Opinions Anyone?

[Guest]

Hi everyone, i was just looking around for which KDE distro to put on my Asus and i came down to kubuntu I've used ubuntu for a long time but decided to upgrade to KDE for the look difference because i hope to dual boot it with windows 7. So can anyone tell me anything helpful on kubuntu as i don't have much experience with KDE

[GreyGeek]

Re: Opinions Anyone?

During the install process one observation will hit you like a thunderbolt: It is amazing how much Kubuntu's install and general look & feel while running it is so similar to Win7. When you realize that KDE 4 was born before VISTA's failure forced MS to hastily create Win7 you will understand which is the egg and which is the chicken. Just another example of MS "innovation"!

The dual boot is, IMO, a better choice that the Wubi installation (where Linux is a file on Win7).

The question is: which release?

Lucid Lynx, 10.04, is the current Long Term Support (LTS) release.
Maverick was 10.10.
The current 6 month release is Natty, 11.04.
The next 6 month release in development is Oneiric, 11.10, due on October 13th.

The next LTS release is 12.04 (name not chosen, yet):

December 1st, 2011 - Alpha 1 release
February 2nd, 2012 - Alpha 2 release
March 1st, 2012 - Beta 1 release
March 22nd, 2012 - Beta 2 release
April 19th, 2012 - Release Candidate release
April 26th, 2012 - Final release of Kubuntu 12.04

Oneiric is in pretty fair shape. IMO, it would probably be better to install Oneiric, even though its three months away from going Gold, than to install Maverick or Natty.

But, 6 months later the 12.04 LTS will be released. Then you have two more options:
1) Do an version upgrade
2) Do a fresh install ofthe 12.04 LTS.

Personally, my preference is a fresh install over an upgrade. But, ymmv.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Opinions Anyone?

OTOH if you already have an ubuntu installation, your quickest and easiest way will be to run

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

in a terminal. That will give you the opportunity to choose between gnome and KDE at login time. One point to bear in mind is that during the process you will be asked whether you want to use gdm (gnome display manager) or kdm (KDE display manager). Stick with GDM for now. The benefit of doing it this was is that you can try out KDE for the next 6 weeks or so and, if you like it and want to dispense with gnome, when you install 11.11 you can use a kubuntu CD.

HTH

[tumerictj]

Re: Opinions Anyone?

Kubuntu is actually fun to use. It can be frustrating though, and how well it runs will depend on the quality of your computer itself.

As for basic tasks, the distribution can do anything that Windows or Mac can do. In fact, Kubuntu is quite similar to Mac OSX in that they are both Unix-like systems (and Ubuntu and OS X look and function nearly identically). Installing apps through KPackageKit on Kubuntu is just like buying apps on OS X through the Apple store--except that with KPackageKit the apps are free!

Kubuntu is likewise similar to recent version of Windows in it's look and layout. You can easily adjust the display settings by right-clicking or fine-tune your program settings through menus, for example.

What sets Kubuntu apart for me is that it is the most immediately accessible version of Linux using the KDE desktop environment--which is so easy to tweak and make one's own. Apart from that, it stole my choice for Linux's natural integration with Sage and GVim-LaTeX, which are a math student's dream.

Once you get used to it, you might be pleasantly surprised that certain aspects of Kubuntu are simpler and more elegant than either Windows or Mac!

[oshunluvr]

Re: Opinions Anyone?

>>>2 cents>>>

IMO, If you're totally new to linux, Kubuntu might be a bit overwheming at first, so I'd start with 10.04 because, although already long-in-the-tooth by linux distro standards, it is very stable and still supported for quite awhile.

10.10 was a total no-go for me and I'd give it a pass in any situation. 11.04 is much better than average and almost great.

Sounds like you're building a new 'puter so no doubt you'll have lots of HD space so I'd plan on reserving some space for several distros including 11.10 and 12.04. Thankfully, even a loaded Kubuntu install needs less than 10GB.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Opinions Anyone?

....
how well it runs will depend on the quality of your computer itself.
.....

A poorly designed or built computer will have trouble running any distro, or OS. The popular Windows 7 forum has 131,000 posts in the "Crashing & debugging" section alone, and this is with computers that came with Win7 preinstalled by the OEM.

[Snowhog]

Re: Opinions Anyone?

'1-time poster' :P

Maybe the OP will be back, but it's been almost a month since the question was asked, and that was the only time (so far) that they were logged into KFN.

[ardvark71]

Re: Opinions Anyone?

IMO, If you're totally new to linux, Kubuntu might be a bit overwheming at first, so I'd start with 10.04 because, although already long-in-the-tooth by linux distro standards, it is very stable and still supported for quite awhile.

I would second this, 10.04 is and has been very stable for me, except for a couple unresolved issues that have not impaired my ability to use the OS. This is unrelated but today marks one year since I signed up at this forum.

Welcome to the forums. By the way, you're not a worm but someone far more valuable.

Regards...

[Guest]

Re: Opinions Anyone?

....
how well it runs will depend on the quality of your computer itself.
.....

A poorly designed or built computer will have trouble running any distro, or OS. The popular Windows 7 forum has 131,000 posts in the "Crashing & debugging" section alone, and this is with computers that came with Win7 preinstalled by the OEM.

As a newbie, I can attest to that. I had Windows 7, but then I wanted to switch everything to a faster hard drive and when I reinstalled Windows 7, there was nothing but problems. I searched on tons of forums, including Microsoft's, and found so many people who had to same problems I did, and Microsoft wasn't supplying any answers.
But my computer isn't poorly built - I did it myself.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Opinions Anyone?

....
As a newbie, I can attest to that. I had Windows 7, but then I wanted to switch everything to a faster hard drive and when I reinstalled Windows 7, there was nothing but problems. I searched on tons of forums, including Microsoft's, and found so many people who had to same problems I did, and Microsoft wasn't supplying any answers.
But my computer isn't poorly built - I did it myself.

You are among the rare breed of technophiles who can pull off that accomplishment.

By "poorly built" I mean those computers which have poor solder joints, or thin flexable mobos, weakly mounted or secured sockets and plugins, cheap components, etc...

By "poorly designed" I mean those computers whose circuits are at or under a safety margin of 2X. A 5 Volt circuit which has a capacitor rated at 6 or 7 volts instead of 10-15 volts, or a precision of +-20% instead of +-3%. That is, as the resistors heat up and vaporize organic binding agents the resistance moves outside the range for which the circuit was designed. A voltage at point "a" which is supposed to be at 2.1 Volts +- 0.2V changes to 2.5 or 1.5V because of degradation due to cheap components moves that value outside the design range.