Accidental discovery of quality.

[exploder]

I had KDE Neon on my desktop after being away from Linux for about a year. I tried upgrading from the unstable branch and really messed things up. Totally my fault and that's fine. I had a Kubuntu 20.04 disk I had used on my son's 15 year old computer because for some reason KDE Neon would not install grub on his machine. My son loves it by the way. He likes YouTube and games and he could make games run on a toaster! Since my desktop no longer connected to the internet I thought, why not try the Kubuntu minimal install on it? I knew one thing for certain, I wanted the Plasma desktop!

Well, I did the install and did the usual things to make it the way I wanted it. Icons only task manager, breeze light theme, alternate menu and so on. The plasma desktop really looks modern and streamlined! I got to thinking, plasma 3,18 is a long term support release, the kernel has long term support, the base really has long term support and everything works perfectly. Like most people, I am sure tempted by higher version numbers but at my age I have learned that having a little patience pays off! I got to thinking, is there anything really earth shattering in the latest KDE release? Not that there is anything wrong with the latest release but what would I really miss in my daily use of the system?

I see security and bug fixes coming in, the system is light on resources and my favorite apps are all working great! I am using public WiFi where I live and massive updates can be a challenge to get. I did not have any problem updating Kubuntu under these conditions at all. I have used so many distros over the years and there are a lot of people doing great work. These days I just want something that looks modern, preforms well and is reliable. Seems I have found all that with Kubuntu 20.04! Also, any distro is only as good as the community that supports it! The Kubuntu community has some great people here!

I see people here that I remember from years ago! I am glad things turned out the way they did!

[GreyGeek]

I got to thinking, is there anything really earth shattering in the latest KDE release? Not that there is anything wrong with the latest release but what would I really miss in my daily use of the system?

Except for two posts in 2018 and one each in 2011 and 2010, most of your activity on KFN was in 2009 and before. So it's been awhile. Glad you're back!

Earth shattering? Plasma beauty and speed, systemd and BTRFS!
There is a new forum on KFN called BTRFS. It is a root filesystem that I adopted with 16.04 and will never do without. It makes backing up and rollback child's play. Check it out!

Also, I don't know if you familiarized yourself with systemd in 2018 but, IMO, it is a very nice PID=0 process. It's beginning to put maintenance and control of Linux in a single environment, making things easy to control or modify.

... Also, any distro is only as good as the community that supports it! The Kubuntu community has some great people here!

I see people here that I remember from years ago! I am glad things turned out the way they did!

KFN is, IMHO, the best Linux forum on the net, and Kubuntu is the best distro. I've used it since 9.04 Alpha and it has never let me down. KubuntuForums.net is the best distro support site in Linux.

[exploder]

@ GreyGeek

I certainly remember you! I distro hopped an awful lot for a long time. I like a lot of projects, there are some great things going on and a lot of good ideas for sure. After being away for a while and using Windows and Chrome OS I honestly feel the plasma desktop is the most appealing today. Way back when I became a full time Linux user I stated with KDE 3x. I have a friend that has donated thousands of computers to needy kids. He showed interest in KDE Neon when it was just an idea. A Kubuntu LTS would be more realistic approach for his needs in my opinion. I see what my 11 year old can do on Kubuntu, he plays some pretty modern games on 15 year old modest hardware, that's impressive!

Plasma beauty, oh yes, it is by far the most attractive choice! Systemd, I remember the controversy but it seems to be accepted and to be honest, I am fine with it. I will take your word on BTRFS and will try it the next time I do an install. I see an active community here with sharing of information and people quick to lend a helping hand, that's what it's all about!

I do like that Kubuntu offers a minimal install option these days. Nothing at all wrong with the defaults but I already know what I like as far as application and it made setting up the system real easy. I like how stable and reliable the system is. Some say KDE offers too many choices and I disagree with that. All settings are organized in one place, it's easier in my opinion than setting up Windows 10. The only reason I have a Windows system at all is because I need to stay current with it to stand a chance of getting back in IT at a factory. My personal opinion is that Microsoft is clueless when it comes to a rolling release model. Not trying to bash Windows, it has it's purpose in business but the recent feature update disaster speaks for itself.

It takes me hours to configure Windows 10, it took all of about 40 minutes to do the same with Kubuntu. Being away for a year was good for me, it made me appreciate the efforts that go into a Linux distro.