Earlier this year was a Fedora change proposal seeking to make KDE Plasma the default over GNOME for Fedora 42. A compromise of sorts has now been settled on with the Fedora Desktop Spin being promoted to an “Edition” status that will put it on the same level as the GNOME-based Fedora Workstation Edition.
Approval has been granted to upgrade the Fedora KDE Desktop Spin to Edition status so that now both the KDE Plasma and GNOME desktop editions are on the same playing field.
The Fedora Council ticket outlines the change as:
“As discussed at Flock, the Fedora KDE SIG and the newly forming Fedora Personal Systems Working Group that will oversee the SIG are requesting that the Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop spin be upgraded to Edition status for Fedora Linux 42.
This includes the following:
Listing Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop Edition at the same level as Fedora Workstation Edition on fedoraproject.org
Production of a flagship site page for Fedora KDE similar to Fedora Workstation on fedoraproject.org
Marketing support in a similar vein to Workstation at eventsThe Fedora KDE SIG will withdraw its Change for Fedora Linux 42 to replace GNOME with KDE Plasma on Workstation with the acceptance of this request.”
As of yesterday, this ticket has been accepted with unanimous approval.
So next year beginning with Fedora 42, look for the Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop Edition to be better promoted and featured on the Fedora site and similar alongside Fedora Workstation rather than having to navigate to the spins area, etc.
Long ago KDE on Fedora used to be a mess and poorly maintained but in more recent years the Fedora KDE SIG and others involved have done a very nice job of enhancing the packaging and quality of the Plasma desktop experience within the Fedora confines so it’s of similar quality to the flagship GNOME experience.