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View Full Version : Kubuntu users, why Kubuntu instead of other distros?



wersdaluv
April 5th, 2007, 05:18 AM
It is highly probable that Ubuntu is the most ideal GNOME distro, but when it comes to KDE, there are other great distros to consider.

If you are a KDE fan, you may want to consider KDE-centered projects like openSuSE and PCLinuxOS, and many others, but why do you use Kubuntu instead of them?

Phatfiddler
April 5th, 2007, 05:20 AM
Kubuntu is the only distro that has worked properly with my wireless card (laptop). Enough said :)

Kingsley
April 5th, 2007, 05:25 AM
The package management is excellent and the Ubuntu community suffices.

Mateo
April 5th, 2007, 05:25 AM
why not just use ubuntu and then "sudo apt-get install kde"

user1397
April 5th, 2007, 06:05 AM
why not just use ubuntu and then "sudo apt-get install kde"why not just use kubuntu from the beginning?

nsleiman
April 5th, 2007, 06:12 AM
i like most the packaging tools, and its Great :)

+ i never was able to have gnome running smoothly!

maybe its my destiny.

FuturePilot
April 5th, 2007, 06:27 AM
I was never able to get KDE working properly. It just acted funny. Sometimes certain applications would launch when I clicked them. Notably Adept. And at least for my laptop it's a resource hog. Gnome always just seemed to work. But right now I'm using Xubuntu and I'm really liking it. I never used to like XFCE but I've given it another shot and have since changed my mind.:)

luca.b
April 5th, 2007, 07:44 AM
Because I tried it, I liked it, so I stuck with it, basically. I didn't even look at Ubuntu before I knew of Kubuntu, as I and GNOME are mutually incompatible.

steevc
April 5th, 2007, 08:48 AM
why not just use ubuntu and then "sudo apt-get install kde"

I did something like that when I first used Ubuntu. I just couldn't get on with Gnome and found KDE more comfortable. I then had issues with Gnome and KDE apps conflicting. When I inserted media both would try to run it. From what I could see this was a system level issue rather than just my user session. In the end I reinstalled with Kubuntu and things have been smoother since then. I would like to be able to check on how Gnome is doing, but I need my PC to work for all members of the family and don't have the time to play around with dual boot or some of the other alternatives.

I might still be tempted to run a virtual machine with a Gnome system. I expect I can find a system image to do that.

stivani
April 5th, 2007, 09:33 AM
It is highly probable that Ubuntu is the most ideal GNOME distro, but when it comes to KDE, there are other great distros to consider.

If you are a KDE fan, you may want to consider KDE-centered projects like openSuSE and PCLinuxOS, and many others, but why do you use Kubuntu instead of them?

I don't think PCLinuxOS or openSUSE are better than Kubuntu. In my opinion, OpenSUSE has become more Gnome centric. Kubuntu is making progress very fast. I think Kubuntu will become the leading KDE distribution in future. There were some problems, but the Kubuntu team made huge improvements (power management, networkmanager, adept...)
With Kubuntu, you have a great desktop environment combined with the advantages of the apt packagement system

igknighted
April 5th, 2007, 09:45 AM
why not just use ubuntu and then "sudo apt-get install kde"

More like server install then apt-get install kde-base. Overall, Kubuntu isn't a great KDE implementation, although a little tweaking makes it decent. Fesity improved the KDE version a LOT more than Gnome IMHO, so its catching up. I just hope that KDE4 is adopted quickly... I already can't wait and am tempted to start trying out SVN builds :)


I don't think PCLinuxOS or openSUSE are better than Kubuntu. In my opinion, OpenSUSE has become more Gnome centric. Kubuntu is making progress very fast. I think Kubuntu will become the leading KDE distribution in future. There were some problems, but the Kubuntu team made huge improvements (power management, networkmanager, adept...)
With Kubuntu, you have a great desktop environment combined with the advantages of the apt packagement system

KDE >>> Gnome any day, so yeah, I think as Kubuntu improves it will suck users from the gnome version. That said, I think PCLOS is way ahead of Kubuntu now in terms of users and is growing at a faster rate. Mepis is still there too, and is also based on Ubuntu.

Don't go all in for apt, its on its way out sometime in the not too distant future as Ubuntu moves toward the Smart package manager. It will provide more options, but not much change overall, as the bang-up job the Debian (and Ubuntu) guys and gals do making the packages is what you are really complimenting, and in that regard I agree with you.

TheWizzard
April 5th, 2007, 11:25 AM
It is highly probable that Ubuntu is the most ideal GNOME distro, but when it comes to KDE, there are other great distros to consider.

If you are a KDE fan, you may want to consider KDE-centered projects like openSuSE and PCLinuxOS, and many others, but why do you use Kubuntu instead of them?


the desktop environment is only one of a long list of properties of a distro. i can't see any reason why kde users should not use (k)ubuntu.

hizaguchi
April 5th, 2007, 02:38 PM
Because it's more up to date than Debian and easier to configure than Arch. And the rest of the decent KDE distros I've found have given me more package management trouble.

bmartin
April 5th, 2007, 03:56 PM
why not just use kubuntu from the beginning?

From what I understand, the default programs for certain activities in Ubuntu and Kubuntu differ. Would installing KDE on top of Ubuntu make a difference? If so, some people may prefer to use Gnome's default apps in KDE, or perhaps vice-versa.

Simply put, Ubuntu has phenomenal community support. I feel that, for servers (not any kind in particular), it's much more practical to use something where you can compile optimized code easily, such as Sabayon; for my family members and all of my friends that are sick of Windows, I tell them to switch to Ubuntu. I always recommend installing both the Gnome and KDE desktops and trying both of them out.

A better question might be: Why would you want to use anything else? openSUSE has YaST and a customized Gnome menu that a lot of people have grown to love; I couldn't care less. I don't use Gnome or KDE... or Xfce. Gentoo/Sabayon compile packages with optimizations so you can wring the most performance out of your setup.

M$LOL
April 5th, 2007, 04:18 PM
why not just use ubuntu and then "sudo apt-get install kde"
That's what I did, but I still mostly use Gnome :)

adamklempner
April 5th, 2007, 06:04 PM
Here is my Linux progression over the past few years:

Linspire (3 years) -> Ubuntu (a week, didn't like gnome) -> openSuse (a week, YaST was ridiculously slow on my PC and I didn't find enough support) -> PCLinuxOS (small repositories, beta releases still) -> Freespire (two days, too early still) -> Kubuntu (6 months). I also tried numerous live cd's including Mepis, Dreamlinux, Xubuntu, etc.

Of all of the distro's after Linspire, Ubuntu worked the best for me but I just didn't like gnome, hence I am back at Kubuntu. It is smooth and fast enough for me and has been rock solid.

I am also going to stick with a distro that will be supported by CNR. I think this is a very good technology and will stick with a distro that I will be able to use it in. It is the only thing that I miss from Linspire.

I'll probably give the new version of Linspire a go when it comes out since they were the guys that got me started with Linux back in 2003.

Erunno
April 5th, 2007, 06:09 PM
Hibernate works out of the box on my notebook and that's a major issue for someone who's commuting a lot.
Good selection of default software (only minimal redundance).
Up-to-date packages for most major KDE applications thanks to the unofficial Kubuntu repositories.
Access to Ubuntu's large repositories. Plus, there are many third-party repositories for Ubuntu.
A pleasent community.


I still have some Kubuntu-specific gripes like missing configuration modules in the new System Settings (I ended up using kcontrol again), Adept's horrible interface and the default look which mostly earned negative comments from people who saw it before I had the chance to change it.

But it's progressing nicely and I haven't encountered any major grievances which would sway me to another distribution.

Pikestaff
April 5th, 2007, 07:17 PM
Kubuntu is the only distro that has worked properly with my wireless card (laptop). Enough said :)

Oddly enough, same here! Kubuntu has always worked better for me than Ubuntu for some reason.

As for other KDE distros... I dunno, I'm content with this one and don't really see much reason to change anytime soon, and I really like the Ubuntu community and ideals in general. Besides, if I ever did move to another distro, it'd probably be to something like Debian, which as far as I'm aware uses Gnome by default.

I'm not a huge desktop-environment-evangelist really, I do prefer KDE over others but I certainly don't dislike Gnome or the others and I will use basically whatever works on my computer. Kubuntu works. :)

bmartin
April 5th, 2007, 07:39 PM
I became a bit disgruntled with KDE because on every computer where I've used it, programs tend to crash. It's cool with me that people prefer it to other DMs and WMs (sorry, I don't know the proper name of KDE's window manager), and I don't mind that people bash Gnome, especially when they give constructive criticism (which isn't really bashing, I guess).

To me, desktop environments are simply a tool to get used to Linux. If they get the job done for you, then that's great; if something isn't broken, why fix it? I've been using Ubuntu for about 3 months now (after 3 years of Fedora) and I've never crashed a single program in Gnome since the switch. In Fedora, things used to crash all the time, and Firefox sometimes disappeared... it was there, then it was gone.

I don't know what's wrong with my KDE usage. My girlfriend prefers KDE, but she can't stand the crashes. WINE doesn't run properly in KDE, either. Are there some settings that I'm overlooking?

TheRingmaster
April 5th, 2007, 07:46 PM
the window manager for kde is called kwin.

ronniet
April 5th, 2007, 08:43 PM
My first serious Linux install (ie: wanting to permanently get away from Windows) was Ubuntu Dapper. While I liked the idea of the package manager I wasn't too keen on the Gnome interface, so I searched to see if there was a way to get KDE in Ubuntu.

Well, I don't know what I did wrong, but i screwed up the install completely and was left with nothing but a command prompt.

While searching (within Windows :( ) for the solution I read about Kubuntu and gave it a shot.

Maaaany months later i'm still with Kubuntu and loving it.

I'll be doing a fresh install of Feisty the day its released ... :)

tommy1987
April 5th, 2007, 09:36 PM
I like many others in this forum messed up GNOME when I first installed Ubuntu and went for kubuntu, really got on with it and here I am.

A great thing about Ubuntu is the great community, if I have a problem, I rarely wait more than a few minutes before someone has answered it. Thats support, none of this Premium Rate telephone number rubbish, then being put through to someone who doesnt know what the hell they are talking about.

darkhatter
April 5th, 2007, 09:40 PM
I'll be doing a fresh install of Feisty the day its released ... :)

good luck getting a mirror....lol

bmartin
April 5th, 2007, 09:43 PM
People on tech support are nearly useless. Most of the time I have to sit there waiting on the phone and when I talk to someone, they speak broken English and can't help me with my problem.

Sometimes the same problem happens with forums; I often see people bumping their threads because nobody has helped them yet. However, most of the time, people find the answers quite quickly, and the fact that there's existing knowledge available publicly means that the helpers don't have to spend as much of their time repeating themselves.

I work as an IT tech support person. 99.9% of the problems people have are not unique. Canned responses are invaluable.

pirothezero
April 5th, 2007, 10:04 PM
I use Kubuntu because in the CS lab at my school they had ubuntu on there with kde installed and I just got used to using it. Haven't really looked back since or considered anything else.

I will when I have some free time though.

GameManK
April 5th, 2007, 10:39 PM
I use Kubuntu over other KDE-centric distros primarily for two reasons:

1. apt-get/dpkg: after trying a couple linux distros a couple years ago, I ran across Yoper. It had synaptic and I used that for a couple months. It was just so much easier than anything else I tried, so I decided to stick to Debian based distributions.

2. The Ubuntu philosophy, community, name, and marketability. I feel like, even if some other distros have a better implementation of this or that, Ubuntu is the one distro that has what it takes to become mainstream (and have fun doing it), and I want to help with that.

oh and 3. I've been using it for almost 2 years and I feel committed now :)

bluenova
April 23rd, 2007, 08:00 PM
I like OpenSuse very much, it works very well with KDE and there is only 1 thing I don't like. The reason I use Kubuntu is because with RPM based distros the package mananger takes half an hour to open, where as with deb based distros the package manager opens almost straight away.

zubrug
April 23rd, 2007, 08:25 PM
Started out with mandrake and then tried linspire, switched to ubuntu then xubuntu then realized that all my favorite changes after install involved loading k3b, ktorrent, kaffeine, and kate.
I do server plus kde though, faster on my celeron. Tried other (lots) of distro's but being the hippie I am, its this community that keeps me here.