What’s everyones opinion of the two? I enjoy KDE Plasma and want to use an Ubuntu based system but don’t have any experience with these two distros.
It’s mainly the release model.
Kubuntu is Ubuntu. So, two major updates a year, where the state is basically “frozen” in between. This gives everyone time to fix bugs, giving you a more stable experience.
Neon is rolling release on everything regarding KDE, but has a very stable base OS. Advantage: newest and hottest KDE stuff, but it maybe has some rough edges and doesn’t provide you with the newest kernel, which usually isn’t a big deal, but you might miss out on something.
Is there a reason why you want something Ubuntu based?
You also have a few other options:
- Debian: older (still has KDE 5.27), but very stable and tested
- Fedora KDE: similar to Kubuntu, but more vanilla and less shitty in my personal opinion (Snaps, etc.)
- EndeavourOS: Arch based, beautiful customisations applied OOTB, sane defaults if you like Arch
- Fedora Atomic KDE (Kinoite) or Aurora: the newest image based (immutable) variant. It’s what I use and would recommend. Very reliable!
I’ll add that Kubuntu is still on Plasma 5.27 and you’ll have to wait until 24.10 to get the Plasma 6 goodness.
I’ll also add that everyone forgets openSUSE Tumbleweed as an alternative.
Oh yeah! Definitely!
Tumbleweed is one of the best Plasma experiences you can get and not as widely known as it should be.
Plasma 6 bugs have only recently come down to the level of its predecessor, according to Nate.
What do you like about it that isn’t available in Plasma 5.27?
Maybe I was lucky but I didn’t experience many bugs with Plasma 6. One or two minor ones that were fixed quickly.
What I like about it is that Plasma with Wayland is now mostly bearable with an Nvidia card. It just needs Tumbleweed to update the Nvidia drivers and I think it will there. To the point I am considering trying EndeavourOS which I’m sure already has the latest drivers.
I’ve used endeavor and liked it a lot. Have you checked out cachyOS? That’s my personal choice recently.
I have now. It looks quite interesting too. I’m still trying to convince myself that out of date Nvidia drivers are a reason to move, guess I’ll see if we get the 560 drivers.
Ah okay. That makes sense. I have been using Fedora Kinoite on my test laptop and really enjoy Plasma 6 but I need it Ubuntu based so I can use Golden Cheetah with Ant+ devices. GC’s documentation focuses on Ubuntu based systems and I got it working on Linux Mint, my main laptop. I just like Plasma more than Cinnamon and am slowly changing all my systems over.
Thank you!
If the software you have to run is specifically designed for one distro (e.g. something that’s only in the AUR, or written for Debian) you can use Distrobox.
This creates a small, lightweight container that allows you to run any software from all distros on your host.
I, for example, use Fedora Atomic, and I mostly use an Arch container that’s fully customized for me, including having the AUR enabled.
If you liked Kinoite, then you can still consider it and run your stuff via Distrobox
The program itself is an AppImage but I couldn’t figure out how to get Ant+ devices (cycle trainer and heartrate strap) working on a distro besides GC’s documentation for Ubuntu. It worked for me on Mint, I just want to transition to a Plasma DE. Does this look like something you would know how to get working on Kinoite?
@sic_semper_tyrannis
Tuxedo OS is Ubuntu based and runs Plasma 6. Maybe worth a look?
@Guenther_AmanitaI will give that a look. Thanks for the tip!
@sic_semper_tyrannis @Guenther_Amanita Just an FYI, I did a quick GTMF, and the software you need isn’t ubuntu specific. As you get more experience, you’ll find that this is usually the case. Good luck. :)
I have (am on) used Kubuntu daily for over 10+ years and it’s a very mature, easy desktop. I use an LTS only. I tried Neon (wanted to love it) but Kubuntu was just ready to go for my needs. Also, I uninstalled Snap because I don’t use it and hate it. I prefer AppImages when necessary. I always suggest Kubuntu especially to people who dislike Ubuntu. I don’t need “cutting edge” technology, I used “cutting edge” before and realized it’s just hype. Most Linux distros have up to date software that is quite functional, jumping up to the next x.xx version of anything will not change your life. My LTS has backports so I still get current updates for most things.
You’ve got a good point with using LTS. I’d probably try Neon first though. I have been using Kinoite and enjoy the latest Plasma version and haven’t had any stability issues. I’ll hope that it holds up on an Ubuntu based system but if not then change to Kubuntu.
I have this same question right now.
I’m going to try neon now (literally writing it to USB now). Not at the point to jump off of Ubuntu/Debian based distros right now
I think I’ll try Neon too
I have, seems nice so far. Plasma 6 is pretty slick, and I think Im going to like the up to date desktop.
Now I have to go through and reinstall everything. At the moment I am trying flatpaks, as I want to avoid the snaps.
If there issues, I’ll try and come back and comment
Neon is the choice if you want cutting edge plasma versions but don’t want to use a non-LTS version of Ubuntu. I use Neon and I’m overall happy with it.
I dont think that I have ever spun up a kubuntu image, but here are a few random thoughts to go with what others have said:
I have Neon running as a VM in proxmox driving the lounge TV with the intel iGPU passed through to it. Ive beenvery happy with wayland and plasma6 except for rdp/nomachine/etc not working on my setup. It’s the only fault really.
I have fedora kde as a parallels desktop on my m2 and it works well there.
Another option (as stated) my be openSUSE. openSUSE is where I landed after I left gentoo and I ran that for along time untill I had to use windows for a few years.
That sounds like a complicated setup. I’ve heard of OpenSUSE but don’t know anything about it. Is it Ubuntu based?
@sic_semper_tyrannis @BlueEther No. SuSE is it’s own distro, it’s been around since the 90s.
I recommend you first to not use the distros that are just declinaison of Ubuntu with an other DE and KDE Neon is not worthing the time too. Personnaly I recommend you choosing a more “advanced” distro, KDE can be install on pretty much any distro, so try new things. I don’t know where you are in your Linux journey but you need to test what fits you the most to find something perfect. So if you need something not really hard and can be installed with KDE, I recommend you Debian, kind of the best for your use case, BUT YOU NEED TO TEST.
EDIT : When using Debian you’re not going to get the most recent packages, but it’s a very good distro for the other things.
Neon is a testing, dev distro isn’t it? I don’t think it’s intended for daily use.
There is both a user and testing edition.
