Neon and Plasma 6

[wove]

I downloaded and fired up KDE Neon. Neon is not a distro I would consider for daily work, but it up dates fast and the latest download includes Plasma 6, which I was interested in seeing. Plasma 6 is a solid release in that I ran into nothing that was a show stopper.

At least superficially Plasma 6 comes across as a minor eye candy upgrade. That no doubt discounts work under the hood performance or stability improvements. However it is for the most part the same apps running on the same desktop just like they were with Plasma 5.

The panel now floats and it is much easier to configure than before, the application and desktop over view is easily reachable via gestures that are silky smooth. The default Breeze theme was updated, but not in anyway that is standout noticeable.

I had very much liked KDE's workflow and the tight integration of application stack. Over the last several years though Gnome has overtaken KDE in those aspects. Neon positions itself as being the latest showcase for KDE, yet it includes very little KDE software. There is no KDE browser, email, multimedia app. For me if I am looking at a desktop, it simply means I am not doing anything productive. And in that vein KDE's update to Plasma 6 seems mostly just a bust.

[dai_trying]

I still haven't installed or used Plasma as I'm waiting for the (inevitable?) catastrophe that KDE historically provides. I guess I might just be holding a grudge a little to much but as the saying goes, once bitten....

[crosscourt]

I've been running KDE 6 with Neon as well and its been running well. Definitely some added eye candy but overall its not hugely different than the previous version. Most users don't use the majority of the KDE apps ,so I prefer a minimalist install so I can add what I want. Overall I have always found KDE a better experience over Gnome, though both are good DEs.

[crosscourt]

Not using KDE as much as I use to as Zorin has been my main daily OS, as well as Chrome OS.

[dai_trying]

I see Zorin has Gnome as DE, how do you get on with it? I have Gnome on my Surface Pro 3 because it has better integration of on-screen keyboard which is needed when used in tablet mode. If it wasn't for that I'd most likely use XFCE instead.

I am quite happy with it overall though it hasn't given me any issues and seems to work quite well.

[crosscourt]

Zorin uses a highly modified Gnome desktop that's Windows like, but does have the ability to look like a number of other OS and DEs including standard Gnome. I really like the layout of Zorin and haven't had any issues with it. KDE will always be my favorite but its been nice using some other desktops.

[dai_trying]

I see the latest version (17) dropped having Xfce as an alternative desktop (available in 16), I guess to reduce workload as maintaining one DE would be a lot of work and two simply doubles that amount!

Do they use snaps/flatpacks as default apps or just have them available?

[crosscourt]

They have snaps and Flatpak available but their repositories are the default.