Replacement KDE distros... Feedback here!

[catweazel]

...KDE NEon... pkcon ... muon ... synaptic? ... kubuntu ...

... Synaptic ... Mint KDE...

... Mint 18.2 xfce ... Neon ... kubuntu 17.10 ... virtualbox...

kubuntu 17.10 ... Neon ... discover ... Mint XFCE ...

What's like on baremetal installs?

Which one?

[Retic1959]

I'm assuming that KDE Neon will be the same as LM in regards to the Ubuntu base it's built on in that it will require a reinstall to update to a new version when the base is no longer supported by Ubuntu , anybody know if I'm correct in my assumption ?

[catweazel]

I'm assuming that KDE Neon will be the same as LM in regards to the Ubuntu base it's built on in that it will require a reinstall to update to a new version when the base is no longer supported by Ubuntu , anybody know if I'm correct in my assumption ?

https://neon.kde.org/faq

Will there be a version using non LTS Ubuntu releases?

No, we plan only to base on the latest LTS version of Ubuntu...

[KBD47]

I always liked KDE on Debian, and it worked well on Stretch last I checked.

[mr_raider]

I'm assuming that KDE Neon will be the same as LM in regards to the Ubuntu base it's built on in that it will require a reinstall to update to a new version when the base is no longer supported by Ubuntu , anybody know if I'm correct in my assumption ?

Kubuntu allows in place upgrade from LTS to LTS. I did a straight 14.04 to 16.04 upgrade with few issues.

Maybe the neon "base" can do the same?

[Retic1959]

I'm assuming that KDE Neon will be the same as LM in regards to the Ubuntu base it's built on in that it will require a reinstall to update to a new version when the base is no longer supported by Ubuntu , anybody know if I'm correct in my assumption ?

Kubuntu allows in place upgrade from LTS to LTS. I did a straight 14.04 to 16.04 upgrade with few issues.

Maybe the neon "base" can do the same?

That's a point in Kubuntu's favor IMO .

[Jedinovice]

OK, initial trials for Neon are looking VERY good.


Trouble is that I am flooded with work as I am battling so many fronts. Barely time to sleep. I am installing and testing while students do exercises. I also dare not switch to Neon on my main work machines until I am sure it will all hold together. I also want to get my Acer's BIOS updated and the requires getting to the local Acer support center and twisting their arm. Still, this is Indonesia... wave cash and they'll do it. Otherwise installing Neon will equal boot pain.

So I will trial for a while yet and try to get to Acer... when I can ever get time... and if it all holds up I will give proper feedback.

As it stands... Neon looks and feels very much like Mint KDE. Being a pure base Ubuntu it suffers from lack of development tools which Mint provides which made installing my HP printer driver a right royal pain.. but these things can be installed. Tip: Install 'build-essentials" for a quiet life.
"Discover" is nearly useless. I use it for updating but installed 'Synaptic' for real installs.
You have to install Libreoffice and GIMP yourself but that's no biggee. I was actually suprised by how much was installed - Okular, Ark and the like were all in.

Can't comment on speed yet but delighted that Kdenlive is fully up to date in the Repos. Because Neon showcases KDE I think it will deliver the latest KDE apps... which I like!!! I use the KDE apps a LOT and I need the latest version of Kdenlive. The Neon rendering is more up to date than via PPA!

So, early days yet but looking very nice. I like how Neon looks and feels much like Mint.

Need to investigate how to replace the Mint USB formatting and image writing tools. I use those... far more than I wish I had to.

Ok, got to fly again.

[Jedinovice]

Wife running on Neon.

She loves it! Her needs are far fewer than mine so a bit safer as a test for the first hurdle.
So far she is able to use it transparently with no issues so far from shifting from Mint.

[Er, I ended up making my wife the test case because.. in my exhausted state, I installed Neon on the wrong laptop. So.... I went with it. Forced me to make it work!]

[MadmanRB]

Personally I say dont use PClinux as its severely limited by its package selection and installing third party packages is impossible without a lot of hard work for the end user and it takes forever for a package to be approved by its packagers.
For me the most logical distro to go to for Mint KDE users to go to is Maui linux, its based on Ubuntu like Mint is and offers PPA support and a very refined build of KDE neon and it has a lot of linux mints tools baked in:

https://mauilinux.org/

I would say Kubuntu is a good option but Maui is much better and offers its own benefits that outclass Kubuntu

[Jedinovice]

Personally I say dont use PClinux as its severely limited by its package selection and installing third party packages is impossible without a lot of hard work for the end user and it takes forever for a package to be approved by its packagers.
For me the most logical distro to go to for Mint KDE users to go to is Maui linux, its based on Ubuntu like Mint is and offers PPA support and a very refined build of KDE neon and it has a lot of linux mints tools baked in:

https://mauilinux.org/

I wopuld sasy Kubuntu is a good option but Maui is much better and offers its own benefits that outclass Kubuntu

Ooooh. Interesting. I agree that PCLInux seems to have gone off the cliff. It was nice but seems to be quite broken now. I did not know about Maul. i am still in the testing stage. May take a look.

[MadmanRB]

There is another option, there is Manjaro.

Manjaro if you never heard of it is a distro based on Arch linux, but offers a nice easy to use out of the box setup of your choice.
Its kind of the linux mint of Arch distros, offers a easy installer and a rather nice package manager GUI.
It has four main editions:
XFCE
KDE
Gnome
And architect (kind of a do it yourself without the mess of using Arch pure)

It offers community editions too, I use its Cinnamon community edition and its just as good if not better than the one Mint offers.

Rather if you would want to get out of the debian/ubuntu sphere is up to you, but Manjaros KDE is one of the best if not the best (that and Maui)

https://manjaro.org/get-manjaro/

[mr_raider]

I'm assuming that KDE Neon will be the same as LM in regards to the Ubuntu base it's built on in that it will require a reinstall to update to a new version when the base is no longer supported by Ubuntu , anybody know if I'm correct in my assumption ?

Kubuntu allows in place upgrade from LTS to LTS. I did a straight 14.04 to 16.04 upgrade with few issues.

Maybe the neon "base" can do the same?

That's a point in Kubuntu's favor IMO .

Actually kubuntu can swing both ways. You can do LTS to LTS upgrades. Or you can get off the LTS bandwagon and go through the 6 month point releases. Actually the 2nd path is the only way to get newer KDE releases.

I think kubuntu backports PPA only updates the last "stable" KDE point release.

As a side note mint xfce looks good too, in a VM. That's also an option for simple machines like mom or wife's PC. Any way to kill the gnome key ring?

[mr_raider]

Here's a warning for neon users. The current neon user edition is based on 16.04.3 and uses the HWE stack version of the x server. This conflicts with a lot of packages from 3rd party repos.

Notably padoka or oibaf PPAs.

[o-l-d]

Need to investigate how to replace the Mint USB formatting and image writing tools. I use those... far more than I wish I had to.

You can find the Mint usb tools in the repositories as .deb or .tar files so you can download them and use them in Neon.

[Jedinovice]

Need to investigate how to replace the Mint USB formatting and image writing tools. I use those... far more than I wish I had to.

You can find the Mint usb tools in the repositories as .deb or .tar files so you can download them and use them in Neon.

Ahh, I see what you mean. I think I have found alternatives as well but will see. It is so very busy with end of semester exams looming. The parents are freaking as usual...

Thanks for that. I will see.

[Jedinovice]

Personally I say dont use PClinux as its severely limited by its package selection and installing third party packages is impossible without a lot of hard work for the end user and it takes forever for a package to be approved by its packagers.
For me the most logical distro to go to for Mint KDE users to go to is Maui linux, its based on Ubuntu like Mint is and offers PPA support and a very refined build of KDE neon and it has a lot of linux mints tools baked in:

https://mauilinux.org/

I would say Kubuntu is a good option but Maui is much better and offers its own benefits that outclass Kubuntu

Agree that PCLInuxOS is now a total mess. Have just downloaded Maul. Will take a look when I can and feedback.

[catweazel]

I ended up moving to Mint Cinnamon. All the KDE distros I tested, including Neon and Manjaro, all duffered latency issues. The odd thing with Neon is that I installed the very same custom-built pre-emptive lowlatency kernel I had built on Mint 18.2 KDE and still had latency issues, which I didn't have in Mint's KDE at all. I tried 18.2 Cinnamon and it's as smooth as a baby's bum even under heavy load; No latency, no pauses, no glitches. I even tested Xfce and it glitched like heck.

[Jedinovice]

I ended up moving to Mint Cinnamon. All the KDE distros I tested, including Neon and Manjaro, all duffered latency issues. The odd thing with Neon is that I installed the very same custom-built pre-emptive lowlatency kernel I had built on Mint 18.2 KDE and still had latency issues, which I didn't have in Mint's KDE at all. I tried 18.2 Cinnamon and it's as smooth as a baby's bum even under heavy load; No latency, no pauses, no glitches. I even tested Xfce and it glitched like heck.

I'll stick with KDE. I value the power and the workflow suits me.
But also, the low spec hardware I have to work with... latency is a given anyway!!!

Actually, although it is very early days and so busy I am still using Mint on my work machines due to the need to keep going (bad time to change!) it does seem faster than Mint. But I am stuck on Mint 18.0 on an older atom n2840 so I really can't be sure what's what. Neon seems more than fast enough for me personally. But I do not put a premium on speed. I know that makes me Linux counter cultural, mind!

[minitux]

with my pc, I have no problems, with all installed distro, pclinuxos, manjaro, kubuntu, neon, kaos etc ... and everything works well.

for my PC use, they are all great

[catweazel]

with my pc, I have no problems, with all installed distro, pclinuxos, manjaro, kubuntu, neon, kaos etc ... and everything works well.

for my PC use, they are all great

I have no doubt. I've found what was causing the lag so I'm going to restore neon from backup and give it another run.