Best KDE Software For Creative Linux Users Or Programmers

Discovering New Possibilities

As a long-time Gnome user, I’ve recently ventured into the world of KDE and been impressed by its applications’ quality. While comfortable using Gnome software, I’ve discovered that KDE offers polished and powerful tools worth exploring.

digiKam is a powerful and feature-rich application ideal for managing large photo libraries, including AI-generated images. Its robust tagging, metadata handling, and integration with KDE make it a suitable choice for organizing and processing your image collection.

Organizing Photos:
- Tags and Labels: You can assign tags and labels to images to categorize them easily. This is useful for organizing large collections by theme, content, or any other criteria you choose.
- Albums and Collections: Create albums to group related images together. You can organize photos into hierarchical albums for more granular control.
- Facial Recognition: digiKam includes facial recognition features to help you sort and identify people in your photos automatically.
Metadata Management:
- EXIF and IPTC Data: digiKam supports the extraction and editing of metadata from images, such as camera settings and location data. This can help you keep track of where and when your photos were taken.
Advanced Search:
- Powerful Search Capabilities: You can search for images based on tags, metadata, and file names. This makes it easy to find specific images in a large collection.
Editing and Processing:
- Basic Editing Tools: digiKam offers a range of basic editing tools, such as cropping, resizing, and color correction.
- Integration with Other Tools: For advanced editing, digiKam integrates with external tools like GIMP or RawTherapee.
Import and Export:
- Importing: Easily import images from various sources, including cameras, memory cards, and other storage devices.
- Exporting: Export images in different formats and resolutions, and share them via email or social media.
Backup and Restore:
- Database Backup: digiKam provides options for backing up and restoring your photo database to protect against data loss.

Dolphin is a powerful file manager that lets me organize and find my files fast.I’m thrilled to use the Dolphin file manager, especially since it also allows me to access other nodes on the local network, just like I can with Gnome Files.But what’s even better is that Dolphin lets me add bookmarks inside the Network directory instead of the left column like Gnome Files does.

To check for open SFTP connections, use: ss -tnp | grep ':22'
Close Dolphin to close an open SFTP connection.
Kate is a powerful text editor that’s perfect for programmers and working with simple text files.
I have to admit, Kate was love at first sight for me. Although I was previously familiar with it, I never had the chance to use it extensively but now that I’ve had the opportunity to use Kate, I’m thoroughly enjoying what it has to offer.

screenshot of Kate, my new favorite programming editor — My new favorite programming editor Kate

Kdenlive is a well known, professional-grade video editing software.
As lintime.org continues to grow and offer more free courses for new Linux users, we will need to produce video content to support those who come here to learn.
Thankfully, there are awesome content creators on YouTube who produce helpful videos that speed up learning for us.
Krita is a digital painting and illustration tool that’s perfect for artists and designers.
I have to admit, coming from GIMP, I found Krita to be a bit of a challenge to learn at first, but its powerful features and capabilities have made it well worth the effort. Especially with my WACOM tablet, I’m discovering new ways to create and express myself, and I’m excited to continue exploring what Krita has to offer.
Okular is a versatile document viewer that’s capable of handling a wide range of file formats, including PDFs, eBooks, and more. Its advanced features like text selection, bookmarking, and annotation make it an excellent choice for researchers and students.
KWrite has instantly become my favorite text editor which I use a lot for documenting and note taking so that I can populate the timelines which are a major component of this website. I prefer a minimal UI and the ayu Dark theme as shown below.

kwrite is my favorite kde text editor — **KWrite** is perfect for when Kate is overkill

How to Create a Bootable USB Stick in KDE

SUSE Studio Imagewriter is a small, simple utility for creating a bootable USB stick for KDE users.
sudo pacman -S imagewriter
Gnome Disks
I installed Gnome Disks to measure the read/write speeds of a new USB stick. Because of that, KDE Plasma users have more than one option as this powerful application has a “Restore Disk Image” option which I have been using for years to create bootable USB sticks.

Staying Up-to-Date

I’ll continue exploring KDE Plasma and sharing my experiences, tips, tricks, and new discoveries here over the next few weeks. If you’re a fellow KDE user or curious about its world, check back regularly for updates.