KDE Neon With Plasma Ported & Optimized For Low-Cost 64-bit ARM Laptop

KDE developers have ported their Ubuntu-based KDE Neon distribution to the 64-bit ARM Pinebook as well as optimized the Plasma desktop experience for this device.

The Pinebook is a low-cost Chinese laptop that retails for roughly $100 USD and has a quad-core 64-bit ARM CPU (Cortex-A53) at 1.2GHz, 2GB of RAM, 16GB eMMC storage, and a 11.6-inch panel at 1366x768 resolution. The laptop specs really aren't compelling at all by today's standards, but for its very low cost does make it a decent bargain for some use-cases.

Having this readily available low-cost, low-power notebook has allowed KDE developers to optimize Neon and Plasma for the AArch64 (ARM64) architecture and make various optimizations, some of which have been generic and will apply to KDE Plasma desktop users across all architectures. This will hopefully pay off for more ARM laptops coming down the pipeline.

Those wishing to learn more about KDE Plasma on the Pinebook can visit dot.kde.org as well as for setup instructions.