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Page 1 of 3 Every now and then a particular Linux distribution appears and causes a splash with its stability, usability, support of myriads of pieces of hardware, abundance of features, etc. Although it does not fit exactly in the above description, one of the recent splashes is the Debian-based Ubuntu Linux and its derivatives Kubuntu and Edubuntu.
Ubuntu and Its Derivatives
I am far from thinking that Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Edubuntu are
the
stars of today only because they are fashionable. On the contrary,
they are really nice distros and in my opinion are suitable for many
Linux newbies, who do not require a database server or a development
environment on their desktop but rather a minimal distro with an
office packet, Web browser, a CD/DVD burner, music and video players
and some other small pieces of software for fun and work.
Ubuntu and its derivatives Kubuntu and Edubuntu offer
exactly
this – a basic system that fits on one CD and that
offers an
office packet (Open Office), some image viewing and processing
programs, a couple of Internet and multimedia packages and of course,
some useful utilities like archiving tools and popup notes.
Before we start reviewing Kubuntu and Edubuntu, there is one
important clarification that needs to be made. Kubuntu and Edubuntu
are not forks of Ubuntu. Actually, they are part of the same project,
run on the same kernel, have many common packages. The only
difference is that Ubuntu and Edubundu use Gnome as the desktop
environment, while Kubuntu is KDE based. If you get Ubuntu and later
download and install KDE, you will have the same functionality that
is offered by Kubuntu.
Kubuntu – The KDE Variety of Ubuntu
As already mentioned, the main difference between Ubuntu and
Kubuntu is the desktop environment. For a newbie, this can be a big
issue, because there are significant differences in the assortment of
programs that are included in Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Of course, you can
always download and install additional packages, so it is hardly a
problem that the default installation of Kubuntu does not include
Games, for example.
First Impressions
Having seen the previous versions of Ubuntu and Kubuntu (5.10)
and
the 6.06 Beta of Ubuntu, I presumed more visual differences between
Kubuntu 5.10 and its successor. Not that it is necessary to make a
total revamp of the GUI but unlike Ubuntu 6.06 Beta, which has a big
Ubuntu Dapper Beta bar in the lower right corner of the desktop, there
is
no visual indication of the version of Kubuntu you are running. Still,
this is actually a minor issue (if an issue at all)
and what is more, since the build I reviewed was still a beta, this
might change for the final version.
My first impressions of Kubuntu 6.06 are certainly positive.
As I
say, it is a nice minimal distribution, yet at the same time it
offers quite a lot of applications. It lacks stability but I presume
this will change in the final release. I am eager to see the final
release of Kubuntu 6.06 with the final version of the installer. I
tried the Live CD (beta 2) and attempted to install the Live CD to my
harddrive but the installation would not move beyond the first screen
with the warnings that this is not the final version of the installer
and that it is not stable yet, so data loss can be expected. Then I
got the latest build (Flight 7) and the installer started but when I
chose to manually edit the partition table because I have some other
partitions on the same harddrive that I would like to keep intact,
the installer crashed.
I tried to install both Beta 2 and Flight 7 on my old desktop
machine but there the Live CD did not start at all, even in Safe
Graphics Mode. I got a message “Unsupported Mode”
as many times I
attempted to run the Live CD and that was it. The same message
appeared with Edubuntu Live CD, which is hardly surprising since in
this part the two Ubuntu-derivatives are the same. Until now, I have
never had such an issue with a Live CD, so I decided to temporarily
give up and wait for the final version to
check again. Crashes in the installer and imperfect support for old
hardware are known issues for Kubuntu 6.06 and I am not the only one
who has experienced them, so I don't see this as a disaster for a
beta version.
Unsuccessful installation attempts were not the only
unpleasant
surprise. A couple of times, when I restarted or shutdown my laptop,
the Live CD
made it freeze. I received a message to remove the CD, close the tray
and press Enter to continue but pressing Enter had no effect,
so finally I had to turn the laptop off from the power
switch. Well, while testing and reviewing various beta (and even final)
versions of software, I have seen much more disastrous bugs and issues
that involve data loss or hardware damage, so this is just one
small bug that needs to be fixed.
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