Question - KDE 5 vs 4

[megosdog]

Hey everyone, I'm looking at possibly upgrading from 14.04 to 16.04 and in my initial system testing I noticed that 16.04 is using the new KDE5 desktop. Aside from the new look, what's the major advantages of 5 over 4, or is it just mostly backend improvements with a few frontend tweaks? Just trying to figure out what I'm getting myself into. ^_^

[SecretCode]

Hmm, a question I often ask myself. A lot of the visual stuff looks like change for the sake of change to users - behind the scenes, it's reworked to make it easier for future development.

I'm not sure if everything possible in KDE4 is yet possible in 5 (it should be, it's been out long enough).

On the benefits side, you get future proofing. Some applications are already not being developed for KDE4 (example: KDE Connect). In other words, you will eventually have to upgrade, and 16.04 is pretty well put together.

I'm sure some less cynical members will be along to identify some actual advantages!

[megosdog]

Hmm, it's interesting that you mention the stopping of development of apps for KDE4 as I ran into that already with Kdenlive. Now, I admit there aren't any apps I have yet that I absolutely gotta have the latest version of. However, I'm sure that I'm gonna have to deal with that soon enough. So I guess that would be an advantage to upgrading in some sense.