Living on the Edge with KDE Project Neon

[GreyGeek]

Ok, did that. Now I am going to save this msg and then try to edit it and save it again

EDIT: If I can save this then I must say, Steve, how amazing your knowledge of both Linux and KDE has become in the few short years you've been using it. WunderKind comes to mind.

EDIT-EDIT. Yup. webkit fixes it.

[vinnywright]

neon5 (plasma-5) is looking OK hear .

did a

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:neon/kf5
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install project-neon5-session project-neon5-utils project-neon5-konsole

to my 14.04 install

and got it as a log in session ,,,, all my apps are hear but some key bindings and app preferences will half to be changed/added

screeny,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,




and yes KHTML will half to be changed to WebKit ,,,,, for Konqueror ,,,, KHTML dose not play well with Picasaweb either .

VINNY

[GreyGeek]

VINNY, that's interesting. You added the Neon5 PPA to your existing 14.04 repositories and installed it. I assume you choose the Neon desktop when you log in, instead of the KDE Plasma desktop. I downloaded the Neon5 iso and installed it as a guest OS.

[vinnywright]

VINNY, that's interesting. You added the Neon5 PPA to your existing 14.04 repositories and installed it. I assume you choose the Neon desktop when you log in, instead of the KDE Plasma desktop. I downloaded the Neon5 iso and installed it as a guest OS.

their are 2 PPA's for neon5 , one the ppa:neon/kf5 will add a neon5 as a log in session and ppa:kubuntu-ppa/next that will REPLACE your plasma4 but I have not tryed that one yet

VINNY

[GreyGeek]

their are 2 PPA's for neon5 , one the ppa:neon/kf5 will add a neon5 as a log in session and ppa:kubuntu-ppa/next that will REPLACE your plasma4 but I have not tryed that one yet

VINNY

Thanks good to know ... I thought there was only one PPA for neon. I wouldn't want to replace my plasma4 desktop, but adding another, neon5, would be OK as long as its libraries didn't create conflicts with the plasma4 libraries. How are your two desktops getting along? Any negative side effects?

[woodsmoke]

OK this is on my eight year old machine, an AMD 64, one gig of memory.

I reinstalled Kubu Trusty on the hard drive, using my older ViewSonic widescreen LCD monitor. Did all updates.

Kubu offered to use proprietary video drivers but I stayed with the stock Noveau driver.

Again, checked for updates and let things sit for a while, made sure that the normal software, Amarok, internet, etc. worked.

I then installed Neon 5 from ppas and before starting Neon I did a restart with "KDE Plasma Workspace"

I then restarted using the "Project Neon 5" option and it took a while for it to gather it's skirts, but everything went ok.

I then restarted several times, going back and forth between "Plasma" and "Neon".

All of the stuff I mentioned in the previous post work and again, there is no Akonadi, and Thunderbird does not work.

I then shut down and hooked the machine to the widescreen t.v. and started out with Plasma and then went to Neon, and things went ok.

Comments:

a) Neon is significantly faster on this machine than a stock kubu in terms of opening the kicker/menu etc.

b) I mistook precisely what was going on with a video I watched but when one clickes the "new cashew", which is a little gray box top left, and then add widgets...

And also when one right clicks on the desktop...and then click add widgets,

one immediately, without ceremony, gets a new "wide panel" at the left which has the widgets that are available, instead of the way that the lower panel presents and one searches for widgets. This is very nice and very fast. Click and done.

One gets the normal add widgets panel at the bottom when one clicks the new cashew(the little gray box) at right end.

c) in the same cashew options is "show Dash" and the "desktop" is covered with a transluscent "black" ( a 'la the Unity overlay for installed apps ) this overlay displays "all" of the widgets that are enabled OVER any open windows. This is interesting. If it can be done to where "widgets" can be put on "another desktop" and then show them, that would be.....useful... don't know it will take some playing around.

NOTE: at first I thought that this is "new" but not, it has been around since Plasma 4 at least, but it is found as an added Widget in the latest Kubu........ I think this MIGHT be a nice standardized option......don't know...

d) The "visuals" are very flat and "metro", as I stated before. I....... , personally, do not like the appearance, but...it may be that...don't know...it "might" render a little faster than the graphics for "dimensional"...don't know... there are always complaints about there being too much "overhead" in graphics, don't know.

I know that this is a first go-around and that graphics are a matter of taste...but...

.......I think when things are more developed...I'll sacrifice a little performance to have my beautiful Kubu back!

e) There is a stock "media controller" in the panel that will start Amarok and then start.......the station that was shut down an hour ago......playing again! AND...again....very quickly! That is tres kewl!

f) otherwise......the AMD and Project Neon are sitting and purring quietly, rather like a couple of kittens taking a nap....

g) I'm going to fiddle with this for a while on the older machine and then try it on the new machine...ought to scream on it!

woodlikingthepossiblitiesofNeonsmoke

[SteveRiley]

their are 2 PPA's for neon5 , one the ppa:neon/kf5 will add a neon5 as a log in session and ppa:kubuntu-ppa/next that will REPLACE your plasma4 but I have not tryed that one yet

ppa:neon/kf5 installs only to Trusty. It will land in /opt and co-exist with Plasma 4 / Frameworks 4.

ppa:kubuntu-next/ppa installs only to Utopic. It will replace Plasma 4 / Frameworks 4 -- there is no co-existence with this PPA.

Jonathan Riddell explains.

[GreyGeek]

Allright! I'm going to jump the shark and put neon on my trusty installation!

Edit: Well, that was easy. The process took less than 10 minutes. Now to reboot.

[MoonRise]

Hmmmmm. Been almost 30 minutes.... GG? All go well?

[Teunis]

I'd be surprised if our GreyGeek fell off the net, surely he's prepared for plan B

I've been running the project neon side by side install for a couple of day now and what is present kinda works.
There are a couple of problems or missing utilities such as the menu hotkeys don't work.
Or the sound system on this Thinkpad W520 that no longer reacts to any sort of volume control.

And obviously the plasma widget writers will have to make new versions, like presently there's no weather widget.

For me the lack of the Classical Kicker and the likelihood it's gone the way of the Dodo is nasty.

The flat theme is an acquired taste I'll have to work on...

[ronw]

For me the lack of the Classical Kicker and the likelihood it's gone the way of the Dodo is nasty.

In case you haven't seen it, homerun kicker is nice. I'm not a fan of the standard Kicker either.

[GreyGeek]

The install was easy. However, I've noticed some striking differences between Neon as a co-desktop on Trusty, and Neon running as a guest OS from the neon.iso install.

1) Neon came up with no wallpaper. There is only one wall paper in the desktop settings selection. Using "Get Wallpapers" shows the usual list, but clicking the "Install" button on ANY of them results in "file not found". The wallpaper in the guest OS installation is a gorgeous picture of an oak live laying on the grass and I could add other wallpaper photos to the desktop.
2) The panel crashed once so far, but the "re-launch" button on the crash notification brought it right back.
3) KDE Application launcher has a mixed look&feel. The launcher itself is Neon, but many of the apps have 3D icons, not the flat metro look.
4) Like the Neon guest OS, the selection of System Tray residents is limited. Clicking right mouse on the network wireless fan and selecting "Network Settings" displays the keyboard shortcuts for Network Settings, not the network settings app. Clicking on the double arrows, pointing reversed to each other, at the top of the list of access points, brings up the network configuration app.
5) There is no setting available to include the day of the week in the time display. You can add seconds or time zone, though.
6) Stellarium runs fast. So did the card and board games. The screen colors are vibrant.
7) System Settings has the same number of options on Trusty as it does on the guest OS of Neon.
8) Miss the quick launcher setting in the panel.
9) Kmail starts up new, requiring re-registration, but then fails to run because Akonadi fails to connect to the D-Bus. Ergo, no email. I never started up KMail in the guest OS Neon.

That's all for now.

EDIT: I was mistaken. Neon also gives "file not found" when trying to add wallpaper from the Internet.

Basically, I like what I see in Neon and I like the direction it is going.

[vinnywright]

Thanks good to know ... I thought there was only one PPA for neon. I wouldn't want to replace my plasma4 desktop, but adding another, neon5, would be OK as long as its libraries didn't create conflicts with the plasma4 libraries. How are your two desktops getting along? Any negative side effects?

no ,,,,,,,,or not that I have noted yet

VINNY

[vinnywright]

ppa:neon/kf5 installs only to Trusty. It will land in /opt and co-exist with Plasma 4 / Frameworks 4.

ppa:kubuntu-next/ppa installs only to Utopic. It will replace Plasma 4 / Frameworks 4 -- there is no co-existence with this PPA.

Jonathan Riddell explains.

oops was reading to fast and saw 14.10 as 14.04 well my neon5 login session is going well so far anyway ,,,,,,,,,

VINNY

[Fintan]

Just jumping in.
Anyway I do remember the agony in the ealry KDE4 days so this seems much nicer experience.
I have neon installed alongside my 14.04 and mostly all is well.
- There are a few issues with widget placement. For example the analog clock does not like the right edge when reduced in size.
- Also tochpad doesn't seem to work for blocking my touchpad when typing.
- The icons in folder view are way to big and I can find no way to reduce their size.

I am sure I will find more, but most have already been mentioned here in this thread.

I hope KDE 5 (Plasma 5?) keeps its speed snappiness!! Very nice progress over the latest KDE 4.x.x

I tried the pure neon installe from the live iso but that was really buggy.

I'll try the next PPA with utopic and see how that works.