Kubuntu's Best Version?

[Nasty7]

What Kubuntu Version is your Favorite?

Since this is the first Kubuntu Version I have installed (18.04) I don't know the history and which one was the favorite? I know I did not like 14.04 and moved on to Mint's KDE at the time, and mostly from memory the way Dolphin was laid out at the time.

Recently I had a weird issue that made me reinstall 18.04. I thought at the time I would go back and install 16.04, and that may be better for my old laptop. Then I thought, I wanted to see if I had done something wrong with the current install of 18.04. So the reinstall went well and all works fine now.

And it's hard to tell just by running a Linux Live Session so thought I would ask here. Seems Linux guys like to stay with the latest and greatest stuff so it's hard to tell by the numbers in the forums here. Looks like 14.04 was fairly popular as the numbers on this site seem to be the highest in the forum posting. I'm guessing there are definite reasons for that. I suspect from what I see 14.04 had a longer life span.

[SpecialEd]

14.04 is the oldest LTS that hasn't reached EOL yet, (coming soon though, in April), so of course it has had the longest life span of current releases.

[Nasty7]

But which is your favorite?

[SpecialEd]

This month marks my second year of using Linux, so 16 and 18 are all I know. I've been quite happy with both but I'll lean towards 18 for being the most "up to date."

[Qqmike]

The question is not well defined. "Best"? Many of us here go back to 6.XX. Kubuntu keeps improving, from KDE3 --> KDE4 --> Plasma and many other improvements. Of course, 18.04 is the "best." But this gets down to personal taste, bias, and tainted experience. Yeah, 14.04 was absolutely great, imo. But 18.04 is even greater.

[claydoh]

I am one of those who began with 5.04. My favorite is usually what is most current. Has been since it was released. Well, except for 8.10 and maybe 9.04. We don't often talk about those initial KDE 4.0 versions Even the KDE fanboi that I can be can't really much praise that semi-mess, and terrible finger-pointing going on at that time when KDE rolled out 4.0

It is the Plasma version that is more important to me than the distro version, really. Basically, it is not usually the core os (kernel, etc) that make Kubuntu good or bad, it is that newer Plasma releases have incremental improvements. At this point, probably since 16.04, the huge amounts of changes and improvements have slowed to a continuous stream of tweaks and fixes. You don't get to see those in LTS versions, as the Plasma, applications, etc are stuck at the same major version. Only those who jump from LTS to LTS see any huge differences every two or so years, and even these jumps are not anywhere near as drastic as people think.

Having said that, my PC, used mostly as a Steam box, is still at 18.04 (I think, it is packed away while I am overseas) as it doesn't *need* to use the latest and greatest desktop in this use case. That machine, up until 18.04, had been upgraded every 6 months for about 5 years (Raring Ringtail 13.04). The only reason for the one fresh install was a dead drive, and I decided I didn't care if it had the latest Plasma. My daily driver is Neon, as it has that well supported Ubuntu 18.04 base, but regular and consistent Plasma updates.

[Qqmike]

claydoh: Well, except for 8.10 and maybe 9.04. We don't often talk about those initial KDE 4.0 versions

Oops ... oh yeah ... I forgot about that somewhat dicey transition (I was a die-hard KDE3 fan until the end).

On this general subject, ya know, some people simply resist change--any change. Some resist it until they don't, and then they realize that the change is the "best."

[Snowhog]

My go to version is 18.10 (as of about a month ago). Was running version 18.04 before that. I'm one who doesn't stick with only LTS versions. I do however, wait until the latest version has been 'in the wild' for a bit; several weeks or more; before I install it. As to my opinion on which is 'best': The one that serves your needs to your satisfaction.

[claydoh]

Oops ... oh yeah ... I forgot about that somewhat dicey transition (I was a die-hard KDE3 fan until the end).

On this general subject, ya know, some people simply resist change--any change. Some resist it until they don't, and then they realize that the change is the "best."

I loved how kde3 became what it was, desktop feature-wise, but not of the hack-ish way it got there, or the super-duper ultra mega huge amount of menus in the applications and the like.. At least I seemed to find *all* the bugs and crashies because of it. KDE 4 for me was dive in and see for me, as at the time, I only had one computer, and the drive died in it. The only install disk I had was an 8.10 alpha release, so... what the heck? Let's do this, and left KDE 3 behind.

Being used to the incremental changes, I do admit I find it odd that anyone coming from 12.04 , 14.04, and 16.04 to 18.04 think it is soo different (other than the theming), as Plasma is configured ad administered in quite nearly the exact same ways, the same places, and the same tools since 2008,. This is nearly twice as long as KDE 3 even existed, and longer than KDE2 and KDE 3 existed combined. But I know that others don't react to things as I do. My boss, who is fairly tech savvy is completely lost when an icon in moved on the desktop. This frustrates him sometimes as the systems at work are actually remote virtual machine images, and every so often the desktop layout goes back to a stock one and he slightly freaks out

[oshunluvr]

IMO, I stick to the LTS releases and each one has been "better" than the others so I upgrade my distro every two years. But this is so subjective there's no right answer. There are as many users here that don't like change (and will tell you 14.04 is the best) as there are cutting-edge folks that install every release as soon as you can download it.

I use my computer for work and every day. I like to have the best Plasma has to offer, but I can't upgrade and deal with the associated issues that bring every six months. My solution is to use KDEneon - based on LTS releases but with the latest and greatest Plasma upgrades and fixes. I use the most current LTS version but don't change over to the new LTS release until it's at least six months old. This way I avoid the majority of the bugs and retain enough stability to keep work going. That's not to say I don't install the new Kubuntu (and other) releases, I just to rely on them for daily work.

[Nasty7]

The question is not well defined. "Best"? Many of us here go back to 6.XX. Kubuntu keeps improving, from KDE3 --> KDE4 --> Plasma and many other improvements. Of course, 18.04 is the "best." But this gets down to personal taste, bias, and tainted experience. Yeah, 14.04 was absolutely great, imo. But 18.04 is even greater.

True, I should have said Favorite, just 'Opinion' was all I was interested in, general consensus.

[Nasty7]

.

On this general subject, ya know, some people simply resist change--any change. Some resist it until they don't, and then they realize that the change is the "best."

Ain't that the truth lol.

I read all the posts of course, and thanks to all for the input. I just wanted to get a general consensus as to what the history was by the guys who actually use it daily. I hope to install again on another computer, and maybe even my current Kubuntu only machine. As I said earlier, I almost installed 16.04 as I thought it would be a little more stable, glad I didn't because 18.1 is working well so far. I tested many distros before I ended up here, and as usual, a little surprised Kubuntu isn't more popular in general. As I thought of Mint's KDE at the time, it should have been more popular.

Can I choose 'Mark as Solved' change the title? Didn't want to click on it and have it actually marked as Solved.

Thanks guys, Nasty

[Nasty7]

IMO, I stick to the LTS releases and each one has been "better" than the others so I upgrade my distro every two years.

I use the most current LTS version but don't change over to the new LTS release until it's at least six months old. This way I avoid the majority of the bugs and retain enough stability to keep work going. That's not to say I don't install the new Kubuntu (and other) releases, I just to rely on them for daily work.

This would be the philosophy I adhere to also, and is one reason I considered Installing 16.04 when I was having problems. I still run Mint's KDE 17.1 on an old HP Laptop and may keep it installed forever lol. As that was my go to for linux, now needed to look for something else, and Mint's new KDE was not to my liking.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
speaking historically about 10 years ago, whatever the version of Kubuntu was I just couldn't handle it, my machines were all made from scrap parts grabbed off the beltways by the Johnieman and the Gregman.

But when I built my own, first, really good gaming computer it was in this case which is just a ROCK SOLID case with very low noise factor in terms of fans and LOTS OF USB PORTS on the top, plug the joystick in wile you are at the lan party and on the back... i had a very small "dolly" that i put it on to drag it around, but...the point is...

That...all I did with it was gaming and I tried out a lot of distros, there used to be an actual dedicated gaming version of Ubuntu which didn't get a lot of traction, but... about 2008 I built it and install all of the possible distros and settled on Kubuntu, contrary to what the talking heads say, if one had an even reasonable system it is not a power hog.

Anyway, I did a dual boot all the time and the hard drive which is still perking along had Windblows VISTA on it and it is still on there but i reinstall Kubuntu every once in a while on the other half of the drive and it has 14.04 on it. But, I just use it to basically listen to music and play some Linux games on it...

14.04 has just been a workhorse... all I can say.

HOWEVER, my Kparadigm shift distro for the computer running my television "gaming" "music" "stand up and use an air mouse" to check news feeds e-mail from across the room is Neon Developer Stable and ...again...it is rock solid, I have installed it once and it just keeps on updating. HOWEVER I DO NOT store any DATA on it, all my music, videos, etc. are kept on a very large USB stick so when the hard drive inevetibly fails I'll just pop in a new hard drive and install the latest Neon Dev stable.

Here is the gaming computer An "X-Infinity silver"

Website: http://www.apevia.com/productsInfo.asp?KEY=ATXB6KLW-AL



Here's my Kparadigm Shift running on the t.v.





As an aside I made my own "3d" kicker button for Kparadigm shift.

So the cut to the chase is that for cutting edge I do Neon Developer Stable and for work...I'm still running 14.04. lol

woodsmoke

[kc1di]

Best is a hard target to Hit. It's the Distro/desktop (for me) that lets me get the work done I want to do and has the least bug to fix. Right now using 18.04 and Neon. Both seem to fit best for Me.
Your mileage may differ. Cheers!