KDE neon

[Snowhog]

Just finished installing Kubuntu 15.10 LTS in a new Oracle VirtualBox VM and followed the instructions at http://neon.kde.org.uk/download to get KDE neon installed/running. Pretty straight forward, and I experienced no issues. KInfocenter is reporting:

KDE Plasma Version: 5.5.90
Qt Version: 5.5.1
Kernel Version: 4.2.0-25-generic
OS Type: 64-bit

The system boots up nicely, and VBoxGuestAdditions has been installed, after installing the package dkms. I'm not going to use KDE neon as my primary OS; Kubuntu 16.04 fills that niche; but I'll run it and keep it dist-upgraded regularly to see how it goes.

[ukdave]

I too have it running without issue so far.

[NickStone]

Just finished installing Kubuntu 15.10 LTS...

I didn't know 15.10 was a LTS?

[mparillo]

The Neon team intends to migrate to 16.04 LTS as soon as practical.

[Snowhog]

I didn't know 15.10 was a LTS?

My 'bad'. Correct my post.

[NoWorries]

I decided to take the Bull by the Horne and tried it on Xenial. I followed the steps at http://neon.kde.org.uk/download and used the Muon package manager to change the software distribution for

http://archive.neon.kde.org.uk/unstable

from xenial to wily.

This resulted in 266 upgraded and 20 new packages installed and it is now working on xenial. If I have any problems, I will let you know ASAP. The KinfoCenter gives the following output.



So I am very pleased that I was able to get it up and running as I am still using Wily for my main desktop.

[NickStone]

KDE's new Linux distro: Terrible idea, or simply a huge mistake?

Whilst reading through some Linux news I came across this article from Bryan Lunduke -> http://www.networkworld.com/article/...e-mistake.html

In it he writes

First, it seems as though "KDE Neon" is, for all intents and purposes, Kubuntu. Only with a different name and now under the umbrella of the KDE project. As a follow-on to that, I find it somewhat strange that Riddell, who – last I heard – wasn't exactly a big fan of Canonical or Ubuntu, has opted to stick with Ubuntu as the basis for this "new" distribution. But, as he states in the same interview, "It [KDE Neon] uses Ubuntu LTS … which the team is familiar with."

and

...That's right, Arch users. And openSUSE users. And Gentoo, Fedora, Debian, Mageia, and Slackware users (among others). KDE now has a FAQ declaring that Ubuntu is "the best technology."

To read in full click here -> http://www.networkworld.com/article/...e-mistake.html
His he right? Is KDE Neon a terrible mistake?

[Teunis]

I'm not very charmed by grown men bickering so I paid little attention to the problems between Riddle and the Shuttleworth but was under the impression it was based on financial and interpersonal issues, not technical.

Making a distribution based on a solid Unbuntu LTS but with a more dedicated KDE experience might gather some followers.

Right now it would be better to funnel more developer efforts into very the much needed KDE's Plasma5 conversion, it's lagging and lacking.

[mparillo]

My quick answer is to refer you to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better...w_of_headlines

Bryan is fun. I always enjoyed his Linux Sucks videos. That said, a couple of points:
- Journalists live for controversy. So, aside from the click-bait headline, "the best technology" means "the best technology for those particular developers to scratch that particular itch", which should not be all that controversial.
- Most of his points were raised from the beginning, especially including the one where a perception could be raised that Neon will become the reference distro. KDE insiders understand those risks, and have accepted them and then validated with a vote. Answers to those objections have largely incorporated them into the FAQs. However, in business, there is an important, though seldom well-executed, discipline called Change Management. We will see if over time, "It is in the FAQ" will be sufficient for the other stakeholders. But, as Bryan notes, in Free Software, if you have an itch to scratch, then who is he to tell you to stop.

[claydoh]

The point of Neon is to have a rolling-stable and rolling-devel plasma desktop without the rolling OS, so that in most ways the underlying stuff becomes relatively unimportant.


as an aside, no one made a fuss when the official livecd that was listed on many KDE 4 release downloads pages was opensuse

Even funnier, was the totally expected, de-riguer, stereotypical very first reply on google plus on Bryan's articles being "why didn't they choose Arch for neon?" lol.

[GreyGeek]

Contrary to Lunduke's opinion, in the comment section Jonathan Riddell sets him straight: KDE NEON is NOT a "KDE distro", and in no way will affect KDE platform neutral stance.

[mparillo]

As long as it is a repository you add to Kubuntu, it is not a distro.
Once there is a live image, it will be fair to call it a distro.
Once there is an installable ISO, there can be no denying it is a distro (it is certainly more than a flavour and far more than a spin). At that point the positioning will become crucial to make sure it is not "the KDE distro". I am confident that will not worry KDE insiders; they have been well-briefed. It is the wider community that needs to be communicated with.

[NoWorries]

I can't help but think that all this is but "a storm in a tea cup".

Criticism unfortunately detracts from useful progress and the time spent by Jonathan Riddell on this issue is taking away from time spent in useful development. I am looking forward to Wayland being seamlessly integrated into KDE Neon as I have seen some negative comments on its current state.

[GreyGeek]

I can't help but think that all this is but "a storm in a tea cup".

Criticism unfortunately detracts from useful progress and the time spent by Jonathan Riddell on this issue is taking away from time spent in useful development. I am looking forward to Wayland being seamlessly integrated into KDE Neon as I have seen some negative comments on its current state.

Exactly. Riddell doesn't need it but Lunduke thrives on controversy and makes money stiring it up.

[GreyGeek]

Following the instructions carefully I attempted to install Neon iin a 15.10 guest OS of VB. Here is the result:

Preparing to unpack .../plasma-desktop_4%3a5.5.4+git20160308.0048+15.10-0_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking plasma-desktop (4:5.5.4+git20160308.0048+15.10-0) over (4:5.4.2-0ubuntu2) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/plasma-desktop_4%3a5.5.4+git20160308.0048+15.10-0_amd64.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/plugins/kcm_activities.so', which is also in package kactivities 5.15.0-0ubuntu1
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.4-1) ...
Processing triggers for dbus (1.10.0-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.15-0ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.58ubuntu1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/plasma-desktop_4%3a5.5.4+git20160308.0048+15.10-0_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Maybe it doesn't like to be part of a guest OS?"