Mr Leszek, on behalf of Neptune OS project, has announced the release of Neptune 5 ‘Refresh’, the latest release of Debian stable based, GNU/Linux distribution striving to provide a robust desktop experience with Plasma Desktop. This release has been rebased to Debian Stretch current stable release. It includes several updated packages and implementation of several strategical decisions taken by the team.

A preview of Neptune 5 'Refresh'

What is new in Neptune 5 ‘Refresh’ release?

In addition to the Debian base change, Neptune 5 comes with several strategical changes regarding the OS release approach itself. Let’s have a quick summary of main highlights in Neptune 5 release.

  • Neptune 5 has been rebased to Debian 9.x Stretch
  • Beginning from this release, Neptune would not be providing the latest version of Plasma Desktop, Linux Kernel or other applications. The project will just reuse the components from upstream project. If users are curious to explore the bleeding edge applications, then cross distribution supported app formats like Flatpak, snaps, and AppImage can be used.
  • The main purpose of Neptune OS is to provide a robust desktop experience. Towards this goal, Neptune 5.0 includes Plasma Desktop 5.12 LTS, KDE Applications 17.12 and KDE Frameworks 5.43.
  • Linux Kernel 3.14 from Debian stretch backports repository is included to provide better hardware support.
  • Neptune 5.0 drops the support for proprietary packages and zevenoshardwaremanager, the tool enables easy installation of proprietary drivers has been removed. Now, users should find their own way if proprietary drivers are required.
  • Neptune 5.0 brings a refreshed user experience with a reiterated set of artworks. It provides a consistent experience across Gtk+2, Gtk+3, Qt4 and Qt5 applications.
  • There are multiple themes available in the default installation of the Neptune and can be easily switched between these themes.
  • Updated packages like LibreOffice 6, Chromium 64, Thunderbird 52.6, Amarok 2.9, VLC 2.2 ..etc.

For more information and queries, see official Neptune 5.0 ‘Refresh’ release announcement published on project’s website.