D.E. Upgrades suggestion

Feedback
1

Hi guys,

I have been reluctant to update my system this time, because of all the Plasma issues around. No, I’m not blaming Manjaro, nor am I just complaining. I’m simply stating a fact that is leading me to make the suggestion. I’m not a programmer so don’t have any idea how easy/hard this’ll be. But if it could work, it could work for more than just Plasma.

Suggestion:

Create a way during the update that allows only the DE to be upgraded, But mark it with warnings that it is not recommended nor supported. Something like:

$ pamac upgrade
DE is KDE Plasma, version 2.4.

Would you like to upgrade to KDE Plasma 2.5? (y/N) y

oooooo   oooooo     oooo       .o.       ooooooooo.   ooooo      ooo ooooo ooooo      ooo   .oooooo.    
 `888.    `888.     .8'       .888.      `888   `Y88. `888b.     `8' `888' `888b.     `8'  d8P'  `Y8b   
  `888.   .8888.   .8'       .8"888.      888   .d88'  8 `88b.    8   888   8 `88b.    8  888           
   `888  .8'`888. .8'       .8' `888.     888ooo88P'   8   `88b.  8   888   8   `88b.  8  888           
    `888.8'  `888.8'       .88ooo8888.    888`88b.     8     `88b.8   888   8     `88b.8  888     ooooo 
     `888'    `888'       .8'     `888.   888  `88b.   8       `888   888   8       `888  `88.    .88'  
      `8'      `8'       o88o     o8888o o888o  o888o o8o        `8  o888o o8o        `8   `Y8bood8P'   
                                                                                                        
                                                                                                        
                                                                                                        
The KDE Plasma desktop environment 5.25 is currently in an UNSTABLE and TESTING phase.
Using it  will causee breakage and possibly regressions is NOT RECOMMENDED or supported!

(Should you continue, it is at own risk and NO SUPPORT WILL BE GIVEN. All post relating to this on the
forum will be immediately removed without warning.)

CONTINUE AT OWN RISK? (y/N)

And then go on from there. But without changing branches.

Rationale:

I spend quite a lot of time on the forum. No, that is a lie. I spend a lot of time on the forum. Roughly 7 hours a day. Give or take. And I see a lot of people wanting the latest and greatest. Maybe at some time that was even me, but I don’t really think so. All that matters is that it 's not currently me.

Anyway, this should theoretically hush those people that just want a new DE while the rest stays stable. This will then show them exactly what is still in progress, missing or just not working, while allowing them to switch back to the previous version should they choose. It would also make thing better for users like @Aragorn and myself that don’t care for the latest and greatest right now and would prefer to keep our desktops on the 5.24 stable LTS versions. It would also then be possible for me to test out 5.25 and go back to 5.24 if wanted. The same would work for Xfce, GNOME, and could even work for some of the community editions, I think.

Now, I know this will not please everybody. I understand perfeectly all too well. Very little satisfies humans and it is very seldom to never you can please everybody. So this is just a suggestion.

And it’ll be a little, oh who am I kidding? VERY, satisfying to watch people panic.

3 Likes
2

Well, I agree to a certain extent with your point(s) of view. And, IMO, there’s no harm in making suggestions. It remains to be seen whether all of this would be practical as ressources as well as time are probably stretched already. Just my 2 cents’ worth :slightly_smiling_face:

3

I am seeing the same as you every day perhaps not that much time - and oddly - I have no issues running Plasma 5.25.

But I am also no user of heavy customization - like plasmoids and latte dock, perhaps a macOS theme thrown in.

I have strected my desktop to the analog clock in a prominent place and that’s it.

After a long time with Manjaro I have seen a lot of things - I started with Gnome - it was a pain to continually adjust for extensions breaking the system.

The same goes for Plasma - I have deliberately stayed away from customization - simply to keep it stable.

3 Likes
4

Exactly!

1 Like
5

And that’s the thing, you don’t have issues, but @Aragorn does, so it’s obvious that each case differs, making it that much more difficult.

2 Likes
6

That’s why it’s just a suggestion.

1 Like
7

You do have a point there as concerns keeping it simple. Things get complicated all on their own at times and without a lot of nudging :wink:

8

Which I perfectly understood :+1:

1 Like
9

At least someone understands me!

10

C’mon chin up, it’s not as if someone here is going to kill the messanger, right!..? :thinking:

11

Well…let’s just

:zipper_mouth_face:

1 Like
12

Cross everything you mean…? My suggestion: not too tight nevertheless…! :smile:

1 Like
13

State of matter:

  • Solid
  • Liquid
  • Gas
  • Plasma

…can anybody see the logic ?

14

Who’s logic? … :smirk:

15

…post is edited :innocent:

16

No, it’s in the last, most matured phase it will ever be.

This one makes even less sense in a rolling distro. If anything, holding packages back will cause breakages.

1 Like
17

This was all just an example.

I am not here to make demands, only a suggestion.

I am suggesting both, but the non-LTS one a testing one, one that you can switch to if you cannot wait any longer. And the warning message is to inform you that the system is still in testing and not recommended for daily use. I believe the same is true for the unstable and/or Testing branch, so call this plasma-testing, if you want to.

This way, it gives more time for the developers to work on the newer version, while satisfying the yelling users that just want a number.

But, as I said, it is only a suggestion.

:man_shrugging:

18

And I’m just saying that it makes zero sense. :stuck_out_tongue:

So 3 branches aren’t enough? You’d make few branches for plasma, and then we can make few for gnome and then for 100 other package sets. Good luck.

Not recommended by whom? Still in testing by whom? KDE released it more than 3 months ago, and thousands of users are using it since then.

Which developers? KDE devs don’t care what version any distro is using. And if you think Manjaro is somehow developing it, then you need to wake up.

Bugs get found by early users reporting them, so you are actually hindering devs by not using the latest version. :stuck_out_tongue:

4 Likes
19

To an extent, of course, I agree rolling means rolling means rolling but, hey, there’s no crime in wanting “stability”. I can also understand that Plasma in its latest guise is a final release, hence, afterwards it’s a question of fixes…

20

There wouldn’t be any holding back packages or any breakage because 5.24 is an LTS release and continues getting updates from upstream, even with 5.25 being in use among distros already.