Fedora 27 Workstation using KDE
As you already know, I have been using CentOS 7 as my primary workstation for the last month or so. Everything was working smooth, but having old version packages was somehow a drawback. Plus, I kind of missed KDE Plasma - I constantly donate to KDE, because I like it that much. Don’t get me wrong, I like Gnome too, but what I really missed, was konsole
- the kick ass terminal of Plasma!
Update
First thing to do after install is to update your system. Notice that, in the case of Fedora, this could mean a really large number of updates. In my case, there were 1.0 GB of available update right after installation. Therefore, to update, use the command:
sudo dnf update
Install Dropbox
As I use Dropbox, this is the first package to install after the update. In the case of KDE, there is no available add-on, as in the case of Gnome, so you will have to installing using the command line.
First, install wget
as it is not provided by default in Fedora.
sudo dnf install wget
After that, you can install Dropbox using the commands:
cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -
ln -s ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd ~/.config/autostart-scripts/
~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
Dropbox
Install LibreOffice
In Fedora KDE, Calligra
is the default office suite. Therefore, if you need LibreOffice
, you should use the following commands:
sudo dnf group list
sudo dnf groupinstall LibreOffice
LibreOffice
Install Thunderbird
To install Mozilla Thunderbird, use the following command:
sudo dnf install thunderbird
Thunderbird
Install C/C++, Python and Ruby Development Environment
Now, perhaps you would like to skip this step, but I will show you the steps anyway - you can also find those in separate articles here on my blog.
In Fedora, you have to versions of Python already available from the beginning: 2.7.14 and 3.6.4. You can find those versions by using the commands:
python --version
Python 2.7.14
python3 --version
Python 3.6.4
Following, I will install Thonny IDE
for Python and KDevelop
for my C/C++ and Python projects. The installation is really simple. Just issue the commands:
sudo dnf install thonny
sudo dnf install kdevelop
sudo dnf group install "C Development Tools and Libraries"
Thonny IDE for Python
KDevelop
For the Ruby
part, just use the following commands:
sudo dnf install ruby ruby-devel redhat-rpm-config rubygems-devel libffi-devel make gcc
Optional:
sudo dnf install nodejs
Install Jekyll
Now I will install Jekyll
, the Static Web Site Generator I use to generate this blog.
sudo gem install jekyll
sudo gem install bundler
Create a new Jekyll project by creating a new directory, for example jekyll
in the Dropbox
directory:
cd /home/alexandru/Dropbox
mkdir jekyll
cd jekyll
To run Jekyll for the first time, you should create a new project-name
:
jekyll new [project-name]
Now start the Jekyll server using the command:
bundle exec jekyll serve
Install KVM
As I still run several virtual machines with CentOS and Debian, I will install KVM using the commands:
sudo dnf install -y qemu-kvm virt-manager virt-install
sudo dnf install -y libvirt
KVM Virtual Machine Manager
Install Multimedia codecs
And now, for the entertainment part, I will install the needed multimedia codecs.
sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
sudo dnf -y install gstreamer-plugins-base gstreamer1-plugins-base gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer1-plugins-ugly gstreamer-plugins-good-extras gstreamer1-plugins-good-extras gstreamer1-plugins-bad-freeworld ffmpeg gstreamer-ffmpeg
sudo dnf -y install vlc
sudo dnf install http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-x86_64-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
sudo dnf install flash-plugin
Install Creative Applications
Here, I included Gimp, Krita and Inkscape, but you could install others if you like:
sudo dnf install gimp krita inkscape
Gimp
Krita
Inkscape
Now, for me at least, Fedora KDE is ready to go. This is my initial setup of the system, hope that it helped you setting up your new running Linux distro.
Enjoy and happy coding!
Later Edit!!!
After using KDE in Debian 9 Stretch, Kubuntu 16.04 and 17.10, openSUSE Leap 42.3 and KDE Neon, I must say that, in my humble opinion, the KDE Plasma integration in Fedora 27 is the best out there in the Linux Desktop Environment world. It is really stable, works great without any issues, and has that special Fedora Blue
touch on top of all the goodies that KDE is offering. Keeping the same tone, I am really dissapointed with openSUSE 42.3, hopefully they will come together in version 15, because their KDE implementation is faulty, especially on my X201 laptop.