I've been using Nitrux for a couple of weeks now and, other than Neon (last distro I was using), Nitrux is solid. Little to no bugs found, no KDE crashes, no Plasma5 vanishing from memory and the last release is faster than the previous (and with a well-improved installer).
There are a couple of problems however that can make this distro completely unusable for average users, such as lack of printer support and a poor decision in terms of out-of-the-box software.
Gladly it is all easily solvable with a few commands and I'd like to share some of those most important solutions here so people can start using Nitrux and take it as seriously as it deserves.
The best news is that APT is back in full. I am not sure what they've done with Pacman, but it is not present in my installation. Also, while Snap is available, sadly most of the well know software is not there yet. But, with APT we are good, and we can "fix" Nitrux to enough usable state with it.
1) Fixigin Lack of Printer Support:
As much CUPS is installed, it doesn't seem to be set as it should. Notwithstanding, there is no icon for printer configuration in the System Settings, which can be a bummer for most people not used to command line or with the Web-Based Printer Manager (localhost:631). Here how to get it as it should be:
sudo apt --reinstall install cups
sudo apt install system-config-printer
sudo apt install print-manager
After running those commands printer tools will be back in the "System Settings" as everyone would expect it to be.
Question for the Nitrux guys: How could you forget to include in your distro something so important and so basic as Printer support?
2) Add Screen Locking configuration to System Settings:
Not sure why it was left out but I assume it has been forgotten by Nitrux team (among so many other things). However, it is an important tool for productivity where people can set the desired time for the desktop to auto-lock (or not) and should not be missing. Here how to get it back:
sudo apt install kde-config-screenlocker
3) Wrong choice of supporting programs:
It is sad to see a new distro team trying to force the hand over their own software and ignoring the hard work others have done, especially when the popular and largely accepted software by the Linux communities are so much better, more reliable and - most importantly - COMPLETE! The music player, the "Babe", is good when you pass beyond how "missing everything" it looks like. Once you populate it with some music, it actually works "ok", but it is still in a "baby state" for most people's taste and the interface is buggy with missing images in buttons and some configurations not working. Also, no PDF view/edit tool is provided with the distro. It lacks image editors, good viewers for multiple cases, etc. I am happy they didn't include OpenOffice (or any of its clones), but I not exactly thrilled with the replacement choice being OnlyOffice because, IMO, WPS would have been a much better choice for a charming and sexy environment as Nitrux.
But, here some software you may want to install to bring the Nitrux to a level of other distros in terms of usage:
sudo apt install clementine
sudo apt install okular
sudo apt install shutter
sudo apt install inkscape
sudo apt install gimp
sudo apt install gthumb
WPS Debian Packages can be downloaded from the web. Ask Google for "WPS Office Community".
As much it will make Nitrux more comfortable and useful, there are some annoyances I am still trying to figure out how to resolve. One of the crap that really bothers me a lot is the Nomad bar on the top of the screen with a Global Menu that I cannot tweak, remove or modify. I mean, I can play with the bar itself, but I don't want to use the Global Menu feature and I have no means to put it back in the Application Windows. If you are like me and rather each application to have its own menu in the window and hate the Mac idea of a Global Menu you are doomed with Nitrux because looks like the Nitrux Team have worked extra hard to prevent people from tweaking this "defect" (I mean, "feature").
Here a real deal for those guys: KDE is known and proud of its configurability. The reason why I cannot stand Gnome, LXFE, Mate, Unity (gladly gone) and almost any other desktop is because they lack customization. I don't give a damn how the people behind the distros like to set their desktops. I like to have my options there, ALL OF THEM, and when I see an effort to prevent people from exercise their wishes to customize their interfaces as their please I always point that it is what drives users away from the distros. As such, if this dictatorial effort persists, Nitrux will fail as many others distros before it. My suggestion is: put all in the open, bring all options and configurations to the screen, and do not attempt to prevent people from changing it. Don't take me wrong, Nitrux offers a gorgeous desktop, the best of them all, I love the Lüv iconset and the overall work done with the windows, but I like the Breeze Look and Feel better, and I like my menus in the windows instead of a Global Menu. I see no use for the Nomad Bar once we have the KDE Plasma Bars and Widgets, and all these efforts to reinvent the wheel instead of enhancing it is what have doomed other distros. I just hope Nitrux team won't follow the same destructive pattern.
Finally, there is some light in the end of the tunnel as there are some configurations and tweaks you can do using the native "Kvantum Manager" (you can run it from the Start Menu) and the KDE5 command line tool "kcmshell5". You can see a list of installed modules you can invoke by running: kcmshell5 --list (some modules are present in the System Settings tool, but not all of them).
Some tips for Nitrux
