Simple, fast, secure KDE Linux distribution

Question

I'm new to Linux, still learning how Linux in general works, but before that I need some smart opinion from a person who knows this stuff already, so my question is very simple, what is the most basic linux distro that I can start working on right away [mostly some noob web developing stuff] but it has these qualities:

1. Simple
2. Fast
3. Runs KDE
4. Secure [private]

I heard that Ubuntu was not that bad, and then I see that they send my search history to Amazon servers, wtf? [wtf Canonical?] so, its not private, not cool, then I realise kde Kubuntu looks nice, but Im not sure if Canonical has anything to do with that distro, so Im scared, then I started researching centOS, because they say its a clone of RHEL and rhel is pretty stable and private, but then I hear that it lags behind rhel for couple of months with security patches, and plus its server oriented distro, so yeah, theres that, and I look at Fedora too, but they say it has cutting edge software, but does that mean it has higher chances for security holes and its maybe complex to use cause of that?

So my question is simple, is there a distro, that is not greedy for money and sends my stuff from my pc to some other servers, its not like Im doing something really important, like rocket science, but I still value my privacy, it just feels strange if somebody has access to my data , wtf is that? a distro that doesnt require me to be Linus Torvalds to install it and operate on day to day basis, and that is not resource hungry and has a nice community of developers...

And is there some distro, that is just developed by few cool developers, not owned by any company, just there for people to use?

If you read this novel, thank you, and sorry...but your opinion from your experience would mean a lot to a noob like me, thanks, have a nice day!

Answer 1

Kubuntu is free, well maintained and has the KDE interface, has a very supportive developer/user community, etc. - I like it a lot and have yet to see any builtin adware, pay-per-whatever and I am reasonably sure that if it were sharing users data all over the place alarm bells would have been well and truly rung.

It is also a nice complete install and doesn't need to be maintained by a genius unless you are trying to either run on very unusual hardware &/or perform very unusual operations.

"Kubuntu is a trademark of Canonical Ltd." but the majority of the work on it is undertaken by the community.

Answer 2

TL;DR: As of mid 2017 in my opinion the best KDE Plasma distributions are OpenSUSE [Tumleweed], KDE neon and Manjaro.

KDE project page has a list of patrons on the bottom, among which are OpenSUSE and Cannonical who are directly maintaining their Linux distros and have largest impact on Plasma desktop.

Kubuntu right now is not the best distribution with Plasma desktop; the core team is developing KDE neon now, which is a way better option if you want a deb-based distro.

Also, Plasma 5 works surprisingly well on arch-based systems, the most user friedly is arguably Manjaro. I personally use Manjaro KDE a lot, and I have no complains.

Answer 3

MX Linux has a very stable KDE Plasma version now. It is a very stable release, and although personally I prefer the Ubuntu base to the Debian one, MXLinux KDE clearly stays as a good choice under this question.

What is great about Ubuntu is the huge community and quick support that you get on askubuntu. Therefore Kubuntu is the best choice in that sense.

Solus Linux has a KDE version now which I tested, it's mostly ok, but features a rather recent Plasma which may involve some instability for the moment.

Too bad there is no Linux Mint KDE anymore, although at the date of this question the last Mint KDE was well supported. At the date of my first post under here it is still supported for one more month :))