[HN Gopher] KDE Connect: Enabling communication between all your...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       KDE Connect: Enabling communication between all your devices
        
       Author : snthd
       Score  : 364 points
       Date   : 2025-10-12 12:04 UTC (9 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (community.kde.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (community.kde.org)
        
       | evanjrowley wrote:
       | There's official support for Windows. No support for macOS yet,
       | but there is a working implementation for it. I had no idea I'd
       | be able to use KDE Connect with those operating systems.
        
         | p_l wrote:
         | The protocol is open so you can build software for other
         | systems that uses it, whether it's GNOME or macOS
        
         | DigitallyFidget wrote:
         | There is a Windows build for it. I don't know if it's official
         | or not, but there is a Windows build and it does work well.
        
       | karmakaze wrote:
       | I was wondering what "the network" here means:
       | 
       | > To achieve this, KDE Connect:                   implements a
       | secure communication protocol over the network, and allows any
       | developer to create plugins on top of it.         Has a component
       | that you install on your desktop.         Has a KDE Connect
       | client app you run on your phone.
       | 
       | Looking further it is only for the local network (with ways to
       | extend it e.g. VPNs).
        
         | creatonez wrote:
         | It has bluetooth support now as well
        
           | m463 wrote:
           | it also talks about using a VPN and what ports to open in a
           | firewall.
           | 
           | I don't know how it handles the harder part, the "device on
           | internet" talks to "device in my house"
           | 
           | most phones and apps use this "harder part" to interpose
           | their corporate server for more than TURN/STUN and continue
           | to "collect all the data" or "insert a subscription"
        
             | Oxodao wrote:
             | Did you get this to work with wireguard though?
             | 
             | As long as my phone is connected to wireguard KDEConnect
             | does NOT see any other computer, apparently because it wont
             | forward ICMP broadcast according to the internet.
             | 
             | I would really like to have a solution to this issue but
             | since its baked in WG i don't think this is possible
        
               | m463 wrote:
               | Actually, I mean the whole "find and talk to my home
               | server over the internet"
               | 
               | Generally it does this by having a DNS record for your
               | home server, or having some other well-known server give
               | out its address or relay the packets.
        
               | jeroenhd wrote:
               | KDE Connect leverages mDNS on the network (non-Bluetooth)
               | side, which relies on broadcasts. That means it'll break
               | across networks without a VPN of some kind. For some VPNs
               | (Wireguard, OpenVPN in TUN mode) that also means
               | connectivity is impossible.
               | 
               | You can, if you want, open ports and configure KDE
               | connect to reach out across the internet (practically
               | only feasible with one device behind your router on IPv4,
               | any on IPv6), but because it doesn't use "real" DNS, you
               | can't just enter a DDNS hostname, you have to specify the
               | full IP address.
        
               | jeroenhd wrote:
               | WireGuard doesn't do any forwarding out of the box, you
               | need to set up your iptables/nftables to get all of that
               | working. If you follow the WG quick-start guides, they
               | often work by masquerading traffic, making VPN clients
               | act the same way a bunch of computers behind a NAT router
               | would.
               | 
               | You'll need to set up all other kinds of routing as well
               | for cross-network discovery to work. WireGuard doesn't do
               | broadcasting in general (it's a point-to-point protocol
               | after all) so you'll need to wrap broadcasting protocols
               | manually.
               | 
               | Other VPNs go more low-level (at least in TAP mode),
               | mirroring an ethernet network with all the broadcasting
               | and low-level protocols you can think of. In theory you
               | could do that in WireGuard (running L2TP over a WireGuard
               | link) but many phones won't support that, and it'd
               | probably be just as easy to set up an OpenVPN/IPSec+L2TP
               | VPN in that case.
               | 
               | I'm not sure if it's a good idea, though. I imagine most
               | people wouldn't want a printer publishing its mDNS
               | hostname to wake the 5G radio on their phone, or the
               | battery level of their laptop in the case of KDE connect.
        
               | 1oooqooq wrote:
               | mdns is a really awful protocol. it was already bad in
               | the era it was born, being just an evolution of Microsoft
               | NetBIOS out something. today in the age of wifi and
               | overlay networks, i just consider it information leak
               | with zero benefits.
               | 
               | so, the rfc have a section on how the mdns server have to
               | evolve to handle multiple interfaces and own that. but in
               | reality nobody gives a damn because the maintainer
               | (redhat ibm) is it in the context it was invented (work
               | networks on the 00s), so everyone (like many comments
               | below) just work around in all the wrong ways making
               | other things more complicated.
               | 
               | "just do these hundreds changed on wireguard, your
               | firewall, install this reverse proxy... now your service
               | that only exists to route things automatically can look
               | like it works" heh.
        
               | ValdikSS wrote:
               | >As long as my phone is connected to wireguard KDEConnect
               | does NOT see any other computer, apparently because it
               | wont forward ICMP broadcast according to the internet.
               | 
               | It's a bug in the application.
               | 
               | https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=507954 /
               | https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=507972
        
             | seszett wrote:
             | > _the "device on internet" talks to "device in my house"_
             | 
             | It doesn't handle it well other than with bluetooth or
             | awkward port forwarding and manual entering of IPs.
             | 
             | I don't see it as a problem though, I don't think I have
             | needed a single time over my many years of use to share my
             | clipboard with, or control the media player or mouse and
             | keyboard, of a device that was not in the same room or on
             | the same network as me.
        
         | blooalien wrote:
         | > Has a component that you install on your desktop.
         | 
         | This is only if you use Windows (or MacOS, as there's also a
         | KDE Connect compatible Mac app out there somewhere IIRC). If
         | you're on KDE Desktop Linux, you're already good-to-go, as it's
         | a pre-installed component of a typical KDE environment. :)
        
           | 1oooqooq wrote:
           | not true for all distros. and this kind of thinking is really
           | bad imo for network services.
        
       | sphars wrote:
       | > enables all your devices to communicate with each other
       | 
       | I've tried using KDE connect on two desktops (my laptop running
       | Fedora KDE and my desktop running Nobara, also Fedora KDE) and
       | this statement appears false. It was extremely buggy connecting
       | them, and when they did "see" each other, none of the
       | functionality I expected worked. Wanted to use the shared
       | clipboard feature but it didn't work, nor did anything else.
       | 
       | This was early this year, maybe it's gotten better since?
       | 
       | KDE Connect is really for mobile (Android) devices and a
       | computer, not computer to computer, IME
        
         | garciansmith wrote:
         | Works well for sending things between my laptop (Kubuntu) and
         | Steam Deck.
        
         | wasmitnetzen wrote:
         | It works fine for me, and has been for at least 2 years,
         | between any subset of 2 laptops (KDE, WiFi), one desktop (KDE,
         | LAN), and two Androids (WiFi). They're all on the same subnet
         | though.
        
         | Joel_Mckay wrote:
         | SSH File sync applications are reliable...
         | 
         | Android: "Transfer Files To Computer, PC" ( Michal Bukacek
         | includes GPL git URI, YMMV as we still need to audit it for
         | traffic)
         | 
         | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.bukacek.fil...
         | 
         | iPhone: PhotoSync is free to transfer movies and low-resolution
         | images
         | 
         | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/photosync-transfer-photos/id41...
         | 
         | MacOS:
         | 
         | https://github.com/macfuse/macfuse/releases
         | 
         | Windows 11: sshfs is slow, but allows user account constrained
         | access to remote shares
         | 
         | winget install -h -e --id "WinFsp.WinFsp"
         | 
         | winget install -h -e --id "SSHFS-Win.SSHFS-Win"
         | 
         | https://github.com/winfsp/sshfs-win
         | 
         | Windows 11 system tray sshfs link manager:
         | 
         | https://github.com/evsar3/sshfs-win-manager
         | 
         | Windows 11: Local OpenSSH service setup
         | 
         | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administrat...
         | 
         | If your home router is dynamic DNS only, the ISP will usually
         | still support ports >1000:
         | 
         | https://www.noip.com/
         | 
         | Or DIY with your own DNS solution with cloudflare:
         | 
         | https://linuxconfig.org/automate-dynamic-ip-updates-for-your...
         | 
         | Also tried KDE connect a few years back, but didn't like the
         | idea of giving a buggy phone access to shoulder-surf root
         | accounts. Transferring stuff out of a VM with a local samba
         | instance also works, but samba should also be containerized.
         | 
         | Best regards, =3
        
       | brooke2k wrote:
       | I use this between my Arch/KDE desktop + Samsung Galaxy S21, and
       | it works beautifully.
        
         | tmtvl wrote:
         | Same, but a Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact (the tiniest phone I could
         | buy with decent LineageOS support). Just a shame it isn't
         | supported on Ubuntu Touch.
        
       | Kim_Bruning wrote:
       | This is a killer app. There have been times when I asked someone
       | "why can't you just send me a screenshot on signal" or "Oh, can't
       | you copy the URL to your desktop?"... only to realize that the
       | poor fellow didn't have KDE connect (yet).
       | 
       | It's not perfect, but it does things I haven't found anywhere
       | else, makes your phone and laptop and pc.
       | 
       | It might help that I'm actually running KDE everywhere, of
       | course.
        
         | munchlax wrote:
         | > KDE everywhere
         | 
         | Not to be confused with Qt Everywhere
        
         | maqnius wrote:
         | I have a all my messengers running on my desktop as well, so I
         | don't really have those problems. How's KDE Connect superior?
         | 
         | I'm seriously interested, since I read it's a killer feature
         | but I cannot really imagine how it would help me.
        
           | cenamus wrote:
           | Even just copying your clipboard is very useful.
           | 
           | Also (more so at home) large transfers are pretty fast,
           | regularly send movies from and to my phone, at pretty much
           | connection speed.
           | 
           | You can also mount your phone storage over the network,
           | control your mouse with your phone and much more.
        
           | aidenn0 wrote:
           | Those of us who live in the US where SMS is the default
           | messenger can't have all of their messengers running on their
           | desktop.
        
             | Zak wrote:
             | Sure you can. Just use KDE Connect.
        
           | pmontra wrote:
           | I can share links to myself with a messenger but it's much
           | faster to share them to a given device and see its browser
           | open a tab to that link. It works inside apps too: I can
           | share a video from phone to tablet (NewPipe, probably YouTube
           | too, it's the Android builtin sharing system.)
           | 
           | I can also stop, resume, control volume of media playing on
           | another device.
           | 
           | I can share the clipboard, send files, use a remote keyboard
           | (I think I disabled it) and ping a device.
           | 
           | It can do a lot more but I'm not using much else, I think.
        
           | johannes1234321 wrote:
           | It is less about messengers per se, itnis about interacting
           | between devices.
           | 
           | I can share clipboard contentents, can send files, send web
           | page urls from phone to desktop to open a browser there, can
           | control media playback between devices (switch to next
           | track/pause desktop from phone and vice versa) etc also I get
           | phone notifications on desktop
           | 
           | (All optional)
        
           | troyvit wrote:
           | Silly use case but I watch TV on my laptop in bed and the cat
           | likes to watch with me. I use some ancient X11 app to freeze
           | the keyboard and mouse and then control vlc, etc. from KDE-
           | connect. That way when my cat attacks Jedis he doesn't reboot
           | my laptop.
        
         | pmontra wrote:
         | I've always run GNOME and KDE Connect port called gsconnect [1]
         | works very well. I run it on several Ubuntus and on Debian 11.
         | I run the KDE Connect app on my Android devices. That plus
         | syncthing are exceptionally good tools to link all my devices
         | together.
         | 
         | [1] https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/
        
       | KerbalNo15 wrote:
       | Note that you can use it on GNOME with GSConnect. One of my
       | favorite apps
        
         | 85392_school wrote:
         | If GSConnect doesn't work for you, it's also worth trying
         | Valent: https://valent.andyholmes.ca/
        
       | roshin wrote:
       | when it works it's amazing. but very often both my phone and
       | laptop are connected to the same WiFi, yet kde connect can't see
       | them. I can't figure out how to diagnose and solve that when it
       | happens
        
         | zenitsukz wrote:
         | vpn sometimes
        
         | pull_my_finger wrote:
         | I have the same issue, very frustrating. I thought it was a
         | firewall issue, or Android's blocking LAN connections without a
         | VPN, but at this point I'm pretty sure it's just some KDE
         | Connect bug.
        
           | cromka wrote:
           | Maybe local DNS/DHCP resolution issue? I have this on my LAN
           | with with other services and hosts: the Dnsmasq drops the
           | ball every now and then and does not update the lease
           | database, which results in hosts seemingly being offline.
           | 
           | I would try fixed IPs to see if this solves the issue for
           | you.
        
         | ottah wrote:
         | Same, it's just too unreliable to be a tool for me. Which feels
         | like the experience with everything that relies on automatic
         | network discovery.
        
           | janwl wrote:
           | Mirrors my experience with AirDrop.
        
           | Libidinalecon wrote:
           | Same, I haven't used it in years because it was so
           | disappointing when it would randomly stop working.
           | 
           | In the last year I have even given up on KDE in favor of
           | Cinnamon on Mint.I loved KDE but there would always be some
           | issue coming up. LTS Mint with Cinnamon has been rock solid.
        
         | jcgl wrote:
         | It's pretty dreadful on iOS, presumably due to OS constraints.
         | I miss how amazing it was on Android.
        
           | hagbard_c wrote:
           | ...then why use iOS? Get a de-Googled Android and relish in
           | the power a pocket personal computer can provide when the
           | vendor takes its thumb off the scales.
        
             | jcgl wrote:
             | I don't need software freedom preached to me, thanks. And
             | I'm not going to waste time trying to prove my free
             | software bona fides to you.
             | 
             | Suffice it to say: at the time I bought this iPhone 12
             | mini, there weren't really good options when prioritizing
             | {small form factor,good privacy posture,good security
             | posture,software freedom}.
        
         | geokon wrote:
         | Very typical for my KDE experience. Things break and it's
         | impossible to figure out what's gone wrong b/c there is no
         | additional information/logs/diagnostics exposed to the user.
         | Everything to do with Networking and Bluetooth is plagued by
         | this (though to be fair things break a lot less than ~5 years
         | ago)
        
         | jeroenhd wrote:
         | It should work on any network where mDNS works and where TCP
         | connections can be established. There's not much going on
         | that's more complicated than that when it comes to device
         | discovery.
         | 
         | Many VPN configurations break mDNS and other broadcasts (i.e.
         | Chromecast, file shares, that kind of thing), though. A lot of
         | "how to get started with WireGuard/OpenVPN/etc." guides stop
         | the moment HTTP(S) connections work, but there's more to a
         | functional network than that.
         | 
         | I found that I could get KDE Connect working on my buggy VPN
         | profile by manually specifying remote IP addresses for devices
         | on the other end of the VPN in the settings.
        
           | aidenn0 wrote:
           | Oh, so if I setup mDNS on my workstation KDE Connect will be
           | more reliable? Kind of annoying since I DNS already works to
           | resolve names.
        
             | jeroenhd wrote:
             | Your desktop probably already has mDNS set up, most user-
             | friendly distros do it out of the box.
             | 
             | But it doesn't really matter, because KDE Connect
             | implements its own sort-of mDNS system by itself, in the
             | form of JSON broadcast across the local network on a
             | standard port offering hostnames, services, and other
             | metadata. Actual, real mDNS would require integration into
             | the host's networking setup and that's too much to ask for
             | clients like Android or iOS and you'd need to implement it
             | manually in many other cases, so they kind of made their
             | own mDNS. It also means you don't need root access to run
             | KDE Connect on your device, which makes it viable on
             | platforms like the Steam Deck.
             | 
             | To get KDE Connect working reliably, you need to make
             | multicast traffic work reliably. Every network has its own
             | restrictions when it comes to multicast so it's hard to
             | know what specific tweaks your workstation needs. Having
             | KDE Connect open on your phone, you should see packets
             | coming in on your desktop on 255.255.255.255 on 1716/udp.
        
               | aidenn0 wrote:
               | 1. I don't use a user-friendly distro
               | 
               | 2. Thanks for that info; next time it fails to connect
               | I'll take a look in wireshark.
        
         | tga wrote:
         | Same here, Fedora and iOS. I've mostly stopped using it because
         | I couldn't rely on the app working when I needed it.
         | 
         | The computer doesn't even change addresses, there is no need
         | for mDNS or anything fancy, setting up devices manually once
         | would be just fine.
        
           | cpuguy83 wrote:
           | Yeah eveey time I want to use it I generally need to unpair
           | and pair it again. Weird stuff like trying to send my
           | clipboard from my phone and it goes the other way.
           | 
           | It's handy, but needs work.
        
         | greenavocado wrote:
         | Speculating here based solely on general networking knowledge.
         | You may have "AP Isolation" enabled and/or multicast blocking
         | on your network may be causing problems.
         | 
         | If I was working on KDE Connect I would add a microphone and
         | speaker based pairing system using OFDM modulation lifted from
         | Rattlegram. Each device would share all IP addresses associated
         | with themselves using sound to broadcast the information.
        
           | estimator7292 wrote:
           | Just use Bluetooth. These days it's very uncommon for a PC to
           | _not_ have Bluetooth. More of my PCs have Bluetooth than have
           | microphones.
        
             | greenavocado wrote:
             | Maybe the Bluetooth connection can be used for IP and port
             | discovery.
        
         | dTal wrote:
         | Agreed. I've read a lot of apologetics for KDE Connect but
         | there's definitely something wrong with discovery. Often it
         | will fail to discover other devices unless I click "refresh" in
         | both devices. I've gone as far as writing a script to force-
         | refresh at 1 minute intervals. Sometimes it can't be persuaded
         | to work at all. Blame my network maybe, but LocalSend works
         | every time.
        
         | Jedd wrote:
         | That's weird, especially with the exhaustive details you
         | provided there.
         | 
         | I've rarely had any connection issues with Google Pixel (7
         | currently) and Debian with Plasma 5 or 6 on x86 / 64 platforms.
        
         | AnonymousPlanet wrote:
         | I used to recommend KDE-Connect left and right but stopped
         | doing so because it went from rock solid and dependable to a
         | complete disaster in a couple of years.
         | 
         | Linux, Android, iOS, macOS all worked in harmony. Now not even
         | two Android phones using the same software version can see each
         | other, file transfers keep failing after a brief while. And all
         | with the same devices that worked before, across various
         | networks.
         | 
         | Not to say anything about connectivity between Linux and
         | Android or iOS.
        
           | mixmastamyk wrote:
           | Some wifi APs block client to client traffic by default these
           | days.
        
             | AnonymousPlanet wrote:
             | Mine does not. Same AP.
        
         | Self-Perfection wrote:
         | It has really got unreliable in my experience.
         | 
         | Often desktop client just cannot connect to mobile. At first I
         | noticed that this happens when desktop client starts to output
         | in logs these (reported [1]):                 kdeconnect.core:
         | Too many remembered identities, ignoring "<id of KDE Connect on
         | my android device>" received via UDP
         | 
         | Restarting desktop client helped, so I wrote watcher that
         | monitors logs for such lines and restarts kdeconnect. But it
         | turned out to be insufficient. Now I have this script running
         | in background to restart kdeconnectd whenever connection is
         | missing, and finally can use KDE Connect reliably:
         | #!/bin/dash -x                     while sleep 1m; do
         | nmcli connection show --active | grep wifi || continue
         | kdeconnect-cli -l | grep reachable && continue
         | #   notify-send 'No reachable devices via kdeconnect.
         | Restarting'           systemctl --no-pager --user status app-
         | org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon@autostart.service           systemctl
         | --no-pager --user stop app-
         | org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon@autostart.service           killall
         | kdeconnectd           systemctl --no-pager --user start app-
         | org.kde.kdeconnect.daemon@autostart.service              done
         | 
         | [1] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=506563
        
         | ValdikSS wrote:
         | The majority of desktop Wi-Fi cards/chipsets have buggy drivers
         | that break mDNS discovery in one way or another.
         | 
         | To the point that I'd say that Wi-Fi drivers are the most
         | offender in printer discovery problems, which also rely on
         | mDNS.
         | 
         | Another issue that many mDNS applications, including KDE
         | Connect, don't account on multi-interface setups and send
         | respond to mDNS request using incorrect network interface:
         | https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=507972 /
         | https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=507954
        
         | lazycouchpotato wrote:
         | At least for Windows, marking a WiFi connection from Public to
         | Private solved a lot of connection issues for me.
        
       | cromka wrote:
       | Is there any update on whether Apple had already opened their iOS
       | API in EU, which would allow to match the KDE Connect's Android
       | functionality?
        
         | fsflover wrote:
         | It's probably not so easy,
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44557348
        
         | CaptainOfCoit wrote:
         | I remember getting excited about KDE Connect but then being
         | completely disappointed that it basically non-functional on
         | iOS...
         | 
         | As I remember it (tried it last year I think), the application
         | needs to be in the foreground in order to do anything at all,
         | because of Apple's (purposeful) limitations of doing things in
         | the background.
         | 
         | So if you were hoping to be able to install this and sync stuff
         | without effort and having to leave the app open all the time,
         | Apple seems to be vehemently against anything like that,
         | probably because they have their own solutions for this...
         | 
         | Edit: The GitHub repository actually goes through the Apple-
         | induced problem:
         | 
         | > iOS is very much designed around foreground interactions.
         | Therefore, background "daemon-style" applications don't really
         | exist under conventional means, so the behavior where KDE
         | Connect iOS is unresponsive in the background is more or less
         | intended. There are technically some special categories and
         | "hacky" methods to try to get it to run in the background, but
         | in general, there is no intended/by-design method of keeping a
         | "daemon-style" app running forever in the background. For more
         | information, see this post on the Apple Dev Forums
         | 
         | https://github.com/KDE/kdeconnect-ios
        
           | AbstractH24 wrote:
           | > I remember getting excited about KDE Connect but then being
           | completely disappointed that it basically non-functional on
           | iOS...
           | 
           | I remember this too. It happened to me about 90 seconds ago.
        
           | groovybits wrote:
           | Maybe I'm missing something, but what "daemon-style" app
           | tasks are you doing, or expecting, with KDE Connect? Its core
           | functions seem to be quick tasks; sending files, clipboard,
           | remote control, etc.
           | 
           | Perhaps my usage is basic in this way - I've never had an
           | issue with using the iOS app as it is.
        
             | CaptainOfCoit wrote:
             | From the feature list, how do I actually accomplish these
             | things without having the app open on iOS, or at all?
             | 
             | - Receive your phone notifications on your desktop computer
             | 
             | - Reply to text messages (or even read?)
        
               | peatmoss wrote:
               | I don't think those work between iOS and KDE Connect. I
               | would love to be able to type iMessages on my Linux
               | desktop's computer. If I'm wrong about this not working,
               | someone please let me know, but I've never been able to
               | make messages work.
        
       | sombragris wrote:
       | At least in my use case (as link between Android devices and both
       | Linux/Win PCs) KDE Connect is a real killer app. It enabled
       | seamless integration and saved me lots of hassle and time. It
       | really should get more exposure.
       | 
       | I see reports that it doesn't work. These are mostly for distros
       | where Plasma is either rather old or taking a backseat after
       | other environment (usually Gnome). I'm having great results with
       | the latest Plasma 6 on Slackware-current and also in a standard
       | Windows 11 environment.
        
         | dmpk2k wrote:
         | How is Slackware doing nowadays? Last release was several years
         | ago, but I need a replacement for Win 10 on my PC.
        
           | immibis wrote:
           | Why Slackware specifically? You can install any distribution.
           | I use Gentoo btw - not really a distribution so much as a
           | distribution construction kit. There are other popular
           | distros, notably Arch.
        
             | dmpk2k wrote:
             | I liked Slackware a lot way back when. No deeper reason.
             | 
             | Currently leaning towards Debian Testing, but that might
             | depend on my testing of Slackware now. I use Arch daily in
             | WSL, but I've have had enough breakages that I don't want
             | it as my primary OS.
        
               | Flamingoat wrote:
               | I use Debian 13 (stable). It is very solid. I was using
               | Debian Trixie when it was testing and there was breakage
               | twice.
               | 
               | I would make the /boot partition twice the size the
               | installer suggests though as on my laptop I can't upgrade
               | the kernel because the /boot runs out of space. The
               | laptop is used to view old manuals in PDFs while working
               | on my car so I don't really care.
               | 
               | TBH any of the major Linux distros that have been around
               | for a while are fine. I don't like Fedora or Ubuntu
               | because they are a bit corporate.
               | 
               | I personally wouldn't bother with any of the derivative
               | distros. Typically there isn't a lot different other than
               | they've pre-configured some packages. IME that causes
               | more headaches long term.
        
               | immibis wrote:
               | Debian is a very solid, stable, but slow-moving
               | distribution.
        
               | Flamingoat wrote:
               | Yeh. I'm used to using old version of RHEL at work so I
               | ended up learning how to deal with slow moving distros.
               | 
               | I use the OS as a base system and most of the stuff that
               | needs to be newer versions can be done by installing the
               | binary to to ~/bin as it is added to your path by
               | ~/.profile if the directory exists on Debian.
               | 
               | Stuff like Discord, Slack, Kdenlive, OBS etc. I install
               | using flatpak.
               | 
               | Other stuff. Go, Vim (I compile vim from source) and nvim
               | can stuff can be compiled or dropped into /usr/local
               | 
               | That covers most stuff IME. However I appreciate this
               | won't work for everyone.
        
             | Rediscover wrote:
             | > Why Slackware specifically?
             | 
             | To me, coming from Unix, it's mostly sane.
        
           | swaits wrote:
           | Slackware's last release was 2.5 years ago.
           | 
           | Look at Fedora (if you like RPM distros) if you're after
           | something pretty nicely put together that stays reasonably
           | well up to date. Very well maintained. Influenced by Red Hat
           | (or "led by" or even "owned by"), which works for some, not
           | for others.
           | 
           | CachyOS is trendy these days. EndeavourOS is basically Arch
           | with an installer.
           | 
           | There are a few distros targeted at Windows refugees. ZorinOS
           | is well regarded. AnduinOS is a newer entry. But if you're
           | willing to walk away from a Windows-like UI, skip these.
        
             | Flamingoat wrote:
             | Arch has an installer these days. It works pretty well and
             | you can have a system up and running in about 20 minutes if
             | you have a fast internet connection.
             | 
             | For people that want a Windows like UI, I would probably
             | suggest Cinnamon. It works pretty much like Windows 7/10
             | without all the visual nonsense that KDE typically has.
        
               | bityard wrote:
               | My experience is that KDE 6 has very little visual
               | nonsense right out of the box. 4 and 5 did have a lot
               | more, but most/all of it could be disabled. Most other
               | Linux DEs don't really let you customize them to your own
               | personal level of nonsense at any rate.
        
               | Flamingoat wrote:
               | I probably see a lot more than other people since I spent
               | a good few years doing pixel perfect web dev.
               | 
               | I am not being hyperbolic when I say that I can see a
               | pixel out of place on a webpage on the other side of the
               | room.
               | 
               | https://kde.org/content/home/main.jpg
               | 
               | This is a screenshot from their site. Just in this
               | screenshot I see the following:
               | 
               | 1) there is an horrendous text shadow effect on the text
               | under the "Home" desktop icon in the top left.
               | 
               | 2) Clock text is too large compared to the rest of the
               | interface, especially the icons next to it.
               | 
               | 3) Trash Icon looks like out of place compared to the
               | other icons.
               | 
               | 4) Drop shadow effect on the window and the start menu
               | thing. It kinda too dark really.
               | 
               | 5) Every single gap between interface elements seems
               | different and off. The icon sizes seem a bit all over the
               | place.
               | 
               | 6) There is a gradient on the window title bar and
               | rounded corners. Cinnamon does this as well. I dunno it
               | is very Window XP Luna (which I never liked).
               | 
               | 7) The window control icons look off to me and don't fit
               | in with the rest of the interface IMO.
               | 
               | A lot of this I appreciate can be probably be changed.
               | But that is how it comes OOTB if it is an official
               | screenshot. It feels like a Windows Vista ripoff.
               | 
               | Generally I find KDE lacks "taste". None of the Linux
               | GUIs are that great tbh. People put up fancy screenshots,
               | but I guarantee the moment the windows are arranged in
               | any other way it looks not so great.
        
               | saubeidl wrote:
               | I agree with your assessment of KDE lacking "taste". Imo,
               | it looks like a system designed by engineers, not
               | designers.
               | 
               | GNOME has the opposite problem imo. I feel like it has
               | "taste", but it feels like a system fully designed by
               | designers, with no engineers giving practical pushback.
               | It's the same issue macOS has, but amplified: Designers
               | have some grand idea about their vision being the one
               | true way of using the system and made it hard to
               | impossible to customize.
               | 
               | I currently use KDE, but am not happy with it for the
               | reasons you described. I used to use GNOME, but wasn't
               | happy with it for the reasons above.
               | 
               | I have high hopes for Cosmic [0]. It seems like that one
               | might get the balance right.
               | 
               | [0] https://system76.com/cosmic
        
               | Flamingoat wrote:
               | > I agree with your assessment of KDE lacking "taste".
               | Imo, it looks like a system designed by engineers, not
               | designers.
               | 
               | TBF, I was linked their more up to date screenshots in a
               | sibling thread and it does look more consistent but it
               | still seems off.
               | 
               | > I currently use KDE, but am not happy with it for the
               | reasons you described. I used to use GNOME, but wasn't
               | happy with it for the reasons above.
               | 
               | I don't like any of the Linux DEs tbh. They all have
               | issues.
               | 
               | I might give KDE a go. But I think Debian does a poor job
               | at packaging it and I don't really want to change
               | distros.
               | 
               | > I have high hopes for Cosmic [0]. It seems like that
               | one might get the balance right.
               | 
               | I tried compiling Cosmic on source on Debian 12. I ran
               | out of memory on the VM I was doing it on. I also found
               | out that on Debian 12 their rustc was broken!
        
               | saubeidl wrote:
               | Do you think GNOME has similar UI issues? In my view,
               | it's "pretty", but just doesn't let me configure it the
               | way I want it to without hacking around way too much.
        
               | Flamingoat wrote:
               | Yes. I agree. Gnome is kinda weird OOTB.
               | 
               | I ended up installing Dash To Dock and Ubuntu App
               | Indicator Icons when I was using it and I ended up with
               | something decent. I also usually have to faff around in
               | the gnome tweaks tool to get the old "legacy" apps and
               | the new apps looking consistent.
        
               | ognarb wrote:
               | That screenshot is very old, for an actual screenshot.
               | For an actual screenshot, you can find one on today's
               | announcement:
               | https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.5.0/
               | 
               | Btw as one the web developer behind KDE's website, do you
               | mind telling me where you found that screenshot?
        
               | Flamingoat wrote:
               | > That screenshot is very old, for an actual screenshot.
               | For an actual screenshot, you can find one on today's
               | announcement:
               | https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.5.0/
               | 
               | Those do look better admittedly. I still think it looks a
               | bit "Fischer Price" but that is personal taste.
               | 
               | > Btw as one the web developer behind KDE's website, do
               | you mind telling me where you found that screenshot?
               | 
               | Of course. It was on your screenshots page that I found
               | via DDG
               | 
               | https://duckduckgo.com/?q=KDE+screenshots
               | 
               | The first result I go was:
               | 
               | https://kde.org/screenshots/
        
               | WD-42 wrote:
               | The clutter is real though, take a look at this
               | screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/nkedVYq
               | 
               | Stock Konsole on the left, stock Ghostty on the right.
               | Note that both terminals have multiple tabs open. The
               | amount of wasted space and visual noise in Konsole is
               | baffling. Not to mention Ghostty is able to display 4
               | more lines of actual console output (you know, the whole
               | point of a console).
               | 
               | In my experience, many KDE apps follow the same UX. Great
               | for configuration and being able to use primarily the
               | mouse, bad if you are more interested in a keyboard
               | centric flow with a focus on the content.
        
               | dingnuts wrote:
               | Cinnamon? Really? In a KDE Connect thread?
               | 
               | KDE actually was built around the Windows paradigm; Gnome
               | is a Mac clone. Cinnamon is a fork of Gnome maintained as
               | a side project from a distro with a bad security and
               | management track record. Really the only thing it adds is
               | a launcher; KDE optionally provides the same style if the
               | user wants it.
               | 
               | Go find a thread where your pet software is on topic.
               | This thread is about KDE Connect. Does Cinnamon support
               | that? Does Cinnamon offer anything like it?
        
               | Flamingoat wrote:
               | > Cinnamon? Really? In a KDE Connect thread? > Go find a
               | thread where your pet software is on topic. > This thread
               | is about KDE Connect. Does Cinnamon support that?
               | 
               | In this particular part of thread, people were talking
               | about Windows UI replacements. Like it or not
               | conversations do diverge from the original intended
               | purpose.
               | 
               | Secondly, Cinnamon isn't my "pet software". Cinnamon IMO
               | is more similar to the Windows 7/10/11 UI than KDE and
               | has none of the fluff that KDE normally has in it. I
               | actually don't really like any of the Linux UIs. I think
               | they all suffer from significant issues.
               | 
               | > KDE actually was built around the Windows paradigm;
               | Gnome is a Mac clone. Cinnamon is a fork of Gnome
               | maintained as a side project from a distro with a bad
               | security and management track record. Really the only
               | thing it adds is a launcher; KDE optionally provides the
               | same style if the user wants it.
               | 
               | It seems that you really don't like cinnamon and thus why
               | you are being so aggressive. I don't really appreciate
               | the unwarranted hostility.
               | 
               | I don't personally use Linux Mint (I use Debian). I don't
               | like derivative distros for the reason that you
               | highlighted. However Cinnamon seems works reasonably well
               | and tends to be quite a bit lighter than KDE IME.
               | 
               | > This thread is about KDE Connect. Does Cinnamon support
               | that? Does Cinnamon offer anything like it?
               | 
               | You are aware that you can use KDE software in other
               | Desktop Environments? It took me a few seconds to do a
               | web search and it seems that you can use KDE connect and
               | Cinnamon at the same time.
        
               | WD-42 wrote:
               | > Does Cinnamon support that? Does Cinnamon offer
               | anything like it?
               | 
               | KDE Connect can be used with Cinnamon via GSConnect.
        
           | hexagonwin wrote:
           | It's doing very well. The Slackware 15.0 release is now a few
           | years old, though the packages are still being updated.
           | Slackware-current has latest everything.
        
         | gear54rus wrote:
         | I definitely have a need for this, but I can't stomach same-
         | network requirement.
         | 
         | Maybe they need self-hostable coordination server so that
         | devices can connect to each other through it.
         | 
         | For now it's still 'send to telegram saved messages' for me.
        
           | exdeejay_ wrote:
           | Have you considered using Tailscale to get around the same-
           | network requirement?
        
             | gear54rus wrote:
             | I am a heavy user of it. I don't want to stay connected to
             | it 24/7.
        
             | forbiddenlake wrote:
             | Tailscale doesn't support mDNS / multicast at all, making
             | working with KDE Connect more nebulous. I attempted to add
             | a static peer via the Tailscale hostname, but both ends
             | report not reachable, and the Tailscale daemon is
             | constantly dropping multicast packets. So I'm not sure how
             | this helps, but I also don't have a use case - if I'm on my
             | laptop, my phone is on the same Wifi network 99% of the
             | time.
        
           | ezst wrote:
           | > self-hostable coordination server
           | 
           | What a long way to spell VPN :-) (been using it for a decade
           | or so through wireguard)
        
             | gear54rus wrote:
             | No, vpn takes over your network and you have to fight weird
             | issues on different platforms. This seems like a square peg
             | for a round hole.
        
               | ezst wrote:
               | Not really? I mean, it's easy to set and forget which
               | subnets get tunnelled with wireguard (and others, it's
               | just that wg forces you to be explicit about it)
        
               | jeroenhd wrote:
               | Wireguard is purely point-to-point. You have to manually
               | specify any configuration involving routing more than
               | just the local IP addresses you add.
               | 
               | Not sure if it's the best solution, but there's no reason
               | to take over your entire network.
               | 
               | Even with my old OpenVPN setup I had a config where only
               | my local 10.2.0.0/16 got routed over the VPN, everything
               | else went straight to the outside world. Set up IPv6 ULA
               | and you don't need to worry about IP addressing
               | conflicts.
        
         | p4bl0 wrote:
         | I've been using KDE Connect without a hassle for years on
         | Debian stable as well :).
        
         | eitally wrote:
         | I had a use case that isn't the primary function of KDE
         | Connect, but where KDE Connect worked well: file sharing from a
         | Mac to an Android phone. I had no idea apps like KDE Connect
         | existed and now I'm hooked.
         | 
         | That said, for my specific use case, Blip is a FAR superior
         | option, and much lighter weight.
        
       | mid-kid wrote:
       | The branding does a major disservice to this application - it
       | works like a charm on my windows and i3wm setups, having no
       | trouble sharing a clipboard and files. There are very few
       | features if any that only work on KDE.
       | 
       | Sometimes on windows it needs a click of the refresh button to
       | get going after connecting to a network. The discovery is wonky
       | on some platforms.
        
         | throawayonthe wrote:
         | KDE is simply the 'community' that maintains it, makes sense
         | why that's the branding used despite the inevitable confusion
         | 
         | (the DE has been called Plasma for ages, and almost everything
         | KDE works outside of it)
        
           | ahakki wrote:
           | they should rebrand it as Konnekt.
        
             | groovybits wrote:
             | Legacy KDE apps used to follow this naming convention until
             | the late 2000s, early 2010s.
             | 
             | You had apps like Konqueror (web browser, file manager),
             | KMail (email client), Kompose (music score editor), KImages
             | (later rebranded to Krita), and KDevelop (software dev
             | IDE).
             | 
             | Modern KDE apps dropped the 'K' prefix and moved to a more
             | recognizable scheme, like: Falkon (web browser), Dolphin
             | (file manager), and Okular (document viewer).
             | 
             | As you can see, its now a mix of whether the app keeps the
             | 'K' in the name. Some do not.
        
               | CaptainOfCoit wrote:
               | > Legacy KDE apps used to follow this naming convention
               | until the late 2000s, early 2010s.
               | 
               | Wow, what a coincident that parent just happened to
               | suggest the identical naming convention. What are the
               | chances?
        
           | account42 wrote:
           | > the DE has been called Plasma for ages
           | 
           | I disagree.
        
             | r14c wrote:
             | Its been plasma since 2009, a year after KDE 4 came out and
             | they rebranded a bunch of their projects. Whether 16 years
             | amounts to "ages" ig is up to interpretation.
        
         | hnlmorg wrote:
         | I've been running KDE (as in the desktop) for more than 20
         | years and I had no idea that Connect worked without Plasma.
         | 
         | Thanks for sharing
        
       | The_President wrote:
       | Used to use this all the time, but about six months ago an update
       | broke the ability for two computers I have to interact. Instead
       | the daemon crashes repeatedly until I nuke it.
        
       | marcu123 wrote:
       | KDE Connects works amazingly for me. I get, once in a bluee moon,
       | the random "Can't see the other device" bug. I have solved it
       | with the basic dis/connect to the wifi both on my phone and
       | computer. Also, check your Firewall on your computer. Some
       | distros will not "Auto add" KDE Connect to the exception list of
       | your Firewall. Some routers also put LAN and WLAN devices on
       | different VLANS.
        
       | ayoisaiah wrote:
       | KDE Connect is great, but it sometimes doesn't work well enough
       | on Apple Devices. I've been using LocalSend with better success
       | when sharing to Android or Windows. But for Android to
       | Linux/Windows and Vice versa, it's pretty much perfect.
        
       | damion6 wrote:
       | I love KDE connect. After install I turn off things I don't want,
       | but I have options. Works better than any similar app. Connects
       | essentially and system. I pair it with tail scale or zero-tier
       | depending on needs. Multiboot, all major os's mobile. PC, Mac all
       | have ports. It's under rated
        
       | __jonas wrote:
       | This looks neat, from what it looks like it's essentially an Open
       | Source version of Apple's continuity/airdrop/airplay stuff?
       | 
       | Seems like it even does the universal clipboard as well, I use
       | that all the time with Apple devices, really cool to see an OSS
       | alternative.
        
       | mbeex wrote:
       | The one thing I dislike, is the trouble to finish the application
       | in a sane way:
       | 
       | https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=423497
        
         | goda90 wrote:
         | I can't say I'm experienced with Android development, but is
         | there something about this issue that makes it hard for a
         | volunteer to submit a PR? Seems like it should be just an OS
         | API call or something.
        
           | immibis wrote:
           | Android doesn't really have such a thing as quitting an app.
           | You're meant to just stop doing stuff when off screen, and
           | let your app be evicted in LRU order (or whatever order is
           | actually used). If your app does background stuff you should
           | have a settings toggle to do the background stuff or not, and
           | when it's on and the phone is on, you do the background
           | stuff.
        
             | ranger_danger wrote:
             | This is not true: https://stackoverflow.com/a/40231289
        
               | immibis wrote:
               | This closes an activity - the user interface of an app -
               | not an app. In Windows terms, this is DestroyWindow, not
               | ExitProcess.
               | 
               | You can also exit an Android process, of course. It's
               | probably what you're looking for, but it's weirdly
               | inconsistent with the overall user experience and you
               | should try to make something consistent instead. Even
               | closing a top-level activity is weird.
        
         | alright2565 wrote:
         | This doesn't seem needed to me, I've never seen an android app
         | have a way to close it. Or any kind of battery life impact from
         | KDE Connect for that matter.
        
       | BolexNOLA wrote:
       | I always appreciate posts like this even though it's clear a lot
       | of people already know about KDE connect. I only took the plunge
       | into a Linux daily driver for my machine a couple of months ago,
       | so I'm still learning a lot. Just tested it and this is really
       | useful! I depend a lot on LocalSend which is fine but this is so
       | far looking like a better option overall.
       | 
       | Gets a little funky talking to my iPhone but I'm surprised how
       | easily things like the remote control work right out the box
        
       | mr-karan wrote:
       | I also quite like Localsend to quickly share files on the same
       | network. Used to send photos/files to myself on Whatsapp/Telegram
       | before but after discovering Localsend, stopped!
       | 
       | https://localsend.org/
        
         | swaits wrote:
         | Also PairDrop, which doesn't require installing anything.
        
       | tempfile wrote:
       | Can this be used without KDE, on another desktop environment?
       | Without systemd, even?
        
         | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
         | It definitely works on other DEs. As an extreme case, there's
         | even a GNOME extension implementation:
         | https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/
         | 
         | I can't specifically speak to systemd, but it'd surprise me if
         | there was a dependency there; it's not running that deep in the
         | system. Also there's a guix package and they don't use systemd,
         | so that's another mark in favor.
        
       | npteljes wrote:
       | It blew my mind when I discovered it, and I use it regularly
       | since. I dual-boot, and it's installed on both my Linux and
       | Windows systems. I mostly use the shared clipboard functionality
       | (especially great to "send" complex messages and passwords from
       | PC to phone), and send files from the phone to the PC.
        
       | whalesalad wrote:
       | I can't get this to work across subnets/wifi networks in my home
       | network. My phone can see my workstation (KDE) but not the other
       | way around.
        
         | Joel_Mckay wrote:
         | In general, some wifi routers will offer to isolate cross-
         | forwarding between WLAN hosts. Depending on the model, one may
         | not be able to modify this setting.
         | 
         | Best of luck =3
        
       | The_President wrote:
       | The gyro mouse is a fantastic implementation! Used it to control
       | a large television from far away and it works very well.
        
       | p0w3n3d wrote:
       | I was exasperated when I found out that I can't send files from
       | my Android to my MacBook via Bluetooth. This is a standard
       | protocol. Also (of course, how could I supect otherwise) the file
       | transfer does not work too. These all work flawlessly under Linux
       | / Gnome + KDE.
       | 
       | For file transfer I used LocalSend, but it was still annoying.
        
       | agoodusername63 wrote:
       | I like this with Linux but it's so inconsistent on windows that I
       | just don't bother with it much anymore. I'm on windows most of
       | the time.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | It works in one direction: sending files from my Pixel (GOS)
       | phone to Linux.
       | 
       | But the UX could be better. When I send a file, no notification
       | is shown on my phone. But when I look in my Downloads/ folder,
       | the file is there, so that's good.
       | 
       | Now, when I open the kdeconnect-app on Linux, it cannot connect
       | to my phone. Even if the app is open on my phone. I see the
       | phone, but it says "disconnected".
       | 
       | So, as it stands, I put this in the "barely works, needs more
       | love from developers" category.
        
       | andybak wrote:
       | I discovered this when I needed an easy way to get stuff to and
       | from a Steam Deck. I now use it on my Windows and Linux PCs,
       | Macbook, Android phone, Meta Quest and the Steam Deck!
        
       | account42 wrote:
       | This seems to have more technical info:
       | https://userbase.kde.org/KDEConnect
       | 
       | E.g. that it works over the local network or bluetooth only, no
       | remote connectivity without a VPN which the marketing page with
       | fancy graphics (https://kdeconnect.kde.org/) doesn't even tell
       | you because it's so dumbed down to the point of being useless.
       | 
       | Also, why the fuck does KDE have two separate wikis.
        
       | eighthourblink wrote:
       | Been using this application for years now. Love / Support it
        
       | stormed wrote:
       | KDE Connect has been my answer to Apple's Airdrop for the last
       | couple of years. It's an excellent program; I even use it on my
       | Mac for file transferring with my Steam Deck
        
         | groovybits wrote:
         | Same use case, its also been very useful for copying and
         | pasting text from my Mac to the Steam Deck, similar to
         | Universal Copy and Paste between Apple devices.
        
         | AndyMcConachie wrote:
         | Another good one for this is Localsend.
         | 
         | https://localsend.org/
        
       | nickjj wrote:
       | How well does this work for sending a lot of files without re-
       | sending the same file?
       | 
       | I have a desktop + laptop + phone.
       | 
       | When I want to sync a directory with a lot of files I wrote a
       | little shell script that uses rsync to do it. This does require
       | running SSH on my laptop but I can invoke the shell script from
       | my desktop.
       | 
       | Likewise with my phone I want to backup my camera photos, using
       | rsync is nice here to avoid sending thousands of them over every
       | time. I run SSH on my phone with Termux, it was really painless
       | to set up and is only on when I run it. Likewise, I invoke the
       | shell script from my desktop to do the transfer.
        
         | groovybits wrote:
         | For this purpose, I would not suggest KDE Connect.
         | 
         | What you're looking for is something more like SyncThing:
         | https://syncthing.net
        
           | bityard wrote:
           | I use SyncThing on my phone to back up photos/videos on my
           | phone to my NAS. The UX is not great, but it does sync things
           | correctly 100% of the time. For years on end, I never have to
           | worry about it.
        
           | nickjj wrote:
           | I thought about SyncThing in the past but was reluctant
           | because I don't have a centralized server and I don't always
           | want 1 device to be the definitive source of truth.
           | 
           | For example:                   - On desktop, wrote a blog
           | post         - On desktop, pushed my blog post folder to my
           | laptop         - On laptop, publish the blog post 3 days
           | later         - On laptop, fix a typo and publish the post
           | - On desktop, pull in the changes from the laptop
           | 
           | The same type of situations happen with KeePassXC's database
           | file. Sometimes I make an update on my phone or laptop and
           | want it sent to my desktop, other times I make the update on
           | my desktop and want it sent to the other 2 devices.
           | 
           | With SyncThing, would this overwrite files on the wrong
           | device as soon as I "sync"?
        
       | tylergetsay wrote:
       | I wish KDE Connect supported a self hosted relay server
       | configuration. I often use mobile internet and would love for KDE
       | Connect to still work, without having to start Tailscale on my
       | phone + manually configure IPs
        
       | bityard wrote:
       | I love KDE Connect, it is insanely useful and pairs nicely with
       | KDE Plasma.
       | 
       | But I think it has some major usability issues. The two things I
       | struggle with the most:
       | 
       | 1. Sometimes (not always, but often!) the phone is not connected
       | to the computer at all. In order to send something from the
       | computer to the phone, I have to unlock the phone, find KDE
       | connect in the apps, run it, and connect to the computer. I
       | understand that this could very well be just The Way of Android,
       | but it's still obnoxious.
       | 
       | 2. The text/SMS sub-app in KDE connect is terrible. It doesn't
       | sync text messages in the background, so it tries to sync when
       | you start it. But it's very slow and takes a good 5-10 minutes
       | for all of your text messages to sync. And apparently it does
       | contacts last because in the beginning you only see phone
       | numbers. And it doesn't show pictures. And (this is normally not
       | a complaint I make), it is very ugly. GS Connect looks way
       | better, but I have no idea if it _works_ any better.
        
         | sepsol wrote:
         | I second this, especially the second point. I love KDE Connect
         | + GSConnect setup between my Android phone and Ubuntu machine,
         | but the texting app is so laggy it makes the experience
         | unpleasant.
        
       | indymike wrote:
       | KDE Connect is amazing. It's convenient.
        
       | user_7832 wrote:
       | Slightly tangential, I find the lack of a "proper" way of
       | organizing data across multiple devices frankly _terrible_. KDE
       | connect is _nice_ , but it's a bandaid patch. Airdrop between
       | your devices is the same. Apple wants you to store everything on
       | iCloud... which isn't _terrible_ , as long as everything syncs
       | fast enough, you can pay, and you're not without internet (an
       | issue even in urban areas like for eg on the subway).
       | 
       | Modern devices have just "grown", your phone with its 2FA app is
       | also a source of identity, yet the boundaries between a tool to
       | be used, a computer to "work on" (even an SMS to your boss counts
       | as work for me!), and a "fundamental part of your life" - whether
       | by you or by a megacorp (see: notifications! Mindless scrolling
       | on the social media of your choice!) - are all blurred.
        
       | jancsika wrote:
       | The feature set commenters here want is insane:
       | 
       | * fast as possible
       | 
       | * LAN, but also WAN when necessary
       | 
       | * in fact how about multi-protocol, and use the fastest protocol
       | that's available on both devices, it's 2025 people!
       | 
       | * work for sending a gargantuan amount of files with possible
       | interruptions (essentially, be rsync)
       | 
       | * be battery efficient, it's 2025 people!
       | 
       | * don't rely on a centralized cloud server, just connect the
       | damned devices to each other
       | 
       | If you think you can hack this together, you should write it for
       | Gnu Hurd because they'll release that well before you're finished
        
         | ValdikSS wrote:
         | >* be battery efficient, it's 2025 people!
         | 
         | It took a long time for me to prove that what KDE does
         | negatively impact the battery life.
         | 
         | https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=441830
         | 
         | The other user even wrote a LD_PRELOAD hijacking library to not
         | recompile the application every time
         | 
         | https://github.com/max0x7ba/kdeconnect-powersave-keepalive
        
           | ndriscoll wrote:
           | A 5 second keepalive seems unnecessary, but does that
           | actually impact battery life? How long does the device take
           | to move in and out of powersave states? I'd think you'd be
           | looking at _maybe_ 20-40 microseconds of CPU time to handle
           | the packet, so 0.0008% of the time awake due to this. Are
           | other parts of the device just super slow at moving in and
           | out of powersave states?
        
             | ValdikSS wrote:
             | Yes, it has dramatic impact on the battery life.
             | 
             | Wi-Fi in lower power state, when it has nothing to respond
             | to, disables power amplifier and only listens to incoming
             | data. Some functions which are usually performed by the OS
             | are offloaded on smartphones to the Wi-Fi chip, such as
             | ARP/NDP replies, so it doesn't need to wake up a CPU to
             | perform simple answers.
             | 
             | However with the constant keep-alive it has to both enable
             | power amplifier and to wake up the CPU to send the reply
             | that the socket is still alive.
             | 
             | I have a single-board computer with and old Mediatek chip
             | (10 years old), and there Wi-Fi PA increases power
             | consumption by 200mW. Another reporter in the ticket told
             | that his smartphone works basically 1/2 of its common
             | battery life with KDE Connect enabled.
             | 
             | Keep-alives (not necessary TCP keep alives, but any of this
             | kind of packets) are the _MAIN_ reason for internet battery
             | drain while idle, and are tricky to debug if you don't know
             | where to look (Android lists it as "Android System" or
             | "Phone Idle")
             | 
             | For example, Golang applications had 15 second keep alive
             | until recently: https://github.com/golang/go/issues/48622.
             | Imagine you've opened the website which uses golang web
             | server/proxy and enabled notifications from it in the
             | browser, which use WebSocket from the website itself. Now
             | every time your CPU is woke up every 15 seconds until you
             | close the page and notification channel is offloaded to
             | google/mozilla servers. And remember: every TCP connection
             | has its own 15-second Keep-Alive in different intervals, so
             | it's more like 5-7 second CPU wakeup interval.
             | 
             | The same applies for VPN. When anybody say that anways-on
             | VPN connection drains battery, that is 90% if the time is
             | due to frequent keep-alive packets from the VPN server.
             | 
             | Everything above applies to cellular connection as well,
             | it's the same principle.
        
           | snthd wrote:
           | Fixed in "Remove custom keepalive intervals" merged 12 Aug
           | 2024
           | 
           | https://invent.kde.org/network/kdeconnect-
           | kde/-/merge_reques...
        
             | ValdikSS wrote:
             | It improved the battery life but made the connection
             | activity detection worse (the disconnected phone won't be
             | detected for up to 2 hours), but I didn't complain anymore.
             | 
             | I initially set it to 5 minutes.
        
       | adenta wrote:
       | I've had trouble getting KDE connect to work as a shared
       | clipboard between Android and my Mac. Has anyone ever done that
       | successfully? I couldn't find any documentation to indicate
       | people have which is a real bummer.
        
       | tasuki wrote:
       | I've been using this and recently had a very unpleasant
       | experience: it couldn't mount my new Chinese android phone
       | (worked with the old one!) and the "send file" feature subtly
       | renamed my files (from .tif to .tiff).
       | 
       | It cost me four hours (QField atrocious error messages) and I'm
       | still angry about it.
        
       | vrinsd wrote:
       | As a happy user of many KDE based programs (konsole, kate,
       | dolphin, etc) it's great to see another KDE piece evangelized.
       | 
       | But can someone state conclusively if Bluetooth-base connectivty
       | in KDE Connect actually works in 2025? I looked into this a few
       | weeks ago and it seemed liked from mailing list posts until
       | Bluetooth functionality in KDE Connect equals WiFi connectivity
       | the feature is not enabled?
       | 
       | When traveling it's much easier to do "point to point" between
       | laptop and phone and in theory Bluetooth can support this easier
       | than WiFi via third-party access-point or having to mess with
       | WiFi direct.
        
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