Distro-Hopping on Ivon's Blog

From KDE Neon to Debian + KDE: Chasing The Latest and Stable KDE Desktop

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 13:00:00 +0800

Can a Linux Desktop Distribution Really Be Both Latest and Stable? Starting From Migrating From KDE Neon to Debian.

Is there a Linux distro with latest and stable Plasma desktop?

I have had enough.

Everything around me is full of things I cannot control. At least let me have absolute control here!

Recently, the KDE Plasma desktops on both of my computers (KDE Neon/Ubuntu & Fedora) have been in a very unstable state, so I started thinking it was time to return to a stable system. Recommended KDE Plasma Linux distribution? I think my answer now is Debian.

I know, I know I have let you down. (Komm Süsser Tod)

1. Beginning
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My desktop used to be KDE Neon (converted from a Kubuntu installation using PPA). Because it is rolling-updated, a KDE minor version may last only one month, and then a new version appears the next month. On top of that, I update the system once a week, so I always receive the latest updates. But this frequent update speed simply cannot ensure stability. Maybe KDE 6.4 finally becomes relatively stable, then it updates to KDE 6.5, and then a pile of programs cannot open. This repeats over and over, in a process of constant fear.

Finally, I replaced this fake Ubuntu system that had been installed for a full year with Debian.

On the other hand, I switched my laptop, which had Fedora Workstation installed for six months, to Fedora Kinoite and continued using it after reinstalling. This system partition remains unchanged, so I should have a hard time breaking the system, right? Compared with uBlue Aurora, Fedora Kinoite installs fewer things by default and requires manually adding a pile of overlays.

Oh~ toolbox is more capable than I thought. toolbox (Toolbx) is a tool specifically for running Linux containers, where traditional DNF can be used to install software. Since rpm-ostree is so troublesome, why not stuff everything in here? It can actually run ADB inside. As for when to use rpm-ostree, it is really slow. Even installing a simple small package, even with apply live, takes a long time, because everything has to be rebuilt. Although command-line tools should be operated inside toolbx, I really am not used to this containerized development that cuts off both arms.

Although the system is immutable, that does not guarantee stability. KDE still randomly crashes. This repeats over and over, often in a process of constant fear.

In the end, I changed that to Debian too, temporarily giving up on rolling-release distributions.

2. The Contradiction Between Latest and Most Stable
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In the past, I thought “I use Arch btw”; this sentence also applies to other rolling-release versions, but… so? Pursuing the latest Linux software is great, but how do they ensure system stability?

Four Years With Linux: Is Wayland Usable...?

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 15:00:00 +0800

No more distro-hopping ~ yeah ~ Ubuntu has lasted more than a year without reinstalling. I think it is because I enabled LVM and combined two hard drives, so I no longer have storage anxiety.

And my attitude toward Arch Linux and Fedora is: I am numb. These systems really cannot be used as main systems. Just installing them on another laptop I use less often, updating once a week, and still having something break is enough to make me drunk. Unless you have no desires and no demands, and are satisfied with the default GNOME or XFCE desktop, do not expect to use a rolling-release distribution for a long time with peace of mind.

1. I Need KDE, but I Also Need Stability
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An unsolvable answer.

After using KDE, there really is no going back. Programs in the KDE ecosystem are truly useful for doing complex work. Although I have wanted to use GNOME many times, its design… sorry, I am not an artist. It really is not suitable for use on a desktop computer. It is enough to use it occasionally on a laptop that I turn on less often.

And I hope KDE can be a system that keeps bringing “surprises.” How should I put it? It feels like Pixel phone users occasionally receiving surprise packages from Pixel Drop. Every update always gives users a brand-new experience, not like GNOME merely moving elements around a little. For example, in the recent KDE 6.4 update, the screenshot program Spectacle actually added the convenient function of automatically recognizing QR Codes in images, and Dolphin’s right-click menu added folder color tags! So it is not hard to understand why I would do the following.

The system I currently use is a hybrid of Ubuntu and KDE Neon (good kids, do not try this). Mm, I originally installed it with the Ubuntu 22.04 ISO for convenient LVM setup. It safely survived the major version upgrade to 24.04. Then, because I wanted the KDE desktop, I manually installed kubuntu-desktop and deleted the GNOME desktop. Later I felt the updates were too slow, since Kubuntu 24.04 was still on Plasma 5.27… I was too lazy to reinstall the system with the KDE Neon ISO. So I manually added the KDE Neon repository to APT in order to obtain the latest Plasma 6.

Reference: 加入套件庫，將Kubuntu轉換為KDE Neon，安裝最新版Plasma桌面套件

Thus it became a system where the desktop environment is rolling-updated, while the remaining packages are stable-updated.

In actual use, this is weirdly stable. Basic system components, such as KVM virtual machines, Docker, and Podman, remain on stable versions, while I can still taste the latest KDE desktop.

Originally I should have been able to do this on Debian too. There was a developer named Norbert Preining who specifically provided the latest KDE packages for Debian Stable, but he said a few years ago that he would stop doing it (see Future of “my” packages in Debian | There and back again), so I can only use Ubuntu. In fact, the threat of Snap is not that serious yet. Many programs still have deb files available; they have not been assimilated by Ubuntu that quickly.

Recording My Reflections After Three Years of Using Linux

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:00:00 +0800

This is the sequel to 使用Linux系統二年.

Looking back from 2023 to now, my thoughts:

Seeing clearly instead makes things hazy

Freedom, too much freedom, instead makes me want to be a beast in a cage

After a long while, someone on the PTT Linux board again asked everyone what distribution they were using: 閒聊 2024你現在用的發行版是哪個呢？

In the end, I gave a conservative answer: Ubuntu.

If someone asks me which Linux distribution is suitable for beginners, in my article Linux distros for beginners, I still recommend the stalwart Ubuntu. Or at least something based on Ubuntu.

Because pressure from real life has made my thinking a bit more practical.

1. Main Integrated Air Corps
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Linux distributions have always had two major update models: one is stable version updates (point release), and the other is rolling updates (rolling release).

Let me talk about my changes over the past year. One of the biggest changes is that my main system switched back to Ubuntu LTS, returning to the pure white starting point. I want system software to be a little more stable and not update constantly.

With Arch Linux, if you do not update the whole system every month, installing software causes problems. Every software update creates small problems here and there, or the computer ACPI cannot shut down, plus the fucking Nvidia driver bugs.

Yes, no matter what controversies Ubuntu has, whether people say Canonical is in bed with Microsoft because of WSL or whatever, stop arguing. I have Keanu Reeves’s attitude: whatever you say is right, but I do not want to use a rolling-release distribution as my “main” anymore.

I could no longer stand the problems of rolling-release Arch Linux, so I returned to Ubuntu LTS.

Two years ago, for a boring reason like “it is dull”, I left my original companion Ubuntu and began distro-hopping. After staying on Arch Linux for a year, I eventually still chose this reassuring distribution. At the beginning of this year, I officially switched back to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is not too niche, its style is not too radical, and many people use it. I have chosen to ignore the existence of Snap. But I still really hate the GNOME desktop, so installing KDE looks more pleasing to me.

It does not matter if the desktop environment is older. As long as software less related to the system core gets updated often, that is enough. I try to use Flatpak and Distrobox container technologies to install APPs, getting the latest versions without breaking system stability. At worst, I can just compile manually.

Now that Flatpak technology exists, pursuing the latest software is a false issue. Point Release distributions naturally have their reason to exist. Hasn’t Canonical also used Snap and HWE kernels to bypass the problem of LTS systems supporting new hardware?

Because Linux software development often comes with no guarantee (THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND), community developers maintaining distributions do not have the obligation of big tech companies to provide stability maintenance, and nobody will apologize. The system exploded after an update? Fix it yourself! Otherwise, at least write an issue report. If you do nothing, what are you yelling about?

Recording My Thoughts After Using Linux Systems for Two Years

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Sat, 20 May 2023 21:00:00 +0800

「果てまで　気の遠くなる様な旅をしよう」

To the end, let us begin that long journey.

Source: https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/65891187

Learning to use Linux systems and no longer returning to Windows has finally entered its second year. For the record of my first year learning Linux and earlier, see this article.

This year was a year of completely continuous Linux system use. I did not use any other system on bare metal.

This year’s journey:

Ubuntu 22.04 → openSUSE Tumbleweed → FreeBSD 13 → Arch Linux → Gentoo → Linux from Scratch → Arch Linux → Debian → Arch Linux

Every distribution has a different color and a different culture. It is just like what the OP of Kino’s Journey sings: traveling through different countries, what a beautiful world.

1. Preparing My Mind
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Linux is free if your time has no value. Studying Linux during the senior year of a humanities student, when there is the most free time, could not be better. This time, I wanted to truly make it my main desktop system and use it in every aspect of life.

Thought brings motivation; this is self-evident. During this period, I was mostly building theory. Contact with the implementation side of systems would only begin in the next stage, “wandering around.”

In March 2022, after leaving Ubuntu, I chose to install openSUSE Tumbleweed, a rolling-release distribution with automated testing to ensure update stability, and came into deeper contact with the ideological system of free software.

For one month in May, every day I read articles from websites such as the Free Software Foundation, “Information Human Rights Nobles,” and the Software Freedom Conservancy, studied the GNU GPL license, and argued for the reasons to use free software. Richard Matthew Stallman’s Free Software, Free Society advises you to read more.

In June, this blog was established, and I began writing articles discussing free software, as well as usage tutorials for various Linux software.

After watching the historical documentary Revolution OS, this article came into being: My thoughts on the Free Software At School

Studying free software philosophy is an immersive experience almost like religion, and it gave birth to a kind of wild-take article like this: Why Give Up Minecraft. An even worse negative consequence: I once became a “free software police,” attacking those bastards who used proprietary software everywhere. I once argued with people about why translation projects should use Crowdin instead of Weblate, and in the end I was blasted for missing the point. After all, those translators really had professional work in the real world, while I did not; I was only running my mouth. Several similar conflicts broke out within a few months, which has made me much more restrained now. I learned love and tolerance, and I argue pure ideology with people much less often.

At the same time, to satisfy my then-still-unextinguished desire to play games, I went to Arch Wiki and Libregame Wiki to investigate what free and open source games were available. The final results were: Switch to Libre Games, as well as Join Minetest

Why I Switched Back From Gentoo to Arch Linux After 2 Months

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:40:00 +0800

In the end, I switched back to Arch Linux somewhat ashamedly and awkwardly. Although both are rolling-release distributions, the difficulty gap between Gentoo and Arch is truly too large. It seems I was not ready yet.

Where can one find a desktop Linux distribution that is highly customizable, has the latest software versions, and can be used solidly? These three conditions can never be satisfied at once.

In pursuit of the ultimate customized Linux system, I switched from openSUSE Tumbleweed to Arch Linux in July 2022, and then switched again to Gentoo Linux.

During this period, I gained a preliminary understanding of the low-level system compilation principles provided by Gentoo and LFS (installed with dual boot), learned how to migrate from OpenRC to Systemd, and experienced the pain of having to manually install some software myself. As for the system kernel, because I cheated by using the official precompiled binary (based on Fedora), I never had to worry about that part.

Playing large games such as War Thunder on Gentoo was no problem. Steam (Flatpak) + Proton handled everything.

Plasma Overdose theme

However, after using Gentoo Linux for two months and tasting its pros and cons, I decided to switch back to Arch Linux. My old habit was to upgrade Gentoo once a week. This time, because more than 50 KDE package slot conflicts appeared at once during Gentoo emerge, I thought I could no longer spend this time on low-level debugging, so I took out the Arch Linux USB and reinstalled the system.

This reason for leaving is not as ridiculous as my previous one for Ubuntu, right? Back then I left because I thought Ubuntu/Debian was too boring. openSUSE/Fedora gave people too many preinstalled things, which I did not like. Although they are not as exaggerated as the Windows 11 advertising machine, that heavyweight collection of proprietary software, that monster can only be locked inside a virtual machine.

A freshly installed Windows 11 system already has this many advertising APPs

Using Tumbleweed, Arch, and Gentoo: is that pushing myself into hell? Or heaven? In any case, after using rolling-release distributions close to upstream, I do not want to use stable-release distributions anymore.

Because of my distro-hopping habits, important data is placed on another hard drive and in the cloud (Software Liberty Association’s Nextcloud + private MEGA), so the preparation process did not take too long. After backing up the Windows and MacOS virtual machines, I reinstalled.

1. The Ultimate in Customization, the Test of Stability
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After thinking about it again and again, to answer the idea at the beginning, Arch is currently the optimal solution, and it must be pure Arch, not Arch-based “enhanced” distributions such as Manjaro, EndeavourOS, Garuda, or Artix.

Gentoo and LFS are the ultimate in customization, and the software is also very new. You install the system almost from zero, and you also have to configure options for compiling packages. I can tolerate waiting for packages to compile, but manually handling package conflicts is infuriating. On a PC, I can slowly deal with it, but if installed on a laptop where mobility matters… I briefly tried Gentoo on the laptop, then later switched back to Arch as well. I had not even encountered upgrade conflict problems yet before I was nearly killed by compilation delays. Gentoo may be stable enough, but friends who like chasing updates will suffer greatly.

When debugging system problems, not only the beard, even the hair is about to fall out

My History and Reflections on Learning Linux: Why Switch to Linux?

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 02:00:46 +0800

I did not learn Linux because school told me to. It came in waves, especially since I majored in a language-related department."

I do not think I have already learned Linux, especially the server side, where my knowledge is still shallow. Right now I mainly use Linux as my primary operating system for office work, graphic design, gaming, and occasional programming.

The benefit of learning Linux is that I came to know many open source software solutions, many of which are cross-platform and can replace a lot of commercial software. Of course, I mean for personal use. Industry probably would not accept most of them.

My process of learning Linux has been quite fragmented. The knowledge points were filled in one by one. I only recently learned that there are so many Chinese input method frameworks to choose from. I specifically took an introductory Linux course and read Bird’s Linux Private Kitchen before I understood what it feels like to learn step by step. To deepen my understanding, I took Data Structures and Operating Systems in the computer science department (because neither of those two courses requires math ;P).

Chronology
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2018

My earliest contact was Ubuntu 16.04 in high school. Because 32-bit Windows 7 was a bit sluggish on a machine with 2GB of RAM, I looked for an alternative. Back then I still used the lazy person’s installation method, Wubi.

After using it, sure enough, it was still just as sluggish. Maybe it was not because of the E3300 CPU, but because the GPU had long depended on the G41 motherboard’s integrated graphics (I only learned this recently), so it was no surprise that Gnome desktop animations lagged.

Later, Lubuntu was not much better. Because the graphics chip was too weak, LXDE windows often turned into frame-dropping, overlapping screens like IE.

So after playing with it on and off for a few months, I deleted it. But that was the beginning.

2020

After that, things went quiet for a few years. In 2020, I became obsessed with Ubuntu again. Looking back now, Ubuntu is not the entirety of Linux, but it is the easiest entry point. At the time my computer actually got hit by a Mars virus similar to WannaCry, so I haphazardly deleted Windows 10 and used Ubuntu as my main system. But I was not used to LibreOffice, so in less than a month I went back to Windows. I also formatted my data drive as EXT4 back then, but on Windows it required a driver to read and the compatibility was poor, so I changed it back to NTFS.

During this chaotic period, I also roughly learned how to use virtual machines, so Linux moved into VMware.

2021

2021 was probably the year when I had the broadest exposure. I wanted to dual-boot Windows 11 and Linux. That was the plan, but Windows would often corrupt the Ubuntu partition after booting (I had to use fsck to repair the disk afterward). Installing Fedora and Kubuntu did not solve the partition corruption issue either, so I went back to a single-system setup. Later I also tried Arch Linux. Too much hassle.

Distro-Hopping on Ivon's Blog

From KDE Neon to Debian + KDE: Chasing The Latest and Stable KDE Desktop

1. Beginning #

2. The Contradiction Between Latest and Most Stable #