Hello! So I am somewhat new to linux, been trying to use it as my daily driver for about 6 months now.
Hopefully its ok to ask linux questions here: Right now I have Pop 24.04, and generally it works ok but I have frequent mouse lock/focus issues in games, which I can normally get around using proton/sdl video driver commands in Steam, but it is a constant issue.
At the suggestion of GPT, I tried loading into Gnome rather than the default Cosmic and that issue went away. So pretty sure this means its something with the cosmic composer with my setup. Really tired of beating my head against the wall with this constant issue and happy it’s solved, but not sure I really like Gnome.
I DO like KDE Plasma and since I am using Dual monitors with VRR makes since to go to versions 6, but worried about dependency issues when I update. POP uses older KDE version and it would pull different versions of things like the Framework…ect
How big of an issue is this? Are their ways to block pop from pulling older versions? Any suggestions or thoughts?
Thanks!
I did this back before Cosmic was a thing, and it was fine. My Darter Pro came with Pop 20.04 (I think), and I installed KDE by simply installing ’kde-desktop’. I even did a release upgrade to 22.04, and it was fine (afaicr). Can’t really speak to 24.04 because I stopped using that machine once the chassis started to fall apart
Pop should be releasing a new version soonish that is based on ubuntu 26.04 which will have an updated plasma. They’re annoyingly quiet and slow about it - especially since they started on cosmic (which seems to have sapped all their resources).
And fwiw it’s easy to uninstall and reinstall with a package manager. So you could just remove cosmic/gnome if there are conflicts, give plasma a try, and then revert if you don’t like it.
What about using kubuntu? Using KDE without having to switch DEs.
Agreed. If you want to use KDE, try a distro that has it as the default desktop environment.
or KDE neon if you want the latest KDE software on a non-snappy Ubuntu base, or of course Debian.
24.04 has kde 5.27, which is too old for features you’d want. I tried using neon ppas back in 2025 I think and it went awfully wrong. so it’s easier to use your own gnome extensions with gnome to make it usable enough as a desktop or switch the distro
at a minimum: dash to panel (or dash to dock, whatever the preference is), arc menu (which is pretty slick), and ding (desktop icons, if wanted) would do the trick.
If you primarily use the device for gaming and you have higher end hardware causing issues on stable distros, it might just be time to make the jump to an ‘unstable’ one. CachyOS is generally just as beginner friendly and is multi-purpose enough to run any productivity you’ll likely need, while being a little more stable than just a regular arch setup you’re likely to come up with yourself. The real draw is customized packages and kernels for more performance.
It’s ‘default’ desktop is bleeding edge KDE.
Generally speaking, as others have said, you’re not going to get up-to-date packages on stable distros, as that’s the entire purpose of said stable distros. Gaming in Linux being good is a relatively new development and massive strides have happened since 2024. As long as you’ve gotten relatively comfortable looking things up, even if those solutions haven’t really worked out for you so far, making the jump to a slightly more up-to-date distro isn’t going to be more difficult of an experience.
