Hi everyone,

I've considered switching to a Plasma DE after a distro-upgrade from Ubuntu Vanilla 16.04, because the update broke my scanner and the Gnome desktop appears to be very sluggish to use.

Now, the question stands wheter to go with Kubuntu or KDE Neon. I've read a fair bit about the differences between both of them, but I'm still unsure which distribution to choose.

Is it correct that, in short, Kubuntu 18.04 will receive regular Ubuntu security updates until 2023, but no DE and program updates without adding additional PPAs, while KDE Neon is a rolling release distro which, once installed, will update indefinitely all Ubuntu LTS security and all KDE software and DE updates as soon as they are released?

Since I've been using some KDE PPAs anyway to get newer versions, this would be great, however I'm worried that KDE Neon may break something as soon as Ubuntu 20.04 is released, just like the distro-upgrade changed something in the scanner handling.

Is this a possibility or would this not happen? Is there a way to keep on 18.04, but still receive updates to Plasma and KDE software in Neon?

Well, just don't upgrade from 18.04 to 20.04, at least not without a clean install. It is quite recommended to not do that. KDE Neon is just Ubuntu LTS with the latest KDE technologies. So it is a stable Ubuntu base with the newest KDE software constantly being updated. There is a user edition by the way, it is a bit more tested for the KDE packages so it is much more stable. In my opinion install the user edition, it's pretty great and it never crashed on me.

aimanm wrote:Hi everyone,

I've considered switching to a Plasma DE after a distro-upgrade from Ubuntu Vanilla 16.04, because the update broke my scanner and the Gnome desktop appears to be very sluggish to use.

Now, the question stands wheter to go with Kubuntu or KDE Neon. I've read a fair bit about the differences between both of them, but I'm still unsure which distribution to choose.

Is it correct that, in short, Kubuntu 18.04 will receive regular Ubuntu security updates until 2023, but no DE and program updates without adding additional PPAs, while KDE Neon is a rolling release distro which, once installed, will update indefinitely all Ubuntu LTS security and all KDE software and DE updates as soon as they are released?

Since I've been using some KDE PPAs anyway to get newer versions, this would be great, however I'm worried that KDE Neon may break something as soon as Ubuntu 20.04 is released, just like the distro-upgrade changed something in the scanner handling.

Is this a possibility or would this not happen? Is there a way to keep on 18.04, but still receive updates to Plasma and KDE software in Neon?

Kubuntu 18.04, as an LTS will only have updates to Plasma 5.12.x, no newer versions, even with PPAs, and is only supported until 2021 on the desktop side.
If Neon does as they did when they moved to 18.04 from 16.04, the repos for 18.04 Neon will go away at some point soon after 20.04 is up and running.

Hi,

thank you both for your replies.

So, what I'm understanding is that KDE Neon will not force a system upgrade to 20.04 "in the background" when it is released, but I am encouraged to upgrade manually shortly after, because the 18.04-based system will lose support at that point? Is that correct?

aimanm wrote:Hi,

thank you both for your replies.

So, what I'm understanding is that KDE Neon will not force a system upgrade to 20.04 "in the background" when it is released, but I am encouraged to upgrade manually shortly after, because the 18.04-based system will lose support at that point? Is that correct?

Correct. Neither Kubuntu or Neon will actually force you. Not sure how much things will break on Neon once their 18.04 repos are removed. Kubuntu 18.04 would still work after 2021, as the core Ubuntu will still have security updates until 2023 on the kernel, etc.

Hope KDE Neon still supports Mediatek mt7630e drivers when we move to 20.04.