Kubuntu versus Ubuntu
Another Ubuntu redditor recently announced his conversion from Ubuntu to Kubuntu. Kubuntu is an official spin of Ubuntu, but it uses KDE for the desktop instead of Unity. And that made all the difference for Tristan957.
Tristan957 on why he switched from Ubuntu to Kubuntu:
As a debian based user, I've always been kind of a distro hopper but for the past few months I have stuck with Ubuntu. It's been great. Unity is better than ever and it's really user friendly. I have been keeping track of the 15.04 development cycle and kde plasma 5 really caught my eye. To me it's the sexiest distro around. The kde developers did a really great job integrating a flat style in to the environment and the applications.
As a default file manager, dolphin is vastly superior to nautilus. 2 panel viewing and easier root access sealed the deal on that part for me. The customization that comes with kde is incredible, something which Unity severely lacks. Now I understand that there aren't many widgets for qt5 right now, but the amount available for qt4 right now is really a sight to behold. I'm also interested in trying more advanced Compiz effects.
Where Ubuntu lacks is it's lack of customization and speed. GTK widgets are few and far between while qt5 widgets increase in number everyday. Speed is also a big factor. The unity launcher just was too slow for me. The homerun launcher on the other hand is super snappy. The ubuntu software center is vastly overpowered by the kubuntu software center in terms of speed and looks.
This is going to be a new experience for me since I've never used a kde distro before but I'm really excited. I would like to give a shout out to my favorite Linux YouTuber quidsup for inspiring me to try Kubuntu 15.04 on 4/23/15.
His fellow Ubuntu redditors responded with their own thoughts:
iBurley: "KDE 5 certainly does look great, especially once you switch everything over to the Breeze Dark theme. Only problem I have is the menu. The default one is utter trash and while the alternate style is good, it isn't quite good enough. If I could get the Whisker menu (pretty much the only reason to use XFCE these days with MATE and LXQt looking so solid), I would switch immediately. I've always wanted to love KDE but until now it's never had a chance with me."
Sharky-PI: "This is an interesting thread to me, as I'm still trying to get my head around WHY people have such strong opinions about distros. Maybe I'm missing something. I ran Ubuntu but found it a big slow on my older machine & heard that Xubuntu ran faster, installed that, it ran faster, the end. If I want specific programs I'll install them (rhythmbox/banshee, etc) and ditto uninstall those I don't want. I get the impression that KDE is more different to the *buntu family than most distros, but I don't see how it's worth the hassle of installing a new distro vs just installing the apps you want and customising it how you please?"
Hothrous: "Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Kubuntu etc are barely different distros. They are all part of the Ubuntu family. The biggest difference is what you said, the apps that come pre-packaged. They are basically just Ubuntu with a different DE.
Strong distro opinions are generally more around the actual functionality.
Ubuntu vs Debian would be more about out of the box functionality vs maybe missing some drivers.
Debian vs RedHat vs Arch vs etc will be around things like Apt/deb vs Yum/RPM vs pacman vs etc as well as how new the supported packages in repos are. Arch goes for bleeding edge, Debian tries to have a balance between stable and new, and RedHat focuses on not breaking enterprise infrastructures so they tend to have older packages available in the official repos.
There is also an aspect of what each individual believes Linux should represent. Some people think that Linux represents technical ability, some of those people tend to pick Slackware or Arch because they involve building from the ground up. Some think that Linux is more stable than Windows/Mac, those people tend to lean toward something like Ubuntu which works on most systems out of the box.
In the end, humans basically jump into a camp and believe that it is the best camp and won't hear anything that argues against that. We see it in fans with sports, Windows vs Mac, Edward vs Jacob, Freddy vs Jason, Star Wars vs Star Trek, XBox vs PS, Console vs PC."
Msangeld: "I've been a Kubuntu users for years now. In the repo there's a menu called lancelot. It's one of the first things I install during a new setup I like it much better than the default."
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