Kubuntu Goodness

[Knightmare]

I was given a disk of Kubuntu 7.10 to try out. And from what I have seen, and played with, I like it much better than Windows XP.

Anyone here familiar with Kubuntu?

I'd like some feedback before I decide to install this (or not).


Thanks!

[RichS]

I've had Ubuntu since 7.06, dual-booting with WinXP on my notebook. Kubuntu is just Ubuntu with the KDE desktop instead of GNOME.

Install went fine, config was a bit tricky, especially with my wireless card. But that's the best thing about Ubuntu - the help that's available is enormous! I got my wireless sorted out, and also my display resolution and touchpad thanks to all the help.

Upgrading to 7.10 went like, well, as easy as a Windows patch install - well, without the possibility of it not working after.

I find I use it more than Windows on my notebook, except for recently - a couple of classes I've been taking are based on Office, and the campus wireless access doesn't support Linux (but I'm working on it! ).

If you're feeling shaky on installing it, there should be an option to run it off of the CD on your system first. Won't be as fast as if it was installed on the hard drive, but it'll tell you if it runs well on your system, and if there's any hardware problems you might have to iron out. If you have already ran it from the CD and still feel insecure, you can do a dual-boot - the CD should have a non-destructive partitioner like Ubuntu, so you can set a partition for both Kubuntu and Windows.

Here's the article that got me started - it might help you.

[sms001]

Anyone here familiar with Kubuntu?

I've been on Red Hat, Suse, Mandrake, etc., but have really settled into Ubuntu. Really don't have a preference of Gnome over KDE, it was just the default for my distro. Totally agree with RichS - the support for Ubuntu is ginourmous. I'd highly recommend signing up at ubuntuforums.org right off the bat. If you have a hardware configuration that allows it, do your install as a dual boot if you don't know if you'll commit to linux. I'm still with Feisty Fawn, but I understand that Gutsy Gibbon is an even easier install/config. you might want to bittorrent the latest and do your permanent install from that. Let us know how it goes.