Not a single post since July. Is Neon dead?

[ShadYoung]

With the rebase now long overdue and their being nothing but silence from KDE about Neon, it seems that Neon may be dead. That is a shame. I switched from Kubuntu to Neon many years ago due to my dislike of the Ubuntu update scheme where LTS is always too stale and the interim releases always breaking things like Wine. I hate having to fully update and then debug my system every six months. It drives me bananas. Neon was the right way to do things when it came to KDE; a stable LTS base with an up-to-date Plasma desktop.

I am genuinely dismayed that KDE has seemingly abandoned those of us who have been with them for years (or 3 decades in my case). There really is nothing close to Neon in modernness, stability, compatibility, and usability.

For some reason the KDE leadership seems to have decided to chase an "immutable" distro instead of Neon, one based on Arch of all things. Geeee.... I wonder why? Might it have something to do with Valve, who uses Arch for its backend and Plasma for its desktop on the Steamdeck, and often throws bucketfuls of cash at developers?

I really do not know where to go from here. I cannot stand Arch, I boycott all things Red Hat, Suse is too different... which leaves what?

Maybe back to Windows? Frankly, with Torvalds being corporate and all in with AI, and Ubuntu rewriting things like core utilities in Rust to re-license everything away from the GPL and toward MIT/BSD/Apache permissive licenses which have no requirement to maintain credit or share the code, what ethical considerations are left to keep using an OS that cannot do most things Windows can do? I am literally left out in the cold.

[oshunluvr]

Not dead, but down to a single volunteer developer who says he'll stick with it as long as he can. My KDEneon is still getting updates. You're not?? KDEneon was always advertised as an experiment and temporary. Its been my main distro since 2018 and I'm just thankful it's still going.

"KDE" hasn't abandoned anything. KDE is still being actively developed. Where do you think the KDE updates for KDEneon and Kubuntu and others come from?

Frankly, I believe the KDE developers were held back by Canonical. KDE Linux has no such constraints. The Atomic nature of KDE Linux means it won't be the right choice for everyone, but I can easily see a userbase that will find it invaluable once it's ready for production. FYI, technically KDE Linux is an "Atomic" distro not actually immutable. There are differences.

Back in 2009 when I first came to Kubuntu version upgrades were often broken. After 2010 I went to only .4 upgrades and also waited for a couple months for issues to get worked out before upgrading. Now-a-days I haven't seen any major issues during the six month cycle. IMO the key is to wait for a month or 6 weeks after the next version release, then upgrade.

[ShadYoung]

"KDE" hasn't abandoned anything. KDE is still being actively developed. Where do you think the KDE updates for KDEneon and Kubuntu and others come from?

I never said KDE was being abandoned. I said it seems like Neon is.

Frankly, I believe the KDE developers were held back by Canonical.

Do you have something to support that belief that you can share?

IMO the key is to wait for a month or 6 weeks after the next version release, then upgrade.

That is good advice for any major update for any distro. My main issues is I do not want to do a major update twice a year. Neon's LTS backend and sedate pace of constant incremental Plasma releases suits my idea of the right way to do an OS. A major rebase every couple of years is fine. A major rebase every 6 months is not. There is nothing else like it in the KDE world that I am aware of.

[Snowhog]

Do you have something to support that belief that you can share?

AI Overview


Canonical does not currently provide direct financial funding or dedicated cash grants to the KDE project, having ceased direct funding for its KDE-based flavor (Kubuntu) back in 2012 when it stopped paying its lead developer. [1, 2]

Comparison of Canonical's Support to KDE vs. GNOME and Ubuntu

• KDE: Canonical provides no direct monetary funding or salary budget to the KDE project or KDE e.V. Historically, Canonical funded a single developer for Kubuntu until 2012, and occasionally contributed minor hardware resources (such as a server donation years ago), leaving KDE to rely on community donations and major institutional grants like the Sovereign Tech Fund. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

• GNOME: Canonical is a corporate supporter and member of the GNOME Foundation. While Canonical's direct cash contributions to GNOME's operating budget are not quantified as a specific public dollar amount, Canonical engineers contribute code and upstream development, and Canonical formally supports the GNOME Foundation alongside other open-source bodies. (By comparison, GNOME has also received direct institutional backing such as a €1 million grant from the Sovereign Tech Fund). [1, 2, 3]

• Ubuntu (In-House): Canonical's financial and engineering resources are overwhelmingly dedicated to Ubuntu itself—its flagship product—which drove $345 million USD in revenue in 2025. Ubuntu uses GNOME as its default upstream desktop environment, which aligns Canonical's engineering and design focus closely with GNOME while leaving KDE as an independent community spin without corporate payroll backing from Canonical.

[ShadYoung]

AI Overview


[FONT=Google Sans][SIZE=16px][FONT=Google Sans][SIZE=16px][FONT=Google Sans][SIZE=16px]Canonical does not currently provide direct financial funding or dedicated cash grants to the KDE project, having ceased direct funding for its KDE-based flavor (Kubuntu) back in 2012 when it stopped paying its lead developer. [1, 2]

That does not support the claim that KDE was "held back" by Canonical WRT the the latest rebase of Neon...

[claydoh]

Well, our neon section here is far from any sort of formal or official forum; that is what KDE's Discuss is for and has more recent volume. It is where I go for neon support content.

KDE itself has not abandoned anyone, neon is one of many projects under a broad umbrella and lives or dies by how much people contribute to it. To be honest, imo KDE never really had a lot of actual enthusiasm for it. Partly from the innate dislike of *buntu in Linux-land as a whole, as well as the constant battle with some of the older bits in LTS that need to be replaced/upgraded to be able to run a current Plasma release.

Tuxedo are moving from using neon (and its Ubuntu LTS underpinnings) to Debian Testing for it's OS, which does move the window a little closer to current Linux versions of things from where Ubuntu LTS is (Testing is what Ubuntu uses as the base snaphot)

The developer count for neon has never been very high. We are talking about a max 2/3 main people ever, when it was active. It is down to one who has a day job and family.

I still use it on my main work/gaming PC, and have since the User Edition came out in 2016. I'd be contributing to the project if I had any actual skill and knowledge at all. But I do not, other than some mild content editing on the website.

I probably will go to KDE Linux once it has a regular release, and not the "alpha" level OS and the beta/pre-release Plasma it has right now, which runs fine and completely stable on my Chromebook for many months to a year now. It IS more work, depending on what one needs for external stuff - Tailscale and my VPN provider need custom work to install, and I am still figuring out how to get my key remapper working automatically at login (keyd) so the function keys work to my liking, and the Chromebook's keyboard backlight works via the keyboard (it works fine via the tray widget). On my PC, the keyboard is not an issue, but the other two are vital, but easily done.

That does not support the claim that KDE was "held back" by Canonical WRT the the latest rebase of Neon...

You are assuming that this was the intent

[MoonRise]

Tuxedo are moving from using neon (and its Ubuntu LTS underpinnings) to Debian Testing for it's OS, which does move the window a little closer to current Linux versions of things

Yes, On two test machines I've started reviewing Tuxedo OS Debian. It is currently very stable for me where they are in their migration. They have yet to add Plasma 6.8 but I'm sure once the migration in complete they will. The version of Plasma they have it on has always been solid so the enhancements that plasma 6.8 provides can wait here. Tuxedo OS Debian has been very nice to work with.

I'd stick with Neon but I do see KDE focusing on their newer project more and I really don't see the Lone individual being able to do it all for Neon and I do see it fizzing away. Which to me is a real shame but that is their folly. I'm not one that favors an immutable OS, not for what I like to do.

[claydoh]

I'm not one that favors an immutable OS, not for what I like to do.

It isn't all that difficult; it is mostly just a different way to get there, depending on the distro. I do out-of-the-box things myself, and mostly don't have any real bothersome problems so far. But that may change when I move to using it on my main PC.

They have yet to add Plasma 6.8 but I'm sure once the migration in complete they will.

Are they still on 6.6 still, since they are sponsoring the Plasma LTS? oops, no that is Kubuntu Focus.

The version of Plasma they have it on has always been solid

So they hold back on Plasma releases then, even in the Debian variant? Not what I, personally, am looking for, then, on top of being Debian.

[ShadYoung]

Yes, On two test machines I've started reviewing Tuxedo OS Debian. It is currently very stable for me where they are in their migration. They have yet to add Plasma 6.8 but I'm sure once the migration in complete they will. The version of Plasma they have it on has always been solid so the enhancements that plasma 6.8 provides can wait here. Tuxedo OS Debian has been very nice to work with.

I'd stick with Neon but I do see KDE focusing on their newer project more and I really don't see the Lone individual being able to do it all for Neon and I do see it fizzing away. Which to me is a real shame but that is their folly. I'm not one that favors an immutable OS, not for what I like to do.

Same. It feels like its going to fizzle and die, and that is a damn shame. I am not keen on an immutable OS based on "Flatpak everything" either. Bloat on top of bloat. I really do not know where to go from here.

[ShadYoung]

...that is what KDE's Discuss is for and has more recent volume. It is where I go for neon support content.

Yes, but it has been rather silent too. I asked about the rebase there and even a KDE dev didn't have any real idea what what happening. I came here wondering if anybody was talking about it. I was gobsmacked to see no posts here in months. Seems the user base has given up and moved on. Maybe we are the only ones left.

[claydoh]

Yes, but it has been rather silent too. I asked about the rebase there and even a KDE dev didn't have any real idea what what happening. I came here wondering if anybody was talking about it. I was gobsmacked to see no posts here in months. Seems the user base has given up and moved on. Maybe we are the only ones left.

When there is a problem with the updates, there are many
Plus the sheer number of bug report duplicates from that last batch of updates shows there are still folks out there.
But even Matrix dev channel has been quiet, the dev himself even, though I have not bothered him. Yes, I lurk in all the places of importance

. I am not keen on an immutable OS based on "Flatpak everything" either. Bloat on top of bloat.

That really is not the case, in my usage, at least, as an "all-flatpak" has a LOT less "bloat" since *everything* is sharing the same sets of system libraries, plus the deduplication reduces the actual amount of a flatpak dependency that is actually downloaded.

Not saying these so-called "immutable" things are for everyone by any means, but the so-called bloat is not a reason against them.
Having updates that don't break the OS, or not having high update error rates (neon is not at all good here!) is a boon for many.

[MoonRise]

claydoh - Tuxedo OS Debian is on Plasma 6.7.4. From my understanding from the forums, this was to provide a stable base but they do plan on going to 6.8 once all is finished with the migration.

I'm not sure of their release cycle yet because they were based on Neon's release with Plasma and KDE Apps.