Please treat KDE Konsole as a first-class citizen on Aurora (and NOT Ptyxis)

Bluefin and Aurora
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I have explored Aurora (& Bazzite) many times and appreciate the work put into it.

However, one recurring issue has been a challenge for me:
When I choose KDE Plasma as my desktop environment (so Aurora), I expect to find Konsole as the default and not Ptyxis. This has been a significant factor in my decision to stick with Arch Linux instead of adopting Aurora full-time.

It would be incredibly helpful to have a straightforward way to completely disable Ptyxis and set KDE Konsole as the default terminal. Like in the GUI as a first-time setup step.

I came across a related issue on GitHub, but I found the response somewhat discouraging: KDE Konsole desktop file not properly working in Aurora · Issue #1471 · ublue-os/bluefin · GitHub

As a dedicated KDE power-user, Konsole is essential for my workflow. In comparison, Ptyxis doesn’t meet my needs as effectively (it feels like a childs toy).

I think KDE users want the full KDE experience - so Konsole > Ptyxis.

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If you want to restore Konsole you can either run these lines from bazzite directly or PR them into the Bluefin repo:

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To add to this, this recently became a hidden command in Bazzite and it’s my intention to remove it now that we have this as an upstream package If Fedora doesn’t beat me to replacing them entirely. Ptyxis is geared toward the container workflow that is in play here and is therefore the most optimal terminal.

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Except for those of us that have been in the immutable Fedora space since the early 30’s and beyond, Konsole is our container optimized terminal. At the least it shouldn’t be removed especially since it is prolly one of the best terminals being slept on. I too was urked when trying to find Konsol and reinstate it. I just thought it pretty presumptuous to not at least offer them side by side while recomending Pytcis (I can’t even pronounce it) to the newbies… especially at that time as Pyctys wasn’t working right… Just my opinion and a +1 to OP.

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Until Konsole has a drop-down for distrobox images I see no reason to even consider it. We offer it in the sense that it saves no space to remove it.

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Thank you for your responses.

I’m looking for a Distro focused on KDE Plasma that offers the complete KDE experience right out of the box and I guess Aurora & Bazzite are just not for me then.

I don’t want to install a fresh & shiny new Distro only to have to edit some config files in order to reactivate Konsole. That’s not a nice user experience.

Is there a feature request for this on KDE’s side that we can check out? I’ve found the KDE developers to be quite friendly and receptive to feedback in the past.
(I could try to open one myself but I am not sure if I could adequately describe the needs of this project)

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I made a “feature request” over on the KDE / Konsole side:

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=491513

This still applies but I guess it’s a start.

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Is the dropdown list of containers the unique benefit of Ptyxis? I’m on Yakuake for life but wanting to learn all the fancies.

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I was surprised by this as well, as a new user. I don’t use distrobox, and I think it would be limiting for the project to assume that every user will use every unique feature of the distro. Konsole is familiar to many people, integrates better with KDE and Plasma, and has more features - just not this one. I can understand setting ptyxis as the default, and having its icon pinned rather than Konsole, but hiding Konsole seems a step too far, to me.

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On an atomic distro, this is a mistake. Ptyxis does a good job of making you aware of it since you’re here, so this further solidifies my decision of keeping it. Appreciate the feedback.

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Is the dropdown list of containers the unique benefit of Ptyxis? I’m on Yakuake for life but wanting to learn all the fancies.

Yes, Ptyxis’s dropdown for containers and it’s overall performance are it’s two standout features among other terminal emulators.

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We offer it in the sense that it saves no space to remove it.

Following up on this, for those who have used the previous ujust command to restore the original terminal, I recommend you instead install the KDE Konsole flatpak. We are now able to save space by removing this package thanks to the rechunker, so it’s on the chopping block for Bazzite.

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And make sure you do this early, because your settings and profiles don’t transfer over. You’ll need time to copy them before your terminal is yanked out from under you.

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This is why we hid it on purpose.

Our entire mission is to bring cloud native container-first patterns to the desktop, and that’s what we prioritize. Sorry, we’re not going to budge on this, container-integration is a basic requirement for us. We did the same thing to the old GNOME terminal too, and is why we ship tools like distrobox and boxbuddy. Our entire purpose is to bring this technology to the desktop.

This is also why the entire core experience is meant to be extended and forked for situations like this. It’s not a hard lift if someone wanted to make a pure KDE experience if that’s what you prefer.

When Konsole (or another KDE terminal) grows support we’d be happy to reinvestigate, but at this time it doesn’t have the features our target audience needs. Hope this sheds some light on why we’re making these decisions.

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The difference with the GNOME situation imo is that ptyxis looks very similar to the gnome terminal, so if you’re new or used to GNOME terminal you’ll barely notice the difference. Meanwhile, if you’re used to Konsole, it’s a drastically different experience. Personally I just think it’d be nice to have a KDE-style terminal with the same features as Ptyxis, so that the workflow is at least much closer and easier to adapt to