Arch Linux

smsware

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From: Szczecin, Poland

Registered: 2012-08-14

Posts: 149

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Arch support for KDE vs Chakra

Back in the days there was a thing called "KDEmod" for Arch Linux which was bringing better (?) support for KDE technologies. Then it transformed into Chakra Linux. I didn't know about that then as I was using Gnome... last years I'm using almost exclusively KDE and I don't feel like it's not supported enough. The old Wiki, where the differences between KDEmod and Arch's KDE were described, is dead. How was it better then and how would it be better now? What was the idea behind it? I don't feel like playing with Chakra as I'm good where I am but for the sake of curiosity - what's disputable about KDE support in Arch?

clfarron4

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From: London, UK

Registered: 2013-06-28

Posts: 2,163

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Re: Arch support for KDE vs Chakra

I don't know about how it would be better now, but here is a good summary in normal people speak about what KDE mod is.

It basically sounds like they broke down the packages a little more because the packaging as provided (like kde-minimal) were much more that some users needed.

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sekret

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Registered: 2013-07-22

Posts: 284

Re: Arch support for KDE vs Chakra

The main difference between KDE and KDEmod was there with KDE3 based on Qt3. KDEmod provided split packages and a very nice looking default theme and some patches. Archlinux couldn't (or wouldn't) provide such packages because of the philosophy to leave packages / sources as upstream as possible. And KDEmod's split packages were provided before pacman supported split packages, so it was kinda hacky.

When KDE4 was released, KDEmod was still there, but the differences were VERY small. And now that pacman supports split packages and KDE is provided by the Arch devs as split packages, there's no real need for something like KDEmod anymore.

Yes I've already been using Archlinux back then although I wasn't subscribed to neither this nor the german forum.

Last edited by sekret (2014-04-14 16:12:50)

Allan

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From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,383

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Re: Arch support for KDE vs Chakra

Chakra provides nicer themes and tries specifically to provide a complete KDE/Qt experience.  The downside is a very small team that is unable to keep up with maintaining everything.

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smsware

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From: Szczecin, Poland

Registered: 2012-08-14

Posts: 149

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Re: Arch support for KDE vs Chakra

Well... that's weird that people who worked on how to let you have less of KDE, now are trying to provide complete KDE experience. I was asking because I thought there was "more KDE" in KDEmod, that KDE for Arch is somehow trimmed in functionality... if not - no more worries, I'm leaving my KDE as is. ;-)

drcouzelis

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From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

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Re: Arch support for KDE vs Chakra

I was asking because I thought there was "more KDE" in KDEmod, that KDE for Arch is somehow trimmed in functionality...

The KDE in Arch Linux is exactly the KDE that the KDE developers release.

totte

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Registered: 2011-08-22

Posts: 64

Re: Arch support for KDE vs Chakra

The end result should be about the same aside from *minor* tweaks, patches and a custom theme in the Chakra KDE SC packages - they are also usually built in a way that won't require installing e.g. GTK or GNOME libraries. Depending on your needs you may end up with fewer packages installed in total in Chakra than Arch Linux but neither distribution ship "trimmed" versions of the KDE SC as far as I know. Chakra may be slightly more liberal towards patching than Arch Linux, for better and worse (touchy subject). Both are quite punctual at delivering the new releases on time as per the upstream release schedule.