“Almost no steps required on first start — KDE works out of the box!”
Hello everyone,
I’ve noticed that some default configurations in KDE are not always optimal. I would like to minimize the number of setup steps required when installing KDE for the first time. Similar to the 10-Minute Bug initiative, which reduces friction for users, this proposal aims to reduce initial configuration items and lower the number of operations needed on first start, making KDE more user-friendly from the very beginning.
Goals
Provide more reasonable default settings.
Simplify the configuration process and reduce the complexity of the first-run experience.
Call for Feedback
I hope everyone can share parts of KDE’s configuration that they find unreasonable or overly complex, for example:
Are the program’s default settings unreasonable?
Is configuring the program unnecessarily complicated?
Are error messages or prompts unfriendly or unclear?
Screenshots or brief descriptions are welcome. This feedback will help developers improve the first-run experience.
At the same time, I hope administrators or KDE developers will pay attention and help drive this effort, incorporating community feedback into improvement plans so that new users can start using KDE smoothly right from the first launch.
It might be useful to have something on first boot which prompts users to set up permanent mount points for any partitions they want to be permanently mounted.
KDE Partition Manager allows you to do this, but (as shown by that Fedora thread) it’s not necessarily obvious users that they can / should do this rather than relying on dynamic mounting. So the functionality is largely there, it’s mostly about providing the awareness and the nudge.
A list of these would be rather more helpful. But don’t forget that what’s ‘reasonable’ to some people isn’t always the best.
I’m unaware how the ‘configuration’ process is complicated, neither would I judge the ‘first run’ as complex.
This might vary wildly with distribution - I know Fedora, for example, leaves you needing to change a fair bit if you want all the good stuff to work. Manjaro, however, seems to be ready on install.
So now you’re trying to ADD complexity. Actually, for less experienced users I would suggest automatic installation to be the only sane option I lost count of how many folks fell foul of their initial setup choices that wouldn’t occur otherwise (such is the case for mine, now 8 years old - just install and use the disk given).
I do think most app developers will listen to this, but it needs to be well described why it is better for everyone - in some of the bug reports, the reporter seems to mostly care to make it default easier for their niche use case.
I have also had reports saying “This flow is a UX nightmare” where I have said “Yes. I agree. I have no better ideas. Please provide some sketches of how you would like it” and just met with silence.
Some KDE developers will say “patches welcome” for such reports. And that’s not meant to be dismissive, just that it is not in their priority list and that others are most welcome to do it.
But yes. Please start with a bug report per app/setting so we can have a discussion if it is better or not. Then you or others can start working on patches to the apps.
Hello. Thank you for your reply. I’ve put this post on Brainstorm in the hopes of spreading this idea further. I hope my ideas will be recognized by others. Users, developers, and designers will understand my ideas and be aware of them when designing and developing software, thereby creating more user-friendly software.
As a developer, I agree with your idea. It would be better if there were existing issues. However, if I just keep opening issues and fixing them according to my own ideas, I can easily end up working alone. The power of one person is very limited, but if we can reach a consensus and work together, these problems can definitely be solved.
this may be more directed at the installer than KDE but:
my first time installing kubuntu, the installer offers a checkbox for proprietary drivers that when checked causes the whole install to hang (at least it did for me).
suggestion 1:
remove the option of installing proprietary drivers during install and initial setup… allow the user to get to the desktop first using the linux kernel and then deal with proprietary hardware.
offer guidance on how to improve performance given their specific hardware (nvidia, cough, cough), by trying to identify the best known proprietary driver and offering to attempt install with fall back options if it does not pan out… short of that just give some guidance on where to learn more about proprietary drivers with maybe community FAQ page or something.
.
the next time installing kubuntu, i was trying to overwrite the OS to downgrade from my ill advised jump off the LTS track in order to get back to kubuntu 24.04 while keeping my /home partition untouched.
when doing this it is vital to keep your user name and machine name the same as was on the previous install so that none of your .dot files will balk at the “new” user.
suggestion 2:
user name , machine name, and name fields during install are too confusing (and frankly too windows like)… they don’t reflect a 1:1 correspondence with what you get in the terminal after the install is complete user@machine:~
the user should have full control over crafting their login and acct details without having to guess which fields will end up driving which aspects of their user acct.
.
once installed, the app defaults and user experience were fine and offered easy access to essential tasks like file management and text editing without too much fuss or fanfare.
I think KDE’s default icons should be reviewed, as they look a bit strange. The interface could be a little more rounded. Also, the notifications that appear when errors occur are not very clear. More explanatory notifications could increase feedback. For example, when I install a distribution with KDE Plasma, the first thing I do (for the dark theme) is change the icons and cursor from the global themes. That’s basically it. The store interface could also be improved. It wouldn’t be bad if Flatpak came by default, but I’m not sure if that depends on the distribution or not. Discover is very slow and sometimes crashes, even on my newly maintained Ryzen 5 3500u Vega8 12GB DDR4 RAM computer. Finally, the KDE team could create a few more global themes, like Windows, macOS, Ubuntu, and others, similar to Zorin OS. This way, new users could get their preferred settings and get things done with less customization. Honestly, Plasma’s overly angular design looks like Windows Metro. Even a 5% rounding would be nice if I were a newbie.
I do think that a bug report that starts with “At we discussed this and we all agreed that Bar would be a better default for the Frobnizer mode in the Quux application” will have much bigger chance of success than just random people requesting random things.
Please, no. Even many people in the Fedora community, who are required to manually install NVIDIA drivers after distro setup, want to move away from this, without encountering any legal issues
I used Breeze-Round-Chameleon (before Plasma had icons that respected themes) and it’s still a favorite… so yes, a huge upvote to this; current Breeze is a little sharp around the edges.
I lost count of how many folks fell foul of their initial setup choices that wouldn’t occur otherwise (such is the case for mine, now 8 years old - just install and use the disk given).