Neptune is a Linux distro for desktops based fully upon the Debian stable branch, except for a newer kernel and some drivers. In addition, Neptune’s devs package and maintain the KDE Plasma desktop as well as KDE Frameworks and KDE Applications.
Overall it’s very well-behaved and functional, a great derivative of Debian 11, featuring a nice more modern Plasma implementation.
Now with their latest Faye version, Neptune Linux comes with another great release, helping make Linux more accessible for a broader audience from beginners to gamers. So let’s give it a shot and see what’s new.
What’s New in Neptune Linux 7.0
Neptune 7.0 includes KDE’s Plasma 5.20 desktop and is powered by Linux kernel 5.10 for additional hardware support. KDE Plasma 5.20.5 ships with a new Neptune-specific theme that embraces the Breeze widget style for maximum compatibility and introduces a new subtle but modern flat look and feel to Neptune.
On top of that, the default panel has been modernized to allow pinning more apps and tasks to it as well as offering a new bigger easier look to the eyes.
Neptune 7.0 has a decent selection of included programs, the usual suspects such as LibreOffice 7.0, GIMP 2.10.22, Thunderbird 91.4, Inkscape 1.0.2, and VLC 3.0.16. The default browser is Chromium version 90.
Not so usual is the inclusion of some dedicated multimedia programs such as Ardour, Audacity, and Kdenlive. Amarok is the default music player which has great library functions and looks nice.
But what’s more important is that instead of ZRAM, Neptune 7.0 ships ZSwap which allow compressing pages of memory before swap out instead of relying on virtual compressed swap space in memory.
For detailed information about all changes, you can refer to the official announcement.
Download
You can find the new version on the project’s download page. The distro also offer an upgrade script for users of Neptune 6.x. Don’t forget to do a full backup of your Neptune 6.x system before you start the upgrade process and refer to the upgrade manual linked here.
