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Non-goals

Does not have to support the runtime installation of kernel modules. This will prevent the out-of-the-box installation of, for example:

  • Proprietary NVIDIA kernel driver (NVIDIA GPUs must either be new enough to use the open-source kernel modules that can be distributed in-tree, or else use Nouveau)
  • VirtualBox (requires out-of-tree modules; QEMU/KVM probably do a better job anyway)
  • Vendor-specific VPNs that require custom out-of-tree kernel modules that cannot be redistributed with the kernel due to license incompatibility

Does not have to support the use case of developing low-level system components like the kernel, drivers, systemd, etc., as this can be troublesome with an immutable base OS.

Does this part mean there will also be no support for ZFS?

  • mox
    3•2 months ago

    I think dropping loadable module support would severely limit what users can do when a driver misbehaves or doesn’t handle a particular device as well as an (in-tree) alternative.

    Also, I wonder how they expect to achieve being “The KDE operating system” or “doesn’t break” when their existing distro has been more than a little rocky so far. Who do they think will do the long-term work of raising and maintaining the quality bar?

    It would be kool to have a solid reference distro where Plasma could shine, especially for organisations and newer users who don’t know how to replace GNOME on existing distros. But this proposal gives me the impression that they underestimate the effort required, so I am skeptical.

    • JustinEnglish
      2•2 months ago

      The existing distro Neon has issues generally because of their choice to use Ubuntu LTS as a base. This is because KDE Plasma needs newer libraries usually than Ubuntu LTS can provide so they add newer libraries in their repository which often breaks existing apps in the Ubuntu repository. Having to patch and bring newer libraries all the time takes its toll. Basing it on Arch means they’ll almost always have the latest libraries ready to go.

      • mox
        3•2 months ago

        The existing distro Neon has issues generally because of their choice to use Ubuntu LTS as a base. This is because KDE Plasma needs newer libraries usually than Ubuntu LTS can provide

        In other words, they don’t have enough resources dedicated to doing it well. This is part of the problem I described.

        Basing it on Arch means they’ll almost always have the latest libraries ready to go.

        That could reduce the work required in one area, but would increase it in another. Arch fails the “doesn’t break” goal on its own, which means someone would have to do more work if they want to achieve it.

        • JustinEnglish
          1•2 months ago

          In other words, they don’t have enough resources dedicated to doing it well.

          No they’re resourced quite fine, trying to mash old with new is never going to smooth.

          That could reduce the work required in one area, but increase it in another. Arch fails the “doesn’t break” goal on its own, which means someone would have to do more work to achieve it.

          And that’s why they have each release as it’s own btrfs subvolume, if it breaks, you roll back, done. There will be 3 (maybe 4) variants and users will be encouraged to run the “stable” variant which is managed as a snapshot in time deployment where KDE Linux and KDE devs together agree that the system is stable and has 0 critical/showstopper bugs.