About

kde4el (short for KDE for Enterprise Linux) aims to provide the most usable GNU/Linux experience for desktop and workstation users. This is achieved by doing the following:

  • Using Oracle Linux as the base distribution. I’ve had the least amount of problems with this distribution compared to others.
  • Providing custom RPM packages to make KDE work perfectly on Oracle Linux since this is not supported out-of-box.
  • Installing custom RPM packages to provide out-of-box support for 32bit and 64bit programs, better Windows compatibility, and other cherry-picked programs to keep the system usable and clean.

Disclaimer
Despite my work, this is still far from perfect!
The most notable problems are: limited driver support, GPU performance issues, and limited Windows compatibility. Oracle Linux also contains a EULA that states you have access to the source code under GPL and related licenses and cannot use their name.

News
The future - 2024-07-27
D-RINE GNU/Linux has now become kde4el. Why the name change? Because:

  • I am no longer going to be using d-rine.com
  • This is a repository that builds on top of Oracle Linux. This is not a fork or custom distribution.

With that out of the way, what is the future of kde4el? Especially now that KDE is able to be installed through native repositories?

Well I tried out KDE from the native repositories (that stem from Fedora) and as expected it was buggy. In addition not all the packages I provide are available upstream.

So until KDE is working perfectly upstream and my packages are magically upstream’d too, kde4el is here to stay. Updates will be more slower because there isn’t much for me to change or update, but I still plan to maintain this repository.

– Ed (ed@groovyexpress.com)


Upstreaming - 2024-03-11
Since my last news update in December of 2023 the Oracle Linux updates have gone pretty well.

Most of the packages I shipped are now included in the official repositories and I have re-worked my repository so that future updates will no longer cause problems or conflicts.

Installing like normal will also work now.

– Ed (ed@groovyexpress.com)