I have read the FAQ of KDE Neon: it is well made and answers ground questions like “Is it a distro?” or “Can I turn Kubuntu into KDE Neon?”
…And yet I’m confused, because I’m just a newbie in the Linux world. For instance, when they say “on top of a stable base” I don’t know what’s meant as a “base”.
I think I understand that it isn’t a distro, but it fascinates me that it’s meant to be installed from an ISO or similar, just like a distro.
I wonder if any of you can explain:
- What is it, in different words?
- Why is it “implemented” as it is?
- Are there any other “quasi-distros” like KDE Neon out there?
- Do you use it? how has your experience with it been?
Cheers!
KDE is a Desktop Environment.
“KDE Neon” is the latest Ubuntu LTS, but with fresher KDE packages and support straight from the KDE team.
Usually the KDE version would be a few releases older than what the KDE Neon distro offers.
Thank you. By “KDE version” you mean Kubuntu? or am I misreading you?
No, the Desktop Environment (KDE, DE stands for Desktop Environment).
Kubuntu is a separate thing, it’s Ubuntu with KDE preinstalled.
KDE Neon on the other hand, is an ubuntu based distro from what I understand, I’ve never used it though.
No, I mean the version of the KDE software. Like how Windows 7, 8, and 10 are different versions, Desktop Environments also have different version numbers.
It was good. Never had an issue with it. I’ll generally stick with Plasma desktop centric distros because of the features that they offer that Gnome desktops don’t. I switched to Manjaro KDE not because I had an issue with Neon, I just simply was bored and wanted to learn new console commands for the basics after years and years of apt.
Exploring and learning are the essence of life :)
I’ve used kubuntu and neon in the past. The issue I ran into was kubuntu not having the latest KDE software, and it wasn’t available in back ports. I tried switching to neon but it’s based on the LTS version of Ubuntu so the kernel was pretty old, it didn’t have great support for my hardware.
I switched to tumbleweed and have been loving it since.
Thank you for sharing your experience. May I ask which machine you’re using? (I’m on a Thinkpad.)
I was using it on my older Asus and ran into wifi issues. I actually replaced the laptop before switching to tumbleweed. I’m running it on 3 computers so far, a Dell G15, custom built desktop, and a framework laptop.
I’m really liking it, it’s a rolling release so it always has the news versions of everything, it’s been really stable but also has a built in rollback feature in case there’s a bad update
Thank you for sharing this! Yesterday I was searching online for Tumbleweed user experiences on Thinkpad, but I only found info about older Thinkpad models. I’ll try it from a live disk. I might also switch to Framework later on…
Give it a shot! I did try running it on a live disk last week, the performance was really terrible (couldn’t even move the mouse), don’t give up on it immediately if that happens to you
Thanks for the encouragement, I will! I’ll report here in case anyone is curious.
How long ago was it? Latest LTS is 22.04, don’t think just one year would make cause any major compatibility issue (but well, if it did, just one year for 24.04LTS).
This was a few years back, maybe on 20.04 but could have been 18.04. The wifi card was a niche realtek that wasn’t well supported.
The issue is more that neon and kubuntu both have trade-offs, using either means you will be using older software releases. Doesn’t mean it will affect everyone, but for some people a rolling distro will be better.
KDE Neon was designed for someone who wants Kubuntu but with the latest KDE features. Just stick with Kubuntu if you’re a noob, or better yet, go with Debian and choose the KDE version. Your experience will be better and it will be more stable.
If you want to get the latest and greatest, go with Arch, but that requires (or at least should require coughManjaro*cough) the ability to read technical documents to fix random issues that will occasionally pop up when you are using the freshest and newest software.
I use Debian+KDE but I’d love there was a KDE Neon Debian Edition, à la Mint.
Great advice, thank you! I’ll give a first try to the first three through live disks :)
You can use distros like Arch or Debian as a base and install KDE to it as a desktop. Many distros based on Arch or Debian come with a desktop pre-installed. Like KDE. My favorite distro with KDE is Garuda KDE lite (it removes the visuals from regular Garuda). It uses Arch as a base, just like Steam OS and works well for me to game on. Steam OS for desktops is something I think will become popular once the official release from Valve comes.
Never heard about Garuda, cheers!
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Imo Kde neon serves as a test bench for whoever want to try the latest KDE DE directly from the kde team, it is not maint for daily driver use though I tried it for a while and it was pretty reliable.
Kubuntu is an ubuntu with kde that is maint to be used for daily driver usage.
Thank you for sharing your experience with it. Good to hear from many people that it was reliable.
KDE neon is a distro. It’s the long-term support version of Ubuntu as the base with the latest stable KDE software on top.
I’ve personally used it for years because I love the KDE software suite and that is pretty much the sole focus here.
PS: they say “most other software is not supported”. Have you ever had any problem installing other programs? As examples, I’d prefer using Firefox to Konqueror, and other programs to KDE connect.
I daily drive KDE Neon.
Sometimes install scripts don’t work as expected, since things check if you’re on Ubuntu or Mint or whatever specifically and “Neon” doesn’t match their regex. It’s usually not a big deal and fairly trivial to solve.
Regardless, I’ve actually started to get away from the command line and have embraced the app store. Discover is actually pretty darn good and has lots of the things I want to install. I can choose if I want to install from Discover via Apt, Flatpak, or Snap.
I usually install Flatpak stuff. The Steam Deck has taught me that Flatpak is generally as good or better than actually installing via apt - you don’t need to wait on your distro to update sources, and you aren’t adding random PPAs. Sometimes you need to fudge the permissions with Flatseal, but it’s a one-and-done thing.
I use Microsoft Edge as my browser (yes, really - the Chromium version is just as good as Chrome, it has nifty vertical tabs, I get news on my “new tab” page, and all my settings are saved there). I use Thunderbird for mail, plus Steam, Zoom, Discord, etc. Surprisingly few KDE apps are preinstalled, to be honest - the only KDE apps installed are the ones I want anyway.
Very informative, thanks! Also for the heads-up about install scripts and the cause.
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Thank you, very helpful! May I ask what you use now? Do you know if they add their software via snaps or flatpaks?
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Both Flatpak and Snap are preinstalled but it defaults to debs/apt. Though through the command line they strongly recommend the pkcon command over apt itself.
Cheers! I’ve heard that one can install Debian and simply choose KDE there. I’m weighing my options… Undecided among Debian+KDE, Kubuntu, and KDE Neon. Although it also depends on how each deals with my machine. Will have to try some live disks…
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Advice much appreciated!
Now I understand. Kubuntu instead makes modifications to the Ubuntu core. Although Neon must be somehow removing Gnome, I imagine.
I think they refer to other desktop environments. I’ve never had any issues installing other software on my system, it works just like any other Linux distro.
OK I’m confused. They say it isn’t “quite” a distro. So what’s missing to make it a distro without the “quite”?
Thank you for sharing your experience! I love KDE’s customizability and that’s why I’m interested in KDE Neon too.
I think the meaning behind this is that the largest amount of work doesn’t go into the distro itself and mostly into the KDE software. The Ubuntu base is not developed or maintained by the KDE team, they basically just “borrow” it as a platform for their KDE suite.
Very helpful, thank you so much!
You’re welcome!
Off topic, but according to Kbin this thread has 22 upvotes and 0 downvotes.
Thank you for the info. From what I understand, one only sees up/downvotes from one’s own instance (lemmy.ca in my case). When I posted it I saw it going down to -3 in a couple of minutes, so I was wondering if my question was really dumb…
I got lots of great advice in this post!
I’ll delete my edit :)
