I was using KDE when I switched to Mac OS from Linux as my main desktop (2013 ish).
Must admit I've only looked at the default desktop in Ubuntu in the past years, and that's ... disappointing.
Maybe I should look at how KDE is these days, but it's a second class citizen in most major distros isn't it? Except in this Mint i've never tried.
I also have this fetish for cool and quiet. Can I run KDE on a box that idles at 10 W and never turns the fan audibly on?
> Except in this Mint i've never tried
Well, Cinammon is the windows manager for Mint, it's the barebones experience that's the closest to Windows (?) style, it's mostly what you see is what you get, but still very customizable.
KDE used to be extremely buggy 5-6 years ago and since testing it on my Steam Deck, from my experience, this is no longer the case. It's a bit more feature-rich and flashier than Cinnamon.
> Can I run KDE on a box that idles at 10 W and never turns the fan audibly on?
No laptop I'm aware of will do this, no idea about ARM adoption.
Personally I'm glad to have a windows manager that doesn't force dumb decisions down my throat. On MacOS I have to wait for half a second for the focus to land on the next window when I switch desktops, the only workaround exists as a minor feature recently introduced to BetterSwitchTool called instant desktop switching or something. And it's to be mentioned ofcourse that for all similar fixes you _must_ give full screen recording and accessibility permissions to 3rd party software. And don't get me started on the stupid windows management (maximize != full-screen, minimized windows not recoverable with keyboard only etc)