https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-kde-plasma-desktop-on-ubuntu-20-04-focal-fossa-linux this is correct guide?
Yes. Admittedly, I do not use the tasksel method, but there is nothing wrong with using it.
I would advise caution, though.
Users can install many desktops on Zorin OS without a hitch... Cinnamon, Mate, LXDE-gtk3, XFCE, Budgie, Enlightenment...
But Plasma-Desktop is a beast. It installs a great deal of system files, themes and KDE-specific applications.
It can be tedious to get it all out...
If you want to Test KDE desktops on Zorin OS, I would opt for doing so in a virtual Environment or on a Test Build machine.
That way when you finish testing, you have no need to worry about trying to remove it all from your main rig.
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Indeed @Aravisian
A lot could go wrong with adding KDE to the mix, especially to those coming from Windows 
However, imho, when something goes wrong, nothing beats MAC OS. I mean, I use mac minis with triple boot, and when MAC OS fails (which happens the least out of the 3 OSs, by a long shot), it does so spectacularly.
Anyhow, it should work with only sudo apt install kde-full. At least it worked for me. 22.04 is better at handling KDE than 20.04, so you should be fine @Bourne
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We are beginning to stray pretty far from the thread topic with this tangent.
(EDIT: Thread split to new topic)
A minor point, Current Zorin OS 16 is based on 20.04.
I forgot about this... thanks for posting that.
I would be overjoyed if the ZorinGroup tackled the prospect of a Plasma Desktop for Zorin OS. That said, I still advise caution to users installing KDE Plasma on Zorin OS.
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Start installing KDE.
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I am installed KDE and in Zorin I have many more software and things.
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Just don't use Kmail and avoid Discover - use apper instead of Discover - you may need to install separately.
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Ok but someone before sayed don't installing full because i get double software,application etc. Well propably i will uninstall that. With a couple words I don't do that. I am simple man like Leonard Cohen singing. I was KDE on Zorin it changed Desktop completly.
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Oh god yes it was... painful
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I am finding that in my preliminary testing of Zorin 16.2 that all functions work well. The only issue seems to be with the online accounts tool. I can read files and my google drive, but can't backup. I tried using a kubuntu virtual machine and this functionality works well. You have to upload the change from your local machine to google drive, but KDE online accounts works as you would expect it to.
I was considering installing just the kde online account tool on zorin (not the whole Plasma DE) to see if I can use certain Plasma apps that I prefer. After your experience, I am reluctant to try it as I may clobber the VM and have to reinstall it.
It may be gnome-related. I tried this same experiment with a POP os vm and got the same results as with Zorin connect. The only thing I haven't tried is a gnome-based distro with the latest gnome 4x DE. Getting the same results on the latest gnome DE would confirm with near 100% certainty that the issue is in the gnome toolset itself.
I do agree. It would be worthwhile to create a KDE-based version of Zorin that is styled in a manner similar to Core.
I installed the plasma desktop on zorin following the instructions in the well-written tutorial. However, the version of plasma is 5.18. Kubuntu 22.04 uses version 5.25, which has later Qt tools. The online accounts tool works there. Version 5.18 does not include the plasma online account tool.
I could try testing a Zorin 17 nightly build if it's far enough along for me to test the zorin online accounts tool there.
Then this is possibile installing only Kernel Zorin and kde DE?
Maybe this video or this channel help you.
Now using KDE Plasma on ZorinOS 16.3 for about a year. Every time I switch back to the Zorin Desktop for a few minutes to figure out if some Gnome stuff can be manipulated in that DE better than the current, I wonder why I made the switch. But there is an answer to that.
This is my first use of a Linux DE. I have worked with quite a few Linux distro's in the past but always work-related and therefore server-related work. I have tried Linux DE distro's in VM's but that never mimics the real experience. My demands are and have always been to be able to flawlessly edit video, work with Ableton and create 3D animations. Because that is what my clients in the media do. We had that flawless experience just on Windows machines but times have changed. Davinci Resolve is on Linux, I changed from C4D to Blender, Wine has no problems with Resolve and Linux NTFS exchange is quite flawless using NTFS-3G the right way.
But! The amount of good, consistent information on all the 'modules' of a Linux desktop computer is unfreakingbelievable rare compared to the amount of 'information' on all this. It is a few Needles in a haystack. And with Google aiming (targeting) at 'the minds of the people' instead of the best search result you simply cannot find much.
What do I mean with 'modules'? Here it is:
- (Ubuntu-) base
- (Zorin-) core
- Kernell
- GTK
- QT
- Gnome
- KDE
- Xforce
- Xorg
- X11
- Wayland
- Native software (.deb)
- Snap
- Flatpak
- (self-) Compiled software installs
- a diversity on compilers and their dependencies
I may have forgotten some things I would call 'modules' in this conversation. All of the above had to be used by me to achieve a multi purpose workstation for media-creation. I quickly got real-life confirmation why Linux administrators like Linus so much more than Windows. 90% Of the ones I know have no 'spectrum of tasks' for their computers. They do a lot of tasks in isolated parts of a spectrum, like edge-computing or 'storage' or 'monitoring', etc.
I have not yet found a way to 'sell' Linux Desktop environments to clients that need to do more that some office-work and even they will quickly run into the lack of M365 nativity in software install capability.
I am enjoying my experiences though sometimes tough. It's like I am working with computers like I did between 1998 and 2008. In those ten years I wanted to figure out how all my hours of effort to make software and hardware not conflict on a machine that could open both audio and video creation tools not get lost by the ever promoted 'reinstall'. (Just reinstall the OS!)
Though the speed of the hardware now would make it less hard, I still have not figured out what to reinstall and how. Ansibel is my next steep learning-curve challenge to see If I can upgrade my workstation to the latest stable 'modules' in the best cooperating combinations. Who knows what that will be? Will it be ZorinOS 17 with both plasma and Zorin Desktop on Wayland?
This last option seems very promising to me. I have found that Zorin may have the best understanding of the need of DE users. And they seem to progress fastest in the most stable way. That is all 'I have read forums' talk. My reality is still Windows XP just before W7.
Cons to do what I do, Plasma on ZorinOS 16(.3):
- Installing KDE Plasma and SDDM breaks Zorin's stability for ever
- Switching DE's makes Gnome complain because GTK modules conflict with overruling QT application of the same. f.e. KIO will try to open a browser via another application in the Zorin Desktop and it makes the Graphic driver crash.
- There is no way I will be able to use the update tool available only in the Zorin DE. (Just reinstall the OS!)
Last things to think over because I have to go:
- Do I move to Kubuntu because I love my KDE desktop and I want to keep it. Plasma 6 is extremely good in the reviews and finally uses Wayland.
- Will that Wayland open up even though my laptop has an Nvidia GI?
- Should I stick to Zorin if 17 somehow has a stable switch between Plasma and Zorin DE?
I cannot find anyone throughout the past year who ran their Linux Desktop PC like a Media Workstation. I have created 3D, edited video's in a simple setting but did not get to use audio. I think it would work just fine. Get me connected! And let me know if you liked reading this post.
O. And last but not least you Linux lovers...installing all my needs made the System Image grow to nearly the size of it's Windows functionality-brother 
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Hi, whilst I am no 3d creator, I have had experience of using Plasma from lockdown during Covid until I retired. Fortunately for me, I had benefitted from an offer from SoftMaker Office 2018 Pro, 5 machine licence for under £25. It is the only office suite that is fully compatible with MS Office. Before lockdown I had been using FerenOS with Plasma. I only used Windows 7 Pro 32-bit as a VM in FerenOS for Outlook365 for a shared mailbox. I was a Vision Support Technician requiring to modify documents for students from pre-school up to higher education to age 25 in Large Print and Braille. Fortunately for me American Printing House had released a free Braille Translation program, Brailleblaster. So FerenOS was my daily go to (an Ubuntu/Mint hybrid) for work from March 2020 until Christmas 2020 when I ditched it for a more secure GNU/Linux, Devuan 3.0. The downside to this move is that Brailleblaster for GNU/Linux no longer worked on Devuan so had to use the Windows VM, and as Windows 7 support ended in early 2021, I had to upgrade the VM of Windows 7 Pro to Windows 8.1 Pro to run the Windows version of Brailleblaster and I moved from the inferior Virtual Box to virt-manager which allowed me to import my .vhd of Windows to become a .qcow2 image. I used Plasma on Devuan too and this was 5.24. I liked the tiled menu which gives a Windows 10 style Menu. Everything just worked and looked so much better than Gnome. I eventually managed to set up Evolution to work with my work personal email, which was Outlook365. I had no help from my school base IT Department, I figured it out myself. I also through web search found how to use Remmina Remote to login to the private web address in Firefox ESR with one login, compared to using Edge in the VM of Windows which required 3 logins before I could access the shared server folder to save modified documents. I did have to purchase a pdf editor, and bought pdf Studio Pro at 1/5 the cost of Adobe Acrobat, the latter needs extras to be purchased sepaeately, where pdf Studio Pro has everything included. The other thing about plasma is it is a lot easier to setup network shares between plasma machines using kde Network File Sharing library installed via Synaptic. Why the move to Devuan? Well, I wanted an OS that was free from systemd, which I have since learned that it was not totally free of all aspects of systemd, it still had elogind. The only OS running Plasma without any element of systemd is PCLinuxOS running Plasma 5.27. I have had some crashes on it and have needed to reinstall once. The only systemd OS that I use as my current daily driver is Q4OS which also is the only GNU/Linux distribution to offer 32-bit Trinity Desktop Environment, which is basically what KDE looked like before Plasma. It too is a stunning DE. The only audio program I use is audacious which allows me to avoid pulse audio and pipewire for the superior ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture). For screencapture I use vokoscreen-NG and edit in KDEnlive before rendering to upload to my vimeo account.
This should interest you:
In respect of Zorin 17 I have removed the Zorin Desktop and Gnome and just have Plasma and Enlightenment DE's.
In view of the negative feedback for Zorin 17.2 it might be time for me to consider writing unofficial manuals for some other OS's, and for Windows migrators I think Q4OS is ideal.
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Now I am curious about the negative feedback on ZorinOS 17. I have not seen much of that. Quite the opposite. I am also curious how much Zorin is left if you remove the desktop and Gnome. I figured Gnome might be needed to run Gnome based programs. Or am I now mistaken Gnome for Gtk?
That is a bit of a fallacy. But ... I think it depends on what programs you install. For example, one app might be so dependent on Gnome that it pulls everything in. When I first staeted my GNU/Linux journey it was exposure to Knoppix when I was around 48, and advised by the 6th Form student on placement in the school where I was based, to use Mandrake Linux which had the KDE desktop. The only issue back then was that I was on dial-up internet and Mandrake needed fast connection for updates. So I would take CD's to work to download updates in my lunch break. The downside to this was I managed to break my install. KDE was more familiar to me coming from Windows. That was a big plus. The downside was that from an accessibility perspective, the accessible apps were poor, Gnome scored higher with Orca, the Screenreader application. Fast forward to 2023 and KDE neon can utilise Orca without Gnome. That said, it does use Ubuntu frameworks in its updates. Where KDE neon fails is its built-in firewall, you have to install Gnome Uncomplicated Fire Wall (GUFW). So you can see, the boundaries have become blurred. And the way things are going I see Q4OS as a better alternative than Zorin because Zorin has no control over the Gnome devs. My favourite version of Plasma is 5.27 because in Plasma 6 the tiled menu does not work.
That's funny and good info at the same time. (Hu)Men can be so silly. For me at the moment the tiled menu seems to be the deal-breaker. Whye we like this? 
No issues here. May be very off-topic too.
Yes, I've actually got used to this desktop layout: