KDE Linux

KDE Linux — codenamed "Project Banana"— is a KDE-owned general-purpose Linux®-based operating system.

The goal of KDE Linux is to create a bulletproof OS suitable for normal people, showcasing the best of KDE that we can proudly recommend to users and OEMs, with a coherent "here's how you get it" story.

KDE Linux is developed at https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux. Download it here!

History and design

Work on KDE Linux began in 2023, and its working prototype was revealed by Harald Sitter at Akademy 2024 (slides, recording). An alpha release followed at Akademy 2025 (slides, recording).

KDE Linux is an "immutable base" operating system that does not include a traditional package manager, but apps can be installed from Flatpak or AppImages, with various other advanced options for getting software from other sources. System updates involve replacing the OS image with an entirely new one, with old images preserved to facilitate system rollbacks.

The project focuses on modern technical infrastructure and is heavily inspired by systemd creator Lennart Poettering's thoughts on OS design and system extensions.

For more information, see Background information.

Current state

KDE Linux has completed its Alpha release. This comprises the Testing Edition which provides built-from-git-master versions of Plasma, KWin, and KDE apps. General "daily driving" should be usable for adventurous people.

Anyone envisioning being one of those people should read through the list of known significant user-facing issues to make sure nothing is a deal-breaker.

In addition, note that the QA & testing infrastructure needs more thoroughness and automation, so expect some bad builds from time to time that you'll need to roll back.

Finally, anything currently pre-installed may be removed before the beta release. Don't build mission-critical workflows around any of it.

Work now focuses on the Beta release, comprising the Stable Edition and Enthusiast Edition, and fixing as many of the above-mentioned issues as possible.

Getting it

To install on physical hardware, see https://kde.org/linux/docs/install.
To install in a virtual machine, see https://kde.org/linux/docs/install-vm.

Using it

Life on a cutting-edge immutable OS can be unfamiliar! Read the official documentation to learn how to perform various tasks.

Helping out

The KDE Linux team is super excited to receive new contributors! The OS is easy to hack on, and the developers hang out in the #kde-linux:kde.org Matrix room. See https://kde.org/linux/docs/kde-linux-dev for details.

Governance & policies

KDE Linux follows a "Council of Elders" model with the council comprising the project's top contributors across the fields of:

Founding the project
Doing development work on the project
Maintaining the infrastructure for the project
Presenting about the project in public and blogging about it
Writing documentation about the project
Doing user support and outreach for the project
Contributing bananas to fellow KDE community members

This being necessarily difficult to quantify, the council members as of April 2026 are:

Harald Sitter
Nate Graham
Lasath Fernando
Hadi Chokr
Thomas Duckworth

Consensus governance is strongly encouraged and preferred.

Non-trivial changes should be proposed in the form of merge requests that get approved by someone on the council of elders. Pushing directly to master is discouraged.

Large topics are discussed in monthly calls. History and conclusions/adopted policies based on discussions in these calls can be found at https://community.kde.org/KDE_Linux/Calls

Linux®

The registered trademark Linux® is used pursuant to a sublicense from the Linux Foundation, the exclusive licensee of Linus Torvalds, owner of the mark on a worldwide basis.