Geeky Fun: Mr. Bass Does K/Ubuntu.
Have you ever wanted to take a look at the differences between Ubuntu and Kubuntu before comitting yourself to a killer 650MB download? Well, Mr. Bass has put together just the thing for you. He has screen shots of both Ubuntu and Kubuntu along with some side thoughts.
Personally, I decided on KDE a long time ago and other that some sporadic attempts to use Gnome, I’ve never looked back. I try not to take sides on which of the two big-boys is better, rather I think that it’s more about choice. KDE works better for me, but Gnome (or one of the may other Desktop Environments) may work better for you.
There’s a note on the Kubuntu site that users can get Kubuntu by installing Ubuntu and then installing the KDE desktop (the proper package name escapes me right now). I’ve done that and I’ve also downloaded and installed Kubuntu and for some reason the Kubuntu download seems to be more stable. When I installed Ubuntu and then installed KDE, it was never quite…right. Nothing I could put my finger on, but the system seemed less stable and slower than the native Kubuntu install.
Maybe that’s just me. Has anyone else tried both and noticed any difference?
Regardless, Mr. Bass’ install guide will likely save someone a download or two. Check it out.
The proper package is kubuntu-desktop and I’d advise a word of caution. I actually did this over the weekend and one of the things I was prompted for while synaptic was installing was to select my default desktop manager…gdm or kde. I chose kde and upon rebooting was left with just a login prompt, having no desktop manager running automatically. KDE would not start, giving me a message that resolution had not been configured, among other things and I had to manually launch gdm to get a graphical login.
Ah – thanks for the package name.
Wow, I didn’t have the problems you had, but I did find that installing it wasn’t as good as the Kubuntu download.
Did you get fixed up?
Yeah, I think a fresh install of Kubuntu is the way to go, if only for the fact that you get a bit of a clutter by having both installed and leaving you with a bit of vleanup work if you like things neat and tidy.
Glad you got sorted out. I agree, but I learned the hardway like you
So the lesson is, download Kubuntu and install it rather than adding to Ubuntu!
I installed KDE on my Ubuntu by installing the kde-core package. Jon – maybe this is what you installed too? It didn’t cause any problems with gdm or anything but there are a few items missing from the KDE menu, like “Control Center” and a few others. Control Center can be added by creating a menu item for kcontrol. I’m not sure what else might be missing though.