Availability of KDE Plasma 5.15 on GNU/Linux Distros

We are getting excited as Plasma 5.15 has been released (since 12 February 2019) and we soon want to test it. I have tested it on Neon and it is lightweight and very impressive. This list is for you wanting to test Plasma as quick as possible by downloading GNU/Linux distros with built-in Plasma 5.15. They are Neon 5.15, Kubuntu 19.04, Chakra, KaOS, and openSUSE Tumbleweed. You can download the ISO images from links I mentioned below and quickly run a LiveCD session of them. Additionally, I also mentioned Kubuntu 18.10 and Fedora 30 on the separate section below as they don't bundle it but make it available through repositories. Anyway, go ahead and happy testing!

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Distros

• Neon
• Kubuntu
• Fedora 
• Manjaro
• Chakra
• KaOS
• openSUSE Krypton

First thing first

I finished this article in Sunday 17 March 2019. As you know, GNU/Linux distros are normally developed in very very high speed so what I mentioned today (package versions) may be obsolete soon. For example, you find Plasma 5.15.3 today on Kubuntu 19.04 daily, then you may find it some days later got updated to 5.15.4. But by mentioning related links on every distro below, I hope you can obtain more information when you find my data is no longer correct in the day you do searching. Go ahead!

Manifest file (.manifest) is a table of contents of an ISO image file. A manifest lists package names and their versions from it. Manifest is very useful for us to determine whether a package is included or its version is new enough in an ISO. Distros known to have manifests are Ubuntu and Flavors, Neon, and Manjaro.

1. Neon 5.15

The first choice is of course KDE neon operating system as it always brings latest Plasma right from the KDE Project itself. Latest neon today (17 March 2019) contains at least Plasma 5.15. Download it from https://files.kde.org/neon/images/neon-useredition/current. You can run it as LiveCD or install it to your computer system.

2. Kubuntu 19.04

The 19.04 has not been released yet. But the daily ISO image is already available and it contains Plasma 5.15.3 (at least today 17 March 2019). Download it from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current. You can run it as LiveCD or even install it to your computer system.

3. Fedora 30

As for Fedora, at this moment you can test pre-release version of Fedora 30 to get Plasma 5.15. Download it here Wiki Fedora.  Read more here (package search).

4. Manjaro KDE

Manjaro KDE has Plasma 5.15 already. Download it here https://manjaro.org/download/kde. Read more here (manifest file).

Manjaro GNU/Linux is a rolling-release desktop distro based on Arch with pacman package manager and it has an official KDE flavor. 

5. Chakra

Chakra on the testing release got Plasma 5.15. Download it here https://rsync.chakralinux.org/releases/testing/?C=M&O=D. Read more here (packages list) and here (forum announcement).

Chakra GNU/Linux is a KDE-dedicated rolling-release desktop distro derived from Arch with pacman package manager and provides only KDE edition. 

6. KaOS

Latest bleeding edge ISO of KaOS (dated February 2019) has Plasma 5.15 already. Download it from https://kaosx.us/pages/download. Read more here (package search) and here (release notes).

KaOS GNU/Linux is a KDE-dedicated rolling-release desktop distro derived from no other distro with pacman package manager. Same as Chakra, KaOS only provides KDE edition.

7. openSUSE Krypton

Krypton is KDE-dedicated version of openSUSE rolling-release 'Tumbleweed'. It's available in both 32-bit and 64-bit. Download it from http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Medias/images/iso/?P=*Krypton.*.iso. The packages are promised to be always the latest. At this moment, Krypton got Plasma 5.15 already. You can run it as LiveCD or install it on your computer.

Tumbleweed is the rolling-release version of openSUSE which always has the latest version of software packages. openSUSE Krypton is a derivative of Tumbleweed.

Other Distros

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This section mentions some other distros which do not include Plasma 5.15 right within ISO but made it available in the repository.

Kubuntu Cosmic

Cosmic release has Plasma 5.15 already available in the Backports repository. Up to today (16 March 2019) there is still no 5.15 available for Bionic nor Xenial. I recommend you to do this upgrade on a testing computer and not on your daily use desktop.

Caution: upgrading a system with proprietary graphics like Nvidia or Amd often causes problems like broken system or login failure. Proceed this with your own risk.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

PCLinuxOS

PCLinuxOS just recently announced the availability of Plasma 5.15.3 on its repository. If you have it installed, you can upgrade your system to get the latest Plasma. If you don't, first download PCLinuxOS ISO and then install it and finally upgrade it. You can use Synaptic to upgrade your system as recommended by official wiki.

Some notes

It would be nice if every distro provides .manifest file for every ISO image they have just like Ubuntu. It helps me a lot to know what packages and package versions within an ISO. For distro projects that have made it available, you did great and you all have my thanks. For distro projects that have not, you did awesome and thanks also, but I wish you could do it someday. Finally, I hope Plasma 5.15 soon to be available on Ubuntu 18.04 and 16.04.

Happy testing!

References

• https://kubuntu.org/news/plasma-5-15-1-arrives-in-cosmic-backports-ppa
• https://openqa.opensuse.org/group_overview/23 
• https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/openSUSE:Factory 
• https://repology.org/project/plasma-desktop/versions

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