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Bruno Haible
Bruno Haible

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Kubuntu 26.04 — Customizing KDE

#kubuntu #kde #opensource #proprietary

The main advantage of KDE over other desktops (like Haiku, macOS, Windows, or GNOME) is that those other desktops provide one way of interacting with the windows, thus forcing you to adapt to their designed way of working. Whereas KDE offers a multitude of choices (knobs), through which the desktop adapts to your preferred way of working.

Here I'm presenting my choices, sometimes with a rationale, sometimes without. I invite you to experiment with these knobs, and find out which is the most efficient way of working for you.

Open the "KDE System Settings".

  * System > Driver Manager:
    Ubuntu Software: Proprietary drivers for devices: Disable.
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Proprietary drivers are (and always have been) the main source of instability in a Linux system. So, even if some vendor promises you a driver that works better than the official Linux driver, resist them! By installing such a driver, you may get a faster system in some cases, but your system would produce random spontaneous crashes.

  * Input & Output > Keyboard:
    Keyboard: Click on "Key Bindings".
    Enable "Configure keyboard options".
    Caps Lock behavior: Caps Lock is disabled
    Position of Compose key: Left Win and Right Win           # is only effective after logout/reboot
    Key sequence to kill the X server: Ctrl-Alt-Backspace
    Compatibility options: Allow breaking grabs with keyboard actions
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I disable Caps Lock, because most of the times I get on that key, it's by mistake. And there's basically never a use for entering long sentences all in upper case.

I need a Compose key, so that I can enter plain-text arrows, accented characters (for European languages), the European currency sign, and many more Unicode characters with a few keystrokes. I want to use kcharselect only for rare characters and emojis.

  * Input & Output > Display and Monitor:
    Screen Edges > Maximize: Disable.
    Screen Edges > Tile (Kacheln): Disable.
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I want to move my windows around without surprising effects.

  * Appearance & Style > Colors & Themes > Global Theme
    Breeze (also for desktop layout)
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That's just my personal taste. You certainly have yours.

  * Apps & Windows > Window Management
    Window Behavior > Focus: Focus follows mouse (mouse precedence)
    Window Behavior > Focus: Click raises active window: Disable.
    Desktop Effects > Window Management > Overview (when the mouse goes to the top left corner): Disable.
    Desktop Effects > Appearance > Wobbly Windows: Disable.
    Virtual Desktops: 2
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The focus handling is essential for me, for efficient navigation between windows of different applications. I nearly always have different applications open at the same time, and a lot of what I do is to copy text around from one to the other. Having to click here and there would be extra churn.

Some desktop effects are too much for my taste.

  * Workspace > General Behavior
    General Behavior > Plasma: Panel and widget tooltips: Disable.
    General Behavior > Scrolling: Clicking in scrollbar track: one page up or down.
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I want traditional behaviour of scroll bars: clicking in the scroll bar should move one page up or down. Otherwise, in documents with 100 or more pages, I would have no way of precisely going to the page I want.

  * Personalization > Other Notifications:
    Proprietary Driver availability: Off
    Upgrade information: Off
    Restricted codec availability: Off
    Incomplete language support: Off
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The system should leave me alone with notifications. I want to work, not get disturbed again and again.

  * Security & Privacy > Screen Locking:
    Screen Locking > Lock screen automatically: after N minutes: Disable.
    Screen Locking > Lock after waking from sleep: Disable.
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Screen locking is a defensive measure against untrusted people in your vicinity. I am in a private environment, where no unauthorized person could take over the computer while I am away from the keyboard. Therefore I don't need screen locking.

  * System > Power Management
    Power Management > Suspend session: Do nothing
    Power Management > Display and Brightness > Dim automatically: Disable.
    Power Management > Display and Brightness > Turn off screen: 15 minutes.
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When the computer is idle, I don't want it to go into Suspend mode. Because that would mean that I need to re-login, and I would also lose the IRC logs from the time the computer was suspended.

  * System > Session
    Locations:
      Desktop:   /home/bruno/Desktop
      Documents: /home/bruno/
      Pictures:  /home/bruno/Pictures
      Music:     /home/bruno/Music
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I don't need a subdirectory Documents. I want all random documents in my home directory, because that's my working area.

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