I am KDE user as it is my preferred DE (desktop environment). BUT I think you should use LXQT as your stock DE if you are going to leave XFCE. – Why?
The default should be kept light and use fewer resources for older systems. Yet, still modern enough that it is useable, which is why I suspect you’re leaving XFCE. LXQT can use both xorg and wayland, but is small and has very little dependence, while using few resources.
As I said, I like KDE, and it is the 1st thing I install. But for a general release, I think LXQT is the more suited drop replacement for XFCE.
The thing I would say about this, is that for those who actually opt for the offline install, if you look at the polls, pretty much half of everyone uses kde. Like 2% use lxqt. There’s not much point in having an offline install no one wants to use. I’m not saying there aren’t folks who like lxqt, but it would make more sense to use something most people do.
KDE as noted in recent history has been lighter than xfce for the last couple years,
That is a fair point, as I said, I am a KDE user, myself. It is my preferred desktop environment (DE).
My only argument would be to pick a DE that people would use, but also would work on older hardware. KDE is not one of those systems. I have a decent dedicated video card and enough ram to get most jobs done, but when I didn’t, I remember just how slow KDE was to boot up. I’d wait forever just for the splash screen to pass.
I would focus on someone who is still using integrated onboard graphics from a few years back, running a low-end budget pc from a few years ago.
I still have that old system. I no longer use it for a desktop, but rather my personal in-house remote storage. But before making this post, I updated the OS, and slapped on KDE for a moment. Trust me, LXQT loads so much better in comparison.
To be honest I was thinking about LXQT for the live session too already… But it will be not less work from maintaining compared to xfce4, what is also a point on changing if not the main one…
EndeavourOS is not about personal opinionated theming and set up.
Our goal is a simple to install arch based Desktop for general usage, that follows the KISS principle on the way it is set up and handled from development and maintaining…
The main thing to make it stable and easy to use and handle.
The xfce4 setup is highly modified from the default upstream setup also it is indeed using on board tools and configs nothing that is specialized do deeply, that you can not change it to your personal needs anymore…
XFCE4 is stable as hell, or better say it was as the current state is in change not clear if it will change fully to gtk4 // libadwaita, or how long it will take to get there…
Wayland? May one day but we do not know.
LXQT is a nice simple and good on low-end hardware indeed, but it is not easy to maintain and will change a lot in the future too.
Offline install is not what we do recommend as the default way to install a rolling release and so also not recommended using as the default way to install EndeavourOS it was and is only a fallback option to be used in case of slow internet or other special needs.
If someone has a low-end system one can still have stable internet and use online to install another Desktop or WM. if both is true (bad network bad hardware) will need to be real old hardware to not be able to start KDE … And in addition… It is not hard to build the ISO with any other DE or even WM … We have a very stable and easy to use ISO framework…
If there is really the need for another offline it could be some people go maintaining such ISO or i will do that… Indeed, my heart say contribute dear community join us and be part of the development and maintaining for EndeavourOS but…
Hard to get people in
yes in case ISO is not that old and now with regular rebuilds… it will be a totally legit choice… even more if it will install the prefered Desktop from 50% of our users
A few years ago, I would help people install Linux for the first time. In those instances, having an offline install was important. Not all of them had great internet connections, and some of them didn’t have internet (all they needed was a basic working desktop).
I find it hard to imagine LXQT would be harder to maintain than KDE, with all the bells and whistles KDE offers. For an offline install, I suspect basic and simple should be the goal.
It is much harder to maintain something like lxqt than something like kde from our perspective. The reason is that kde comes in a usable and familiar form out of the box with little to no configuration. It may or may not match your preferences but it is usable and familiar for most users. That is what we care about most in the live session.
Of course, but we are not comparing LXQt with KDE, we’re comparing Xfce with KDE, and Xfce uses more resources. It’s Xfce > KDE > LXQt (when it comes to resource usage).
