KDE neon
neon.kde.org
KDE neon is the latest and greatest of KDE community software packaged on a rock-solid base.

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!

  • carzianEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • stravanasu@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Thank you for sharing your experience. May I ask which machine you’re using? (I’m on a Thinkpad.)

      • carzianEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        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

        • stravanasu@lemmy.caOPEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          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…

          • carzianEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            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

            • stravanasu@lemmy.caOPEnglish
              2·
              1 year ago

              Thanks for the encouragement, I will! I’ll report here in case anyone is curious.

    • flontlocs@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      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).

      • carzianEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        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.