Kubuntu 12.04

[TheNessus]

What is your take on it?
I'm considering installing it along side unity\shell, to freshen up things. But two things: I've grown used to global menu, it really annoys me when it's not there. And KDE is heavy, very heavy, too many processes, too many virtouso\Akonadi stuff running for no reason... though Unity's Zeitgeist isn't any better and is just as annoying. I'm too conflicted to even decide on installing it or not. One thing is certain - I really love KDE's looks and functionality, and customizability, and Kwin.

[HermanAB]

KDE is configurable. Just turn the schtuff off that you don't want. I'm running KDE on a netbook.

[PaulW2U]

And KDE is heavy, very heavy, too many processes, too many virtouso\Akonadi stuff running for no reason... though Unity's Zeitgeist isn't any better and is just as annoying. I'm too conflicted to even decide on installing it or not. One thing is certain - I really love KDE's looks and functionality, and customizability, and Kwin.

One of the things that I like about KDE is that it is far more configurable than Gnome, Xfce etc.

Turn off what you don't need and customise your desktop's look to the way that you want. It's worth spending at least half an hour in "System Settings". I've been using Kubuntu for a year now and I'm still finding settings that I can customise to my way of liking. :)

[neu5eeCh]

One of the things that I like about KDE is that it is far more configurable than Gnome, Xfce etc.

Actually, XFCE (in some respects) is more configurable than KDE. It's the reason I use XFCE. For example, no one on the Kubuntu or KDE forums could ever tell me how to bind various window manager actions to the mouse - something very simply done in XFCE.

[smellyman]

Kde is heavier than gnome 3 and perhaps Unity.

is it significantly heavier? not even close.

Can it do infinitely more than them? yes

do I always ask questions and answer them? sometimes

[oldos2er]

What is your take on it?

I'm extremely pleased with it. I would disagree that it's "very, very heavy"; it was quite snappy on my five-year-old system. I turn off akonadi and nepomuk though.

[goldshirt9]

well I normally run Ubuntu with either Unity or Gnome until i instaled
Kubuntu 12.04 as a main distro on my laptop.
once i got use to the new set up I am so pleased with it.
customisable and easy to use.
I would recommend for a main distro

[mehaga]

I haven't used Kubuntu lately, but I think it's a bad choice if you want KDE desktop. You have to spend quite some time to get a proper KDE experience. If KDE is your favorite DE, Chakra is a much better choice, imo.

[PaulW2U]

I haven't used Kubuntu lately, but I think it's a bad choice if you want KDE desktop. You have to spend quite some time to get a proper KDE experience. If KDE is your favorite DE, Chakra is a much better choice, imo.

On an Ubuntu forum there might not be too many that agree with you. :)

[PaulW2U]

I'm extremely pleased with it. I would disagree that it's "very, very heavy"; it was quite snappy on my five-year-old system. I turn off akonadi and nepomuk though.

Like you Ann, I would also disagree that Kubuntu is "very, very heavy".

Until my seven year old PC was cast aside and replaced with something a little more up to date I used Kubuntu 11.04, 11.10 and 12.04 without experiencing any speed problems. I even ran 12.04 from a USB hard drive and it performed fine for the six months that it was used in that manner and I always had about seven or eight programs running all of the time.

Now that I've moved to a faster PC, the only real improvements in speed I am noticing are the kwin desktop effects. Windows and dialog boxes seem to fly around just that little bit quicker. :)

[kef_kf]

Actually, XFCE (in some respects) is more configurable than KDE. It's the reason I use XFCE. For example, no one on the Kubuntu or KDE forums could ever tell me how to bind various window manager actions to the mouse - something very simply done in XFCE.

I use easystroke for that on both KDE and Unity.

[SeijiSensei]

I've used KDE as my desktop environment for a decade now. I've run it on all sorts of machines with varying amounts of horsepower. Right now I have Kubuntu 12.04 running on a quad-core desktop, a dual-core Atom netbook, and a 6-7 year-old Dell 640m notebook, and it performs well on all those platforms. The Dell has Intel 945 graphics; the others have NVIDIA adapters.

In earlier versions of Kubuntu I would disable Akonadi and Nepomuk, not so much for performance reasons, but because they were still underdeveloped. In 12.04 they are all running without incident.

The transition from KDE3 to KDE4 was a bumpy one, but since about 4.4 KDE has been a stable and powerful platform. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to try alternatives to Unity. I certainly think it makes an easier transition for people moving from Windows.

[neu5eeCh]

I use easystroke for that on both KDE and Unity.

I tried that. For example, how do you assign the "remove window decorations" to easystroke? I could never get an answer to that. If you know, I'd love to find out. I also could never figure out how to assign "shade window" to the mouse scroll button.

Edit: Not to be a Xubuntu Fanboi, but one of the cool things I can do with Xubuntu (as with LXDE) is to remove the window decorations between the app window and the panel. This makes both LXDE and Xubuntu just as efficient as Unity (and better). I can do this with a keystroke. I never figured out how to do this with KDE. In terms of my own usage, KDE just isn't very customizable - not where it matters to me.

[wolfen69]

I'm almost tempted to try it again. I find it to be very good looking. But every time I try it, I always find a bug or 2 that drives me back to gnome. I really wanted to be a KDE user, but I want my computer to work 100%. Not 98%.

Not saying anything bad about kde, that's just been my experience.

[craig10x]

That has always been my experience also, Wolfen69...in fact i was running a live iso of kubuntu 12.04 and after installing the restricted extras could NOT get the flash to work (even after re-installing THREE TIMES)....when i ran live isos of 11.10 and 12.04 and added the restricted extras everything worked automatically (including Flash)...

It's very pretty but i find it to be a pain in the you know what...which is why i find i can never completely warm up to it...

And that KWallet can be very annoying too...and i always have found it hard to get rid of it and still get everything to work without it...

It also has too many configuration options (kind of overdone) and i don't find it to be as intuitive to use as gnome is... ;)

I've always WANTED to like it...but it hasn't given me the "love" back (lol)....

I do like it's one panel on bottom and it's slab style menu, though...

[wolfen69]

That has always been my experience also, Wolfen69...in fact i was running a live iso of kubuntu 12.04 and after installing the restricted extras could NOT get the flash to work (even after re-installing THREE TIMES)....when i ran live isos of 11.10 and 12.04 and added the restricted extras everything worked automatically (including Flash)...

It's very pretty but i find it to be a pain in the you know what...which is why i find i can never completely warm up to it...

And that KWallet can be very annoying too...and i always have found it hard to get rid of it and still get everything to work without it...

It also has too many configuration options (kind of overdone) and i don't find it to be as intuitive to use as gnome is... ;) At least I have an open mind, unlike others. <cough>

I've always WANTED to like it...but it hasn't given me the "love" back (lol)....

I do like it's one panel on bottom and it's slab style menu, though...
I kinda agree with you. It seems kde is trying to be the ULTIMATE os, yet lacks certain things. Maybe those things are just my experience, like stability? I've done countless tests over the years, and kubuntu always comes in last. But it's funny, because it's the one I WANT TO WORK!

I have nothing against kde per se. I think it's beautiful. Like I said, nothing against it if you like it. I'm a wannabe kde user, I just don't get 100% from it. oops. Gotta do what we gotta do.

[kef_kf]

I tried that. For example, how do you assign the "remove window decorations" to easystroke? I could never get an answer to that. If you know, I'd love to find out. I also could never figure out how to assign "shade window" to the mouse scroll button.


I don't have kubuntu installed at the moment but I usually go about it like this:

- Preferences -> Additional Buttons -> Add
- In the popout add the mouse button you wanna assign and make sure instant gestures are checked
- Actions -> Add Action
- Name the gesture whatever you want, type is Key, click on details and type the combination you want (the key combination for remove window decorations for example, you might have to disable it in shortcuts for easystroke to register, then you can enable it again) and click Record Stroke and use the mouse button that you want the key combination to be assigned.

[neu5eeCh]

I don't have kubuntu installed at the moment but I usually go about it like this:

- Preferences -> Additional Buttons -> Add
- In the popout add the mouse button you wanna assign and make sure instant gestures are checked
- Actions -> Add Action
- Name the gesture whatever you want, type is Key, click on details and type the combination you want (the key combination for remove window decorations for example, you might have to disable it in shortcuts for easystroke to register, then you can enable it again) and click Record Stroke and use the mouse button that you want the key combination to be assigned.

Thanks. I already tried all that. The problem is that there is no key combination for some of KDE's multi-nested window management commands and the commands, themselves, are not listed (so that one can't even assign a key combination to them -- let alone mouse gestures). Trust me, I spent a good week with KDE/Kubuntu trying to sort this out, but finally gave up. Like others, I wanted to like KDE, but always got the feeling I was driving a Porsche with a Yugo under the hood. There appear to be some very basic usability customizations that even LXDE can do, that KDE can't.:popcorn:

[georgelappies]

Yeah, Kubuntu and KDE is really an amazing beautiful looking OS to work with.

However for some reason 12.04 is extremely unstable on my laptop. I will get a freeze up during normal use and the screen will crash to an init 1 type state with a flickering cursor but all hard locked up. This was with the ati drivers and without.

Ubuntu 12.04 however is rock stable on the exact same hardware... I posted numoroues bug reports and forum help questions but nobody could resolve this issue or even give me an indictation of how to get a log file to maybe show were the bug might be coming from.

Needing my machine for real work I can not have it bomb out frequently for no reason. Plus I have to say I have taken to this Unity + HUD thingy, for a person using the keyboard mostly (prefer keyboard) it makes using the OS just so much faster!

I mean busy writing a document, realising I need some info from an email, press the window key, type email open thunderbird, tab to right pane, get info, alt-tab to libre office, complete document, email document all of that without my hands ever leaving the keyboard. Its power :)

So yeah even if kubuntu starts working on my hardware (I still think it is maybe a kdm issue as that is the only difference between ubuntu and kubuntu right? ubuntu uses lightdm and kubuntu uses kdm...) I will think more then twice about switching back.

[whatthefunk]

I tried that. For example, how do you assign the "remove window decorations" to easystroke? I could never get an answer to that. If you know, I'd love to find out. I also could never figure out how to assign "shade window" to the mouse scroll button.

Edit: Not to be a Xubuntu Fanboi, but one of the cool things I can do with Xubuntu (as with LXDE) is to remove the window decorations between the app window and the panel. This makes both LXDE and Xubuntu just as efficient as Unity (and better). I can do this with a keystroke. I never figured out how to do this with KDE. In terms of my own usage, KDE just isn't very customizable - not where it matters to me.

In KDE, if you can do something in the command line, you can assign a gesture/keystroke to do it. I havent played around with it but Im pretty sure that you could create an alternate configuration file using the GUI, save that file and then write a simple bash script to swap that config file for another one..

[SeijiSensei]

That has always been my experience also, Wolfen69...in fact i was running a live iso of kubuntu 12.04 and after installing the restricted extras could NOT get the flash to work (even after re-installing THREE TIMES)....when i ran live isos of 11.10 and 12.04 and added the restricted extras everything worked automatically (including Flash)...


These days the Flash plugin is in the "partner" repository and not a restricted extra. Activate the partner repository by uncommenting the appropriate line in /etc/apt/sources.list, then run



sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin


Close your browser and reopen it again. Works like a charm here, and everywhere else I've tried it.

And why do you want to remove the wallet application? It's certainly useful for things like wifi connectivity so you don't have to retype the passphrase all the time. (My WPA-PSK2 passphrase is a whole sentence. I'd rather it be kept in the wallet.) If you want to modify the wallet settings, go to System Settings > Account Details. If you want to avoid having to type in a password when the wallet appears, just give it a blank one. Then you'll pretty much never see the wallet application at all.


Yeah, Kubuntu and KDE is really an amazing beautiful looking OS to work with.

However for some reason 12.04 is extremely unstable on my laptop.

Did you install Kubuntu into a clean partition, or did you install on top of Ubuntu 12.04?

[craig10x]

good point...didn't think about checking the "software sources" in kde's package manager...which probably didn't have those outside sources checked by default on the live iso but usually is checked automatically when you actually install kubuntu...

that is probably why the flash wasn't working....

what about kwallet by the way...i have always found that to be annoying...it seems to insist on a password on certain programs...

[georgelappies]

Did you install Kubuntu into a clean partition, or did you install on top of Ubuntu 12.04?

Hi SeijiSensei, yes I installed into a clean / and a clean /home partition.