Unobtrusive

This design nicely matches the concept that the distribution itself has adopted of being less obtrusive. The multiarch environment now helps you run 32-bit applications. This means that Skype, Wine, Steam, and other 32-bit apps are left out in the cold. Unless there are good alternatives in the Qt apps realm, Gtk applications are also used. For example, the less than fully developed Qupzilla may be the default browser, but the KaOS Community Packages archive [5] – maintained by users – also offers Chrome, Firefox, or Vivaldi.

After several weeks of testing, I experienced just a few niggles in terms of usability. For example, programs distributed over multiple desktops are no longer in the same place after rebooting, and by no means have all of the plasmoids been adapted for Qt5. The stability of the KDE components is already amazingly good; I experienced very few crashes.

Future

KaOS is not the only distribution moving to the next generation of KDE; other major distros, like Kubuntu and Manjaro, are busy as well. It is already apparent that the chaos that ensued after the KDE4 release will not happen again. The split into three different divisions will help smooth the wrinkles. Users can look forward to moving to a state-of-the-art, elegant KDE without ditching their preferred distribution. I recommend KaOS if you want a quick look at the latest KDE. The new KaOS ISO 2015.06, which appeared in June [6], updates KDE Frameworks to 5.9.11, Plasma to 5.3.1, and KDE Applications to 15.04.2 – all built with Qt 5.4.2. The latest version also incorporates Kernel 4.0.5 and Systemd 220.