After I upgraded to Vista from Windows XP, my Microsoft OS experience just kept on getting systematically worse and worse. First of all, my computer (Toshiba R200) was promised to be fully Vista capable, but that was not the case as all of the 3D effects were not supported by the graphics card and a lot of the drivers were not yet available, oh well. In addition to that my processor was overburdened by the new bloated OS and my CPU fan never turned off and eventually died. After sending in my computer for service and waiting two months to get it back, I was ready to try again.
One of the improvements in Vista was better security. Now as you all now, all the viruses are written for Windows products and you probably had one before, so this was a welcome improvement. Superficially Vista indeed did seem more secure, you even needed to authorize Vista to see your computer settings. After a month of use all of the sudden my computer froze and when I rebooted I noticed that all of my data has been wiped out – I somehow got a virus. This didn’t surprise me one bit, but now I remembered reading about the many benefits of Linux. No spyware, no viruses, you never have to defragment your hard drive and it’s free. For me it was time to try out this Utopian OS, but which one, Linux has so many variants?
The buzzword in the Linux community is Ubuntu for a very good reason. I downloaded the KDE variant of Ubuntu – Kubuntu, as it is supposed to be more stable and refined than the more popular Ubuntu. You see, Linux is really all text based, but it has different graphical user interfaces. There are three popular GUI’s: KDE, Gnome and XFCE, hence Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Xubuntu that Canonical provides. Each have their pluses and minuses, but KDE seems to be the most advanced at the moment.
The amazing part is that after you boot your Kubuntu CD you will have full functionality and you can even surf the internet without even installing the OS on your hard drive. After installing it on my hard drive I was once again amazed that I did not need any drivers – everything worked out of the box. And if you do have some exotic piece of hardware that is not supported by Linux out of the box there almost for sure is a workaround for you, just go and search on ubuntuforums.org. As far as the OS is concerned, it is stable, user friendly and fast. As far as the software is concerned, it couldn’t be any easier. To install Firefox for example you simply click Add/Remove Programs in the menu, enter your password, type Firefox, select it, click on apply changes and that is it.
You’ll actually find that all of the commercial software that you have been using has a free open source Linux counterpart. In addition to that you’ll find a lot of unique software packages that cannot even be found for Windows. Kubuntu in itself provide a user interface that most users are already familiar with, making the transition that much easier. I have now made a permanent switch to Linux without looking back at the Microsoft dinosaur. If you don’t believe me, try it out yourself: http://kubuntu.com/.
Kate
December 10, 2007 at 9:31 pm
While KDE is freakin’ beautiful, there are many other great OS choices right now, that offer better out of the box software and user experience: fedora core, and opensuse spring to mind.
(and yes, those builds of linux look as good/better than kubuntu does!)
Paul
December 10, 2007 at 9:47 pm
I tried Fedora 8 and the experimental ath5k drivers for my wireless Atheros card did not work. And both Opensuse and Fedora gave me a timer interrupt error when I would reboot and after my system would freeze. Plus, I found Opensuse a bit buggy.
Moses
December 10, 2007 at 10:25 pm
You sound a lot like me a year ago! I, too, was going through a bunch of different options and had settled on Kubuntu for several months. Then I came across Linux Mint and that’s what I’ve used ever since. Mint is basically Ubuntu except prettier and it comes with a lot more stuff pre-installed like codecs, etc.
But enough talk about me trying to convert you!
I’m happy that there’s more people like me that were dependent on Windows and are now beginning to wise up! Just don’t get too discouraged by the learning curve that comes with “the switch”. Good luck!!
Paul
December 10, 2007 at 10:32 pm
If codecs are the only reason to switch to Mint, that’s not good enough for me. I found that Automatix did a great job with the installation of all the codecs.
Anonymous
December 11, 2007 at 3:37 am
This review sucks. Learn to not be so biased, bitch ass nigga.
warner
December 11, 2007 at 8:39 am
Kubuntu, Ubuntu, or Xubuntu are a great starting point. with the latest version Gusty the need for Automatix continues to receed.
To the the FC and SUSE shout out, everyones got a fav but the Debian systems really have software installation nailed.
I will give you a nice hint, the only acceptable way to run Windows. Surf over to VirtualBox.org and and download there Free/free GPL virtualization software then you can run Win (for any Win apps you feel desperate to run) on top of GNU/Linux.
This works best with WinXP unless you have huge RAM for Vista. You basically want enough RAM as you would need for each os added together (I use 3gig to CAD work in Windows).
But Windows virtualized is very easy to restore from a virus and your data is shielded.
One of the best things about Linux and especially ‘buntu is how fast it improves, and unlike Windows most of the “improvements” really are improvements.
Welcome to the free world.
Anonymous
December 11, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Congrats Paul for making the leap. However I got the perception that you are total beginner in the *nix world. Which leads me to the question, why Kubuntu? The buzz word in the Linux world is Ubuntu, most people hear Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu get confused. Even when you explain the difference, it is still vague for them.
Maybe I am just undermining you (sorry), or that I got the wrong perception that you have no experience/knowledge about Linux…
Once again Congrats for the leap!
Paul
December 11, 2007 at 8:46 pm
You are totally right, I am new to Linux. I’ve tried Ubuntu but I found it a bit buggy and I found the KDE apps much better than the Gnome apps. I really did try a whole bunch of other distros but Kubuntu was the most stable and it offered me full hardware support for my notebook.
xmaster
January 25, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Tried Pclinuxos the best linux desktop, friendly, fast, stable etc
Paul Weiss
January 25, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I tried PCLinux OS and I would say it’s just as good as Kubuntu…
manmath sahu
April 15, 2008 at 9:11 am
I think the best kde contenders for perfect desktop and alternatives to windows are MEPIS and PCLINUXOS. No second say!
In gnome world, it’s Linux Mint, the king of all.
Terry Houghtling
June 17, 2008 at 10:14 pm
I read the very nice article about kubuntu and I have to agree with it and most of the posts. I am writing this right now with kubuntu on a new Dell laptop. Yes, I dual boot with Windows XP because it is a school laptop and I can’t erase XP. But for those considering linux this is something else fairly easy to do and something you might want to try to make the switch less stressful. I also have a new Compaq laptop with a tri-boot system; Windows XP, ubuntu and openGEU.
I have only been using linux for about 8 months but I love it and I am 53yrs old not a 20 year old college student. Because there are so many versions of linux I feel like a kid in the candy store. I use distrowatch.com to learn about and download each version and I have tried at least 20 different ones. I also think Mint is one of the best ones but I had trouble getting wireless with it so I went to kubuntu for the dell and ubuntu for my Compaq but I installed kubuntu on my mother’s compaq. I have a quad boot homemade desktop with XP, Xandros, PCLinuxOS and MyahOS. Some of my other desktop favorites are Suse, Mandriva, Berry, Debian, Sabayon and Zenwalk.
I think one of the things that linux has going for it is the eagerness of linux users to help other linux users, so when you are ready to try it just google any problems you might have getting started or getting something to work and you will get hundreds of posts on forums that will help you.. So go ahead and give the penguin (TUX)a try. We thing think you will like him.
wim dukker
May 13, 2010 at 2:46 pm
I tried a lot of distro’s including pclinuxos and mint but came alway back to (k)ubuntu. Just the fact that every 6 months a new release is launched is a great advantage:)
regards wimduk