Comment by sombragris
4 months ago
At least in my use case (as link between Android devices and both Linux/Win PCs) KDE Connect is a real killer app. It enabled seamless integration and saved me lots of hassle and time. It really should get more exposure.
I see reports that it doesn't work. These are mostly for distros where Plasma is either rather old or taking a backseat after other environment (usually Gnome). I'm having great results with the latest Plasma 6 on Slackware-current and also in a standard Windows 11 environment.
I had a use case that isn't the primary function of KDE Connect, but where KDE Connect worked well: file sharing from a Mac to an Android phone. I had no idea apps like KDE Connect existed and now I'm hooked.
That said, for my specific use case, Blip is a FAR superior option, and much lighter weight.
I've been using KDE Connect without a hassle for years on Debian stable as well :).
I has been using KDE connect for years, including Plasma 5 before I updated to Debian 13 .
The only two issue that I found, it's that not works on the wifi network of my work office. Something there must be blocking it. And that sometimes gets confused when you have multiple videos open on the browser and shows the wrong video on the multimedia controls.
FWIW, KDE Connect lets you select what media to control when there are multiple options.
The broken WiFi probably has something to prevent broadcast from working. It's not uncommon for some enterprise setups as a trickle of broadcast traffic can really mess with WiFi efficiency. You can work around it by manually specifying the IP addresses of the devices you wish to connect if those are static-ish.
I definitely have a need for this, but I can't stomach same-network requirement.
Maybe they need self-hostable coordination server so that devices can connect to each other through it.
For now it's still 'send to telegram saved messages' for me.
> self-hostable coordination server
What a long way to spell VPN :-) (been using it for a decade or so through wireguard)
No, vpn takes over your network and you have to fight weird issues on different platforms. This seems like a square peg for a round hole.
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> I can't stomach same-network requirement.
The Android app let me add a peer by IP address. Once I opened traffic on the right port, it crossed a network boundary just fine.
My case was an adjacent network, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work across more hops.
Have you considered using Tailscale to get around the same-network requirement?
Tailscale doesn't support mDNS / multicast at all, making working with KDE Connect more nebulous. I attempted to add a static peer via the Tailscale hostname, but both ends report not reachable, and the Tailscale daemon is constantly dropping multicast packets. So I'm not sure how this helps, but I also don't have a use case - if I'm on my laptop, my phone is on the same Wifi network 99% of the time.
I am a heavy user of it. I don't want to stay connected to it 24/7.
How is Slackware doing nowadays? Last release was several years ago, but I need a replacement for Win 10 on my PC.
Slackware’s last release was 2.5 years ago.
Look at Fedora (if you like RPM distros) if you’re after something pretty nicely put together that stays reasonably well up to date. Very well maintained. Influenced by Red Hat (or “led by” or even “owned by”), which works for some, not for others.
CachyOS is trendy these days. EndeavourOS is basically Arch with an installer.
There are a few distros targeted at Windows refugees. ZorinOS is well regarded. AnduinOS is a newer entry. But if you’re willing to walk away from a Windows-like UI, skip these.
Arch has an installer these days. It works pretty well and you can have a system up and running in about 20 minutes if you have a fast internet connection.
For people that want a Windows like UI, I would probably suggest Cinnamon. It works pretty much like Windows 7/10 without all the visual nonsense that KDE typically has.
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Why Slackware specifically? You can install any distribution. I use Gentoo btw - not really a distribution so much as a distribution construction kit. There are other popular distros, notably Arch.
In my case, it's my distro since always. I'm not at all one of those h4xx0r types, I'm just a lawyer, translator and theologian (and professor) doing my job with Linux. I started using Linux in May 2000 with a boxed version of Red Hat 6.2, then went to Red Hat 7.1, 7.2, then switched to Mandrake until 9.2 came about, and the dependency hell really irked me. So I searched alternatives. About 2003-2004 (not sure really) I began to use it. It was easy for me to configure it. I always used my Linux on laptops, at that time if I wanted to be online I had to setup a Winmodem, and maybe other hardware. That meant that even on "friendlier" distros such as Red Hat or Mandrake I had to tinker with the command line and config files.
Thus, when the time came, upgrading to Slackware came naturally. And I appreciated that it always was fast and lean, consuming much less resources than other distros. Now that's not so crucial, but in the early 2000's it was quite important.
Slackware was there at the right time, offering me what I needed, and it was fast and lean. And I like its simple approach to system maintenance; I can get a good grasp of the whole system.
Also, at the time Gentoo was just beginning and (again) I was using dialup Internet, paying by the minute, and I really didn't appreciate the prospect of compiling almost everything. Other distros (such as Arch) were also beginning.
For me, an OS should be something I never have to think about, slackware gives me that. Very little has changed in all the years I have used it and almost everything I learned all those years ago when I first installed it still applies. The scripts I wrote over a decade ago to setup and install some stuff on a fresh install, still work 100% and the only change I have made is to have it enabled PipeWire, which is one command.
I liked Slackware a lot way back when. No deeper reason.
Currently leaning towards Debian Testing, but that might depend on my testing of Slackware now. I use Arch daily in WSL, but I've have had enough breakages that I don't want it as my primary OS.
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> Why Slackware specifically?
To me, coming from Unix, it's mostly sane.
The stable distribution might be a little dated, but the -current development branch is really solid. In my very subjective impression, it is more stable than many distros' stable releases. If you're not afraid of doing some hand-tuning and configuring things the old ways, you should reeally try it, especially with community packages such as Plasma 6, Chromium and LibreOffice (the latest release).
Slackware-current is pretty current. And sbopkg has quite a lot of packages. I run it on my homeserver (and has been for the last..10-15? years or so). Since everything that I host uses docker its easy as pie to keep it running.
ZFS via ZoL etc.
As a daily driver i use PopOs! which is very nice since the've packaged nvidiadrivers etc. and I mainly use it to play games.
It is doing well, I run both current and 15, rock solid, stable both in use and features. It has never given me anything to complain about, OS stays out of your way and even running current I never have to think about my system or worry about what is going to happen when I update. It all just works and sticks to the slackware way.
It's doing very well. The Slackware 15.0 release is now a few years old, though the packages are still being updated. Slackware-current has latest everything.