ubuntu vs kde?

[moxiemontague]

I installed a ubuntu system five or six years ago on another box. By and by I got curious and tried kubuntu. Both systems performed about equally well, though I liked ubuntu's gnome interface better. It was easier to navigate than kde.

Now I've fallen into this Linux Mint thing and it seems super slick. In the process of getting this system up, I read something somewhere sounded like kde and ubuntu had a fight. Apparently there IS no more kubuntu. KDE is now a standalone project?

Have I got that right? And if it's true, what does that imply about kde on Mint?

Just a curious newbie,
moxiemontague

[viking777]

I don't think 'fight' is the right word, as I understand it kubuntu is now maintained by an independent group of developers rather than Canonical themselves. That is pretty much what happens in Mint too I believe. I should say that this answer comes from someone who hasn't used KDE for years (not since kde3 became kde4) so I could be a bit out of touch with its development, but I think I basically have it right, if I haven't, someone will correct me I am sure.

[Adelante]

Linux Mint KDE and Kubuntu are both financially supported by Blue Systems since earlier this year, when Canonical abandoned its support of Kubuntu. However, my understanding is Kubuntu is still considered part of Ubuntu in terms of community, unless that has changed.

[J_C]

Kubuntu and KDE are not really the same thing.

Just like Gnome KDE is a desktop environment (or as you called it, an interface) and is community developed/driven, it is not created by Canonical.

Kubuntu (and Mint KDE) is Ubuntu with KDE as an 'interface'. There are other OS's such as openSUSE that use KDE too.

Kubuntu was developed and supported by Canonical, but they have decided to drop it so they can concentrate their efforts on just Ubuntu and it's new interface called Unity (which is based on Gnome)......... yeah it gets a little confusing doesn't it!

As Viking says Kubuntu is now just developed by it's community with backing from Blue Systems, who also provide backing for Mint.

KDE is it's own thing, it's always been a standalone project so Canonical's decision to drop Kubuntu shouldn't affect it.

Sorry if I seemed to talk round in circles but hopefully that's answered your question....... but maybe created 10 more!

[moxiemontague]

Thank you J_C, Viking777 and Adelante for your kind answers. Now I understand a bit more of where KDE is at. I hear they're not going away, as I feared that they might.

Now I just gotta ask: What about koffice? Is that going away or is it going to be around as long as there's KDE?

Thanks again for your help.

moxiemontague

[cwwgateway]

Thank you J_C, Viking777 and Adelante for your kind answers. Now I understand a bit more of where KDE is at. I hear they're not going away, as I feared that they might.

Now I just gotta ask: What about koffice? Is that going away or is it going to be around as long as there's KDE?

Thanks again for your help.

moxiemontague

As far as I know, KOffice has been replaced by the Calligra Suite. It may still be available, however, and personally I prefer Calligra. Calligra should continue into the foreseeable future, but it is possible, although unlikely, that at some point KDE will continue and Calligra will be dropped. However, you still would be able to use LibreOffice (or any other Linux office suite) in KDE.

[moxiemontague]

Thanks for the reply, cwwgateway. Calligra, huh? I never heard of it but I'm gonna go look it up.

Thanks again. Maybe I can do one for you some day.

Bye now

moxiem

[dcluvsme]

I don't think 'fight' is the right word, as I understand it kubuntu is now maintained by an independent group of developers rather than Canonical themselves. That is pretty much what happens in Mint too I believe. I should say that this answer comes from someone who hasn't used KDE for years (not since kde3 became kde4) so I could be a bit out of touch with its development, but I think I basically have it right, if I haven't, someone will correct me I am sure.

Speaking of Kubuntu, I just installed it yesterday, to check it out,and the first thing I noticed was a problem with Phonon loading the correct sound driver. Of course I could have corrected this with a bit of work,but according the forums at Ubuntu,this seems to be frequent issue,with many users. Not putting it down,but that was enough for me to try Mint Kde. Downloaded,put it on USB,fired it up,and everything is working, just as it should, including the correct sound driver!
I am not knocking Ubuntu,but I have frequently have "issues" there, that never happened with Mint.
Just saying.....

[exploder]

I have nothing but respect for the Kubuntu community, they are a terrific group of people. Canonical no longer funding Kubuntu has had no impact on the work being done. Kubuntu is one of the distributions that the KDE developers count on as far as testing new versions of KDE, there are others of course. KDE, Kubuntu and the Calligra Suite are all going to be around for a long time.

I spent some time on the Kubuntu forum and noticed that some people were having issues with sound. I also saw the same problem with another popular KDE distribution as well. The Mint 14 KDE edition is built slightly different so that may be why we are not having much trouble with this particular problem. I have not used KDE's office suite for many years, last I remember, it was designed to make things real easy for people that were not familiar with using office software. LibreOffice is more geared toward users that already know how to utilize the software.

Kubuntu and Mint KDE are both terrific choices and I am sure it is the same with LibreOffice and the Calligra suite. I went with Mint KDE because I liked the way it was built and everything just worked out of the box. I do not do anything very complicated with office software so LibreOffice was just fine with me.

[Jose Manuel]

I speak with propriety, because currently I have the 2 distributions installed on my computer: Linux Mint 13 KDE and Kubuntu 12.04. The two are awesome, great. Very solid and stable. They work fine, though I notice that Linux Mint KDE is better finished and cared to Kubuntu, but the two are great, great distributions. They are my two favorite Linux distributions !!!!

Other distributions are also very good with KDE are: Mageia Linux, Fedora KDE, Linux Mint Debian Edition KDE, Debian with KDE and Chakra Linux.- Best Regards.-