KDE 18.1 : Plasma 5.8.* : Kubuntu backports...?

[scjet45]

All i can say is, I truly hope when LinuxMint 18.1 KDE comes out, that it has, or can get Plasma 5.8.* -it's absolutely amazing.
Now don't get me wrong, but I'm running the Manjaro KDE 16.10.2 ,-which comes with Plasma 5.8.*, -and yes, it's based on Arch stable, but when this KDE boots up, then wham !
I find KDE/Plasma 5.8.* ran faster, snappier, smoother, than even Xfce, or Mate, and I have nothing against Xfce, it's a great DE as well. And these are all running, "bare-metal", on my old Asus K75DE Laptop ! <- So there 'ya go.

That said, I never rave about any DE environments, other than LM's Mate, or Cinnamon, which I still like very much.
BUT, this newer KDE/Plasma 5.8.* is truly a thing of beauty, to say the least.
I'm sure many of you already know this.

...or better yet, please do NOT release LM 18.1 KDE, unless plasma 5.8.* is already in it.

[acheronuk]

Well, I won't be giving any secrets away if I say that Clem has been helping test the backports this week.

[acheronuk]

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3175

[Dmytro]

Great news this weekend! I am so exited to try 18.1 with Plasma 5.8.
I was very upset with Mint 18 KDE. It was not stable enough to install on my work machine. But now I have hope
I run Arch with Plasma 5 on my home machine and Linux Mint 17.3 with KDE4 at work. LM17.3 with KDE4 is rock solid and I can rely on it 100%. But every time I use Plasma 5 at home, I just do not enjoy KDE4 on my work computer any more. I have configured my KDE4 for a modern look with QtCurve theme, but it is still far from look, feel and speed of Plasma 5.
Obviously, I cannot use Arch on my production machine. I was close to switch to OpenSuse Leap, but now I will wait for 18.1. I have been a great fun of LinixMint KDE since version 13 and didn't want to switch. Now it seems that I do not have to
Just express my emotions here

[scjet45]

Great news this weekend! I am so exited to try 18.1 with Plasma 5.8.
:

Not sure where you got LM KDE 18.1 ?

but anyway, I installed LM 18 KDE, upgraded to KDE/Plasma 5.8 via “ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports-landing“, and here's what I found, so far:
Laptop: Asus K75DE : using bare-metal install, instead of phoney VM caca.
Kernel: inux 4.4.0-53-generic #74-Ubuntu SMP x86_64
KDE/Plasma: "About System" -> KDE Plasma version 5.8.4.

Code: Select all

$ inxi -F
System:    Host: chimo Kernel: 4.4.0-53-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.8.4
           Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Machine:   Mobo: ASUSTeK model: K75DE v: 1.0 Bios: American Megatrends v: 217 date: 10/23/2014
CPU:       Quad core AMD A10-4600M APU with Radeon HD Graphics (-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB
           clock speeds: max: 2300 MHz 1: 1800 MHz 2: 1400 MHz 3: 1600 MHz 4: 1600 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Trinity [Radeon HD 7660G]
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Thames [Radeon HD 7500M/7600M Series]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1600x900@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD ARUBA (DRM 2.43.0, LLVM 3.8.0) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Trinity HDMI Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-53-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1250.3GB (3.2% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54757 size: 750.2GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: Hitachi_HTS72505 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 138G used: 6.8G (6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 16.78GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-3: swap-2 size: 17.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb2
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 47.9C mobo: N/A gpu: 46.0,N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 200 Uptime: 36 min Memory: 1028.0/7426.6MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.35



so far so good, with DEFAULT settings..

But,
1./ Initial Login -> to Desktop took an overly 6 long seconds ?, -longest I've seen so far. [with Manjaro KDE 16.10.2, it was only 4 seconds from Login -> to Desktop]. Also, WiFi took a little while to connect.
-but that is likely do to all the "Startup stuff" that LM inscribes, but once up, most apps launched lickety-split, and were very snappy.
2./ certain gui-apps looked horrible. ie, I brought up Synaptic and i couldn't even tell what pkgs were installed or not?, the tiny blue checkmarks were almost indescernable from the NON-installed pkgs ? -again, I'm using the DEFAULT theme/icons only, so this can be tweaked.
3./ when the small "green" LM logo pops up during boot to login, from plymouth, can we please have that "blue",or atleast "aqua" instead?-afterall, it is KDE.
4./ left-clicking on the "Update manager" on the bottom-lower-right corner does nothing.? -workaround is right-click on icon and then bring up "Update Manager"
5./ "Update Manger" kept losing network connections to ppa,...,according to synaptic.

I haven't done a lot of testing thus far, but the above 1./, 2./, and 4./ maybe a bit of a concern for Users.
Hope some of this helps.
And by all means, please take you time releasing the stable LM KDE 18.1. I'd personally rather wait an extra month, than have something less than optimum.
Good luck all, and thanks for future LM KDE.