Switching to KDE 5

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I’m hearing that openSUSE 13.2 is going to ship with KDE 5.0. Some people are confirming this while others are denying, making it hard to understand if it’s really the case. Although Qt5 is an upgrade I’m eager for, this is happening sooner than I expected if true… though it’s not for me to judge whether it is rushed or not. Still, if KDE5 is becoming the new default in openSUSE, I’ll certainly want to switch to it once that happens. And there are several things I’m currently worried about, which I was hoping someone could clarify me on:

The most openSUSE relevant one is if I’ll have to do the switch manually, or if upgrading to 13.2 (once it’s out) will automatically install it. Will switching to the 13.2 / Tumbleweed / Factory repositories and doing a “zypper dup” automatically uninstall KDE4 and add KDE5?

My second concern is what’s getting removed. Last time I checked, a lot of things were missing from KDE5, and I don’t want to lose any features. For example, I use a “Wallpaper Slideshow” with “Scaled & Cropped” positioning, a custom lock screen background, the Oxygen Transparent style, and more. I also use several widgets such as Picture Frame, System Monitor, RSSNOW, and a few others. Also most desktop effects… such as Blur or Wobbling Windows. Is there anything, especially from the things I listed, that’s going away in KDE5 because it wasn’t ported to Qt5 yet? And lastly, will plasma / kwin themes that work in 4.11 still work in 5.*, or will themes no longer be compatible?

#2

Well, openSUSE 13.2 will indeed include Plasma Next, which is going to be released in July.
But it most likely will not be the default desktop.

Plasma Next is only the desktop shell anyway, most KDE applications do not have a KDE Frameworks5 version yet.

The most openSUSE relevant one is if I’ll have to do the switch manually, or if upgrading to 13.2 (once it’s out) will automatically install it. Will switching to the 13.2 / Tumbleweed / Factory repositories and doing a “zypper dup” automatically uninstall KDE4 and add KDE5?

No, see above.
The default desktop will still be KDE4 AFAIK, which is still to be supported one year at least (there is still going to be a 4.14, and probably a 4.15 as well).

My second concern is what’s getting removed. Last time I checked, a lot of things were missing from KDE5, and I don’t want to lose any features. For example, I use a “Wallpaper Slideshow” with “Scaled & Cropped” positioning, a custom lock screen background, the Oxygen Transparent style, and more. I also use several widgets such as Picture Frame, System Monitor, RSSNOW, and a few others. Also most desktop effects… such as Blur or Wobbling Windows. Is there anything, especially from the things I listed, that’s going away in KDE5 because it wasn’t ported to Qt5 yet? And lastly, will plasma / kwin themes that work in 4.11 still work in 5.*, or will themes no longer be compatible?

Well, Plasma Next it is not ready yet. The first release will be in July, but this is not really meant for public use.
But most of the things you mentioned are already there.
Not all plasmoids have been ported yet, though, espacially 3rd party ones.
I’m not sure whether you can use KDE4 themes in Plasma Next without change (I think so), but at least the default ones are available, and the new default theme “Breeze”.

You can try Plasma Next (“KDE 5”) on 13.1 already, see here:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:KDE_repositories#Plasma_Next
It is co-installable with KDE4, you can choose it on the login screen.

#3

Thank you, that’s very helpful. Sounds like I misunderstood what I read, and confused the inclusion of Plasma Next in the 13.2 repositories with everything switching over to KDE5.

But I was still curious, for the rather distant future: When openSUSE will default to KDE5 (maybe in 13.3 or even 14.1), will KDE be automatically upgraded by the DVD or “zypper dup”? Or will I have to manually make the choice to switch over to KDE4?

#4

Well, most likely you would have to switch yourself, at least choose “Plasma Next” (or whatever it is called then) at the login screen or set it as default in /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager.

Unless openSUSE drops KDE4 completely, but that’s not going to happen for a longer time I suppose.

On a fresh installation you will get KDE5 then of course in 1 or (more likely) 2 years. (well, it isn’t gonna be called KDE5 anyway)

But there are not really plans yet, I suppose. First of all the KDE applications have to be ported to KF5/Qt5. And there are not even concrete plans yet by KDE, when the first release of KDE5 Applications (or whatever it’s going to be called) will be.
At the moment you only have the basic workspace using Qt5. (some applications are available already, like dolphin, kwrite/kate, systemsettings, konsole)