Living on the Edge with KDE Project Neon

[geoaraujo]

Hello. I've tested it today the coexisting ppa on my Kubuntu 14.04 install. Project Neon looks promising and I overall like the path choosed by KDE developpers, but it didn't quite work in my machine mostly due to weird and teared up screen and fonts. One question: does the plasmoids showed at http://kde-apps.org/ work on Frameworks 5?

[claydoh]

Hello. I've tested it today the coexisting ppa on my Kubuntu 14.04 install. Project Neon looks promising and I overall like the path choosed by KDE developpers, but it didn't quite work in my machine mostly due to weird and teared up screen and fonts. One question: does the plasmoids showed at http://kde-apps.org/ work on Frameworks 5?

No, most plasma widgets from kde 4 won't work, as far as I can see.

There still are a number of the stock widgets not yet in kf5, but that is changing as updates to that come in.

In kde-apps, the widgets are all user created, and with kf5 being so new, people haven't started creating for it that much, yet.

[claydoh]

Indeed, I use hplip and on boot up it complains it can't find a System Tray.

Yup, this is a thing
http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blo...systray-icons/
It will be interesting to see how this plays out or is addressed. Luckily, in Ubuntu, we have libappindicator, so it will be the third-party things that will need to adapt, such as Skype and hplip.

Those who don't use or build against libappindicator (Fedora, I think) will have fun with getting gtk apps into a Plasma systray.

[NoWorries]

Indeed, I use hplip and on boot up it complains it can't find a System Tray.

I have always encountered this problem and I find that the HP icon is also in the System Tray and all I do is keep the error message by putting it on the tray and the HP icon stays. If I exit the error message the HP icon also goes.

[NoWorries]

Conquered the Clock Widget Position Movement

For some time now I have been frustrated by the lack of usefull widgets. Those that are there I find difficult to use. At last I have now been able to move the analogue clock to the right side of my desktop. I firstly changed the size and added the second hand. I then clicked on the centre of the bar that gives the movement and edit options and dragged it to the right side of the screen. If I drag the bar past the edge of the screen, this bar is no longer accessable for changing position. In the attached image, you can see the outline of the window around the clock. The background is part of an Australian sunset sky.

[verndog]

I've been trying to figure out the difference between Plasma 5 and Neon.

[claydoh]

I've been trying to figure out the difference between Plasma 5 and Neon.

Neon is a self-contained instance of Plasma that you can log into instead of KDE 4. Think of it being like installing another desktop and being able to log into that, the same as if you installed Xfce or Lxde. All of its KDE user/app settings and preferences are kept in its own directory, so it is easy and safe to try it out, without loosing or messing with your current KDE bits.


The plasma 5 iso you see installs Plasma 5 as the DE, it replaces (or rather supersedes) KDE4.
I an currently using this as my daily driver, as running Neon is not really edgy and actually seems to run smoother.

[verndog]

I just now got the latest Plasma 5 installed with nvidia drivers and it runs very well.

I forgot to use the autologin feature when I built it, and now lightdm.conf is nowhere to be found. I thinks its suppose to be at "/etc/lightdm". Its a nothing matter, because when the next ISO comes out I will zsync mine and then remember to select autologin.

Neon seems like a lot of ppa's and configurations to monkey around with. Plasma 5 was straight forward, albeit, its 14.10.

[GreyGeek]

After following neon5 as an option during login I found no significant changes created by the many upgrades over the last month or so. So, I removed it. I used Muon at first, but it told me that too many of the Neon 5 packages could "not be updates or removed" when I tried to purge them. So, I fired up the Synaptic package manger. I gave me no problems in purging all of the Neon 5 packages, and didn't remove any KDE plasma desktop packages.

I was surprised that some of the plasma packages which allow system tray icons could not place those icons in a neon system tray.

[geoaraujo]

I've removed it too. I'll wait some more until make the change.

[NoWorries]

I also have not noticed any significant changes, but I am patiently waiting for some to come and check for what I want after the 80+ updates are installed. What surprises me is that these updates come each day without a break, so someone is working very hard and long and I appreciate such dedication.

I do not use this system for serious work. I just checkout the progress. At least I no longer get screen tearing or a shimmering logout screen and the login screen is much more stable and userfriendly.

As I installed the system from the noen5 iso, my sources are:


So I do not think that I can revert back to trusty without neon.

[GreyGeek]

.... So I do not think that I can revert back to trusty without neon.

Perhaps you can. Plasma is "just another desktop". I'd wager that if you installed kubuntu-desktop that it would pull in the entire KDE Plasma desktop and give you that option during the login. Just add the specific apps you need afterwards, if they are not installed by the desktop.

[NoWorries]

Perhaps you can. Plasma is "just another desktop". I'd wager that if you installed kubuntu-desktop that it would pull in the entire KDE Plasma desktop and give you that option during the login. Just add the specific apps you need afterwards, if they are not installed by the desktop.

Thanks GG for the tip that I will only use if I choose to jump ship. I am currently enjoying the small evolutionary changes and hopefully it will end up being the survivor of the fittest.

[jcphil]

I can log into the Project Neon desktop just fine. But when I get there, it has almost none of the Breeze look. There is only the Breeze splash screen and the icons in the application menu. Everything else is my standard KDE4 look. Is there some way to get the Breeze wallpaper, window decorations and icons?

[NoWorries]

I am not sure if you are aware of these comments about breeze. My impression about the direction of Project Neon is that the desktop look is not currently a high priority, ie near enough is good enough.

For example, I currently have a DVD and after I get the familiar 80+ updates, I check to see if the Device Notifier for the DVD shows more than "Open with File Manager". It does not show a list of other applications to select that will deal with a DVD. My next action is to see if more widgets have been added as well as check the Clock widget to see the movement and scaling options. Then there is the System Settings which is currently limited in many areas which allow more control of the desktop behaviour.

Once again, it is just a case of patiently waiting for the developers to get all aspects to work reliably.