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Is there any way of running Plasma 5.6 on Kubuntu 16.04 without compiling it yourself?

The Kubuntu Backports PPA isn't there yet (almost two bloody months after the release of Plasma 5.6) and Ridell's new Neon initiative, while sounding really exciting, doesn't look ready for production machines just yet.

Are there any other plug-and-play alternatives?

It is really frustrating, especially at this point in time, where Plasma and KF5 and Applications are starting to stabilize, that you have to wait for months on end for someone to build, test and finally roll out this stuff.

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I'm in the same situation: The answer to your question, like it or not, is NEON or wait for Kubuntu Backports. Another answer to your question is to switch to a different base, like Arch.

That said, you should reconsider NEON. You might appreciate the following discussion:

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php?69621-KDE-neon&highlight=NEON

And consult this link for installation:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2318147

(Though this too is outdated, see below):

There are three repos, two of which are GIT based -- stable & unstable.

You and I, it sounds like, will both want to use user. If you're like me, all of the reviews and comments you've read concerning NEON's stability were probably based on 15.10 and are outdated. Currently, NEON is advising against adding their REPO to Kubuntu. However, based on the conversation linked above, good results have been had and the systems are stable. That said, this Jujutsu is for the Linux user comfortable with tty or the command line (in the event of an emergency).

Of course, the simplest thing to do is install the USER edition of NEON. I know that's a hassle if you've got your Kubuntu installation all dolled up, but do it once and you'll be done until 2020 -- or some such date.

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  • Currently the Kubuntu "staging-plasma" PPA features Plasma 5.6 - which in addition of providing indication where Plasma 5.6 is on the way to Xenial (16.04), it also means you can install it now: sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:kubuntu-ppa/staging-plasma && sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade. I haven't completed the process yet (its running) so I can't say how well its going to work for you.
    – Guss
    May 16, 2016 at 8:26
  • Thanks for your answer Guss, but em... on top of the PPA's launchpad page it clearly states: "Work in progress Plasma 5 packages, DO NOT USE ON PRODUCTION SYSTEMS".
    – dribnif
    May 16, 2016 at 13:38
  • Yep, that's me ("Do not use on production systems" ;-) ). All I have to say is - works for me, YMMV.
    – Guss
    May 16, 2016 at 16:14
  • Actually, @dribnif: one more thing - I was running the Neon Wily repository on my Kubunut Xenial install for a while, until it broke massively and I had to almost reinstall my system. The current build on top of the Kubuntu staging ppa looks much more stable, running on my system, but you probably want to ask me about it in a week or two (if Plasma 5.6 doesn't reach backports yet).
    – Guss
    May 16, 2016 at 17:50
  • As for the original answer from user47108: I installed neon on top of kubuntu and it works no problems whatsoever. Was not expecting that :) Thanks
    – dribnif
    May 16, 2016 at 18:08
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Give KDE Neon a try, it is a distro based on Kubuntu but has the latest KDE software, the current version includes Plasma 5.6.

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  • Thanks for your answer, but as I mentioned in my original post, neon does not look ready for prime time just yet. The reason I want Plasma 5.6 on my machine right now, is because of its numerous bugfixes.
    – dribnif
    May 14, 2016 at 21:47

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