I am considering creating a partition on my MacBook Air Intel 2020 for Linux, and I like the clean, minimalist style of all of these operating systems, especially the Cachy browser and the Neon addons. What are the essential differences among these systems, and how do they differ from Solus and Fedora?
Out of those 3 Endeavour and CachyOS are Arch based, Iâm assuming you mean KDE Neon if so itâs Ubuntu based. After finding Arch and Arch based OSâs I would never consider Ubuntu or any distro based on Ubuntu.
Now between Endeavor and Cachy I would personally choose Endeavor because of their huge and extremely helpful community on their forums. Yes it doesnât have a lot of stuff out of the gate, but you should be able to easily search their forums and find the info for pretty much whatever you need to do. As for Cachy and their browser Cachy has a habit of not including some key files for Plasma. Examples a file to make it possible to add the widgets, the correct file to have the file dialog boxes behave correctly and be somewhat uniformed. As for the Cachy browser there are far better Chrome alternatives out there. I personally use and recommend Vivaldi. Itâs extremely customizable and takes your privacy very seriously.
If you chose Endeavor I would hit their forums and introduce yourself and let them know what you want to do and if they have any suggestions for you once you have the OS installed.
2 Likes
Cachy and Endeavour are based on Arch and will have as many or more similarities than differences.
KDE neon is a rolling Plasma implementation on Ubuntu LTS as a base OS. I have no idea what âaddonsâ you mean here.
So basically, the differences will be in in the default software included, the package management systems used, some system level administration differences, and the general pace of updating/upgrading. These all have their own plusses and minuses.
The Plasma desktop (other than themeing) will be pretty much the same between these 3.
Now, the differences that there are may seem quite significant to a new Linux user, but in the long run it all ends up being personal preferences.
The fun part is, you get to try them all to see how things work and what you might like and dislike.
Note; I have not used all of these that you mention.
2 Likes
claydoh,
Not sure why I wrote âaddonsâ when I meant to âapps.â Brain must have slipped into buffering mode.
Your crystallization of the OS differences is most helpful. The fog is beginning to clear. It is heartening to discover that Linux is not the sole province of developers and analysts.
On a scale of common to unheard-of, how prevalent is the practice of
combining features of various system features in oneâs Linux software setup? Would it be feasible, for example, to use Discover packages from Neon, a Cachy browser, and the LibreOffice suite, all within a Fedora or Endeavour environment (assuming dependencies / auxiliary software components are in place)? Or could that turn the drive database to code confetti?
You would need sources compatible with your distro. as well as actual packages created for the desired software.
For example, Libreoffice is available in any distroâs native app store/package archives, for example. it is one of the more common applications out there.
What muddies the water is that a lot of software via the distro-agnostic Flatpak system as well as the similar Snap. One or both of these will be part of your app store already in most mainstream distros. These provide more current versions than what is often found in more ânormalâ and slower moving distros, swouldo most any application is likely available on any distro.
Neon will have all the software available in Ubuntu LTS software library plus all that is available in Flatpak/Snap, all directly from Discover. Fedora and others will have similar setups out of the box, so most applications and tools that have any sort of traction or small amount of popularity or user base will be readily available.
However, not everything is available via Flatpak. Cachy Browser isnât available outside of Arch and Arch-based distros, as far as I can tell. No one has bothered to create a Flatpak package as of yet, perhaps being a bit too niche (A more modified version of a modified version of Firefox) to garner enough interest just yet. But this is fairly rare.
You wonât be able to run neon packages on a Fedora or Endeavour system, as they all use quite different packaging systems, use differing library sets, and some differences in file locations. But there is no need or reason to want to do so.
Yes, it IS confusing, at first. Much less so when you actually start using it.
My only suggestion, and personal opinion, is to start out with your very first install with a more mainstream distro with gobs of users of all types and experience levels and communities. Ubuntu (and its Flavors â Kubuntu). Fedora (Has a KDE spin). Linux Mint (itself heavily based on Ubuntu, but no KDE version).
Everything else is either for more advanced users, too niche, or simply based on either Ubuntu or Arch.
Once you get your feet wet installing and configuring and troubleshooting things you can descide where to go next,
Apple hardware does add another mostly minor level of complication here, and is another reason to start with a well known, well used distro that has good user experience and feedback on this type of hardware.
Helpful information and sensible points all.
Thank you.
Iâm actually leaning towards Fedora KDE.
Except for your email address which they will spam forever if you are stupid enough to give it to them. The list removal link is a lie that never works, I had to create filter to delete it on reception as I got tired of emptying their garbage from my trash folder.
1 Like
You are completely full of it. Do not post whatâs an outright lie.
I lived it is no damn lie. Them scumbags persisted in emailing me despite repeated attempts to unsubscribe from their lists. I even wrote damn near everyone in authority listed on their website and the junk kept coming. So give up the fanboi routine.
1 Like
Not buying it, BYE BYE blocked.
Err yeah. @ResearchMind you might want to consider Manjaro KDE as well. Itâs Arch-based and similar to Endeavour. Despite itâs rolling releases I have not had any serious problems with Manjaro in 4+ years as the team takes testing very seriously.
I honestly avoid Manjaro like the plague. Their staff is rude a lot of the time. If you want a Arch based distro with a lot of bells and whistles Trt Manjaro or RebornOS.
Hi others have pointed the difference between those distros, I could provide my experience since I use Endeavour and KDE Neon (and KDE Neon based TuxedoOS).
First a little remark, what you call Neon apps/addons are in fact KDE applications (if I gess correctly): KDE is a big project with at is core a Desktop Environement with Plasma/Kwin for desktop and windows management (plus some tool like systemsettings, etc) and a whole bunch of apps part of KDE and design to blend well with KDE desktop (theme, same looks, based on the QT graphic library), those apps could be close to the desktop like dolphin (kde file manager), konsole, kate or more independant (Calligra office suite, partition-manager) those are not for exemple installed automatically as dependance of kde-baseapps.
So youâre free to use KDE Desktop (plasma) without the apps or just the base apps or use the app outside Plasma (on another Desktop Environemnt/Windows Manager like Gnome or SwayâŚ). Personnaly for exemple I use KDE Plasma (desktop) but not app like Konsole and Kate (I prefer Kitty and Emacs). You also can use app made for other system/graphic library, like for exemple Inkscape is a nice scalar graphic app build on GTK so it blend better on Gnome but work well on KDE (may need some tweaks depending of config).
For the comparaison between Endeavour OS and KDE Neon. As said EndeavourOS is based on Arch, very close to main Arch so you have a lot of apps/tool with cuting edge version readily avaible. On the other hand KDE Neon is based on Ubuntu LTS with the added benefit of the last KDE apps. So you have a very good KDE experience, with well integrated KDE stuffs, for exemple in discover you can install all system and flatpak apps, and even KDE plugins (themes, kwin scripts). On EndeavourOS I only use discover to manage flatpaks. One aspect I witness, that surprise me, is that KDE Neon add better performance compared to EndeavourOS. I test both on dual boot on an older device and there were some more lag in apps (particularly KDE app) than Neon. I donât know the reason maybe it is due to the well integration of KDE in Neon or maybe some optimisation from Ubuntu. I was surprised because I my experience with Ubuntu was that it heavy and slow (I allways prefered to use Debian). Also regrading avaibility of apps/tools : on one hand in EndeavourOS(Arch) I found all the little tools I needed in the latest version on the repo, on the other hand there are apps that only provided Debian/Ubuntu package, at least as supported way of installing them and you can found lot of howto and all for those situation. On Arch you are more .dependant of maintainers to provide AUR packages , and well maintain.
So in the end it is a matter of preference and needs. If you prefer/need the latest version of some software (outside of KDE) or ones that or not in Debian/Ubuntu, then EndeavourOS/Arch is a good choice. If you want more generaly used distro, or if you use specific app that only support Ubuntu, or even if you want the cutting edge experience of KDE you can use KDE Neon (or even TuxedoOS).
1 Like