Downloaded Ubuntu, but now it says Kubuntu, please help

[Guest]

I downloaded 12.04 beta for Ubuntu. I liked the OS but I didn't like the purple look or having the launcher "stuff" on the left (they banned me there cause I called it a different name). Luckily, some kind member from that group who didn't mind the negative comments about the launcher suggested I change the look of the desktop and download something called KDE.

I have, and it looks a lot better. The buttons are on the bottom, and graphically there are many more options than I can shake a stick at (yes I am in a forest, and there are many sticks here).

So, the question I have is, do I have Kubuntu or just the wrapper that says Kubuntu? If someone only has the purple look with the launcher stuff on the left (I feel sorry for them), what are they missing out that the Kubuntu users have?

I haven't seen a comparison chart which compares the various -buntu operating systems (Ubuntu, Edubuntu, Kubuntu, etc....)

Any help discerning the differences would be appreciated.

[james147]

Kubuntu is just ubuntu with the kde desktop instead of gnome... They both have the same core system the only real difference is the desktop interface.

So there is basically no difference between having ubuntu with kde and kubuntu (except that you might also have the unity installed as well as kde).

[Jonas]

Welcome to KFN!

Are you running a KDE desktop without problems? I guess your within KDE environment? Do you like it? So are we!

best regards

Jonas

[woodsmoke]

Welcome to Kubu Forums jadarite.

I have never "completely" agreed with the statements by people who really do know more than I do about this, that Kubu is "just Ubu with KDE". I tried a Ubu install and put KDE on it a while ago, even did a thread on it. And yes........ it "is the same' but at the same time not, the various "parts" didn't seem to work as well together, the whole thing felt...don't know.....brittle. It was a feeling more than something measureable against a benchmark.

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

One way to understand the differences would be to compare the output of

apt-cache --recurse depends kde-plasma-desktop

to

apt-cache --recurse depends kubuntu-desktop

But this is unwieldy.

When I was exploring the differences, I found it easier to use Aptitude. I installed kde-plasma-desktop and then used the Aptitude tool to see which portions of kubuntu-desktop had not been installed. A command-line version of that experiment would be

diff --suppress-common-lines <(apt-cache depends kubuntu-desktop) <(apt-cache --installed depends kubuntu-desktop)

The result of this command would be a list of all dependencies of kubuntu-desktop that were not installed after installing kde-plasma-desktop.

There might be more elegant ways to do this, but these are some quick thoughts.

[james147]

I have never "completely" agreed with the statements by people who really do know more than I do about this, that Kubu is "just Ubu with KDE".

It is probably more accurate to say that it is ubuntu core with kubunt-desktop installed but I tend to say KDE as that is one of the main reasons to install kubuntu over ubuntu and I feel that's what people are generally interested in when they ask.