How should we present KDE Plasma desktop sessions to users?

[Adrien Glauser]

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Hi all,

I am part of a group of volunteers helping our distribution update the
user documentation, with the goal  of improving the learning experience
for new users.

Now we all know Plasma has made tremendous progress with the wayland
and xwayland sessions . Unfortunately, as far as our support channels
are concerned, these improvements might not be readily enjoyable for
Nvidia users -- which is not surprising after all, as the meme says.
(Here I am talking about people who installed the proprietary driver,
typically for a laptop with both an Intel integrated and Nvidia
dedicated GPU. In this email I am talking about this category of users,
and about no other category).

Thus we want to make recommendations to our new users, whether fresh
switchers from the non-Linux world, or Linux users coming from the
GNOME world, where full wayland sessions are working OK for most
including the category I am talking about.

To make this assumption very clear: We feel like purely descriptive
information is not enough, because users are owed clear disclaimers and
warning signs when there is a live possibility that their sub menus
will be glitching and logoff process freezing. For us it's not just
about QA, it's also about basic respect for people who accepted to get
out their comfort zone to step into the Linux world.

Bearing in mind this context, I am asking you the following: What is
the most honest and accurate thing to say to these users? Should we
either:

a) Recommend the xorg session (because it's the most stable), and make
no other recommendation? (saying for example that the QA testing around
the other two is lacking, or something along these lines?)

b) Recommend the xorg session, and recommend against the xwayland and
wayland? (saying what I believe to be true, that is, that the other two
sessions make it impossible for them to experience Plasma as it is
meant to be)

c)  Recommend all sessions in the sense that, contrary to my belief and
knowledge, there actually is first-hand QA data supporting the idea
that all three sessions are OK for these users?

I am putting this out with an open mind, so please correct me if I am
not portraying Plasma UX accurately. I am just trying to work with the
evidence I have, and to use it as best as I can for our users.

Also if you wonder why I am not writing to the Promo team at KDE don't
wonder anymore: I have, and they acknowledge that this issue is a
little bit off their department.

Cheers and thanks for reading,

Adrien
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