I’m not a beginner anymore, but I’m much less interested in technical tinkering for its own sake than I used to be. These days I just want my computer to work properly without too much intervention from me.
I’ve been using Kubuntu for a number of years, but I’m also hearing increasing complaints about how Canonical is running things. I don’t think I’m ready to switch to a new distro yet, but it wouldn’t hurt to know what’s out there.
Is Kubuntu still a good choice for an “it just works” KDE-based distro, or has it been surpassed?
Aside from openSUSE (and GeckoLinux), I think an under-recognized option is Siduction.
Get a basic setup with nixOS with KDE and Flatpak installed. Then install most all your apps through flatpaks. That’s my preference. You can install most/all things through the nix package manager. So, you may not even need to use flatpaks.
I hear good things about Manjaro. It’s based on Arcj, but preconfigured and user friendly. Although I have also heard of dependency problems when using the Arch User Repository, due to Manjaro being a bit behind Arch.
If you like Ubuntu, but not what Canonical is doing, then Linux Mint is what you’re looking for. That’s how it was born. There is a KDE flabor of it too!
Kubuntu is probably still the best “just works,” but you can install KDE on any distro.
If you don’t mind having some outdated packages (or using nix for the few you want to be most up to date) then you may find Debian works best for your needs. Manjaro’s also a solid choice but the team behind it have been in some drama over the past few years so more people are saying to avoid it these days.
You could use Arch, its installation is nowhere near as difficult as people often state (it’s also got much easier in recent years) but I don’t think it’d fit your “it just works” needs. It does “just work” once properly set up, but the issue is making sure it’s properly set up. If it’s your first time doing that extra bit of configuration then you’re bound to miss a few things