I am a long time Linux user (20 years) and have exclusively been a GTK DE users. I started on KDE back in the 90's on the first distro I used (Mandrake) but moved away from it for some reason. I was looking for a change and like the functionality KDE (Plasma?) offers so a few weeks ago switched completely. I still have some GTK apps I use because I have been using them for a long time but have tried my best to use the equivalent QT app if possible.

I must say I am very impressed with this platform. It gives me the functionality I need and more, and is stable so far. The only area where I have had issues is with KDE-PIM and Akonadi but I know this is not a support thread so not asking, merely pointing out that particular software has issues on my install. I am very happy with my desktop now and do not have any desire to switch back to a GTK based one. My system is fast, responsive and I have all the tools I need to work.

Great job KDE Team!

You don't say what those specific issues may be but nonetheless in my case--re the PIM stuff--this was one of a few reasons I eventually defaulted to Neon
A plasma-frameworks foundation with minimal default apps was installed and afterwards I could simply choose the stuff I wanted
All I can add is... welcome back again!

Thanks Abury - I am a long time Arch user so don't want to change platforms. I have heard good things about Neon though so maybe will check out in a VM. The specific issues I had were an inability of kmail and the other PIM tools to connect to my gmail account. This may be an issue with gmail's authentication though, which I have heard has changed in the past few months. The end result was a complete lockup of the desktop and the inability to even switch to another tty. The last issue I had was with kaddressbook - I couldn't import a csv, which I know it can do. I was probably missing a library or something but will investigate further when I have time.

Already went down the rabbit hole on the specifics so I'll just end with the desktop is running well and I am still on it!

Copy that!!

Some months before Mint announced retiring their KDE... I saw the writing on the wall and started a journey that ended here
One of my--minor--KDE disappointments is the PIM space
why couldn't Kmail and Gmail just work nicely together?
so while I made the decision awhile back to use Android instead for my primary PIM needs
and on Neon to keep Gmail simply as a web app...
I have noted that IMAP-contacts-calendar has since been resolved and now works
but I'm so used to my phone/tablet as my primary PIM method that I'm okay with not using any Akonadi backend

Maybe... someday...

abury wrote:Copy that!!

Some months before Mint announced retiring their KDE... I saw the writing on the wall and started a journey that ended here
One of my--minor--KDE disappointments is the PIM space
why couldn't Kmail and Gmail just work nicely together?
so while I made the decision awhile back to use Android instead for my primary PIM needs
and on Neon to keep Gmail simply as a web app...
I have noted that IMAP-contacts-calendar has since been resolved and now works
but I'm so used to my phone/tablet as my primary PIM method that I'm okay with not using any Akonadi backend

Maybe... someday...

Couldn't have said it better myself! So I have to ask: as a Neon user, how is the distro? Is it Debian based and how has your experience been? Arch for me has been rock solid with a few minor glitches, mainly because it is fairly bleeding edge. I have been happy but am always on the lookout for something better. Perhaps a futile search because I have pretty much looked under every rock out there...

Thanks.

(Ok--me thinks--how do I answer this?)
I think that we are--you-n-I that is--at that place where this thing of using Linux is like enjoying a really good cup of coffee, a slice of cake or top-shelf chocolate
when it's really good, well... it really is so
the vendor is not irrelevant as such but rather... incidental... to the actual 'enjoyment'

Neon's FAQ would answer some of your questions and as to my experience, over a period of about six months that also included some Xfce, I used three other KDEs before aligning with Neon; I said somewhere else that it feels like I have finally arrived in Linuxland and that desire to see-play-use other distros is laid to rest--finally! is Neon rock solid? That it gets regular updates attests to some flaws and hey... it uses some Ubuntu but overall the experience is solidly awesome and I've been able to resolve or find work-arounds to ensure my usage is... enjoyable!

I think that the next LTS version might bring up some issues in the libinput space...
I logged a bug report and it's resolved upstream but it depends on what this dev team releases at the end of the day
As of this post, here is Neon's KDE platform...

Thank you for the detailed response - yes, it appears as the planets have aligned and I am in Linux nirvana so to speak...I don't really want to change distros as they are fairly similar; just a matter of finding one that works well for me. I have found that the KDE desktop works very well for me though so I am sticking with it.

I did notice our KDE versions are identical so I am not gaining anything by switching to Neon, in terms of KDE "newness". Thank you for the screenie, mine is included for your reference as well.

Nice!
But while I subscribe to "if it ain’t broke.. don't fix it..."
the thing is the one distro I've only ever heard about and never used is... Arch
so fudge... I may just have to review Linuxland after all
[is Ubuntu gonna be problem down the line?]

abury wrote::) Nice!
But while I subscribe to "if it ain’t broke.. don't fix it..."
the thing is the one distro I've only ever heard about and never used is... Arch
so fudge... I may just have to review Linuxland after all
[is Ubuntu gonna be problem down the line?]

Ubuntu is fine I think. Arch has no installer so it's a command by command install. Easy if you are cli savvy. If Neon is working fine for you, I'd stick with it. Ubuntu is a solid base so cant go wrong there. Maybe try arch in a VM?

Interesting development: gave openSuse Leap 15 a shot and actually ended up switching from Arch. Packages are a little older than on Arch and Neon but what clinched it was everything works: kde-pim suite and gmail, digikam and image editing, everything. I had an issue with a kernel update and the nouveau driver and it died a horrible death so had boot to the older kernel, install nvidia and now everything works great. One of the first distros I used so kind of nice to be using it again.

I'll post the kde versions later when I have some time.

Ahh... nice to hear about openSuse again!
When Gnome2 was still the thing, I used it for quite some time
I'm about to test the new release of Neon; it seems I was correct in my evaluation of libinput; they're using evdev X11 input driver instead... (at least until 18.04 catches up with the 18.10 fixes)
Look forward to your reviews of openSuse...

As promised, although not a full-on review of openSuse because that's really off-topic for this thread These forums aren't very active but I am sure they have mods. Anyway, if you have installed and used openSuse in the last 10 years, the installer looks pretty much the same. The partition tool is much better, in that it is not horribly unintuitive as it was in Leap 4x.x, it's just not great. The only way to do your own partition scheme is to choose "expert paritioner" or something like that. Easy enough once you know that.

The only thing I dislike about openSuse is the update process. I am still not clear on the correct way to update. The 'zypper" command is used but I find several different examples and I can't find in the docs where they say "to update your system, do this".

KDE seems to work just fine! As I mentioned in an earlier post, the entire KDE-pim suite works with my Gmail account. I did not attempt to tie kaddressbook into Gmail because I am not sure if it's possible, and also Gmail doesn't do addresses in a standard way really. I pulled my addresses from Gmail in a csv and did a lot of formatting before importing them into kaddressbook. No worries, I don't update addresses often. Kmail works just fine and I am getting used to using it. Calendar works as well and I can update items in the kontact calendar and they update in my Google calendar

To accomplish all of this I added an "app password" and used that in my Gmail account when setting up each app. During that process the apps that needed access also prompted me for my Google credentials. Easy enough! As promised, the info screenshot:

Again.. a small-n-informative post!
Nice one!
My feedback on the new release

Well, I have broken a record as of late...still on openSuse and KDE and the system is working very well. For the past couple of years I have suffered from frantic distro hopping and could never settle down. Feels good to be able to turn on my computer, it actually boots up and doesn't have any issues...only minor issue I have had was with kmail not wanting to send email but I believe I have resolved that.

I have avoided KDE in the past but now that I have been using it regularly, I can't see me ever going back to anything else.

sevendogsbsd wrote:...For the past couple of years I have suffered from frantic distro hopping and could never settle down... I can't see me ever going back to anything else.

I think your story is kinda the testimony for many others too...
While I'd spent a decade+ on Xfce and only just over a year on KDE... unless some crazy strategic new stuff occurred with Plasma, I can't imagine ever using another desktop environment again; and yes Plasma has--minor--issues nonetheless it's a ridiculously awesome and pleasant interface and 5.14 demonstrates--yet again--the dev efforts to improving that experience!