KDE neon Is Now Based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)

KDE neon

The development team behind the KDE neon rolling release distribution announced that they’ve rebased the entire system on the latest Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) operating system series.

Based on the latest Ubuntu LTS release and KDE Plasma desktop environment and software, the KDE neon distribution uses a rolling release model to push the most recent updates to users, without having to download new ISO images and reinstall.

However, it would appear that, until now, KDE neon was using the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) base. I for one didn’t know that, but as of today the distribution will be based on the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) series.

“KDE neon is our installable Linux with continuous integration and deployment. It’s based on Ubuntu who had a new Long Term Support Release recently so we’ve rebased it on Ubuntu 20.04 now,” said the developers.

Existing users will see a pop-up notification on their screens in the next few day to upgrade the base to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. But, before upgrading, make sure you have a recent backup of your most important files.

Upgrade instructions are provided by the development team here, but it’s a pretty straightforward operation, so I don’t think there’s anyone out there that can’t do it properly.

Also today, the team released new ISO images, based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, of course. These are intended for those who want to reinstall or deploy the operating system on new computer without having to download hundreds of updates from the repositories after installation.

In other good news, the new ISO images come with an OEM install mode and full disk encryption in the Calamares graphical installer. The OEM install mode can apparently be used to install/reinstall KDE neon on the recently launched KDE Slimbook III Linux laptop.

As expected, the new KDE neon base and ISO image includes some of the most recent KDE technologies, such as the KDE Plasma 5.19.4 desktop environment, as well as the KDE Frameworks 5.72 and KDE Applications 20.04.3 software suites.

Last updated 4 years ago

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