To Ubuntu, or to Kubuntu

[APwrs]

I've been a Mandriva user for a long time. I started with Mandrake, but didn't start heavily using Linux as my desktop OS until Mandriva 2005 LE. Since then, I've used 2005 LE, then 2006, and now cooker.

There's been so much buzz about Ubuntu, I decided I had to try it out. And so, through the miracles of PC virtualization, I did. I was intrigued by how clean and simple everything was. How elegant. I came to the conclusion that I was probably going to have to switch from my Mandriva system to an Ubuntu system.

I decided to also try out Kubuntu, just to get some comparisons. I installed Kubuntu into a virtualized PC using the same settings as I did for Ubuntu. When it installed and finished booting and kdm came up for the first time, my first thoughts were, "It's beautiful."

But now I'm at something of a crossroads. Ubuntu is clean and elegant, and it has a solid GUI that seems fast and responsive. Kubuntu is beautiful, and the GUI loads a little quicker than Ubuntu does, and it seems to use a little less memory than Ubuntu does (although of course here, we're really talking about the Ubuntu version of KDE vs the Ubuntu version of Gnome, but you get the idea). However, the Kubuntu GUI doesn't seem as solid as the Ubuntu GUI, the menus are much more cluttered, and the font rendering doesn't seem as nice as it does in Ubuntu.

So I'm really not sure if I should upgrade to Ubuntu, or Kunbutu. But one thing's for sure... I appreciate Mandriva being there for me when I really jumped into the Linux desktop, but my system is soon to be an Ubuntu system, whether you spell it with a U or a K.

[Parcival]

The only answer to your question comes from yourself as you observe yourself in a workflow. One of my friends loves Gnome because he thinks KDE is too cluttered. Another one who has been a longtime Gnome user has come to love KDE because of Konqueror. In my eyes, too, Konqueror is the best file manager I have ever seen and I miss its comforts in Windows, OSX and Gnome. So the Konqueror, K3B and the eye candy are the reasons why I run Kubuntu.

Besides, you can still install either one, Ubuntu and Kubuntu, and install the other desktop just as well.

[Syche]

Why not install both. Start from the Ubuntu install disc and then just do a
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop which will get you the whole KDE (though it may slightly clutter your menu up). I have both KDE and Gnome and enjoy using both. You can always remove Gnome or KDE later on by removing the meta-package.

Gnome in Ubuntu is far more polished as compared to KDE, though it can be rectified with a bit of work. Try XFCE too (xubuntu-desktop) if you like simplicity.

Finally, when you do make the switch, spend some time learning the Debian commands (the Debian Reference is a good guide ) which will really make you appreciate and understand the true power of Ubuntu ;)

[nikodell]

short an quick i have used SuSE since like version 5 it is great i reciently have tried a few other distros and have come to love Ubuntu running in Gnome from my usual KDE Desktop but as U will I have KDE installed and use Konqueror for my file management so I am uncluttered so to say. I am also trying to write this on my laptop running Mandriava at point , a great distro i may say but it seems to cook up the processor and i have yet to figure out how to get the right sources or have them seen if i do in fact have the right ones, so I have not been able to build my NVIDIA drivers which has helped with the same problem on this laptop in Ubuntu.
Sorry bout spelling I am great at somethings and spelling aint it.

[nikodell]

apt-get is great

[APwrs]

I think I have decided to go with regular Ubuntu for now. Now the question is, which file system should I use. I've started running some tests using clean installs on my virtualized PC, and so far it seems like Ubuntu boots faster with ReiserFS than with ext3. The next things I have to check are how ReiserFS with notail compares to regular ReiserFS, and how JFS compares to all of those.

[mmills]

ubuntu is nice, I run it on a Compaq Presario 2200 (2210US) and the volume keys on the laptop work perfect, mute and all, this is the first distro that this function worked properly, also I plugged in my new kensington wireless mouse and boom I was rocking, the ubuntuguide.org is verry helpfull, it was for me when I first started.
I tried kde version, it was ok, but Im a gnome man. they seem to keep making this distro better, the only cork I have with ubuntu is every 6 months they make a new version, instead of making a stable.

dpkg-i is a handy installer
sudo apt-get install is a handy installer to

matt

[Parcival]

...so far it seems like Ubuntu boots faster with ReiserFS than with ext3. The next things I have to check are how ReiserFS with notail compares to regular ReiserFS, and how JFS compares to all of those.

Go for reiserfs in partitions that are going to have lots of small files and ext3 in partitions that have few but large ones.

I recommend to use the notail option only for boot partitions.

[APwrs]

Thanks for the info. Why do you recommend using notail only in the boot partitions? According to the documentation about notail:

notail

Causes filesystem to work faster, especially for small appends to small files. But it wastes more disk space in that case.

It sounds to me like using the notail option is supposed to speed up the filesystem, which I think would be desirable wherever you use it.

[Parcival]

Using reiserfs in the boot partition without the notail option may irritate your bootloader. (link (http://www.namesys.com/mount-options.html)) I for my part like my filesystem to be well organized since I never defrag it, so that's why I leave this option on. If you want to tweak access times, I recommend going for noatime instead. (link (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/2005.1/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=8))

[APwrs]

So you're saying, use notail on the boot partition to avoid confusing the boot loader, and then you like to use ReiserFS without the notail option elsewhere because it organizes the files better.

I wonder what would happen if you used both notail and noatime at the same time.

[Parcival]

Try it. :)