Is this not-distro as stable as Kubuntu, can I daily drive it just the same?
What things shipped with Kubuntu are not included with KDE Neon? Specifically things like codecs, drivers, optional dependencies, utilities and whatnot?
Does the combination of LTS packages and bleeding edge desktop components cause conflicts or incompatibility with any software?
Am I not supposed to use apt on it at all or is it only not recommended for updating/upgrading?
Neon always has the current Plasma stuff, so much like a full-rolling distro, users will find bugs there before others will. Whether you can daily-drive it is a question I can’t answer, though I have been doing so since 2016.
I would not call it a hard platform to use, but some Linux/*buntu experience may be useful, imo. I don’t recommend it for new users, generally speaking.
Neon comes with a “minimal” Plasma desktop, and no other software is installed out of the box, other than Firefox and VLC. Pretty much identical to a Minimal install of Kubuntu. Neon won’t have Kubuntu/Ubuntu’s Software Sources tool, which also provides the Driver Manager GUI, though one can install it if desired.
As neon is 100% Ubuntu as on OS, drivers are exactly the same as in 22.04.
As to conflicts, there will some, mostly centered around Qt packaging. A small number of Qt applications won’t install as they are hard-coded (by Debian, actually) to depend on a specific package and version. However, these are all outdated as heck anyway, and are simply packages directly imported from Debian as opposed to being Ubuntu-built. Most will want to get more current versions via other sources (PPA, Flatpak, Snap) that will work on neon.
There have been conflicts in the past with Ubuntu’s 32-bit packages and some things in neon, and that has broken Wine installs. If you rely on a system-installed Wine versus platform-independent implementations for this, such as Lutris (via flatpak), Bottles, or a Flatpak Wine setup, you may want to think about this.
As to apt/Pkcon, that is completely up to you. Pkcon is just what Discover is doing under the hood, and actually still uses apt to do the work. Apt is better for messaging and errors, as well as for advanced options and troubleshooting. The whole issue that precipitated the move to strongly suggest Pkcon was that many people were using apt incorrectly for the situation, and thus not getting all updates all the time. Doing so now brings up a message to the fact. But in the end, you can use ether, or both. There is no conflict or problem in correctly using either.
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I know I am late to the game, but let me add that I have been using Neon as a solo daily driver for a year now, and have had only one noticeable problem which was fixed within a couple of weeks.
In my opinion, Neon is the best operating system I have ever used. I love it. I love the fact that Plasma is up-to-date and the underlying system is LTS. Best of both worlds. It has been generally completely stable, quick, light on resources, and IMO, damn pretty to look at. I love it so much, I am actually hesitant to upgrade it to the upcoming 6. I feel I have the perfect os for my needs, and I do not want anything to change.
I would not recommend it for complete beginners, but if you know your way around the basics of Linux, it is no more difficult to install, configure, and maintain than any other distro. The major issue is you need to enable i386 support (trivial), add a ubuntu-driver ppa if you use Nvidia, and manually track down and configure proprietary multimedia codecs, but there is lots of info out there on how to do all of that.
It has some advantages over Kubuntu. Things like not forcing SNAPs on you, or unattended updates (which has annoyed some people over at the Kubuntu Facebook group), and is relatively free of Gnome.