Revisiting KDE Neon in 2019
According the FAQ, KDE Neon isn’t quite a Linux distribution. It is Ubuntu LTS (18.04 in this case) with some packages removed and with PPAs that provide the absolute latest KDE goodness.
How is KDE Neon different from Kubuntu? Well, that’s a topic for another time. In this article, I’m just going to focus on my experience with KDE Neon over the past three months.
This article (and accompanying video) is a follow up to a video I did on KDE Neon back in 2017.
What is KDE Neon?
If you don’t already know what KDE Neon is, here’s a quick primer -
KDE Neon is a L̶i̶n̶u̶x̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶t̶r̶o̶ package archive with the latest KDE software on top of a stable base (Ubuntu 18.04). Unlike other distributions that ship with KDE (Kubuntu, Manjaro KDE, etc), KDE Neon is pure vanilla KDE with no added tweaks or customizations.
For example, Kubuntu is Ubuntu (complete with Snap support, LXC, etc) with a customized KDE pre-installed.
KDE Neon is a base Ubuntu install (no LXC, etc) with vanilla KDE pre-installed, as well as some goodies such as Snap & Flatpak support built into Discover, KDE’s “app store”.
KDE Tweaks
One of my favorite things about using Linux on the desktop is how customizable most desktop environments are. And KDE has a reputation for being one of the most (if not the most) customizable desktop environment out there.
I do a fair amount of tweaking to my desktop to make it look and work perfect for me. The theme is the most important thing because I don’t want a desktop environment that strains my eyes to look at.
Here are some tweaks I make to my KDE theme:
- Base desktop theme is Materia
- Color scheme is Adapta Nokto
- Window decorations are K10
- Cursor, widget style, and icons are default Breeze
- Montserrat Font
Some tweaks that I make to the desktop itself (not theming) are:
- Konsole window blurring 😻
- Redshift enabled & auto-dimming in the evening
- Meta-Tab hotkey bound to “Present Windows” (expose) effect
- Nvidia overclock script runs at startup
The last set of tweaks are for KWin’s window compositor:
- Scale Method: Crisp
- Rendering Backend: OpenGL 3.1
- VSync: Never
- Keep Window Thumbnails: Never
- Alow applications to block compositing: Off
I’ve found that these settings make KWin significantly more stable and less prone to crashing, especially after playing full screen games.
The Good
I’ve compiled a list of positive things I noticed when compared to my previous experiences with KDE Neon since the beginning of December:
- KDE Discover (application installer) supports PPAs, Snaps, and Flatpaks!
- Redshift works perfectly (it would abruptly stop working with other DE’s)
- The audio subsystem revamp is great
- Leaps and bounds more stable than the last time I used it
A really great thing about the KDE project is that they make incremental improvements quickly without changing how the desktop operates. Compared to Gnome where new major versions often come with huge changes that effect the flow of the desktop entirely.
The Bad
No desktop environment is perfect and KDE is certainly no exception:
- The panel randomly crashes when searching with the application menu
- Kontact and Akonadi don’t work right
- Updates are very frequent
I’ve had issues with the darn panel since forever. Sometimes it crashes when searching for an application via the app menu. It always recovers but nevertheless it’s still an issue.
I’ve talked about Akonadi and Kontact before and the KDE PIM suite of applications just suck. Akonadi doesn’t sync my calendar half the time and Kontact is just a pain to use.
Summary
KDE Neon has been an absolute joy to use. I’ve always enjoyed using KDE but the stability issues (particularly with KWin) always kept me from sticking with it long-term.
KDE Neon is on version 5.14 right now, with 5.15 right around the corner. The KDE team maintains crazy velocity and there are new versions and improvements constantly. It’s great!
