Kubuntu Adivce

[whabang]

Debian Squeeze + Gnome with Openbox as WM. My netbook is now a lean mean surfing machine compared to when I had it struggling with Ubuntu.

Kubuntu is decent if you're a KDE man.

[spihunter]

I agree, I was very happy with Ubuntu 10.10 but went to 11.04 thinking it would be great and was disappointed.  Nice to hear Kubuntu isn't the same, maybe I'll load that one up today.



I had the same issue with two different laptops.  Very disappointing.

The same thing happened to me. I ugraded to 11.04 and the machine would no longer boot. Tried a fresh install with no luck either.

I switch to Mint Linux after that. It seems pretty nice so far.....

[Iggy]

Personally, I prefer the older 10.04 distro of PPC Ubuntu to the current distro or Kubuntu.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

I've been running Ubuntu and Kubuntu for a few years now, with Ubuntu as my regular PC OS and Kubuntu as an experimental toy more than anything. With the release of Ubuntu 11.04 and the move to Unity I've switched to using Kubuntu as my main PC OS, and Ubuntu is getting wiped off. Unity just slows down the usage of the computer, I was able to switch between and launch tasks far quicker with a task bar and drop-down menus for apps instead of this terribly simplified tablet-style crap. Not to mention they got rid of scrollbars in Gnome so you have to make sure every window is in focus before you can attempt to grab the (non-proportional) scrollbar that appears when you hover over the area long enough for it to pop up near your pointer. I've probably accidently launched LibreOffice about ten times when I only meant to quickly switch to another program with the dock/taskbar (which takes a few seconds to appear and disappear every time you use it).

Ubuntu has become an abomination, but Kubuntu has matured and taken the lead. Although I will always prefer drop-down menus to select my applications rather than a "Start" menu, I still prefer this over the stupid tablet-style interface of Unity, which doesn't even present all available applications and settings anymore, and the only way to find many of them is to click in the Search bar and start searching for it. I could probably write a book on all the things that make Unity and Gnome inefficient and illogical, but the kids won't listen of course. To them if it's new, it must be better than anything that came before it.

Kubuntu is pretty nice looking too, and it seems to be more configurable than the Gnome-based Ubuntu. It reminds me a little of MorphOS.

You can still choose 'ubuntu classic' on the bottom of the login screen. You can choose KDE, XFCE or any other desktop manager there as well

But ah well, I thoroughly hate Ubuntu 11.04 as well. It screwed up openGL and it now takes longer to load. And unity is an abomination. Simplification is one thing, but hiding settings to a point you have to use the terminal is not simplification in my eyes. The whole mindset of Unity is just disgusting. Like a flash webpage which continuously make you remind that it's a flashy flash page.
Oh and they de-installed mp3 codec for me as it's not open source, talking about service!

[Cammy]

Thanks for that, I had a feeling there would be a way to get back to the classic interface but since I have my machine set to go straight to the desktop without logging in, I never saw the option. Funny that after weeks of complaining in Linux channels without any help, as soon as I mention it on an Amiga forum someone gives the advice I need.

I may keep regular Ubuntu on one of my machines, but I'm sticking with Kubunu on the rest now. I'm really lucky that quite a few people have thrown out their old broken PCs in the junk piles along the sides of the streets here, I've scavenged enough working parts from them to build two complete PCs to use for Aros, Linux, Haiku, Syllable, ReactOS, DragonflyBSD, and any other open source OSs that wouldn't run on my netbook. I now have a 1.5Ghz PC with 512MB RAM and a Dual Core 2Ghz PC with 1536MB RAM with CD/DVD drives and hard drives, and I didn't pay a cent for them!

[SamuraiCrow]

I may keep regular Ubuntu on one of my machines, but I'm sticking with Kubunu on the rest now. I'm really lucky that quite a few people have thrown out their old broken PCs in the junk piles along the sides of the streets here, I've scavenged enough working parts from them to build two complete PCs to use for Aros, Linux, Haiku, Syllable, ReactOS, DragonflyBSD, and any other open source OSs that wouldn't run on my netbook. I now have a 1.5Ghz PC with 512MB RAM and a Dual Core 2Ghz PC with 1536MB RAM with CD/DVD drives and hard drives, and I didn't pay a cent for them!

A friend of mine had the Windows installs on both of her computers go flunky and didn't have a restore disk.  I installed Xubuntu on the older one (a Pentium 4) and she didn't like that none of her kids games would run on it.  The newer one I suggested she keep around for Win7 even though it came with Windows Vista.

It turns out that a fresh install CD of Win7 costs almost as much as a new tower anyway so she got a new tower and gave us the old ones.  Now I've got Xubuntu installed on both (the 64-bit version for the newer machine).  In the case of the newer one I just had to buy a 120 GiB SATA hard drive for $20 and the old one didn't cost me anything!

The new one has an Athlon x2 4400 and 2 GiB of RAM.  The old one has 1 GiB of RAM and a Pentium 4.  Both have DVD burners and all I had to supply was the mouse and keyboard of the systems they replaced: our neighbor's Pentium 3 with 128 MiB got the boot and our Pentium 3 with 192 MiB of RAM is idle as well.

[spookyx]

I've been running Ubuntu and Kubuntu for a few years now, with Ubuntu as my regular PC OS and Kubuntu as an experimental toy more than anything. With the release of Ubuntu 11.04 and the move to Unity I've switched to using Kubuntu as my main PC OS, and Ubuntu is getting wiped off. Unity just slows down the usage of the computer, I was able to switch between and launch tasks far quicker with a task bar and drop-down menus for apps instead of this terribly simplified tablet-style crap. Not to mention they got rid of scrollbars in Gnome so you have to make sure every window is in focus before you can attempt to grab the (non-proportional) scrollbar that appears when you hover over the area long enough for it to pop up near your pointer. I've probably accidently launched LibreOffice about ten times when I only meant to quickly switch to another program with the dock/taskbar (which takes a few seconds to appear and disappear every time you use it).

Ubuntu has become an abomination, but Kubuntu has matured and taken the lead. Although I will always prefer drop-down menus to select my applications rather than a "Start" menu, I still prefer this over the stupid tablet-style interface of Unity, which doesn't even present all available applications and settings anymore, and the only way to find many of them is to click in the Search bar and start searching for it. I could probably write a book on all the things that make Unity and Gnome inefficient and illogical, but the kids won't listen of course. To them if it's new, it must be better than anything that came before it.

Kubuntu is pretty nice looking too, and it seems to be more configurable than the Gnome-based Ubuntu. It reminds me a little of MorphOS.

I am also a full time ubuntu user and I hates the new 11.04 interface,  I use xubuntu.  nice and fast on my older duel zeon workstation

[RepoOne]

I despise Ubuntu and its derivatives: It appears that with each successive release, it gets closer and closer to Mac OS X, and crappier as a result.

Instead of Ubuntu, I run Slackware and Debian.

[runequester]

I despise Ubuntu and its derivatives: It appears that with each successive release, it gets closer and closer to Mac OS X, and crappier as a result.

Instead of Ubuntu, I run Slackware and Debian.

Im sure everyone appreciates your input

[RepoOne]

Im sure everyone appreciates your input

And I'm sure everyone appreciates your response.

I would simply like to make the point that Ubuntu has been going downhill, as stability, usability, and democratic input into the project has been decreasing with each successive release. This is apparent with the PulseAudio implementation in 9.10, the decision to move the window icons to the left side (for no good reason other than that's how Shuttleworth wanted it), and the implementation of a new "Unity" interface that resembles a smartphone rather than a desktop interface.

I would recommend, that for a more consistent experience from version to version, as well as an all-around better experience, one uses a distro of Linux that attempts to adhere to Unix principles (like Slackware or Arch) or just takes a "base" system (Debian) and configures it with the desktop environment that they would like.

It is apparent that the OP of this thread would like to use KDE, and there are a variety of options for this. There is OpenSUSE, Sabayon, Arch, Mandriva, and FreeBSD all support KDE out-of-the-box.

Simply put, there are better options for a KDE-based distro.

[runequester]

I dont know really. I havent seen any real problems on my end.

And in any event, other than pulse audio, the issues you mention are irrelevant to Kubuntu.

[jj]

The OP doesn't really care about KDE or Gnome.  I have only used ubuntu really.
 
I was just asking about Kubuntu as I had seen somone talking about it?
 
It seems that most people would say go Yellow dog for my morphos/linux dual boot.
 
While I am am here, awhile ago I tried the 64bit version of ubuntu and it was flakey at best.  Are there any good 64bit dists for X64 and is there any point ?

[tone007]

While I am am here, awhile ago I tried the 64bit version of ubuntu and it was flakey at best.  Are there any good 64bit dists for X64 and is there any point ?

The 64 bit version of Ubuntu 10.10 ran fine on my laptop.

[stefcep2]

I liked KDE 3.5, as implemented in Mandriva.  I tried kubuntu (with KDE 3.5) and found it was a bit like the poor cousin to ubuntu.  So back to Mandriva I went.  Then they went KDE 4 and that was awful, so went back to gnome on Ubuntu 9.10.  I'll stick with this as long as I can- about 1 mth LOL.

I don't know what it is about gnome and kde 4 but both these GUI's just feel sticky, with little delays on every menu that drops down, every gadget I click.

TBH, I'm over the endless cycle of OS re-installs with Linux.  Its just a fricken 'puter these days.

[whabang]

Gnome

The thing about Gnome is that it's not that slow as a Desktop environment. It's Window manager, on the other hand, is a big crappy piece of bloat.

It's perfectly possible to make a Gnome install run very fast; just replace Metacity with Openbox, and use the Mist GTK theme. If you want compositing, use Xcompmgr.

[TheBilgeRat]

While I am am here, awhile ago I tried the 64bit version of ubuntu and it was flakey at best.  Are there any good 64bit dists for X64 and is there any point ?

Flash is still an issue.  I have used 64 bit Linux Mint and Arch (and Ubuntu), they all seem OK.  There are more issues with them, but it is the "way to the future".

I don't bother with them, much, as the most powerful computer in the house is a several years old Core 2.  Heck, my main computer is still my P4 :lol: (where I'm posting this from), so no 64bit necessary.