KDE neon
Shares rank 48 of 63 Linux distributions by recommenders
People recommend it for the latest KDE Plasma desktop and a polished overall feel. Critics report update problems, including painful dist-upgrades that break software.
People recommend it for the latest KDE Plasma desktop and a polished overall feel. Critics report update problems, including painful dist-upgrades that break software.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Polished, impressive overall experience
“After booting up from the stick I was absolutely blown away myself, because of how good it was.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Let's Unify Linux Desktops” “very polished experience overall”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: How would you set up a child’s first Linux computer?” Latest KDE Plasma desktop
“Running the latest KDE Plasma desktop with the latest mesa and pipewire made a huge difference.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it” Good experience on a new PC
“I put KDE Neon on it. It was great!”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “Historical memory prices 1960-2026”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Updates and upgrades cause breakage
“Almost always caused issues after update with stuff crashing due to mismatch of versions talking to each other over D-Bus”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Update and shut down no longer restarts PC, 25H2 patch addresses decades-old bug” “dist-upgrade was the biggest pain with the Ubuntu based KDE neon too”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “CachyOS: Fast and Customizable Linux Distribution” Issues blamed on neon itself
“I am pretty sure that was a kde neon issue”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “CachyOS: Fast and Customizable Linux Distribution” “way less issues than kde neon”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Gaming on Linux has never been more approachable”
Other Linux distributions people recommend
The four most recommended other Linux distributions, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu | 560 | 493 | 53% | 12 | 10 yrs116 owners | — |
| Debian | 552 | 191 | 74% | 13 | 10 yrs62 owners | Approved |
| NixOS | 454 | 112 | 80% | 13 | 2 yrs69 owners | Approved |
| Fedora Linux | 437 | 131 | 77% | 12 | 2 yrs72 owners | Approved |
| KDE neonThis page | 7 | 3 | 70% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I put KDE Neon on it. It was great!”
“Running the latest KDE Plasma desktop with the latest mesa and pipewire made a huge difference.”
“dist-upgrade was the biggest pain with the Ubuntu based KDE neon too”
“I am pretty sure that was a kde neon issue”
“way less issues than kde neon”
“After booting up from the stick I was absolutely blown away myself, because of how good it was.”
“very polished experience overall”
“Almost always caused issues after update with stuff crashing due to mismatch of versions talking to each other over D-Bus”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.