Get KDE Software on Your Linux Distro

KDE Software includes Plasma, KDE Applications, KDE Frameworks and much more.

It is available with almost every Linux distro and increasingly in cross-distro packages.

Install KDE software page lists tools to use to install the software on many distros.

Linux App Stores and Cross Distro Packages

AppImage Packages

AppImages allows you as user to get the latest version (or any version) of the software you need directly from its author and run it on your GNU/Linux distribution (almost any distribution). You only have to download the AppImage file, make it executable and run it.

KDE apps with AppImages:

• Krita is professional painting program.
• Kdenlive is a Non-Linear Video Editor.
• KDevelop is a cross-platform IDE for C, C++, Python, QML/JavaScript and PHP.
• digiKam is a Professional Photo Management tool.

Flatpak Packages

You can find latest stable releases of many KDE software on Flathub.

You can find some information on nightly builds and how to develop targetting flatpak at Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Flatpak.

Snap Packages

The Snap Store has packages of many KDE applications which run on any Linux distro.

Distro Packages

Arch Linux

Arch Linux provides the latest stable KDE Frameworks, Plasma and Applications packages in the [extra] repository. See the Arch Wiki for installation instructions.

Beta releases are available in the [kde-unstable] repository.

AOSC OS

• AOSC OS provides this version of KDE Applications in the community repository

AOSC OS provides the newest KDE Applications, Frameworks and Plasma packages in its main repository (pre-configured for official releases). Users can get updates to the newest KDE Plasma and KF5 components as soon as they are made public.

Users can also get newest pre-configured KDE releases from the AOSC OS release directory.

Debian

Plasma 5 and KDE Gear packages are provided as part of the main Debian repository. The current stable release, Debian 11 -codenamed Bullseye- provides Plasma 5.20 and Gear 20.12 (with PIM 20.08).

More recent versions are available in Debian’s Testing and Unstable suites, usually following upstream releases closely.

Plasma can be selected during the initial Debian installation by choosing « KDE Plasma » at the Software selection step, or can be installed on top of an existing Debian system by installing the task-kde-desktop package:

# apt install task-kde-desktop

Exherbo Linux

Exherbo provides Plasma 5 packages (usually the latest stable release) in the kde repository. They can easily be installed with the help of the plasma set:

# cave resolve plasma*

We also offer packages for beta releases or packages tracking master, but you'll need to unmask them:

# echo 'plasma pre-release' >> /etc/paludis/package_unmask.conf

or

# echo 'plasma scm' >> /etc/paludis/package_unmask.conf

respectively.

Fedora

Supported Fedora releases get Plasma updates as soon as possible. Keep your Fedora installation updated and you are good to go.

See https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/plasma-workspace for details on the progress of Plasma updates.

Gentoo Linux

The latest Plasma, Gear and Frameworks release ebuilds are available in the main repository keyworded ~amd64 and ~x86, with Plasma also available for ~arm, ~arm64 and ~ppc64. Gentoo usually stabilises the last stable release of each Plasma and Gear series on amd64 and x86, with Frameworks as needed. See the Gentoo wiki KDE article for general information.

Live source (stable and master branches) ebuilds for Plasma, Gear and Frameworks are available in the supplemental KDE development ebuild repository. This is also the place to get beta and release candidate versions or start contributing to Gentoo packaging.

KaOS

Plasma 5 is the default option and all installs automatically run the latest Plasma 5 release. Regularly updated ISO images are available on the Download Page

KDE neon

KDE neon builds all the latest KDE software

• User Edition contains builds from latest releases
• Developer Unstable edition contains builds from latest Git in master branches
• Developer Stable edition contains builds from latest Git in stable branch including beta branches
• KDE neon Docker Images can be used to test different versions on any distro

Kubuntu

Kubuntu provides stable KDE package releases in the Ubuntu archive. ISOs can be found on the download page.

To add the backports PPA to Kubuntu 22.04 LTS do the following

# sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

Note: Aside from Plasma, the backports PPA will also contain backports of KDE Frameworks, KDE Gear, and other applications. Only add the PPA if you are happy to receive these (and future) updates.

Mageia

Mageia Cauldron is updated to new Qt, KDE Frameworks, Plasma Desktop and KDE Applications release almost as soon as they're released.

Plasma Desktop is one of the default desktops in Mageia. You can install it on your hard disk or try it from the live system.

OpenMandriva

OpenMandriva Cooker is updated to new Qt, KDE Frameworks, Plasma Desktop and KDE Applications releases as soon as they're released.

The latest OpenMandriva release version gets backports of new KDE software after it has been tested in Cooker for a while, and is usually a few weeks behind Cooker in updating.

Plasma Desktop is the default desktop in OpenMandriva. You do not need to run any extra commands to install it.

openSUSE

openSUSE Tumbleweed

openSUSE Tumbleweed is a rolling release distribution and so the latest KDE software is directly available after release and openQA testing. Just keep your system up-to-date.

openSUSE Leap

openSUSE Leap is focused on stability, so does not continuously update the software to later releases. For each release of Leap, the latest stable (LTS, if available) version of software is picked (Leap 15.0, 15.1: Plasma 5.12. Leap 15.2, 15.3: Plasma 5.18). Bugfixes and other backports arrive as patch packages.

Additional package repositories

By adding additional repositories maintained by the KDE packaging team you can get the latest beta/rc/stable releases and git master builds of Applications, Plasma and other software on both Leap and Tumbleweed.

Slackware

Slackware 15.0 and newer contain KDE Plasma 5 plus a nice set of 'extragear' like the Calligra office suite, Krita vector drawing program, Digikam photo management, KMymoney personal finance management, the Chromium- and Qt5-based webbrowser Falkon and Kyle LaTeX editor (and then some). And of course KDevelop.

Pisi GNU/Linux

Pisi GNU/Linux supports other desktops but always provides the latest version of kde. Download https://pisilinux.org/download, for support https://pisilinux.org/forum

Other Unixes

As well as Linux our software also work on other Unixes.

FreeBSD

You can get a modern KDE Desktop by installing one of the following meta-ports depending on how much you want:

Install Plasma5 meta-port

# pkg install plasma5-plasma

Install Plasma5 and KDE Applications

# pkg install kde5

Alternatively you can point your desired ports builder at

x11/plasma5-plasma

or

x11/kde5