30 Reasons I ❤️ KDE Plasma

KDE’s 30th birthday is coming up next year. For this year’s holiday season I therefore decided to compile a list of 30 reasons why I love KDE Plasma. It makes me so much more productive and work a lot more fun. While some of the items listed below aren’t unique to Plasma, it’s the combination of all of those things that truly makes it the best desktop environment out there. Tell me, what are your top reasons?

1. When I suspend my laptop, any video or music stops playing
2. I can use three fingers on my touch pad to switch virtual desktops
3. I get a notification when my wireless mouse is about to run out of juice
4. I can middle-click a window on the task bar to close it
5. I can have a sticky note in my panel for use as a scratchpad
6. I can middle-click the notification icon to engage “do not disturb” mode
7. There’s a handy little color picker widget for my panel
8. I can throw my cursor into the corner of the screen to peek at my desktop
9. I can keep any window always on top when I need to
10. I can create a QR code of anything I copy to my clipboard
11. When I take a screenshot, I can then just drag it to where I need it
12. I can change the screen brightness by mouse wheeling the brightness icon
13. I can drag a window to the top of the screen to maximize it
14. I can send a window to different virtual desktops by using a global shortcut
15. There’s a little live volume meter in each slider in the volume popup
16. I can bring up a little magnifier window around my mouse cursor
17. I can draw red lines on the screen using a desktop effect
18. I can use the back/forward mouse buttons on the task bar to change music tracks
19. When I wiggle the mouse, the cursor gets bigger and bigger, and there’s no limit!
20. Night light comforts my eyes in the evening hours
21. KRunner finds browser tabs in the mess of hundreds of tabs I have
22. I can raise the speaker volume above 100% when needed
23. I can wheel a window’s title bar to change its opacity to quickly compare stuff
24. I can make the Copilot key on my keyboard actually do something useful
25. I can use window rules to force apps to open exactly how I want
26. I can add custom global shortcuts for almost anything
27. System Monitor displays a tonne of info, including from my solar installation
28. I can speed up playback of pretty much any video from Plasma’s Media Controller
29. I can use Meta left click to move and Meta right click to resize a window anytime
30. I can quickly access recent files opened in an app by right clicking its task bar entry

… and that is just Plasma, not even mentioning fantastic apps like the Dolphin file manager, Konsole, Kate editor, and of course KDE Connect. Another way to show your love for KDE is by donating to our Year End Fundraiser and maybe even adopt an app!