Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma • Hacker News Board

Re: Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma

#171

Post by cromka » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 1:53 PM UTC

garciansmith wrote: post #46

cromka wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that's exactly my point. You come to that DE, you don't want to modify and optimize every single nook and cranny. I mean sure, some do, but this is a vast minority. If Linux is to become truly popular desktop, it needs DEs like Gnome, aiming at those who are just fine with all the defaults curated for them.

Does Gnome have Desktop icons again by default? Because if not then no, it's not fine for people moving from Windows or Mac.

What you're talking here is what I mentioned: Gnome maybe goes too far with removing some functionality, but I personally haven't used desktop icons in like 10 years and, based on current macOS trend, neither does Apple bet on it. But I am talking about overcluttering and overcomplicating UX, not oversimplifying it. Both things can be true and my KDE complaints are about the former, because I was responding to someone else praising it.

Your whataboutism doesn't invalidate my critique.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma

#172

Post by reedlaw » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 1:59 PM UTC

darkwater wrote: post #155

Since this is not going to be released any time soon, any suggestions on what could be used to be a TV UI for Jellyfin? It should just show that, nothing else. Currently I'm using a Nintendo Switch with Switchfin and it's pretty neat but sometimes even transcoded streams stutter or make the fan go brrrrr

Plasma Bigscreen has been around for 6 years: https://itsfoss.com/news/plasma-bigscreen-comeback/

Re: Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma

#173

Post by evolve2k » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 2:06 PM UTC

xrd wrote: post #152

I can't for the life of me figure out if this is a way to put KDE on my TV by overwriting the existing OS, or if this is something to install on a computer which I then plug my TV into via HDMI. I'm not being lazy here but I have reviewed this site and outbound links. And, I have reviewed the threads there. I'm very interested in repurposing my LG Smart TV and have been hesitant about installing a software package on…

I could totally wrong, but my assumption is that you’d get a small dedicated box (mini PC) that has an display port/hdmi/lightning port and usb ports and plug that into your TV like you would an Apple TV.

A remote control with wifi would work pretty easily by being connected into usb port, just like a wireless mouse.

Something like an ASUS NUC comes to mind for me but it’s designed to work with anything that you can install Linux on. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=asus+nuc&_trksid=p46248...

Re: Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma

#174

Post by WD-42 » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 2:43 PM UTC

monegator wrote: post #110

Oanid wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd have to disagree with you on that one. I recently migrated to Fedora from Windows 11, which gave me the chance to try Plasma, GNOME, and a couple other desktops. Plasma is exactly what I don't want in a DE. It’s extremely configurable, but also overwhelming, and I don’t think that’s something the average user would feel comfortable navigating. I ended up choosing GNOME. It feels visually cohesive, and the design…

Dude, default plasma breeze theme, remove rounded corners, you have the windows 10 interface. What else do you want?

Here’s an example: https://imgur.com/a/konsole-vs-ghostty-tR4Otmy

Konsole on left, ghostty (which is gtk) on right. The latter has at least 3 additional lines visible outputting the same command. The giant copy paste buttons, tab bar which wastes a ton of space, are typical of kde apps. The klutter isn’t just visually annoying it makes the apps less useful.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma

#175

Post by darkwater » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 3:13 PM UTC

reedlaw wrote: post #172

darkwater wrote: post #155

Since this is not going to be released any time soon, any suggestions on what could be used to be a TV UI for Jellyfin? It should just show that, nothing else. Currently I'm using a Nintendo Switch with Switchfin and it's pretty neat but sometimes even transcoded streams stutter or make the fan go brrrrr

Plasma Bigscreen has been around for 6 years: https://itsfoss.com/news/plasma-bigscreen-comeback/

I was referring to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283124

Anyway, I will try it in its current status. I basically need a launcher for the desktop Jellyfin app and not much more

Re: Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma

#176

Post by The_President » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 3:20 PM UTC

shevy-java wrote: post #89

Does anyone know whether Nate's donation-daemon is disabled on this device, by default? Because if it is, then this invites to a critical follow-up question: aka WHY is it disabled there, but not by default elsewhere for regular users of KDE. Nate, via his biased blog entries, constantly tries to reason how vital it is to pressure people (sorry; "voluntarily remind them that donations are acceptable for the KDE devs"…

For the sake of long term success of the KDE project - it needs a major public financial, secuirity, and bug audit. It would be worth seeing if the KDE project would use donation money to cover outside firms to audit their operations and code.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma

#177

Post by jrm4 » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 3:36 PM UTC

At the risk of whatever, I feel like there might be a "market" for something like the "OpenBox" version of this - or perhaps what I'm saying is even using something like Openbox to get the minimalist version of this thing.

Seems to me a 10-foot interface almost by definition doesn't need the complexity of a KDE; you need to launch apps from "big rectangles on the screen" instead of like a Start Menu(and probably configure those to be 10 foot friendly) -- and MAYBE a few widgets and that's it.

I've always wondered why that doesn't seem to exist, and now probably with vibe coding may just work on it myself.

Re: Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma

#178

Post by OsrsNeedsf2P » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 3:42 PM UTC

shevy-java wrote: post #89

Does anyone know whether Nate's donation-daemon is disabled on this device, by default? Because if it is, then this invites to a critical follow-up question: aka WHY is it disabled there, but not by default elsewhere for regular users of KDE. Nate, via his biased blog entries, constantly tries to reason how vital it is to pressure people (sorry; "voluntarily remind them that donations are acceptable for the KDE devs"…

They made 467,889 euros in donations in 2024. This is the desktop environment that is an incumbent to taking market share from Windows. Is your comment serious?

Re: Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma

#179

Post by OsrsNeedsf2P » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 3:43 PM UTC

The_President wrote: post #176

shevy-java wrote: post #89

Does anyone know whether Nate's donation-daemon is disabled on this device, by default? Because if it is, then this invites to a critical follow-up question: aka WHY is it disabled there, but not by default elsewhere for regular users of KDE. Nate, via his biased blog entries, constantly tries to reason how vital it is to pressure people (sorry; "voluntarily remind them that donations are acceptable for the KDE devs"…

For the sake of long term success of the KDE project - it needs a major public financial, secuirity, and bug audit. It would be worth seeing if the KDE project would use donation money to cover outside firms to audit their operations and code.

They have an Expenses breakdown in each year's fundraiser[0] page.

https://kde.org/fundraisers/

Re: Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma

#180

Post by ducktastic » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 3:47 PM UTC

jrm4 wrote: post #177

At the risk of whatever, I feel like there might be a "market" for something like the "OpenBox" version of this - or perhaps what I'm saying is even using something like Openbox to get the minimalist version of this thing. Seems to me a 10-foot interface almost by definition doesn't need the complexity of a KDE; you need to launch apps from "big rectangles on the screen" instead of like a Start Menu(and probably conf…

I'm totally with you on this and a great idea. Always used flux/openbox whenever I could on my own workstations, and the idea that it could be used for a big screen device would be great.