OS Review: KDE Neon

If you want the absolute latest features from the KDE community without waiting for “stable” distributions to stop testing them in 2027, KDE neon is your fix. It’s not exactly a “distribution” in the traditional sense—it’s more like a high-end showroom built on top of a reliable Ubuntu foundation. You get the newest Plasma desktop, the freshest KDE Gear apps, and a rock-solid LTS base that stays out of the way while the UI does the heavy lifting.

KDE neon was announced in 2016 by Jonathan Riddell, the former lead of Kubuntu. Following his departure from Canonical, he wanted a way to deliver KDE software “as the developers intended,” without the patches or delays often introduced by third-party maintainers.

Running KDE neon is like having a VIP pass to the KDE factory floor. While other users are reading about the new “Plasma 6” features on tech blogs, you’re already clicking them. It’s the perfect choice for “Plasma Purists” who want a rolling-release experience for their desktop environment, but don’t want to deal with a rolling-release kernel breaking their Wi-Fi drivers.