenSUSE appears in their corporate release SLES, a bit like what RHEL does.
I have been using KDE with Rocky 8.4 since it was first released, I came from Centos 7 with KDE and this is what I wanted with Rocky, now my system is very similar to my old Centos 7 with KDE and I am VERY happy, all my software runs the way it’s supposed to and I can enjoy all the advantages of the modern O.S. it’s a win/win for me.
“I have been using KDE with Rocky 8.4 since it was first released, I came from Centos 7 with KDE and this is what I wanted with Rocky, now my system is very similar to my old Centos 7 with KDE and I am VERY happy, all my software runs the way it’s supposed to and I can enjoy all the advantages of the modern O.S. it’s a win/win for me.”
TonyH
I am very glad it is what you are looking for, and that it answers all your needs. That said, comparing RHEL 8.4 / CentOS 8.4 / Rocky Linux 8.4 / Alma Linux 8.4 to CentOS 7.9 sorry they are two different beasts. For one thing XYZ 8.4 still requires a lot of tinkering compared to CentOS 7.9
EXAMPLES:
In RHEL 7.9 and CentOS 7.9 if you try to install VMWare Player (for Virtual Machines) 16.1.2 it goes right in, the same can not be said of XYZ 8.x
If you are into tunes and like Amarok it is there or can be found for 7.9 ; in XYZ8.x you are first going to download the source and then compile it. [That might also apply to Clemantine and other multimedia ]
If you do any Desktop Publishing there is a nifty program called Scribus. It is easy to install in 7.9 but in XYZ8.x you are going to have to download the source and compile it.
One thing that truly surprised me that KOrganizer – something that is always there, is missing. Trying to install it by dnf install does not work. There are some other idiosyncrasies about XYZ8.x that are not present in CentOS 7.9 as I am sure you will discover. Hang in there.
Of course there are many tweaks that you have to learn and do, the learning curve to get everything working the way you want is a little high, but I will gladly climb if it results in a desktop which will rival anything that Micro$oft can put together, is free, is unencumbered by spyware and unnecessary bloat and just works. I now have this with Rocky, sure there were a couple of apps that I had to drop in favor of other equivalents, but that is no drama, over 90% of my setup issues were sorted by google searching, the other 10% by user experience, I have VMWare Workstation 16.1.2 running perfectly from the help of users online an I just tested Scribus and it works fine (Download Scribus from SourceForge.net). All my graphics apps work very well also, I hope you stick with Rocky, it’s all good for me…
Also, I just did a sudo dnf install korganizer and if you have the epel and raven repos installed you can easily install it.