KDE Neon 5.8

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crosscourt
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KDE Neon 5.8

Post by crosscourt »

Just installed it and essentially its Kubuntu 16.04LTS with the most recent KDE options installed. Its a very minimalistic install as you get next to no apps and must install all the apps you need. Heres my short list, Thunderbird,Chromium,Synaptic,Audacious,K3b,Libreoffice,Kubuntu restricted extras, Bleachbit,Psensor,Im Sensor, and wallpapers.

Firefox is the default browser and Discover the package manager, no Muon or Synaptic. Install went fine and was very quick. 247 updates thru Discover that also went fine but I did all other updating thru Synaptic.

No major issues but there is one annoying issue using the cascading menu. When you move the mouse across the cascade menu, many times it continues to show the applications from a previous category failing to show the apps in the next category. Internet and multimedia in particular. So end up sliding in from the side to finally show whats contained in the category. No issues that I saw with the other two menu choices.

Severe lack of KDE Neon wallpapers but plenty of others to choose. Resource usage is excellent at 327mb after boot at desktop and overall it feels crisp and quick. Its definitely a KDE lite feel to it.
Kernel though was only 4.13 but again this is based on Kubuntu 16.04 so once they move to 18.04 everything will be moved forward.

No issues with login screen hangs and overall experience is very stable. Definitely install the Kubuntu restricted extras to get the extra codecs and fonts but both videos and other multimedia uses seem to all work fine. VLC is installed but youll need to pick a music player, in my case Audacious but I also use Clementine.

Ill post back once Ive used it more. Now why you should use KDE Neon over Kubuntu, since Kubuntu also has a minimal install, thats something we will have to discover. If you dont prefer minimal installs, Kubuntu is the better choice.
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Re: KDE Neon 5.8

Post by tlmiller »

My GalliumOS is basically Neon now with Gallium kernel after addding the Neon repos to get the latest 5.12 Plasma. I will say that Neon is always better (since about 5.10 was released) than straight Kubuntu when available (obviously Neon based on 18.04 isn't yet available) due to the more up-to-date and therefore faster Plasma available. If KDE dev's start making it more bloated and slower again as they did at first with the 5.x release, then I reserve the right to change my mind on that.
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Re: KDE Neon 5.8

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Neon is quicker and 327mb resource usage, thats amazing, so will be curious to see how the 18.04 version does on release. Im leaning towards Neon a bit at this point. Kubuntu though has everything I need without having to install so many apps.
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Re: KDE Neon 5.8

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I prefer Neon just because it's kept more up to date. Such as Kubuntu was just released but is still only 5.12.4 at this moment, while Neon is 5.12.5 despite being based on the 2 year old 16.04.
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Re: KDE Neon 5.8

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Not sure why Kubuntu is only 5.12.4? Neptune and PCLinuxOS are also up to dater with KDE 5.12.5/5.46
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Re: KDE Neon 5.8

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Kubuntu team is AMAZINGLY slow at releasing updates to Plasma on purpose. 16.04 w/o Neon is on 5.6!!! Even 16.04 backports is only 5.8.9 and so barely newer than Stretch.
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Re: KDE Neon 5.8

Post by crosscourt »

Its been a long time since I last used Kubuntu as Ive been using the RPM based KDE distros most of the time. All Ubuntu based LTS versions are slow on the uptake and on the RPM side Mageia is the same way. Thats where Neon and Neptune gain my attention given they stay current.
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Re: KDE Neon 5.8

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Gallium is based off 16.04, so I'm familiar with Kubuntu's versions since I basically converted it to Kubuntu with Gallium kernel before converting to Neon with Gallium kernel.
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Re: KDE Neon 5.8

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I was surprised that 18.04 didnt start out with at least the most current KDE version. Im definitely leaning towards Neon as my everyday distro for my main system given its an ultra up to date version of Kubuntu. Will wait till the 18.04 version comes out which more than likely will be using KDE 5.13
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Re: KDE Neon 5.8

Post by tlmiller »

Yeah, I'll probably convert from Kubuntu to Neon once the version is released that's based on 18.04.
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