Neon Review the User Experience Not Technical
It is not concerned with "tweaked" versions of KDE Neon.
This review is written after a year of daily use of KDE Neon Developer Edition on a large screen television and on a “desktop work computer”.
It is not technical in nature it is about “the user experience” with "discussion" and "recommendations".
Summary:
a) KDE Neon is “an operating system” which, in the opinion of this user, is “stable” even in the developer edition, with the CAVEAT that the user does not get off "into the wild" installing different apps or tweaks ( ummm the same things that can break a "normal mainstream" distro) .
b) KDE Neon is “cutting edge” only in that it is being updated DAILY and with a lot of updates PER day.
Thus, it might be best to consider if one wants to have a set time for the updates during off hours or if one can pre-decide on when to manually invoke updates.
It really is a “rolling release”. If one does not like the idea of a “rolling release” which in the case of a HARDWARE CRASH would have to be REBUILT from the ground floor then KDE Neon might not be desirable.
c) Because of how KDE Neon is being developed, not all eye candy, such as the splash screen, is capable of being modified by the user. However, the ancillary tweaks such as application borders, default sizes etc. can be user modified.
d) KDE Neon provides minimal applications, thus one will have to install the desired applications.
e) Because of ( b, c, d ), above, one should plan ahead on how to reinstall applications and settings.
f) The center search box in Firefox does not function, one must use the upper right search box.
EXTENDED DISCUSSION with details and / or explanation and RECOMMENDATIONS.
A) KDE Neon does EXACTLY what the developers state: It provides an operating system.
The OS, even the developer's edition, is stable in this user’s opinion.
This user has found it to be rock solid. In the space of one year there was only one ( 1 ) “bug” and that bug was reported within one day and fixed by the next day.
B) KDE Neon is written about as possibly being unstable because it is “cutting edge”.
The highly pregnant consideration here is ….just what does the term “cutting edge” mean?
“Most folks” think of it as trying the latest and greatest shiny bauble that may “break the system”.
In this user’s opinion the above definition is not applicable to KDE Neon.
It is only “cutting edge” in the sense of the continual and massive amounts of upgrades / updates which, by definition, are considered “stable enough” to be shoved down to the user space.
Discussion:
What makes it "cutting edge" in the opinion of this author is the MASSIVE number of DAILY updates.
In the case of KDE Neon that the little line in the updater that says “this can take some time”, is not an understatement in the case of KDE Neon.
The DAILY updates, for this user, on a modern AMD computer and using a high speed cable / inter-net connexion in the mid-west of the United states, often takes upwards of ten to fifteen minutes.
To REPEAT…. they are DAILY, thus if one waits between updates they only take longer to complete.
This user offers a RECOMMENDATION because of the above.
KDE Neon is probably ‘best suited” to be used on a computer which is not shut off “nightly / whenever“ . Thus, the updates can then be timed for when the user is not interacting with the computer or invoked manually “before going to bed”.
C) One thing that “ "hardcore Linux people / developers “ have never GROKED about Windows ™ users is that “the average person” likes to fiddle with the appearance of the desktop, application appearance (borders ) and with the browser.
Anyone who “repairs computers” knows this very well. An example being the procilivity of the Windows ™ user to either intentionally install “enhancement bars” or allow them unintentionally on browsers.
So, no matter what the developers think, since they concentrate on the “guts’ of the OS, the users like to have eye candy.
KDE Neon provides quite a bit of eyecandy with the widgets such as a picture frame for the desktop, cartoons downloaded from the web, etc.
HOWEVER, often times the "get extra / new stuff " option is not available. So, again, if one wants to always be tweaking the OS possibly KDE Neon is not a good choice.
THE SPLASH SCREEN PROBLEM
The web is littered with hundreds of complaints about not being able to “change the splash screen” in this or that distro.
Kubuntu, and others offer the option of changing the splash screen.
Multi-user machines, however, have a SOCIAL problem with being able to change the splash screen.
That “social” problem is that person A decides on a splash screen for startup and person B has to put up with it.
This problem is not noticed by single user using a single user machine at home; or even at work.
If the user is one who has opted to turn the computer off after use this “could” become a real bugaboo, as evidenced by the many complaints on the web ( this author does not think that they KNOW that the "problem" is that of turning the computer off "at night" they just know that they are tired of seeing the same splash screen every morning) .
Such users will not be happy with the situation of KDE Neon.
Because the developers at KDE Neon have opted for the long haul they do not provide an option for changing the splash screen because of the above consideration of multiuser machines and recoding from GRUB onward.
HERE IS THE CAUSE OF THE SITUATION IN A NUTSHELL.
The “background” for the present, black, splash screen is really a “script” buried in the innards of the OS. What one “sees” when one sees the “K” is a “white mask” in the form of a “K” which really is a graphic that appears and then disappears in front of the coded black screen. The text one sees is, again, code, and not part of a graphic.
However, all is not lost for those who are patient.
The KDE Neon team are working on “redoing” how the whole startup thing is done from GRUB to the presence of the desktop.
THE LOGIN SCREEN.
The “login” screen does SHOW the option of choosing a background, using a simple chooser from file. However, even that is not reliable for the simple reason that the work is one in progress.
This user thus offers ADVICE because of the above.
If the user absolutely has to have the option of changing the splash screen, login screen, etc. then one might better consider Kubuntu; which is fully customizable.
D) KDE Neon really “is” a “rolling release”. Evidence of this is in the splash screen when one turns on the computer, approximately every week there is a new “.dot” version of it announced below the Neon electron "shell" symbol.
This user offers some advice. If the user wants to do a “new install” periodically, such as going from one animal to another in Ubuntu, this is probably not an appropriate OS.
E) the classic “low overhead / low bloat / minimalist” Linux user would probably really like KDE Neon because it provides almost no preloaded applications.
One will have to load the applications that one desires.
This results in an OBSERVABLY faster OS.
One really does have the opportunity to “role one’s own” distro.
HOWEVER THERE IS A PROBLEM
What will one do if one has a hardware crash and has heavily tweaked the OS with a lot of applications from places buried in the dungeons of the internet?
For software one is presented with the labour of making a new CD of the OS ( of the latest version by the way ) and then, again, installing the desired software.
User Settings present a more thorny problem.
The “problem” in searching for options to either or both is the LOOSE USEAGE of terms when searching on the net about this.
Littered across the time space continuum of forums, blogs and websites the terms such as “backup”, “migrate”, “clone”, “data”, “home folder”, “configuration”, “settings” are used in an often uninformed and often quite incorrect interchangeable manner.
Quite simply:
I) If one “tweaks” the interface; what one SEES on the screen
II) if one has a lot of apps, such as Pidgin which have different passwords,
How does one “save” all of this stuff to be able to easily “apply” it to the new install?
And a future PROBLEM is that KDE Neon is always “changing”. Although the basic “Linux file structure” will be there there is often, as in many distros, a change in what particular folder is being used to store certain stuffs.
One does have several options which can be viewed in terms of from where a user gets applications and the complexity of the tweaking.
FOR APPLICATIONS.
I) Make a paper list of the software and manually install from the Repos.
This is basically typing in the names from the list in Synaptic search or MUON and ticking the install button.
II) If all apps are in the normal repositories then one can use a simple command in terminal which would have to be kept updated ( from the paper list) such as:
sudo apt-get install program1 program2 program3
III) If one installs apps from PPAs then things get a little more complex but there are several solutions. Here is one such:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/9406...ations-at-once
IV) One can clone the whole system periodically using an app such as Respin, which is an update of Remastersys which was created by the much beloved Tony.
http://www.linuxrespin.org/
BREAK TO FOLLOW ON THREAD
It is not concerned with "tweaked" versions of KDE Neon.
This review is written after a year of daily use of KDE Neon Developer Edition on a large screen television and on a “desktop work computer”.
It is not technical in nature it is about “the user experience” with "discussion" and "recommendations".
Summary:
a) KDE Neon is “an operating system” which, in the opinion of this user, is “stable” even in the developer edition, with the CAVEAT that the user does not get off "into the wild" installing different apps or tweaks ( ummm the same things that can break a "normal mainstream" distro) .
b) KDE Neon is “cutting edge” only in that it is being updated DAILY and with a lot of updates PER day.
Thus, it might be best to consider if one wants to have a set time for the updates during off hours or if one can pre-decide on when to manually invoke updates.
It really is a “rolling release”. If one does not like the idea of a “rolling release” which in the case of a HARDWARE CRASH would have to be REBUILT from the ground floor then KDE Neon might not be desirable.
c) Because of how KDE Neon is being developed, not all eye candy, such as the splash screen, is capable of being modified by the user. However, the ancillary tweaks such as application borders, default sizes etc. can be user modified.
d) KDE Neon provides minimal applications, thus one will have to install the desired applications.
e) Because of ( b, c, d ), above, one should plan ahead on how to reinstall applications and settings.
f) The center search box in Firefox does not function, one must use the upper right search box.
A) KDE Neon does EXACTLY what the developers state: It provides an operating system.
The OS, even the developer's edition, is stable in this user’s opinion.
This user has found it to be rock solid. In the space of one year there was only one ( 1 ) “bug” and that bug was reported within one day and fixed by the next day.
B) KDE Neon is written about as possibly being unstable because it is “cutting edge”.
The highly pregnant consideration here is ….just what does the term “cutting edge” mean?
“Most folks” think of it as trying the latest and greatest shiny bauble that may “break the system”.
In this user’s opinion the above definition is not applicable to KDE Neon.
It is only “cutting edge” in the sense of the continual and massive amounts of upgrades / updates which, by definition, are considered “stable enough” to be shoved down to the user space.
Discussion:
Why, one must ask, would anyone even consider putting something out that affects “the guts’ of the system that was purposely NOT stable.
That kind of thing is done when one is going to use the user community to do the beta testing and when one has to adhear to a "release schedule" and such.
Yes, "we users " are beta testing, this user is an example, but, again, this user has NOT seen the normal kind of "teething problems" that other supposed cutting edge distros, and even stable release distros have often exhibited.
Thus, to this user, the NORMAL USEAGE of term “cutting edge” does not apply to KDE Neon.
That kind of thing is done when one is going to use the user community to do the beta testing and when one has to adhear to a "release schedule" and such.
Yes, "we users " are beta testing, this user is an example, but, again, this user has NOT seen the normal kind of "teething problems" that other supposed cutting edge distros, and even stable release distros have often exhibited.
Thus, to this user, the NORMAL USEAGE of term “cutting edge” does not apply to KDE Neon.
In the case of KDE Neon that the little line in the updater that says “this can take some time”, is not an understatement in the case of KDE Neon.
The DAILY updates, for this user, on a modern AMD computer and using a high speed cable / inter-net connexion in the mid-west of the United states, often takes upwards of ten to fifteen minutes.
To REPEAT…. they are DAILY, thus if one waits between updates they only take longer to complete.
This user offers a RECOMMENDATION because of the above.
KDE Neon is probably ‘best suited” to be used on a computer which is not shut off “nightly / whenever“ . Thus, the updates can then be timed for when the user is not interacting with the computer or invoked manually “before going to bed”.
C) One thing that “ "hardcore Linux people / developers “ have never GROKED about Windows ™ users is that “the average person” likes to fiddle with the appearance of the desktop, application appearance (borders ) and with the browser.
Anyone who “repairs computers” knows this very well. An example being the procilivity of the Windows ™ user to either intentionally install “enhancement bars” or allow them unintentionally on browsers.
So, no matter what the developers think, since they concentrate on the “guts’ of the OS, the users like to have eye candy.
KDE Neon provides quite a bit of eyecandy with the widgets such as a picture frame for the desktop, cartoons downloaded from the web, etc.
HOWEVER, often times the "get extra / new stuff " option is not available. So, again, if one wants to always be tweaking the OS possibly KDE Neon is not a good choice.
THE SPLASH SCREEN PROBLEM
The web is littered with hundreds of complaints about not being able to “change the splash screen” in this or that distro.
Kubuntu, and others offer the option of changing the splash screen.
Multi-user machines, however, have a SOCIAL problem with being able to change the splash screen.
That “social” problem is that person A decides on a splash screen for startup and person B has to put up with it.
This problem is not noticed by single user using a single user machine at home; or even at work.
If the user is one who has opted to turn the computer off after use this “could” become a real bugaboo, as evidenced by the many complaints on the web ( this author does not think that they KNOW that the "problem" is that of turning the computer off "at night" they just know that they are tired of seeing the same splash screen every morning) .
Such users will not be happy with the situation of KDE Neon.
Because the developers at KDE Neon have opted for the long haul they do not provide an option for changing the splash screen because of the above consideration of multiuser machines and recoding from GRUB onward.
HERE IS THE CAUSE OF THE SITUATION IN A NUTSHELL.
The “background” for the present, black, splash screen is really a “script” buried in the innards of the OS. What one “sees” when one sees the “K” is a “white mask” in the form of a “K” which really is a graphic that appears and then disappears in front of the coded black screen. The text one sees is, again, code, and not part of a graphic.
However, all is not lost for those who are patient.
The KDE Neon team are working on “redoing” how the whole startup thing is done from GRUB to the presence of the desktop.
THE LOGIN SCREEN.
The “login” screen does SHOW the option of choosing a background, using a simple chooser from file. However, even that is not reliable for the simple reason that the work is one in progress.
This user thus offers ADVICE because of the above.
If the user absolutely has to have the option of changing the splash screen, login screen, etc. then one might better consider Kubuntu; which is fully customizable.
D) KDE Neon really “is” a “rolling release”. Evidence of this is in the splash screen when one turns on the computer, approximately every week there is a new “.dot” version of it announced below the Neon electron "shell" symbol.
This user offers some advice. If the user wants to do a “new install” periodically, such as going from one animal to another in Ubuntu, this is probably not an appropriate OS.
E) the classic “low overhead / low bloat / minimalist” Linux user would probably really like KDE Neon because it provides almost no preloaded applications.
One will have to load the applications that one desires.
This results in an OBSERVABLY faster OS.
One really does have the opportunity to “role one’s own” distro.
HOWEVER THERE IS A PROBLEM
What will one do if one has a hardware crash and has heavily tweaked the OS with a lot of applications from places buried in the dungeons of the internet?
For software one is presented with the labour of making a new CD of the OS ( of the latest version by the way ) and then, again, installing the desired software.
User Settings present a more thorny problem.
The “problem” in searching for options to either or both is the LOOSE USEAGE of terms when searching on the net about this.
Littered across the time space continuum of forums, blogs and websites the terms such as “backup”, “migrate”, “clone”, “data”, “home folder”, “configuration”, “settings” are used in an often uninformed and often quite incorrect interchangeable manner.
Quite simply:
I) If one “tweaks” the interface; what one SEES on the screen
II) if one has a lot of apps, such as Pidgin which have different passwords,
How does one “save” all of this stuff to be able to easily “apply” it to the new install?
And a future PROBLEM is that KDE Neon is always “changing”. Although the basic “Linux file structure” will be there there is often, as in many distros, a change in what particular folder is being used to store certain stuffs.
One does have several options which can be viewed in terms of from where a user gets applications and the complexity of the tweaking.
FOR APPLICATIONS.
I) Make a paper list of the software and manually install from the Repos.
This is basically typing in the names from the list in Synaptic search or MUON and ticking the install button.
II) If all apps are in the normal repositories then one can use a simple command in terminal which would have to be kept updated ( from the paper list) such as:
sudo apt-get install program1 program2 program3
III) If one installs apps from PPAs then things get a little more complex but there are several solutions. Here is one such:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/9406...ations-at-once
IV) One can clone the whole system periodically using an app such as Respin, which is an update of Remastersys which was created by the much beloved Tony.
http://www.linuxrespin.org/
BREAK TO FOLLOW ON THREAD
Comment