Neon and Plasma 6
Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2024 1:41 am
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.
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.