KDE Plasma is a powerful desktop environment that gives you tons of customization over how your system looks and feels. However, you need to pair it with the right base distro to get the perfect user experience. To help you make your pick, here are five awesome distros running KDE Plasma.

Kubuntu is the official flavor of Ubuntu that ditches the heavily customized GNOME desktop environment in favor of KDE Plasma. You get a clean, stock KDE Plasma desktop paired with the rock-solid Ubuntu core which guarantees a stable and reliable user experience, excellent hardware support, and extensive software availability through snaps, PPAs (Personal Package Archives), and the Ubuntu software repository.

Being a part of the Ubuntu family means that this distro is blessed with a massive community welcoming beginners. Almost all Linux guides and tutorials available online are geared towards Ubuntu, and most of them will work on your Kubuntu PC. This is why Kubuntu is one of my top picks for Linux newcomers who enjoy desktop customization and want a Windows-like user experience.

Kubuntu also follows Ubuntu’s release cycle—with Long Term Support (LTS) versions released every two years and regular interim releases approximately every six months. The distro focuses heavily on system stability, which often means a lot of testing and relatively slower access to the latest KDE Plasma version.