Neptune 8.0 “Juna” Based on Debian 12 “Bookworm” OS

Rohan Timalsina

August 9, 2023 - TuxCare expert team

The new stable version of the Neptune operating system, Neptune 8.0 “Juna”, has been released based on Debian 12 “Bookworm”. Powered by Linux kernel 6.1, this version arrived almost nine months after Neptune 7.5 with support for new hardware and improved compatibility with existing hardware.

The Neptune 8.0 release introduces significant underlying changes and comes bundled with the latest KDE Plasma 5.27 LTS desktop environment. Alongside this, the release incorporates KDE Frameworks 5.103 and KDE Gear 22.12.3 software suites, with KDE Plasma 5.27.5 being the default version.

Notably, the Neptune 8.0 version now offers seamless support for Flatpak apps out-of-the-box. This has been made possible by adopting KDE’s Plasma Discover graphical package manager as the default software management tool, effectively replacing the previously used Muon package manager. The developers’ confidence in Plasma Discover’s maturity and ability to handle Flatpak apps from the Flathub repository influenced the decision to make this change.

Additionally, the update includes the latest versions of Neptune’s default applications. These include Chromium 115 web browser, Mozilla Thunderbird 102 email and calendar client, as well as VLC 3.0.18 media player. Users can expect a more up-to-date and enhanced experience with these applications.

Beyond these, Neptune 8.0 still offers a plethora of other cool apps to cater to various needs. Notable mentions are Ardour DAW, LibreOffice, Inkscape SVG editor, GIMP image editor, and Audacity audio editor, among many others.

For those interested in trying out Neptune 8.0, the release is available for download immediately from the official website. However, existing Neptune 7 users might need to wait a little longer for the upgrade to the new series. But the developers guarantee that their installations will remain up-to-date with the latest security updates.

The sources for this article include a story from 9to5Linux.

Summary