I have read the FAQ of KDE Neon: it is well made and answers ground questions like “Is it a distro?” or “Can I turn Kubuntu into KDE Neon?”
…And yet I’m confused, because I’m just a newbie in the Linux world. For instance, when they say “on top of a stable base” I don’t know what’s meant as a “base”.
I think I understand that it isn’t a distro, but it fascinates me that it’s meant to be installed from an ISO or similar, just like a distro.
I wonder if any of you can explain:
- What is it, in different words?
- Why is it “implemented” as it is?
- Are there any other “quasi-distros” like KDE Neon out there?
- Do you use it? how has your experience with it been?
Cheers!
I daily drive KDE Neon.
Sometimes install scripts don’t work as expected, since things check if you’re on Ubuntu or Mint or whatever specifically and “Neon” doesn’t match their regex. It’s usually not a big deal and fairly trivial to solve.
Regardless, I’ve actually started to get away from the command line and have embraced the app store. Discover is actually pretty darn good and has lots of the things I want to install. I can choose if I want to install from Discover via Apt, Flatpak, or Snap.
I usually install Flatpak stuff. The Steam Deck has taught me that Flatpak is generally as good or better than actually installing via apt - you don’t need to wait on your distro to update sources, and you aren’t adding random PPAs. Sometimes you need to fudge the permissions with Flatseal, but it’s a one-and-done thing.
I use Microsoft Edge as my browser (yes, really - the Chromium version is just as good as Chrome, it has nifty vertical tabs, I get news on my “new tab” page, and all my settings are saved there). I use Thunderbird for mail, plus Steam, Zoom, Discord, etc. Surprisingly few KDE apps are preinstalled, to be honest - the only KDE apps installed are the ones I want anyway.
Very informative, thanks! Also for the heads-up about install scripts and the cause.