I think I’m a little confused about what Ubuntu LTS means for KDE Neon. Ubuntu receives support for 5 years, however any other editions are only supported for 3 years.

Since KDE Neon sits on top of the Ubuntu core foundations, does that mean it is supported for 5 years or does it require upgrading every 2 years when a new Ubuntu LTS comes out and KDE Neon gets re-based on the new Ubuntu LTS?

So once KDE Neon gets re-based to the latest Ubuntu LTS, is KDE Neon based on the former Ubuntu LTS abandoned or will they coexist side-by-side?

I am fascinated by the KDE Neon idea and considering it instead of Kubuntu on my new laptop, so I’m eagerly awaiting the install media for the new KDE Neon User Edition based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

This is all new territory for the Neon team since the "non-distro" is still in it's infancy. The LTS core (Xenial) will be supported for maintenance and hardware updates until late year 2018 and after that only receive maintenance updates until it reaches end of life in early 2021. The LTS core (Bionic) will be supported for maintenance and hardware updates until late 2021 and after that only receive maintenance updates until end of life in early 2023. The next scheduled release for LTS (20.04) is in early 2020.

By staying with the LTS version the Neon developers , one assumes, can concentrate on KDE development that reduces the workload having to compile for the intermediate releases.

Link to Ubuntu (Neon's base) end of life schedule: https://www.ubuntu.com/info/release-end-of-life

The charts will give you an idea why the LTS release, with openstack and kernel support extending far beyond the intermediate releases, is best suited to the Neon philosophy of "a stable Ubuntu base with the latest KDE desktop".

The only subject that is unclear at this time is will there be an update method as in Ubuntu to upgrade to the latest LTS base, ie, 16.04 to 18.04 without a full reinstall of Neon. Patience is necessary since, as I stated, this is all new territory and the Neon team wants to "get it right the first time".

I think there are a couple of pieces to this:

First is will Neon switch to the new LTS? The answer to that is: Yes. As I understand it they should be working on releasing Neon on the new LTS core and that should be ready here in the next month or so.

Second is will Neon continue to support versions based on the previous LTS releases? I can't say for sure, not knowing the full extent of the Neon devs' plans, but I would guess that they will continue to support versions based on both the old and the new LTS for at least a little while after releasing the new version based on the new LTS core. I would also guess that they will probably drop support for versions based on older LTS releases after a while as their primary focus is going to be on latest KDE on current LTS core.

Third is will there be an upgrade path for going from one LTS core to the next? This is also unclear. On the one hand they probably will want to do this to reduce long-term support requirements as this would impact how long people stay on the older release, on the other hand they may not take the time to do this so they can focus more on other things.

kdeoldster wrote:The only subject that is unclear at this time is will there be an update method as in Ubuntu to upgrade to the latest LTS base, ie, 16.04 to 18.04 without a full reinstall of Neon.

airdrik wrote:Third is will there be an upgrade path for going from one LTS core to the next? This is also unclear.

https://blog.neon.kde.org/index.php/2018/05/02/moving-to-bionic/

Now we need to finish off compiling all the packages for the four editions of KDE neon and make sure the upgrade is working.

WATSOFT70:
Probably a stupid question, but will the current versions of KDE neon update the underlying ubuntu to version 18.04 or will it need to be a fresh install?
Thanks in advance.

JONATHAN RIDDELL:
Silly indeed

“make sure the upgrade is working”

While I am keen to see a Bionic update... my fundamental need is more about the KDE stuff than the Ubuntu core stuff
What I imply comes back to that original reason for me choosing Neon in the first place...
that is that while JR and his team are focused on ensuring we get the latest greatest KDE software
the Canonical team do the job of ensuring a stable base (that the Neon team leverage)
which is why I'm content with the wait... (as per their blog)