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Friday, 22 August 2025

Integrate KTextEditor into Cantor(2)

Over the past few months, I’ve been working on an important refactor in Cantor: migrating the editor for command entries from our in-house QTextDocument implementation to the powerful KTextEditor framework. In my previous update, I described how Phase 1 laid the foundation—command cells were migrated to use KTextEditor::View, enabling basic syntax highlighting and a modern editing experience.

Today, I’m excited to share that Phase 2 is now complete! With this milestone, the migration of command entries to KTextEditor is fully in place, ensuring that all existing functionality works smoothly without regressions. This achievement provides a solid foundation for future enhancements while keeping Cantor stable and reliable for everyday use.

What’s New in Phase 2

With Phase 2 now complete, command entries are fully integrated into KTextEditor. Along the way, we introduced three major upgrades to Cantor’s core architecture, paving the way for a more consistent, powerful, and future-ready user experience.

🔹 Unified Highlighting Framework

All syntax highlighting in Cantor is now powered by KSyntaxHighlighting, the same robust engine behind Kate and KWrite. This change ensures that every backend (such as Python, Maxima, R, Octave, etc.) benefits from a consistent, accurate, and highly reliable highlighting system.

Previously, each backend shipped with its own ad-hoc rules that were difficult to maintain and often inconsistent in style. With the new centralized approach, Cantor handles highlighting uniformly, not only providing a smoother user experience but also laying the groundwork for future support of custom themes and user-defined keywords.


🔹 Unified Completion Infrastructure

Code completion has likewise been consolidated into a common framework coordinated through KTextEditor. In the past, each backend had its own incomplete and sometimes inconsistent completion logic. Now, all completion requests are handled in a unified, predictable manner, with backend-specific intelligent suggestions seamlessly integrated.

The result is less duplicated code, easier maintenance, and—most importantly—a more cohesive user experience. Whether you are writing Python scripts or Maxima formulas, code completion now behaves consistently, making Cantor feel smarter and more reliable.


🔹 Reduced Code Redundancy

By adopting KTextEditor as the core for command entry editing, we eliminated a significant amount of custom code that had been written in Cantor over the years to handle code completion and highlighting for the different supported languages.

This streamlining improves maintainability, reduces potential bug risks, and makes Cantor’s codebase more approachable for new contributors. Developers no longer need to reimplement low-level editor features, allowing them to focus on advancing high-level functionality. In short: less boilerplate, more room for innovation.


Functional demonstration: new and old comparison, take a look!

Thanks to the new KSyntaxHighlighting backend, we can now temporarily change the theme of command entries, demonstrating future possibilities.

Please note that this is currently a preview feature; global “sheet themes” (applying themes uniformly to the entire sheet,) are our next steps.

  • Breeze Dark

  • Github Dark

  • Breeze Light

By integrating KTextEditor, Cantor now provides a unified and reliable code completion experience for all backends (such as Python, R, and Maxima).

Cantor also supports consistent multi-cell handling, with themes and syntax highlighting applied uniformly.

Why This Matters

This migration is not just a technical change under the hood—it directly impacts how Cantor evolves:

  • Stability first: by ensuring no regressions during the migration, users can continue to rely on Cantor for daily work without disruption.
  • Consistency across backends: highlighting and completion now feel the same, no matter which computational engine you choose.
  • Future-proof foundation: less redundant code and more reliance on KDE Frameworks means Cantor can keep pace with new features in KTextEditor and the broader KDE ecosystem.

What’s Next

With command entries now fully migrated, the door is open for exciting new improvements:

  • Theming support: enabling custom color schemes and styles, giving users the ability to tailor Cantor’s appearance to their preferences.
  • Vi mode integration: bringing modal editing from Kate into Cantor.
  • Spell checking: powered by Sonnet, useful for Markdown and explanatory text inside worksheets.
  • Smarter backend completions: richer suggestions, function signatures, and inline documentation.
  • Performance work: optimizing for very large worksheets and heavy computations.

Theming support (planned)

For now, Cantor will keep the Default theme, which uses the desktop palette. This preserves the familiar look and behavior.

Next, we plan to introduce a Worksheet Theme setting. Users will be able to:

  • Stay with Default (desktop palette, as before), or
  • Choose a theme from KTextEditor/KSyntaxHighlighting, just like in Kate.

The selected theme will apply consistently across the worksheet—including command entries and results—for a unified appearance. Instead of relying on hardcoded colors or the system palette, Cantor will use the color roles provided by KTextEditor and KSyntaxHighlighting.

This approach avoids performance overhead from repeatedly reading theme files, ensures instant updates when switching themes, and lays the foundation for richer customization in the future—such as clearer distinctions between prompts, results, and errors, all within a consistent global style.


Wednesday, 20 August 2025

AI Coding with Qt: Qt AI Assistant for Qt Creator

The integration of artificial intelligence into software development environments has rapidly evolved, and Qt Creator is no exception. With the introduction of the Qt AI Assistant by Qt Company, developers working with Qt Creator now have access to AI models through the IDE. This post provides an introduction to the Qt Creator plugin.

This is part 1 of an ongoing series about AI coding with Qt.

What is Qt AI Assistant?

Qt AI Assistant is a commercial plugin for Qt Creator to bring current AI models to the IDE. Features provided by the plugin include

  • Code completion for multiple languages (QML, C++, Python, Bash, etc.)
  • Contextual chat with your codebase, enabling explanations, code generation and code review
  • Automated test case generation, particularly tailored for QML and Qt-specific workflows
  • Model choice based on languages (QML vs other languages) and task (chat vs code completion)

This is a step up from the existing GitHub Copilot support in Qt Creator that was focused on code completion only.

Completing Qt AI Assistant is a publicly available set of models by Qt Group. The models are based on CodeLlama and are fine-tuned for usage with Qt 6 QML. They are not included with the plugin but need to be set up manually using Ollama.

Setting Up Qt AI Assistant

The setup process for Qt AI Assistant is more involved than some other AI coding tools. The plugin is currently available as part of the commercial Qt distribution. Installation requires enabling the appropriate extension repository within Qt Creator and activating the plugin. Once installed, configuration is necessary to connect the plugin to a large language model (LLM) provider.

Supported LLMs include OpenAI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini), and self-hosted models via Ollama. For OpenAI integration, developers must use the OpenAI developer platform to generate an API key, which is different from having an account for ChatGPT. This API key is then entered into the plugin’s settings within Qt Creator. Other models require similar setup using URLs and credentials, depending on the provider or the self-hosting method.

More information is in this video linked at the bottom of this blog post.

Features in Practice

Code Completion and Chat

The plugin distinguishes between code completion suggestions as you type and prompt-based interactions, such as asking for code explanations or generating new code. For QML, a specialized Code Llama 13B QML model can be used. For other languages general purpose models are employed.

The chat interface allows developers to highlight code and request explanations or modifications. For example, selecting a block of QML or C++ and asking the assistant to "explain the selected code" yields a detailed, context-aware explanation.

Test Case Generation

A notable feature is the ability to generate test cases from selected QML code. While the generated tests may require manual refinement, this automation can accelerate the initial setup of unit tests and reduce repetitive work. The plugin’s approach is to copy relevant code into the test, which may not always result in optimal reuse, but provides a useful starting point.

Model Choice

Developers can choose between different LLMs to use for the chat and review vs the code completion scenario. For QML model choice is separate, and offers including the fine-tuned models provided by Qt Company. This flexibility extends to hosting options, supporting both cloud and local deployments, depending on organizational needs and privacy considerations.

Further Resources

For a detailed walkthrough and live demonstrations, watch the following episodes of "The Curious Developer" series:

Additionally, the official Qt AI Assistant product page provides up-to-date information on features and availability: https://www.qt.io/product/ai-assistant.

Outlook

Future posts in this series will consider alternative coding tools useful for Qt and will bring the newest developments of the tools we mention here.

The post AI Coding with Qt: Qt AI Assistant for Qt Creator appeared first on KDAB.

Monday, 18 August 2025

Hello all,

I would like to show you my first QtCreator plugin. It is an all-in-one window to test Qml Code.

How often do you run into issue about QML code; not doing exactly what you want ?

Demo:

 

 

Examples demo:

 

Here it a simple tool to test quickly some QML code. No need to create a new Test Project.
Open the plugin, type or copy/paste your code, do some changes until it does what you want.

It is mostly inspired from some Qml online site, but it is available directly into QtCreator.

 

Git repo: https://github.com/obiwankennedy/QmlSampleEditor

Download: https://github.com/obiwankennedy/QmlSampleEditor/actions/runs/

The post Qt Creator plugin : Simple all-in-one QML editor appeared first on Renaud Guezennec.

The Kdenlive team is happy to announce the release of version 25.08.0 packed with over 300 commits and fixing more than 15 crashes. This release has no major shiny new features, just a ton of bug fixes and lots of polishing to give you a pleasant editing experience in the summer heat.

Interface and Usability

Mixer

Redesign of the audio mixer bringing levels with clearer visuals and thresholds. We also did some code refactoring and cleanup. This change fixes issues with HiDPI displays with fractional scaling.

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Titler

This release the titler received some much needed love like improved SVG and image support with ability to move and resize items, added center resize with Shift + Drag, and renamed the Pattern tab to Templates and moved the templates dropdown to it:

Other fixes include:

  • Added timecode widget with ability to drag to seek in the Titler,(Shift+drag for 1 frame, CTRL+drag for fast seek) Fix issues when resizing images would also moves them
  • Fix titler selection on create / resize object
  • Fixed an issue where the titler's panel width was consuming half the screen
  • Save and restore the panel width on reopening
  • Fix title thumbnail not updating in timeline after change

Scopes

Improved Scope styling by using system palettes for better theme integration as well as bug fixes in artifacts on high zoom level and paint modes. Compare the old styling on the left side with the new styling on the right:

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Subtitles and Speech-To-Text

  • Require shift + drag of a subtitle clip to create a new layer
  • Make the subtitle edit widget resizable to adapt to lower resolutions
  • Fix crash dropping media file on subtitle track
  • Subtitle code refactoring
  • Fix subtitle layer name width
  • Fix subtitles showing on the top layer rather than appearing in lower layers on project loading.
  • Fix Whisper STT using Python 3.13
  • Whisper: disable translation when the Turbo model is selected
  • Fix Vosk STT producing bad subtitles

Markers and Guides

Guides and Markers got a major overhaul this release to improve the project organization.

  • Clicking a marker in the list now always selects it in the timeline
  • When adding a new marker, it’s automatically selected in the guides list
  • Selecting a guide in the timeline also highlights it in the guides list
  • New option to show thumbnails in the markers list dialog
  • Added a “Show markers for all clips in the project” toggle to display markers in other sequences
  • Consistently use bookmark icon for guides/markers
  • Improves Project Notes integration
  • Render dialog now updates correctly when sequence offsets change
  • Sequence timecode offsets now propagate to the timeline ruler, monitor, and guides list
  • Guides are correctly adjusted when changing project profile to match a clip profile

Project Notes

image

Some highlights include: improve icons, automatically convert typed timecodes to links when pressing enter, fix pasting text with multiple lines, notes can create guides and markers directly, and the widget has improved icons and text handling

Monitors

  • Add handle to rotate an item using the Transform effect in the monitor
  • Fix rotoscoping shape not matching selection in monitor
  • Fix monitor overlay for Obscure and Alpha Shape effects
  • Fix Transform monitor tool resizing when rotated
  • Fix pattern/lines overlay of the project monitor misaligning if clip changes while zoomed in
  • Improved monitor snapping: added back snapping when resizing for non-rotated frames, snapping when moving a rotated frame, and added snapping support for all edges when moving instead of only top-left
  • Change Timecode color of active Monitor
  • Make sure playhead is always on top of indicators
  • Make transform effect monitor grid setting apply to both monitors
  • Fix keyframe in monitor not correctly reported on clip selection
  • Adjust monitor timecode for sequence clips with timecode offset
  • Monitor code cleanup

Video Processing

We've added work on rendering, encoding, decoding, and transcoding such as:

Decoding

  • Added Enable Hardware Decoding option in the Config Wizard in preparation for future hardware acceleration features

Rendering / Encoding

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  • Added power management option to disable sleep while rendering and playing
  • Added Nvidia 10 bit x265 encoding
  • Added 10 bit export profiles in the render dialog (Do note that it will be converted to 8 bit when using compositing or non avfilter effects)
  • Fix image sequence render incorrectly reported as failed
  • Ensure audio checkbox is disabled if rendering to an image sequence
  • Fix possible locale issue on render in Mac/Windows
  • Added ability to show log files in render dialog Job Queue tab
  • Added option to keep log files in the render dialog options
  • Replace AV1 profile with faster SVT-AV1 and added preset option to control quality and speed
  • AddedSVT-AV1 to codecs which use CRF option
  • Fix canceling a render would leave Kdenlive in an unstable state
  • Warn when exiting Kdenlive when render jobs are running, allow to terminate all jobs
  • Update render dialog guides when sequence offset changes
  • Display timecode offset in render dialog

Under the hood

  • Reduced memory consumption of the background removal (SAM2) feature
  • Added more code tests to improve stability
  • Improved packaging in MacOS, Windows, Snaps and Flatpak
  • Cleanup plugins configuration page
  • Fix SAM2 use system packages hidden
  • Allow installing specific CUDA version for Whisper and SAM2
  • Fixes to undo/redo operations
  • OpentimelineIO (OTIO) fixes
  • Drop mediainfo dependency now that we can directly read timecode from MLT

Fixed platform specific issues:

  • MacOS: Allow opening project files by double click (3 year old bug)
  • Windows: Typewriter effect crash in Titler
  • AppImage: Fix missing / corrupted font making App unusable on Ubuntu 24.04

Upcoming events

image

The team will be in Berlin this September for two events. First, the Kdenlive Sprint which will include a community meetup on the 4th of September (stay tuned for more details) and on the 7th of September we'll be at Akademy, where Jean-Baptiste will give a talk about our fundraiser experience. Join us!

Need help ?

As usual, you will find very useful tips in our documentation website. You can also get help and exchange your ideas in our Kdenlive users Matrix chat room.

Get involved

Kdenlive relies on its community, your help is always welcome. You can contribute by :

  • Helping to identify and triage bugs
  • Contribute to translating Kdenlive in your language
  • Promote Kdenlive in your local community

You can also support us by considering a donation that will help Kdenlive's development.

For the full changelog continue reading on kdenlive.org.

Today we are announcing the availability of the minor patch release 2.12.1. This release contains minor improvements and bug fixes only. The fixes are distributed over many different areas of the application and we recommend everybody update to this patch release which is available from our download page.

The full list of fixes included in this patch release is as follows:

  • Fix using default font for axis title
  • Fix build with system QXlsx (!693)
  • Fix build with system QADS 4.4 (!694)
  • Fix crash on import when no projects opened (BUG 503800)
  • Save rotation of axis title separately for x and y axis
  • Fix disappearing axis ticks (#1146)
  • Fix crash when creating the data spreadsheet for analysis curves (BUG 504662)
  • Fix crash when aspect is added and all docks in content area are hidden (BUG 504794, 502043)
  • Fix crash when column or row was added to spreadsheet from toolbar and no column or row was selected (BUG 504839)
  • Fix issue when the statistics spreadsheet was not shown if the spreadsheet was a child of workbook
  • Fix issue which caused the context menu of an aspect to not be shown after being re-parented
  • Handle Windows logical font “MS Shell Dlg 2”
  • Fix crash when deleting a live-data source with missing source file
  • Parser: Remove not required function and reuse function instead of copying (BUG 506925)
  • Fix the export of spreadsheets to SQLite, wrong format was selected internally in the export dialog
  • Fix the export to SQLite of text values in the spreadsheet containing single quotes
  • Fix FITS import and export issues
  • Don’t show any error messages and NaN values in the process behavior chart if no column or an empty column was selected
  • Remove unwanted entries on the undo stack that were created when modifying properties of the process behavior and run charts
  • Improve the quality of the fit model preview in the properties explorer and formula view in the random values dialog on hi-dpi screens
  • Initialize the parameters for the baseline subtraction with reasonable values on first startup and improve the appearance of the preview plot
  • Fix save/load of the background color for the center value label in the process behavior chart

In the area of small UX-improvements, we added the Shift+Enter shortcut in the Properties Explorer for all analysis curves (fitting, smooth, etc.) which allows to quickly re-calculate the results using the same shortcut as in the notebook. Furthermore, we improved the tab-order and layouts in multiple properties widgets.

In parallel, we are also working on the new features and improvements that will arrive in the next major release which will come with multiple big and highly awaited features. We’ll introduce these features in upcoming blog posts. Stay tuned!

Is that really so? PyCups3 is intelligent?

Well, short answer is YES. It is intelligent.

Damn, sweetheart, you made an AI for PyCups?

Not everything that’s intelligent is an AI.

An imaginary conversation, between me and my girlfriend. Now, what’s the twist here is, PyCups3 is actually very very intelligent. So, from my last blog post, I detailed how, PyCups2 got lost due to the lack of upgrades and implmentation of new APIs.

Representative and generated

So long of GSoC and No blog yet? Why Soumya?

Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s been a while, and no blog posts yet. But hey, between wrestling with CFFI + C + Python and libcups with its 150+ APIs, blogging kind of took the back seat. But enough excuses - let’s dig into what’s been cooking.


A little history (with C in it)

Back in the day (almost 15 years ago!), Tim Waugh wrote the first version of pycups as a C extension module for Python. That worked well, but like all old code, it aged… let’s just say, not like fine wine. After Tim, Zdenek took over as maintainer, but with multiple projects of OpenPrinting and other projects in the mix, there wasn’t much room to modernize PyCups2 for him.

Welcome to the July 2025 development and community update.

Development Report

Text Tool Rework Progress

Another important piece of the Text Tool update has made it into the unstable nightly builds: Style Presets.

Screenshot showing the Text Properties docker's Preset tab with examples, and the Edit Style Preset dialog.
Style Presets allow you to save font settings and apply them quickly.

For making text bold, or a certain font at a certain size, or a huge list of settings tweaked just right, you can easily apply your favorite properties without having to remember them all. (MR!2403)

The QML Text Properties docker now uses the same custom slider-spinbox widgets as the rest of Krita, thanks to Wolthera and Deif Lou. (MR!2428)

Community Report

July 2025 Monthly Art Challenge Results

16 forum members took on the challenge of the "Cool Rides" theme. And the winner is… Cool Rides by @edgarej

Cool Rides by @edgarej

The August Art Challenge is Open Now

In the spirit of August's monthly challenge being unofficially dedicated to Krita's cybersquirrel mascot, winner @edgarej has chosen "Kiki's Summer Activities" as the theme. The optional challenge as chosen by runners-up @npc and @Mythmaker is to give Kiki a pet companion. What does Kiki like to do to beat the heat? You decide!

Best of Krita-Artists - June/July 2025

This month's Best of Krita-Artists Nominations thread received 13 nominations of forum members' artwork. When the poll closed, the moderators broke a five-way tie for second place, and these five wonderful works made their way onto the Krita-Artists featured artwork banner:

On the Road Again by @Yaroslavus_Artem

On the Road Again by @Yaroslavus_Artem

Lucy CyberPunk Edgerunner Fanart - P.2025058 by @ynr_nohara

Lucy CyberPunk Edgerunner Fanart - P.2025058 by @ynr_nohara

Medieval Table by @Ape

Medieval Table by @Ape

Summer Retreat by @Gurkirat_Singh

Summer Retreat by @Gurkirat_Singh

Mountain Sunset - Master Study Bohdan Saliy with Memileo Impasto Brushes by @TaleOfACat

Mountain Sunset - Master Study Bohdan Saliy with Memileo Impasto Brushes by @TaleOfACat

Ways to Help Krita

Krita is Free and Open Source Software developed by an international team of sponsored developers and volunteer contributors. That means anyone can help make Krita better!

Support Krita financially by making a one-time or monthly monetary donation. Or donate your time and Get Involved with testing, development, translation, documentation, and more. Last but not least, you can spread the word! Share your Krita artworks, resources, and tips with others, and show the world what Krita can do.

Other Notable Changes

Other notable changes in Krita's development builds from July 16, 2025 - August 18, 2025.

Stable branch (5.2.12-prealpha):

  • Palette Docker: Fix crash with add swatch dialog. (bug report) (Change, by Wolthera van Hövell)

Unstable branch (5.3.0-prealpha):

  • Fill Tools: Add option to Include Current Layer in color labels reference mode. (Change, by runch r.)
  • Symbol Libraries Docker: Fix symbol thumbnails being pixelated, and add a thumbnail-only view mode. (Change, by Agata Cacko)
  • Freehand Path Tool: Remember Tool Options. (Change, by Agata Cacko)
  • Animation: Switch to active keyframe when inserting/removing hold frames. (CCbug report) (Change, by Emmet O'Neill)
  • Animation: Fix rendering GIFs that don't have the .gif file suffix. (bug report) (Change, by Emmet O'Neill)

Nightly Builds

Pre-release versions of Krita are built every day for testing new changes.

Get the latest bugfixes in Stable "Krita Plus" (5.2.12-prealpha): Linux - Windows - macOS (unsigned) - Android arm64-v8a - Android arm32-v7a - Android x86_64

Or test out the latest Experimental features in "Krita Next" (5.3.0-prealpha). Feedback and bug reports are appreciated!: Linux - Windows - macOS (unsigned) - Android arm64-v8a - Android arm32-v7a - Android x86_64

Sunday, 17 August 2025

Intro

After getting the Selection Action Bar into a working state over the past few weeks, this week I focused on creating documentation and refactoring code to improve clarity, maintainability and make sure other contributors can build off of this work without confusion.

Progress

Documentation

One of the most important parts of contributing to open source is writing about what you have built. Krita's documentation is maintained in a dedicated repository. This week I began drafting a merge request to add a page with instructions and UI images under the reference manual tools section.

My aim is to ensure that any Krita user can easily understand the feature through both the documentation and the code.

Refactoring

Another important part of contributing to open source is writing code that is easy to read and maintain for future contributors. My aim was to improve the structure of the code without changing its behavior. I did this by reducing duplication, using descriptive variable names, and replacing magic numbers with named constants.

Instead of manually creating and connecting each button, I introduced a helper function that takes configuration data (icon, tooltip, slot) and handles the setup in one place.
Create Button Helper

I also applied an extract method refactor, grouping the buttons and toolbar UI logic into their own functions.
setupButtons and drawActionBarBackground

Conclusion

This week reinforced the importance of writing both documentation and clean code. I learned that documentation ensures users understand your work, while refactoring ensures the code is clear and easy for contributors to improve.

Heading into the final week of GSoC, I am ready to share my contributions and overall learnings. My focus will be on gathering feedback and finalizing the feature!

Contact

To anyone reading this, please feel free to reach out to me. I’m always open to suggestions and thoughts on how to improve as a developer and as a person.
Email: ross.erosales@gmail.com
Matrix: @rossr:matrix.org

Saturday, 16 August 2025

There has been quite a surge in interest towards desktop Linux lately. The userbase, atleast according to some metrics, seems to be climbing.

I realised today that it's been 4 years for me since I did the switch. I have gathered some know-how that maybe a complete newbie could find useful. I also try to untangle some jargon I've learned: It may not be exactly technically correct, but this is meant for a more regular user anyway.

Note: Do not trust "AI" tools when looking for information. They can lie. They don't really "know" anything, they just copy what they see on the internet, and spit it out. Sometimes in wrong orders and contexts. I will list some resources I trust at the end of the post.

I have also written about this before here: Setting up Kubuntu for gaming

That post is quite out of date though, so consider this a supplemental material and sort of upgrade.

Investigate the software you need

There is often times where you can only use specific software on Windows only. Or specific games with anticheats do not work on Linux; Not all of them though! Just some, especially with kernel level anticheats!.

But for example Photoshop or similar tools do not work on Linux natively. There can be tricks to get them working.

You would not expect Mac software to work on Windows, right? This is similar kind of situation.

Now Linux can run some Windows applications through Bottles, which uses Wine. But not all.

So, make a list of the Must Have applications you have. Then search for Linux compatibility.

In some cases, you may find alternatives for the application, that work on both Windows and Linux! When that happens, you can already test it out in Windows and see if it works for your workflow, and start using that instead. Note that this can take time to learn, but I think it would be worth it.

And hardware too

I haven't had a problem with incompatible hardware with Linux for long long time, but it's still good idea to check it. For example, if you have Nvidia GPU, you may want to check if the GPU is supported by which drivers, or if you need to install drivers at all. For AMD/Intel GPU users, you're in luck, because the drivers are in the Kernel: This means that you don't need to install anything.

If I have had trouble with hardware, it's often been audio devices, like headsets that have two separate dials for sound (mono and stereo), weird bluetooth speakers, etc..

Backup all your stuff

Before doing anything to your PC: Backup your data. Backup the photos, the videos, the game save files, documents, anything you may need. Back them up to a cloud service or external drive.

Make sure those backups work, too.

Distribution choice paralysis

Linux distributions are all their own operating systems, they just share the most central part, that is the Linux kernel.

Distributions take that kernel, add their own things to it and make it what they want it to be for their users.

There's a lot of distributions. Like, A LOT. So of course it'll feel daunting to choose one.

But there's no "wrong" choice. It will probably take time to figure out which one you like, but honestly, most people will be fine with one that does it's job, stays out of the way and updates without effort.

Everyone has tons of opinions about this. Then there's the weird curmudgeons that tell others their opinion is "wrong." Those people are something you can ignore. If it works for you, that's all that matters.

After choosing a distribution, you install it to an USB stick (that has nothing important in it, so NOT the one with your backups!!) with tool like Rufus, boot from it at PC startup (varies between motherboards) and get installing.

To help one get started with choosing, here's my recommendations from all the distributions I've tried on my ~4 year journey.

Do note that gaming is big factor in my computer use, so if the distribution can't game well, it's not on this list.

Bazzite

Homepage: https://bazzite.gg/

Bazzite is perfect distribution for anyone starting with Linux.

It's made so that user can't really break it, due to it's nature: You can't really open system files and start modifying them and deleting them. Then, updates are done in a way that if something goes wrong, you can go to previous version of the distribution.

On top of that, it makes setting it up very easy with its guides. And in download section, you select what hardware you have, and what desktop enviroment you have, so you know from the get-go that it's very likely going to work with your system.

If you don't really know what to choose, go with Bazzite.

Fedora KDE

Homepage: https://fedoraproject.org/kde/

Fedora KDE is solid. It works, it updates regularly, it plays games I play really well, and works with development. And then it stays out of the way. Fedora is also what Bazzite is built on top of.

Fedora however allows you to tinker with the system files and such, as long as you have access to it. You should not do that if you don't know what you're doing! But it's possible.

Installation on systems with AMD/Intel GPU is really easy and you don't need to install any separate drivers.

With Nvidia GPU, you will likely have to use RPM Fusion repositories, and follow their guide: https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA.

So yes, for Nvidia users it can be bit more tinkery.

Fedora KDE is my daily driver because it works really well with any development work I do due to it's up-to-date system libraries. And since it's regularly updated, if there is a bug, it often gets fixed just as fast.

Kubuntu

Homepage: https://kubuntu.org/

Last but not the least, Kubuntu is a solid distribution as well. It does not update as frequently as Fedora KDE does, but not everyone needs such frequent updates, especially for basic daily use.

Kubuntu utilizes same tools and systems as Ubuntu, which you may have heard of. So it has a solid community behind it.

When I used Kubuntu, it worked with games really well and I had zero issues with it. I moved to Fedora due to development stuff, so that's why I don't use it anymore.

When downloading Kubuntu, make sure to choose "Latest."

Opinions and notes about LTS distros

LTS stands for "Long Term Support" or "Long Term Stable."

This wording has caused a lot of confusion: People tend to think "stable" means it doesn't crash. What it actually means is that it won't change and that means the bugs are stable too. The only updates it gets are security updates. Bug fixes, especially for software, are really rare.

LTS/Stable distributions are perfect for enterprise environments or your grandmas PC which you know she won't remember to update.

For regular use, especially gaming use, I would recommend against them: They use LTS kernel that has support only for specific devices, so if you buy a new shiny GPU and plop it in to system running on LTS kernel, it very likely does not have support for that new shiny GPU.

Also, when you encounter an annoying bug, be prepared for that bug to stay around until the next LTS release: Which can mean years!

So unless you really know you need/want LTS distribution, choose anything that is "Latest" or frequently updated. You will have less headaches that way: I learned this the hard way.

Note: Bunch of people have told me that I should have more nuance here. I understand it too, for some people LTS distribution can be quite perfect. I'm not saying that one should completely avoid them, either. But newcomer should, in my honest opinion, try more up-to-date distribution. I think they provide better experiences, especially for regular desktop use. Bazzite has been really good for this usecase.

Desktop environments

You may notice that I seem to recommend distros running on KDE software.

This is because, well, I work on that software and I like it! But people also find it very easy to learn when they're coming from Windows.

When I started Linuxing, I tried GNOME. It's a great desktop environment, but it's far from what Windows is. This was very overwhelming for me, because I was already learning completely new operating system paradigm, so having also the desktop use change from underneath was really jarring. I then tried XFCE, which is very lightweight and nice to use, but it lacked some things I wanted, like Wayland support.

I then stumbled upon on KDE Plasma and fell in love with it: I did not have to learn completely new way of using my desktop, but could gradually modify the desktop to suit my needs. My Plasma setup is far from the defaults nowadays, and Plasma allowed me to discover what I like on my own pace.

Note that I don't think any desktop enviroment is "bad." They're just different, catering for different needs.

But for most Windows users, I do recommend KDE Plasma for the above reasons: Less cognitive load to learn everything.

Unlearning Windows

When moving to desktop Linux, most people are confused by some things, like "Where's my C-drive."

Windows has taught many of us specific patterns, and when those patterns do not exist, we tend to blame the system we're using.

What you need to remember is that you're not trying to switch to "better Windows." You're switching to completely different operating system, and you need to try your best at unlearning Windows.

So where is the C and D drive

Instead of having drives like C and D, you mount the drives you have.

You can open terminal and type ls /mnt/ and it shows what drives you have mounted.

Mounting in this case means that it's plugged in and browsable.

Here's a shoddy comparison:

  • C drive on Windows -> /
  • D drive on Windows -> /mnt/drive-name

The / is called "root directory" and that's where everything in the PC resides.

It can get more complicated, and my suggestion is to just leave / alone.

If you want to have games on your other drive, check your /mnt/ folder for that drive. Usually during installation the drive is made for you.

If not, you may have to ask help for the distribution you're using.

In Linux, all drives and such are folders, that start from /. Instead of multiple "trees" that start from "C" or "D", there's one big tree that starts from /.

What's /home/ or ~

When you open file manager such as Dolphin, usually the first folder you see open is /home/your-username/.

This is your home folder. Think of it like "my documents" folder in Windows computers.

Keep all your documents, videos, images etc. in here.

When people say ~/Documents, the ~ is shorthand for /home/your-username/. This also works inside terminal, so you can type ls ~ to see what's inside your home folder, without having to type the /home/user.

Can I just keep my game drive from Windows?

When installing Linux, many people tend to ask that if they can just keep the drive full of games, like D: drive, without formatting it and just use the same game files.

Well, you sort of can, but Linux is not very fast with it. When Windows formats drives, it uses something called NTFS for them. Linux has many different ones, but usually it's ext4 or btrfs.

NTFS drives can be opened and such on Linux, but it can be rather slow.

So my tip is just to back up the game data to something like USB drive and then move them, or just download the games again. You will be much happier with the performance that way.

Do not be afraid of terminal

Terminal is that box full of text you can type in. It looks like something from the 80s/90s.. And it can be intimidating.

Don't be afraid of it! Terminals are great way to operate on some things because they're desktop agnostic!.

This means that if your friend uses GNOME and you use KDE Plasma, and you both have some problem you have to solve. GNOME and Plasma have different user interfaces, so you can't really advice your friend how to solve that issue on their end.

However, what you can do is solve that issue inside terminal with a command, then share that command with your friend who can then use it too.

Of course, there's a ton more nuance here.. But the above is why it's still being used.

Couple important notes:

  • If you don't understand the command, study it first before running it.
  • If the command requires sudo to be run, study it three times before even thinking of running it.

Commands that need sudo to be run mean that they have access to everything on your computer, as they need a root access. If you don't know what you're doing, things may break.

Again, this is not something you need to be afraid of, but you should be cautious, especially when copying commands from the internet!

Report bugs!

In Linux world, most things don't cost anything. However, if you encounter bugs, you should report those to the app/system you encountered it with.

This helps the bug to get fixed. Sometimes it can take long time, sometimes it can be fixed next day.

But without the bug report, nobody will know.

Here's a post about reporting bugs I wrote: How I report bugs

Note: If you're using LTS distribution, report all the bugs to the distribution itself, not the app/system!

Avoid installing apps from internet

On Windows, it's common to go to a website and download an exe file there to install something.

On Linux, we prefer using app "stores" where one just types what they want to download and then download it.

For example in KDE Plasma, we use tool called Discover.

Instead of going to internet, open Discover and type the name of the app. If it exists, it'll pop-up, and then you can download it there.

This is safer for the user as the files come from the distribution (or Flathub, more on that later), so they have been (likely) tested that they work. They also are installed more cleanly to the system, so you get all the launcher icons and other things.

You can download apps from web pages, and sometimes that's the only way to get some apps. But always first check your distribution app downloader.

Flathub

Flathub is the new cool thing that uses Flatpaks.

As a regular user you don't need to worry as much what Flatpaks are, but I will explain anyway: When distributing application between distros, some distros use different package management systems.

This then can get out of hand when you want to share your app with 10 distributions that all use their own thing. Or they use the same thing but have different library versions.. And this causes headaches.

What Flatpak tries to do is just Make Things Work by adding all that's needed to the package, then user just installs it. Flathub is a central place where people upload their flatpaks.

Flatpaks also have security measures, that can be helpful with some apps. For example Flatpak apps can be told to not be able to read any other folder than ~/Downloads etc. Kind of like what Android has with their permission system.

So, if your system does not have Flathub set up, select your distribution from here, and add it to your system.

However I advice to not install Steam through it: Steam works better when it has more access to your system. So follow your distributions guide for installing Steam in those cases.

Dualbooting

If you want or need to use Windows for something, it is possible to set up your PC so that when you power on your PC, it asks you if you want to use Windows or Linux.

Distributions have their own manuals for that. Be prepared that Windows updates have been known to meddle with your boot-loader (the thing that shows you the "Windows or Linux?" at startup), which may cause your PC suddenly boot only to Windows one day.

So, it's possible, but you need to do some research about it for the distro you have chosen.

Learning resources

Again, do not rely on AI tools. They can lie.

Instead, search information from various forums and wikis, such as:

Then, every project and desktop has often their own forums and wiki pages. When in doubt, read those. Don't be afraid to ask in the forums either, or in chats like IRC or Matrix.

Anything else?

Uh, that's a lot of stuff. I don't remember if I had anything else in mind. I will update this post if I do remember suddenly something.

I hope this has been useful, however! I can't give in-depth guides to everything, because things can vary between distributions, hardware, desktop environments.. But I hope this can at least help you get started and helps resolve some questions you have.

If you have any questions, feel free to mail me at linux-newbies@akselmo.dev. If it's something that should deserve it's place here, I will update the post.

Anyways, thanks for reading!

Edits

  • 2025-08-23: Clarified that my notes about LTS are opinions, added Dualbooting section