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Neptune RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Neptune

Neptune


Last Update: 2026-03-31 21:42 UTC


Neptune is a GNU/Linux distribution for desktops. It is based on Debian's Stable branch, except for a newer kernel, some drivers and newer versions of popular applications, such as LibreOffice. It also ships with the latest version of the KDE desktop. The distribution's main goals are to provide a good-looking general-purpose desktop with pre-configured multimedia playback and to offer an easy-to-use USB installer with a persistence option.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 138 (97), 6 months: 234 (71), 3 months: 192 (87), 4 weeks: 112 (162), 1 week: 230 (49)

Average visitor rating: 8.7/10 from 37 review(s).


Neptune Summary
Distribution Neptune
Home Page https://neptuneos.com/
Mailing Lists --
User Forums https://forum.neptuneos.com/
Alternative User Forums
Documentation https://neptuneos.com/en/tutorials.html
Screenshots https://neptuneos.com/en/screenshots.htmlDistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors https://neptuneos.com/en/download.htmlDistroWatch Torrent Archive
Bug Tracker --
Related Websites  
Reviews 8.x: FOSS Force
7.x: DistroWatch
5.x: DistroWatch
4.x: DistroWatchDistroWatch
3.x: Blogspot
2.x: DistroWatch
Where To Donate, Buy or Try https://neptuneos.com/en/news-reader/donation-required.html

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases announcements with download links and checksums:
 • 2025-09-25: Distribution Release: Neptune 9.0
 • 2023-07-23: Distribution Release: Neptune 8.0
 • 2023-02-21: Development Release: Neptune 7.9 Beta 1
 • 2022-08-20: Distribution Release: Neptune 7.5
 • 2022-01-01: Distribution Release: Neptune 7.0
 • 2020-07-08: Distribution Release: Neptune 6.5
 • 2019-08-17: Distribution Release: Neptune 6.0
 • 2018-11-05: Distribution Release: Neptune 5.6
 • 2018-07-22: Distribution Release: Neptune 5.4
 • 2018-03-10: Distribution Release: Neptune 5.0
 • 2016-01-29: Distribution Release: Neptune 4.5
 • 2015-07-20: Distribution Release: Neptune 4.4
 • More Neptune releases...

  Headlines:
 • 2018-03-20 Neptune provides repo of new KDE packages
 • More Neptune headlines...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
  • Select view:
  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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Feature 9.1 8.2 7.5 6.5 5.6 4.5.4
Release Date 2026-03-14 2025-06-05 2022-08-20 2020-07-08 2018-11-04 2017-04-06
End Of Life            
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free Free
Image Size (MB) 3400-3500 2900-3000 2600-2700 2400-2500 2100-2200 1900-2000
Free Download ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO
Installation Calamares Calamares Calamares Calamares Calamares  
Default Desktop KDE Plasma KDE Plasma KDE Plasma KDE Plasma KDE Plasma KDE Plasma
Default Browser Chromium Chromium Chromium Chromium Chromium Chromium
Package Format deb, flatpak deb, flatpak deb deb deb deb
Package Management apt apt apt apt apt apt
Release Model Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed
Office Suite LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice
Processor Architecture x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64
Init Software systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd
Journaled File Systems Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS
Multilingual            
Full Package List 9.1 8.2 7.5 6.5 5.6 4.5.4
Package 9.1 8.2 7.5 6.5 5.6 4.5.4
alsa-lib (1.2.15.3) 1.2.14 1.2.8 1.2.4 1.1.8 1.1.3 1.0.25
amdgpu (25.0.0) 23.0.0 23.0.0 19.1.0 18.1.99 18.0.1 --
apparmor (4.1.7) 4.1.0 3.0.8 2.13.6 2.13.2 2.11.0 --
apt (3.2.0) 3.0.3 2.6.1 2.2.4 1.8.2.1 1.4.8 1.0.9.9
bash (5.3) 5.2.37 5.2.15 5.1 5.0 4.4 4.2
bind (9.20.22) -- -- -- -- -- --
chromium (147.0.7727.55) 146.0.7680.71 137.0.7151.68 104.0.5112.79 83.0.4103.116 70.0.3538.67 57.0.2987.98
cinnamon (6.6.7) -- -- -- -- -- --
cups (2.4.16) 2.4.10 2.4.2 2.3.3 2.2.10 2.2.1 1.5.3
e2fsprogs (1.47.4) 1.47.2 1.47.0 1.45.5 1.45.5 1.44.4 1.42.5
ffmpeg (8.1) 7.1.3 5.1.6 4.3.4 4.1.4 3.2.12 0.8.20
firefox (149.0.2) -- -- -- -- -- --
flatpak (1.16.5) 1.16.3 1.14.10 -- -- -- --
freetype (2.14.3) 2.13.3 2.12.1 2.10.4 2.9.1 2.6.3 2.4.9
gcc (15.2.0) 14.2.0 12.2.0 10.2.1 8.3.0 6.3.0 4.7.2
gimp (3.2.2) 3.0.4 2.10.34 2.10.22 2.10.8 2.8.18 2.8.2
git (2.53.0) 2.47.3 2.39.5 2.30.2 -- -- --
glibc (2.43) 2.41 2.36 2.31 2.28 2.24 2.19
gnome-shell (50.0) -- -- -- -- -- --
grub (2.14) 2.12 2.06 2.04 2.02 2.02beta3 2.02beta2
gtk (4.22.2) 4.18.6 3.24.38 3.24.24 3.24.5 3.22.11 3.4.2
httpd (2.4.66) -- -- -- -- -- --
inkscape (1.4.3) 1.4 1.2.2 1.0.2 1.0 0.92.1 --
kmod (34.2) 34.2 30 28 26 23 21
krita (6.0.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
LibreOffice (26.2.2) 25.2.3 7.4.7 7.0.4 6.4.5 6.1.3rc1 4.3.3
Package 9.1 8.2 7.5 6.5 5.6 4.5.4
libselinux (3.10) 3.8.1 3.4 3.1 2.8 2.6 2.1.9
linux (6.19.11) 6.12.74 6.1.140 5.18.2 5.6.14 4.18.6 3.18.48
mariadb (12.2.2) -- -- -- 10.3.22 -- --
mate-desktop (1.28.2) -- -- -- -- -- --
mesa (26.0.4) 25.0.7 22.3.6 20.3.5 18.3.6 18.1.9 13.0.4
mysql (9.6.0) -- -- -- -- -- 5.5.54
nautilus (50.0) -- -- -- -- -- --
NVIDIA (595.58.03) -- -- -- -- -- --
openjdk (26) -- 17.0.15 11.0.16 11.0.7 8u181 7u121
openssh (10.3p1) 10.0p1 9.2p1 8.4p1 7.9p1 7.4p1 6.7p1
openssl (3.6.2) 3.5.5 3.0.16 1.1.1n 1.1.1d 1.1.0f 1.0.2d
perl (5.42.2) 5.40.1 5.36.0 5.32.1 5.28.1 5.24.1 5.14.2
php (8.5.5) -- -- -- -- -- --
plasma-desktop (6.6.4) 6.3.6 5.27.5 5.20.5 5.14.5.1 5.12.0 4.11.14
postfix (3.11.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
postgresql (18.3) -- -- -- -- -- --
Python (3.14.4) 3.13.5 3.11.2 3.9.2 3.7.3 2.7.13 2.7.9
qt (6.11.0) 6.8.2 6.4.2 5.15.2 5.11.3 5.7.1 4.8.6
samba (4.24.0) 4.22.4 4.17.12 4.13.13 4.9.5 4.5.12 4.1.17
systemd (260.1) 257.9 252.38 247.3 245 239 227
thunderbird (149.0.2) 140.8.0 128.11.0 91.12.0 68.10.0 60.2.1 45.6.0
vim (9.2) 9.1 9.0 8.2 8.1 8.0 7.4
vlc (3.0.23) 3.0.23 3.0.21 3.0.16 3.0.11 3.0.3 2.2.4
wayland (1.25.0) 1.23.1 1.21.0 1.18.0 1.16.0 1.16.0 1.11.0
xfdesktop (4.20.2) -- -- -- -- -- --
xorg-server (21.1.21) 21.1.16 21.1.7 1.20.11 1.20.4 1.19.6 1.17.2

Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for Neptune

Average rating
8.7
from 37 review(s)



What are your thoughts on Neptune?
Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system.
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Past reviews - sort by:

Version: 9.0
Rating: 5
Date: 2026-01-19
Votes: 0


Neptune OS, not for everyone. Although this distro does have a good Neptune overlay during boot, it lacks in performance as it seems slow and laggy.
It does have a good activities box built-in to the dock. However, theming options were not that good even with KDE. I say this because when I went to change the global theme, it installed fine, but it's a rounded theme and the layout remained like a rectangle. So that made this distro unpleasing for me.
I only use KDE on whatever Distro I use. So when there's issues, that distro is not for me. From what I understand, this distro is mainly for Devs and not end users. Besides that, it seems full of what I consider bloatware. At least, it comes with all these packages preinstalled that I normally install through appimages. It's just too negative for me. It would be better if they offered a minimal installation. Just my opinion. Good day.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 9.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-10-27
Votes: 10


I've been running Linux since the early days of Mandrrake. Recently I used KDE Neon until I got stired of constantly needing to reboot because of it's immutable OS design.

I absolutely love KDE but Kubuntu was not for me since Ubuntu insists on Snaps, which I despise.

When I heard about Neptune OS I wanted it right away because Debian is very stable and it uses recent KDE.

I've installed it on my daily driver desktop and on my software DVR machine and it is like having a new lover. I'm very pleased and currently plan to continue using it indefinitely.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 9.0
Rating: 8
Date: 2025-10-05
Votes: 18


Pros:
+ Installation easy and straightforward.
+ Good looks.

Cons:
- Neptune ignored another Debian based distribution in another partition of the SSD. Boot menu showed only Neptune. The aim was to have two distributions in the SSD with boot menu enabling selection.
- German language in browser although English chosen for installation.

Conclusion:
One of the best Debian+KDE distributions. Could have been more original/unique in the selection of preinstalled applications. Natively supporting one of the popular light weight desktops along side KDE would be nice.


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