Fresh KDE from developers plus stability of Ubuntu 16.04 -> KDE Neon

I think that none of the Linux adherents will deny the great contribution to the ecosystem that Ubuntu has made. Yes, there are not enough resources for a lot, projects are often abandoned halfway. But, as it seems to me, they managed to achieve a perfect balance between stability and freshness of the package base. Some sort of a very correct line between Debian's persistence of noble mold and the continuous search for what was broken off when updating to Arch Linux. Want to just work? We are sitting on LTS versions of the distribution with default repositories. Need some specific software? We connect PPA from the developer. We installed fresh hardware, I need support in the kernel, but I don’t want to leave LTS - we use LTS Enablement Stacks ( HWE ).

Not everyone likes the default Unity shell, but here the entire Ubuntu Flavors family is at the user's disposal. I opted for KDE and Kubuntu, respectively. Everything was fine, but sitting on LTS releases inevitably provokes a craving for adventure and breaking the system. And then I went in search of something new.

KDE Neon

When the KDE developers realized that their pace of development was much faster than the introduction of fresh packages by maintainers, they decided to create a separate distribution. No, I understand that now readers will experience multiple sarcasm and rightly poke a finger at more than one hundred such distributions with boring wallpapers. However, not everything is so bad.

A key feature of the project is the main package base of the stable version of Ubuntu LTS and the entire KDE environment, which receives an update immediately after release. For example, KDE Plasma 5.9.3 will only be in the upcoming Kubuntu 17.04 release. With Neon, the majority of packages are absolutely stable and you have all the advantages of long-term distribution support. That is, not a full distribution, but a convenient constructor, despite the presence of its assemblies.

Distribution structure

Any more or less experienced user understands that often the distinction between distributions is very blurred. And the same Xubuntu differs from Lubuntu with Kubuntu in only a set of default packages and sometimes connected repositories. I was very pleased that the creators did not follow the path of the same Elementary OS, but simply carefully connected their repository.
The team aims to use their repository on all compatible distributions. With a certain craving for adventure, you can upgrade to Neon with a simple update to /etc/apt/sources.list. Although there may be a rake.

Installation options

The recommended option is to install from scratch from their image. You can download them from the official page . Delivery options:

User Edition - fresh stable KDE environment packages, optimal for daily use.
User LTS Edition - LTS version of Plasma Desktop + fresh application packages (Krusader, Konsole and others) - optimal for those who need a stable DE, but want software updates.


Developer Edition Git-Unstable is a pre-release version from an unstable branch. Daily assembly.
Developer Edition Git-Stable is a pre-release version of bugfix branches. Daily assembly.


You can also connect their repositories to regular Kubuntu. However, the official manual warns that at the same time everything will surely break. They are not and are not tested with compatibility with the Kubuntu base. I went this way. Indeed, several packages broke off, but it was possible to resolve dependencies with little hands without any problems. If you try this option - do not forget to do something like

sudo rsync -axv / /mnt/backup/root_backup

General feeling

The system is very stable, I have not received any global problems. Despite the fact that I initially have five or six third-party PPAs connected. KDE Neon maintainers work very neatly and almost never addictions beyond their software. Fresh plasma does not fall) RAM is also very delicate - something in the region of 500-600 MB, taking into account background processes such as Owncloud and preload-daemon. Once a week and a half a big update arrives for several dozen packages. Indeed, everything is very fresh.

New in Plasma 5.9

A nicer network-manager


Improved scroll animation.


Global menu returned.


Task manager redesign. Initial

Wayland support also appeared, but it didn’t take off. Maybe I'm a wryman.

UPD

The distribution is damp. The first victims are already there, do not forget backups.
massimus :

This bnya blew me home, although I asked to mount and not format it.