I really like KDE and think it's some of the best free software out there, in function and in spirit. I'm glad I stuck with it despite the dark years of KDE 4, which was an absolute disaster and only appeared worse in contrast to the amazing 3.5.
I'm not a KDE developer but I greatly appreciate the development process. I've made a few minor changes in KDE and it was very easy to get a development environment set up, and then process for getting those PRs approved was easy.
Better yet, that showed me that it's relatively easy to use your own builds of KDE on top of an otherwise complete system. I use Debian as my daily driver but sometimes I want new KDE features that won't hit the Debian repos for a while so I build those KDE components myself and use them. I wouldn't recommend that to new users but it's very viable if you understand how your system works.
I'm not a KDE developer but I greatly appreciate the development process. I've made a few minor changes in KDE and it was very easy to get a development environment set up, and then process for getting those PRs approved was easy.
Better yet, that showed me that it's relatively easy to use your own builds of KDE on top of an otherwise complete system. I use Debian as my daily driver but sometimes I want new KDE features that won't hit the Debian repos for a while so I build those KDE components myself and use them. I wouldn't recommend that to new users but it's very viable if you understand how your system works.