One of the most common uses for Linux is to breathe life back into old hardware. Yet certain desktop environments like KDE Plasma can still feel sluggish on aging hardware. The old laptop I pulled out of storage is a prime example, but here’s what I did to speed it up.
Before we dive in, I’m going to issue a couple of caveats. For one, I used KDE Neon to test these tweaks because it’s a Plasma Linux distro in one of its purest forms. It’s meant for testing the latest in Plasma other software from the KDE community as soon as it’s available. The version I was testing and making screenshots with was Plasma 6.5.1. The version you have and its interface may be slightly different.
I also want to note I used a nearly 15-year-old laptop for this test. It was very slow to begin with, which is why I set out to optimize it how I could. Typically, though, I wouldn’t install KDE Plasma on a computer this old. Other desktop environments are more lightweight by default. Still, I wanted to see how nimble I could make Plasma, and this is what seemed to work.
Disable desktop effects
Turning off KDE Plasma’s desktop effects might be the easiest and most effective route to a faster user experience. Desktop effects come in many forms, but they’re mostly animations that make your experience as a desktop user feel more fluid and dynamic. They usually aren’t crucial for everyday use of your desktop, so you can often safely disable them while reaping some speed benefits.
To do that, you need to open the Plasma settings app and head to Apps & Windows > Window Management > Desktop Effects. You can uncheck all the ones you’re certain you don’t need.
I won’t tell you which ones are most worth disabling because it really depends on your needs. Some desktop effects are accessibility-oriented, so you’ve got to be careful you don’t accidentally disable one that objectively makes your experience better.
Simplify the task switcher
The Alt+Tab task-switching shortcut is one of my most-used Plasma keyboard shortcuts. It lets me quickly alternate and cycle through between windows on my desktop. KDE Plasma has multiple versions of this function’s interface or “visualization,” and they vary in flashiness. Some involve quite a bit of animation, which, again, slows down your desktop. After changing to a more basic interface, I was able to switch tasks much faster.
You can do this by going to Apps & Windows > Window Management > Task Switcher in the settings app. Under “Visualization”, click the dropdown box and try one of the other options.
In my experience, the snappiest options to pick were Compact and Large Icons. The Cover Switch, Flip Switch, Sidebar, and Thumbnail Grid options were too slow and animation-heavy. For maximum effect, you can also turn off visualizations completely by unchecking the box next to the dropdown menu.
Turn off plasma search plugins
This tweak is specific to KDE’s search functions in the application launcher and the Krunner command box. By default, they’re set to use several plugins when they run searches. Each of these plugins slow down the overall search results. The more you turn off, the faster each search can complete.
To manage these plugins, go to Workspace > Search > Plasma Search. You can uncheck the boxes for plugins that aren’t useful to you.
I won’t tell you which ones you should turn off because that depends on your preferences and workflow. To give you an idea, though, here are a few I disabled:
- Desktop Sessions: I’m the only user of this laptop, so I won’t need to quickly switch sessions.
- Colors: I’m not an artist; I don’t need to be able to look up color codes.
- Date & Time: I can see the date and time in the lower panel, and I don’t look up timezone differences enough to need it built into Krunner.
- Kate Sessions: While I do like the Kate text editor, I don’t use it enough to need the ability to search sessions.
- Konsole Profiles: I don’t plan to do anything fancy with profiles in Konsole, so I don’t need this.
Audit your autostart apps
If there are any applications that automatically start on your KDE PC, they’ll naturally slow down your experience, especially when you first boot up and log in. You can disable these individually by opening the settings app and scrolling the sidebar menu until you find System > Autostart.
If there are any applications in that list that you know you don’t need launching the moment you start up your Plasma desktop, you can just click the red X icon next to that application.
Uncheck needless background services
KDE Plasma has a menu for managing background services, which are programs that handle everyday operations invisibly. Many are required for basic functionality, but basic functions aren’t needed in every use-case. These services run without a graphical interface, so they don’t consume much of your resources individually. If you disable several, though, you’ll likely see a small uptick in speed.
You can review the full list of background services with descriptions of each by searching your application launcher for Background Services and clicking it.
After launching, you’ll have a list of items you can uncheck before clicking OK to disable them.
I recommend caution here. If you’re at all uncertain what a background service does and how necessary it is, then I recommend leaving it enabled. It can be hard to judge how the loss of a service will affect your experience.
That said, I was comfortable disabling the Bluetooth, Print Manager, Thunderbolt Device Manager, and Welcome Center Launcher services. The laptop I was testing on had no Bluetooth or Thunderbolt hardware built into it, I don’t need repeated welcome messages, and I don’t plan to print anything from the laptop either.
If these optimizations aren’t enough for you, there are more tweaks you can make that aren’t KDE-specific. For one, you can configure GRUB2 to not appear at startup, giving you a slightly faster boot time.
While I had fun seeing how fast I could make KDE Plasma, there are many more lightweight desktop environments out there like Xfce, LXQt, and Openbox. These don’t require much adjusting to make them lean and nimble.
