Trinity Desktop Environment

KDE 4.0 created a public relations nightmare. Although announced as a developer's release, it was quickly added to the distributions' repositories, even though many of KDE 3.5's features were yet to be implemented. In addition, KDE 4.0's increased overhead meant that it ran slowly.

As a response, the free software community reacted like it always does. A fork of KDE 3.5 was created and called Trinity Desktop Environment [7], a reference to KDE 3.x. A small group of developers continue to work on Trinity to this day, although its user share remains low.

Why would anyone use Trinity today? One reason is that it is geared to the more limited hardware of another era and runs faster than Plasma. Another is that it builds on an already stable release series and runs reliably. Admittedly, it lacks Plasma's innovations, such as Activities, but that should not trouble those for whom a desktop is primarily an application launcher. In many ways, Trinity is to Plasma what MATE is to Cinnamon, a remnant from a simpler era that is still highly functional.

Something for Everyone

KDE/Plasma is built on a different philosophy than most Linux desktop environments. Gnome technology is inspired by a minimalism that has been carefully perfected by a decade's worth of development. By contrast, KDE Plasma's guiding design principle is customization. As these examples show, that principle can lead to radically different results. However, it also means that almost everyone can find an implementation to their taste – or, if not, work to create their own ideal desktop.