Linux Mint Releases Last KDE Edition "Sylvia"

​Mint fans rejoice as the latest version of Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia with the KDE desktop is available to download on Linux Mint’s official website. The sad part is that this will be the last offering from Linux Mint that will feature the KDE desktop environment.   ​This was revealed in the Linux Mint’s blog sometime back by the project head Clement Lefebvre. He was quoted ‘In continuation with what’s been done in the past, Linux Mint 18.3 will feature a KDE edition, but it will be the last release to do so.’  

Download Linux Mint 18.3 “Sylvia” KDE

​The distro is available for download and you can get it right away from the official website.  

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Why is Linux Mint discontinuing KDE edition?

​This is exactly what you might be thinking and so are most Mint fans that use KDE. The Mint team probably took this decision because they felt that KDE was much more than just a desktop. The Mint team experienced that KDE is growing into a completely different world and it is also gradually drifting away from what Mint wishes to focus on. All of this is, in fact, true. KDE has its own tools for the job, its own UI toolkit and the whole ecosystem is different.

Since Linux Mint is trying to be a complete desktop distribution and not just some base OS distributor. The Mint team believes that their vision in the integration of various services, solutions an app works best with cinnamon and with Mate and XFCE. Another big reason could have been that a good number of users just preferred to use Kubuntu.  

So what’s next?

​The 18.3 Sylvia release will have the KDE desktop and is an LTS release, so this means that the distro will receive fixes and other support for the next 3 years till 2021. If you still wish to use KDE after that, you can install it unofficially. The newer releases will have only 3 desktops to choose from. These will be the Cinnamon, Mate, and XFCE.