I’ve muted at least 20 threads per day since the release, simply because most have been related to issues with the plasma update. Issues that experienced Linux users knew would happen.
Of course, many of the users that have reported issues are new to this forum, and possibly new to Arch or even Linux itself.
That being said, the purpose of this post is that I think Linux communities, YouTubers, and developers of DEs need to do more to prepare people for these eventual issues. A person could be using Linux for the first time and came in at this pivotal update. They could be scared away by things like this.
And yes, you could say, “then they shouldn’t use Linux”, but that isn’t the right mindset in my opinion. Sure, they shouldn’t use Arch, Void, or other advanced distros, but they should use Linux.
How can you wait if you are using a bleeding edge distro?
Don’t update your system for a few weeks. Some users already do this.
Use Flatpaks, Appimages, .sh files, or even Snaps in the meantime while upstream works out all the kinks.
If you already had KDE, create a temporary user before updating, install a WM you find easy to use (like OpenBox), and use that for a few weeks
Any other reasonable way that someone else may think of
Anyway, hope those problems get fixed, especially for the new-to-Arch, new-to-KDE, or new-to-Linux groups.
PS: I’ve muted the threads because I can’t help. While I loved my time in KDE, now I mostly use WMs and will not be trying out KDE until late this year or sometime next year. A decision I had made months ago because I saw this happening and I use my computer for work. Can’t be having these issues.
I think I’d actually have had a minimal number of issues like yourself, because I didn’t use widgets at all. Just the panel, that’s it.
Maybe my preferred app menu would’ve been a problem, but otherwise, I think I’d be fine.
However, like I said: most of the posts I’ve seen for plasma issues have come from persons new to the forum. I always assume someone new to the forum is new to either Linux or Arch. Though I know I could be wrong, but it’s a good assumption because then I won’t treat them like they should know exactly what they are doing.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. I went through the kde3 to kde4 upgrade disaster and that was when I left for some time. This time I loaded snapper and made sure I had a good recovery.
Don’t think anything can really be done about that though. Like that one windows update that was deleting peoples files. Could happen on any OS at any time. Anyone who is using a machine for work probably shouldn’t be doing rolling releases. Why give yourself that problem? That’s just my opinion anyways.
This thread isn’t about updating or rolling releases. It’s about information.
However, to address your response:
Considering the suggestions I gave, there are at least 3 things that can be done from a user standpoint. As for Linux communities, YouTubers, and such, that’s literally the point of the community/channel/etc. - to help out, inform, etc.
Example: YouTubers could inform new and inexperienced users of the possibility (PROBABILITY) of issues after certain updates or types of updates rather than just saying, “I’m so ready for this update!”
As for using a rolling distro for work, other than that Grub update that “helped” EndeavourOS finally switch to SystemDboot x Dracut, I’ve had no issues that would stop me from working.
→ I didn’t actually have the issue because I followed my own suggestions until a proper fix was implemented. IgnorePkg exists for a reason.
The actual reasons, in my opinion, why people shouldn’t use rolling releases are:
they don’t like updating often
they don’t need the latest and greatest software
they don’t like or they even despise having to do regular maintenance
I update once a week to avoid maintenance mid-week, but I update as often as possible on the weekend.
What could have been more scary than watching a linux staff youtuber use Edge browser & calling Firefox “the wrong browser” at the same time? I’d rather ignore such sources of information, advice, testing, influencing or whatever else there could be…sorry.
Yes, BUT if any of the below apply to you, then you aren’t someone who would’ve/should’ve had any major issues with this update:
you’ve been using a rolling distro regularly for 5+ years
you’re a techie / developer / IT / etc.
you generally don’t watch YouTube or use social media for information
can’t think of others, but you should get the idea
The first point of contact with Linux for me was a YouTube video over 10 years ago when my laptop was freezing up on w1nd0z3.
Though Linux has grown passed some of the issues it had then, human beings haven’t grown much. So, when they see a video only talking about positives, they think they will have the best experience ever. And that’s the issue with not setting the right expectations.
I mostly agree with what you said, but those popular sources for newbies are sometimes very informative, even though they look like newbies themselves sometimes. Even DT (if you know who that is) sometimes does or says something that makes me wonder if he actually uses Linux.
More often than not I question a lot of what he does, when I first discovered him I thought what a genius these days I just use his channel for background noise
I haven’t had problems with Plasma 6 personally. I just updated and it works fine. The only issue I’ve is with a Wine ran game being stuck at 144FPS, but that’s because Wayland sucks for gaming outside of Steam, it seems.
Well, from what I know, under Wayland, the game runs with VSync forced on by Wayland itself. The game is pretty competitive and playing VSync on is actually pretty detrimental IMO. I could try to go with Heroic Launcher as well, but I could also just go and use the X11 session and not bother. It’s not like I need Wayland, really.
True you can install wine-ge on it’s own but I like how Heroic handles the wine prefixes. Never heard of the game and it doesn’t really look like my sort of game, I like my CRPGs and other story rich games with multiple paths and ways to play.
I’m more of an action player myself. I like mechanical games mostly. I have tried games like Deus Ex, but I eventually dropped them because I got distracted with other things/games.
In defense of Plasma, there were several RC cycles, and those of us who participated (actively) got our problems solved (or the most part), by ourselves, or by the devs whom we filed bug reports for.
Those that didn’t, well, now you’re in the BETA test, called release into the wild. Any response from the dev team is going to be much slower due to the flood now.
