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!
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.
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.
For that part, they’re just saying that other desktop environments are unsupported. Back when I used KDE Neon I had no problems using it as a daily OS, it is technically less stable (in terms of the system changing with updates, not in terms of crashing) since all the KDE software is updated regularly, but the rest of the software is the same as regular Ubuntu LTS.
I’d say the best way to think of KDE Neon is “Ubuntu LTS, with the latest KDE software directly from them, with less guarantee of stability” imo.
Edit: They also say they’re not “quite” a distro, it is by full definition a distro, but their goal is different. The only intent of KDE Neon is to have a stable base with up to date KDE stuff, while a “distro” as they are saying will have a goal of being a fully fledged OS (or similar). Neon can be used as a full distro, but that’s just a side effect rather than the intent.
Thank you, very helpful! May I ask what you use now? Do you know if they add their software via snaps or flatpaks?
I use Debian now. And for kde neon they add their software via debs as regular packages, but you can add either snap or flatpak to it if you want (or both), can’t remember if they preinstall flatpak or not.
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…
Hope they work out for you!
Also, I’d say of the three, if you want the one that will “just work” the most, I would go with Kubuntu, mainly because you’ll be able to search for stuff and problem fixes easier since there’s a lot of info online for it, because it’s the most commonly used of the three I believe. The other two are still perfectly fine options though, but I think Kubuntu would be the smoothest experience, as you said you were still a bit new to Linux in your post.
Advice much appreciated!
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.
Now I understand. Kubuntu instead makes modifications to the Ubuntu core. Although Neon must be somehow removing Gnome, I imagine.