Really liking KDE neon

[Don B. Cilly]

Just updated neon User. Kernel is now 5.4.0-42 (from 5.3.0-62).
Plasma stayed the same (5.19.3, Qt 5.14.2, FW 5.72.0).

Nvidia driver went gaga. Only possible resolution accepted in System Settings was 1024 x 768.

I noticed I now have a Driver Manager there. Changed the nvidia driver to a higher one (which I didn't know I had). It took about 20 minutes to do so, but after rebooting I got my normal resolution back (1920 x 1080).

[oshunluvr]

Here's my KDEneon and Kubuntu 20.04 versions side-by-side

[oshunluvr]

Maybe this is easier to see:

[claydoh]

Just updated neon User. Kernel is now 5.4.0-42 (from 5.3.0-62).
Plasma stayed the same (5.19.3, Qt 5.14.2, FW 5.72.0).

Nvidia driver went gaga. Only possible resolution accepted in System Settings was 1024 x 768.

I noticed I now have a Driver Manager there. Changed the nvidia driver to a higher one (which I didn't know I had). It took about 20 minutes to do so, but after rebooting I got my normal resolution back (1920 x 1080).

I noticed the broken Nvidia driver on Reddit, or maybe KDE's forums? Not Neon-specific. This sort of thing happens every now and then, where DKMS doesn't (or can't) rebuild the kernel shim module.
Another headache I don't miss after moving to AMD.,

I don't have the driver manager, which is a component of software-sources-qt and not a standalone program any longer. . Don't know why you might have it, unless it is somehow a new dep of the Nvidia driver packages. Which does perhaps make sense, a little.

[Don B. Cilly]

So Unstable has 5.19.80 - which is basically pre-release 5.20, right?
I'll check it out, like, tomorrow, maybe :·) 9 PM here.

Anything juicy you noticed about it?·)

[EDIT] I don't quite know how long it's been there, but

[mr_raider]

I noticed the broken Nvidia driver on Reddit, or maybe KDE's forums? Not Neon-specific. This sort of thing happens every now and then, where DKMS doesn't (or can't) rebuild the kernel shim module.
Another headache I don't miss after moving to AMD.,

I don't have the driver manager, which is a component of software-sources-qt and not a standalone program any longer. . Don't know why you might have it, unless it is somehow a new dep of the Nvidia driver packages. Which does perhaps make sense, a little.

Software-properties-qt adds the sources button in discover does it not?

[claydoh]

Software-properties-qt adds the sources button in discover does it not?

Yes, as well as in Muon, and even Synaptic I believe. In 20.04, the Driver Manager entry just runs software-properties-qt with the driver manager tab opened.
Rather, it actually replaces any existing sources management, at least in Synaptic. I have not used the tool in a long time, I believe it supplements or replaces Discover's simple, native distro-agnostic sources section.

[Beerislife]

Fresh install of 5.19 over Kubuntu 20.04 went without a hitch. I'm more or less back to where I was before. I just have to change the Trim method, install my printer/scanner drivers and tidy up any loose ends!

[Beerislife]

I was disappointed to see both snapd and flatpak were installed! They didn't last long on this system!

[oshunluvr]

Yeah, snapd is now an Ubuntu "thing." It's bad enough IMO that I've started looking at other distros. If too many more of their components become snaps I may have to move on - after 11 years. Maybe the neon team will change bases if we're lucky.

[Beerislife]

At least no snap packages were installed so that's one consolation. If snaps are the future then I may have to learn how to use Windows! Just a joke, I haven't used windows since 3.1, although this machine dual boots with Win 10 (Just fot the warranty period) I tried it once and almost died!

[oshunluvr]

...although this machine dual boots with Win 10 (Just fot the warranty period) I tried it once and almost died!

My laptop is in the same unfortunate "condition." Last week I booted to Winblows to update it. Took more than a half hour to go through several cycles of reboots and updates. Yuk.

[GreyGeek]

My laptop is in the same unfortunate "condition." Last week I booted to Winblows to update it. Took more than a half hour to go through several cycles of reboots and updates. Yuk.

I, too, used to maintain my old WinXP partition. (Or maybe it was Win7 .... I can't remember). Anyway, the last time I booted into windows to update it I got a message saying 185,000 updates needed to be applied. I asked Steve Riley, who was an admin here at the time, if that was normal. He said yes, if you don't run Win for a long time.
After considering what I used WInX for over the previous 4 or 5 years (I even had the Win apps I normally used, like IQAN, running under WINE) I decided to forgo the update and just delete the partition. Which I did.

Snap has me concerned. If Canonical ties more and more apps to its proprietary Snap store and doesn't maintain them in the regular repository then I will reluctantly find another distro not based on Ubuntu. Probably one that bypasses Ubuntu and is based on Debian. I see this becoming like a WinPrinter or WinModem. As more and more developers submit their apps to the store, probably for financial reasons (?), the repository will become a home of old and outdated apps and maintenance will diminish until it stops.

I've been watching distro reviewers like TylerTech on LBRY and ChrisTech on YouTube, and other YT distro reviewers, to see how various distros running KDE fair. I've also been burning distros featuring KDE & BTRFS and trying them out as LiveUSB's.

However, I will ride with Kubuntu until the Snap waters rise to the portholes. If and then I'm jumping ship.

[jlittle]

I'm not concerned about snaps' creeping takeover on *buntus, as long as some distro somewhere packages the software I'm interested in; because usually I can rebuild that software using whatever methods debian uses, or maybe gentoo.

I would be concerned if software becomes "snap-only". But, that software would no longer be free.

I suppose one could argue that if you have to build software, what's the point of using a *buntu? Well, building all the libraries and set up and keep it all up to date, well distributed across the world, on a coherent release schedule is a fantastic boon. Other distros come and go but Ubuntu has been going fairly steadily for 15 years.

I'd like the snap implementation to be a lot better. My only experience with it did not last long.

[mr_raider]

Neon integrated flatpak fairly well. I've been using flatpaks a lot for some software that I want more recent versions of, but can't be bothered to look for PPA s