KDE neon

KDE neon is a Linux distribution developed by KDE based on the most recent Ubuntu long-term support (LTS) release, bundled with a set of additional software repositories containing the latest 64-bit versions of the Plasma 5 desktop environment/framework, Qt 5 toolkit and other compatible KDE software.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] First announced in June 2016 by Kubuntu founder Jonathan Riddell following his departure from Canonical (Ubuntu's parent company),[14] it has been adopted by a steadily growing number of Linux users, regularly appearing in the Top 20 on DistroWatch.com's popularity tables.[15] It targets the same user demographic as Ubuntu's official KDE Plasma-focused distribution, Kubuntu, differing primarily in the much shorter time-frame for users to receive updated Qt and KDE software. It is offered in four release channels: User, Testing, Unstable and Developer Editions.[16]

KDE neon
Base logo (many thematic variations also in use)[1]
KDE neon 5.19 with the Info Center open
DeveloperKDE
Written inC/C++/Qt 5
OS familyLinux (Unix-like)
Working stateCurrent
Source modelOpen source
Initial releaseJune 8, 2016 (2016-06-08)[2]
Latest releaseUser Edition:
5.19, based on Ubuntu 20.04 and Plasma 5.19 / September 15, 2020 (2020-09-15)
Latest previewTesting Edition:
5.19, based on Ubuntu 20.04 and Plasma 5.19
Repositorycommunity.kde.org/Neon/Git
Marketing targetKDE Plasma enthusiasts
Available in80 languages[3]
List of languages
Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Aragonese, Arabic, Assamese, Asturian, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bokmål, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Chinese, Crimean, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Dzongkha, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Friulian, Gaelic, Galician, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Korean, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Mandarin, Marathi, Nepali, Norwegian, Occitan, Oriya, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tajik, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Uyghur, Vietnamese, Welsh
Update methodAPT
Package managerPackageKit[4]/Discover (GUI)
Platformsx86-64[5]/AArch64[6]
Kernel typeMonolithic
UserlandGNU, Ubuntu long-term support base
Default user interfaceKDE Plasma 5
LicenseVarious open-source licenses, mainly the LGPL-2.1 and GPL-2
Official websiteneon.kde.org

The KDE neon Linux distribution is focused on the development of KDE. The emphasis is on bleeding edge software packages sourced directly from KDE and offers programmers early access to new features, but potentially at the cost of greater susceptibility to software bugs.[10]

Differences from Kubuntu

Because Kubuntu has the KDE Plasma suite on an Ubuntu base OS, KDE neon often is mistaken for Kubuntu and vice versa. However, the primary difference between the two operating systems is that Kubuntu maintains stable releases and LTS version of Ubuntu while KDE neon focuses on updating developer editions of KDE applications without maintaining stable releases of Ubuntu unless the root user actively chooses to upgrade their systems.[17]

Hardware

Two laptops have been released with KDE neon pre-installed, the KDE Slimbook (released in March 2017) and KDE Slimbook II (launched in 2018).[18][19]

History and Versions

KDE neon first started taking shape in late 2015 as a way to provide what is essentially a rolling release of KDE software on top of Ubuntu's stable OS base.[20][21] Daily installation images first started getting built in January of 2016.[22] These images were based on Ubuntu 15.10, but in April of 2016, upgrades to Ubuntu 16.04, which would eventually become the base for the first general release, which happened on 8 June 2016.[23][2]

KDE neon announced in January 2017 that the distribution will be switching its installer from Ubiquity to Calamares due to Ubiquity "not having some features".[24][25] In February 2018, KDE neon developers removed the LTS Editions from the downloads page, but kept these editions in the download mirrors because of "lots of people asking which edition to use and what the difference is."[26] In May 2018, KDE started changing KDE neon from being based on Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 18.04.[27] KDE neon preview images, based on Ubuntu 18.04, became available in August 2018.[28][29][30][31] On 10 August 2020, KDE released a rebased version of KDE Neon, based on Ubuntu 20.04 [32]

As KDE neon is primarily a packaging of KDE software (and occasionally updated dependencies) on top of Ubuntu LTS, its versions are simply numbered off the Plasma release version. However, some notable versions of KDE neon User Edition are listed below to show technical progression.

Version Release date Description
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.6 8 June 2016 Based on Ubuntu 16.04 base, using Plasma 5.6. This was the first version of KDE neon considered a general release.[33]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.13 26 September 2018 neon 5.13 was the first version built both on Ubuntu 16.04 and on 18.04. It was released in June of 2018 based only on Ubuntu 16.04, but early tests based on 18.04 were made available in August. The user edition was made upgradable to 18.04 in September, and in early 2019 the Ubuntu 16.04 based build was discontinued.[34][35][36][37][38][39]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.15 12 February 2019 Alongside the 5.15.0 release of KDE Plasma, KDE neon upgraded to version 5.15. At this point, KDE neon started making KDE applications available in Snap format as well as the usual deb packages. This also helps make it easier to install the latest KDE applications on other Linux distributions without needing to upgrade other components such as KDE frameworks. KDE Neon still uses apt based packages by default, but the snap packages are built and maintained using the neon build system and their packaging is part of the neon project.[40]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.19 9 June 2020 After upgrading to KDE Plasma 5.19, neon began the work of porting to Ubuntu 20.04. After testing, the public release of KDE neon officially switched over to Ubuntu 20.04 on 10 August 2020.[41][42][43]
Current stable version: 5.20 13 October 2020 The latest edition of KDE Neon was released alongside KDE Plasma in October of 2020. Although this was a major release for KDE Plasma, KDE neon didn't have any major technical changes other than the version upgrade itself.[44]
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

Fresh installation images are built regularly, grabbing the latest packages from Ubuntu and the latest packages from the KDE Neon repositories.

See also

References
  1. "KDE neon logo concept". KDE Nextcloud. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  2. "KDE neon User Edition 5.6 Available now". KDE.news. 2016-06-08. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  3. "Packages in "PPA for Ubuntu language pack builders" : PPA for Ubuntu language pack builders : "Ubuntu language pack builders" team". launchpad.net. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  4. "KDE neon FAQ: How do I Update to the Latest Software?". neon.kde.org. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  5. "KDE neon FAQ: Is KDE neon 64-bit only?". neon.kde.org.
  6. "KDE neon on the $100 Pinebook". KDE neon Developers' Blog. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  7. KDE neon - Weak lighting, Dedoimedo
  8. KDE neon 5.12 review - Living on the edge, Dedoimedo
  9. DistroWatch. "DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD". distrowatch.com.
  10. Lunduke, Bryan. "KDE's new Linux distro KDE Neon: Terrible idea, or simply a mistake?".
  11. Verma, Adarsh (13 October 2017). "KDE Neon 5.11 Linux Distro Released With Latest Plasma Release".
  12. KDE Neon 5.11 Is the First Linux Distro to Ship with KDE Plasma 5.11 Desktop, Softpedia News
  13. A look at KDE Neon – a minimal mini-distribution - gHacks Tech News
  14. "Kubuntu's founder resigns, accuses Canonical of defrauding donors and violating copyright". PCWorld. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  15. "KDE neon". DistroWatch.com. 2019-07-05. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  16. "KDE neon New Edition Names – KDE neon Developers' Blog". Retrieved 2019-07-09.
  17. ""KDE Neon vs Kubuntu" - KDE Community Forums".
  18. Tung, Liam. "Need a Linux-tuned laptop? New KDE Slimbook aims to make it simpler to drop Windows". ZDNet.
  19. Portnoy, Sean. "KDE launches updated Slimbook II Linux laptops with faster Intel Core processors". ZDNet.
  20. Riddell, Jonathan (2015-10-05). "[neon] Founding Plan". Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  21. "Neon/FoundingPlan - KDE Community Wiki". community.kde.org. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  22. Riddell, Jonathan (2016-01-11). "[neon] Neon Images Appearing". Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  23. Riddell, Jonathan (2016-04-12). "[neon] 15.10 -> 16.04 upgrade testing". Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  24. KDE neon Inaugurated with Calamares Installer – Jonathan Riddell's Diary
  25. KDE Neon Has Stylish New Install Wizard - OMG! Ubuntu!
  26. Hiding Neon LTS Edition - KDE neon Developers Blog
  27. Moving to Bionic - KDE neon Developers Blog
  28. KDE neon Bionic Preview Images Available for Testing - KDE neon Developers Blog
  29. Neon/BionicRebase - KDE Community Wiki
  30. KDE Neon Operating System Is Moving to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver), Softpedia News
  31. KDE Neon Powered By Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Now Available For Testing - Phoronix
  32. KDE Neon Rebased On Ubuntu 20.04
  33. "KDE neon User Edition 5.6 Available now". KDE.news. 2016-06-08. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  34. "Plasma 5.13 Out – KDE neon Developers' Blog". 2018-06-13. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  35. "KDE neon Bionic Preview Images Available for Testing – KDE neon Developers' Blog". 2018-08-08. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  36. "KDE neon on Ubuntu 18.04 "bionic" Upgrade Open for Testing – KDE neon Developers' Blog". 2019-09-05. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  37. "KDE neon Rebased on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver"". KDE.news. 2018-09-26. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  38. "KDE Neon Now Based on Ubuntu 18.04 'Bionic Beaver'". OMG! Ubuntu!. 2018-09-26. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  39. Nestor, Marius (2019-02-14). "KDE neon Systems Based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Have Reached End of Life, Upgrade Now". softpedia. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  40. "KDE Applications 19.04 Available for all Distros Through the Snap Store – KDE neon Developers' Blog". 2019-04-18. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  41. "KDE neon Rebased on 20.04 – KDE neon Developers' Blog". 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  42. Nestor, Marius (2020-08-10). "KDE neon Is Now Based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)". 9to5Linux. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  43. "KDE Neon 20.04 is Out, Available to Download Now". OMG! Ubuntu!. 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  44. "KDE Plasma 5.20 Looks Like an Awesome Update". OMG! Ubuntu!. 2020-09-17. Retrieved 2020-09-19.


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