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!
They take Ubuntu LTS and add their software on top of it. Ubuntu is the base. It’s stable because it’s unchanging, you only get security and bug fixes, no new versions except the Neon additions. It’s implemented like it is because starting with a complete and freely available distro like Ubuntu is a lot less work than building from scratch.
I think it qualifies as a distro by any current definition, but maybe not one they expect to be in general use. It seems to be quite popular despite that. I’ve never used it though so I can’t comment on how it is.
Thank you for explaninig what they mean by “base”! But then what’s the difference with Kubuntu? In the FAQ they say “as there is vast overlap in the base offerings of both Kubuntu and KDE neon”, but what do they mean with “base offerings”?
They are both based on Ubuntu so they mostly offer the same software. Neon has a more up to date KDE stack but you can get something similar by adding the backports ppa to Kubuntu although it may not always have the latest version.
Don’t forget that Kubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor while KDE Neon is not. Being an official flavor means that they have to follow certain rules for their design.
Also, KDE Neon only has versions built on the latest Ubuntu LTS, which (I think) only gets a distro upgrade every 2 years. So you’re missing out on all of the interim releases.
OTOH, the longer support and less bugging about upgrading might be a positive to some.