KDE Neon is good as testing ground for new Plasma releases, but the user still needs to also use latest non KDE apps, with ppas it would be possible for some, but the problem is with every major upgrade some ppas are not updated for months, this lets KDE Neon locked in its bubble with latest Plasma but outdated apps.
The only distribution that is currently able to maintain latest updates for both Plasma desktop and other non KDE apps is Archlinux, but Arch is hard to install and maintain. The most user-friendly distro that’s based on Arch is Manjaro, but with their latest move to port Pamac, which a core application, to use LibAdwaita and declaring it supported only on GNOME desktop they downgraded the support for Plasma desktop.
We really wish if KDE Neon could have another flavor based on Archlinux, and with real support for pacman and AUR inside Discover.
Using EndeavourOS KDE here, could not have been easier to install and maintenance is a breeze. Now, if you mean a distro that’s completely dedicated to KDE, that would be nice.
Pamac can be installed/used, yes. But it’s not part of the core KDE installation. EOS is billed as a “terminal-centric” OS. I much prefer pacseek to pamac.
I love Arch, but it is not for everyone. The thought of the AUR inside Discover is quite frightening. You are building packages from source, so I don’t know how discover could handle such a thing. One should be very careful of installs from the AUR. I know I like to read the package build to see exactly what it does before installing a package from the AUR. I couldn’t in good conscience, recommend this to anyone.
Arch installations are not hard if you use the command archinstall at the beginning. Maintaining Arch can be difficult if you don’t know what you are doing. I would suggest starting with something like openSUSE Tumbleweed. It is just as fresh as Arch, but I would say more reliable.
I like Neon, but I do wish it had been built on Tumbleweed or even Leap rather than Ubuntu. I do understand the purpose of having a stable base to develop on top of though. It makes sense, but it’s not my cup of tea.
For those who like having the very latest KDE toys, Tumbleweed does allow us to add the KDE repositories and use them. The same goes for Thunderbird and other repos. I can’t say how well this would work, as I don’t do this, but we do have that ability. However, if you think maintaining an Arch install is hard, this might be biting off more than you can chew.
Discover is not designed to install packages from source.
Remember that packages on the AUR are built to install on Arch. Manjaro can get away with it, because the are based on Arch and maintain that structure. Not all distros have the same directory structure. Not all distros have the same package names, thus it would cause dependency issues that you don’t want.
I would not recommend any graphical package manager for arch or arch based distros (not even for the compiled packages by the devs)! But it seems like it works for the Manjaro guys so maybe I am wrong.
Interesting take. I would say the opposite. Don’t use archinstall (€: on your first install). Follow the official guide. It is maybe difficult, but after you do it the maintenance is minimal. I am thinking about switching to the Testing repositories because nothing seems to break.
+1 for Tumbleweed. Currently running it on my Laptop, love it.
Remember that packages on the AUR are built to install on Arch
That’s why we need a distro based on Arch to be compatible with AUR, so Discover will simply use the same commands used by Manjaro/Arch to install packages.
I prefer the command zypper to install on Tumbleweed, but I will go into YAST to research packages and their dependencies and to see which repos they are pulling those from.
AUR is a strictly experts-only thing that offers no QA and frequent breakage. It’s definitely never coming to Discover. It would be like handing a kid a loaded gun and telling them to be responsible with it. Just not a good match.
Follow the official guide. It is maybe difficult, but after you do it the maintenance is minimal.
Common, it’s 2023 ! Everything is automated and move toward simplicity and easy usability, if you have much free time to type those commands to do simple tasks as installing/uninstalling/upgrading it’s fine for you, but others don’t have the time/mind to always open a terminal and typing those weird commands, instead of opening a nice GUI interface like Pamac and click on buttons to do it much faster and concentrate on other important tasks at work.
I’ve installed Arch the hard way many times. I even have a script that I pieced together from many scripts and modified to make it a one command install. But even the Arch Wiki states that the AUR is not supported. Simple click-install on random AUR packages is a disaster waiting to happen. It is not a matter of “IF.” but of “WHEN.”
Well if Arch claims it’s not supported and it’s the user responsability, then the same will applies to Discover. While installing regular packages is safe but anything from AUR should be the responsibility of the user, the same logic when he types sudo followed by any command inside the terminal.
