Kubuntu vs. Ubuntu: KDE the only difference?
 

I recently made an Ubuntu liveCD for a family member, and tested it myself first. It impressed me, so I might possibly be interested in switching distros; but I'm not very familiar with Gnome(GNOME?), so I might try Kubuntu instead. Am I correct in understanding that the only difference is Kubuntu uses KDE (hence the K)? If there are other differences, does Kubuntu share the limited user control that I've heard Ubuntu has, such as locking the root account by default? (It was three years ago that I heard that. For all I know, it's no longer a problem.)

There will be a handful of things different but nothing should be a deal breaker. KDE has the control center, GNOME has the system section, etc. When you right click, each handles it differently. This is a bigger problem for some since it can be confusing in the beginning.

You can also install both and pick which one you want to use at start up if that suits you as well.

HTH
Dave

Yes. Well, at the very least, it can be. If you take Ubuntu (Gnome Ubuntu) and add Kde from the package manager, you can be sure that you have a base Ubuntu plus the different bits in Kubuntu. I think this is exactly what you would have if you started from Kubuntu and added Gnome and that it is, in effect, a base system plus two Guis.

I can't be absolutely sure that there isn't something trivial that is different, but I don't know what it might be. And remember that you can run the Gnome programs under KDE (say Gnumeric) and the KDE programs under Gnome (k3b, konqueror) so you can mix and match if you want to. This approach isn't the lightest on the memory footprint, though.

I don't particularly like the way that the *buntus does this, but I have no evidence that its an actual problem. If you want to, you can put the root user back, but one of the reasons for the success of the *buntus is that it does away with stuff that might confuse newbies/refugees from other systems.

I already had second thoughts. Even if the root account isn't locked by default, I still don't trust a distro that designers wanted to limit the user's control. To limit the control probably means they think I'm too stupid to understand what I'm doing; well, damn them anyway. I was simply impressed by how Ubuntu could detect and use my wireless network instantly without my setting anything up.

I use Ubuntu 8.10, and on my system there is a root console window available under Applications > System Tools > Root Terminal.

I Click on root console:I Click on normal console:I'm just used to typing "sudo" in a normal console when I need to, but maybe using the root console may be helpful to you. IHTH

There are a few differences between Ubuntu and Kubuntu.... ie: Ubuntu had gedit and Kubuntu has kate. But you could always grab the one you prefer from Synaptic.

I don't particularly think Ubuntu treats their users as 'stupid' The whole sudo thing is kind of weird at first- but I've found it really intuitive once you get the hang of it. What's more- the great Linux guru who taught me always stressed one should never log into the root account- just access it via the 'su' command in the command line. Actually, I recall logging into the root account on Red Hat 9 (Not Fedora 9- Red Hat 9- this is cutting edge 2003) and the wallpaper was cartoonish bombs on a red background. For what it is worth, logging in as root in Ubuntu can be done with just a few lines on the command prompt. You can google for it.

For a comparison of KDE vs Gnome on *buntu:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/kdegnome
To install KDE on Ubuntu:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/kde
If you then decide that you don't like KDE, here is how to get back to a pure Gnome environment on Ubuntu:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/puregnome
And if you decide you do like KDE, here is how to set up a pure KDE on Ubuntu:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/purekde
That about covers it all.

super user in ubuntu/kubuntu, etc.
 

I initially felt that way about no root (coming from another distro), but:

1) If you run sudo -i, you get a root session in konsole or whatever console app you're using, so it's almost identical to su except things like kate (especially things that use a gui) still work (which they don't under su).

2) If someone tries to hack your system, they can always count on the user "root" existing with system privileges, so all they have to do is get its password. If it doesn't have one, then that won't work and they have to discover one of your user account names (one with sudo privileges) before they can go after the password. So it's a bit more secure.

3) if you get into how sudo works and you have multiple user accounts on your machine, you can fine tune (down to the specific application if you want to) exactly what a specific user can do. E.g. let them connect to wifi, but stop them from erasing your password file.

Differences between kubuntu/ubuntu:

I use kubuntu, so I'm not very familiar with gnome, etc., but from what I've seen:

1) Almost everything "under the hood" is identical
2) kde vs. gnome is a personal preference. The look and feel is very different.
3) A number of user apps are geared for one or the other desktop, but many can be cross installed anyway.
4) The biggest difference I've found is in the common tools and the menus. When I see a tutorial for doing something in ubuntu - especially system-related, it usually involves menus that I don't have in kubuntu or very different system configuration tools. There's another way to do the same thing in kubuntu, but you have to find it. The same would be true if you were used to gnome and were trying to get things done in kde.

HTH

Joe