Is Kubuntu a good move?
 

Hello.

I've just joined up, but I haven't got Linux yet. I'm looking at getting a new mobo + processor for my PC as the thing's expired and as I've got WinXP on an OEM distribution I don't hold out much hope of getting it restarted, so I've had Kubuntu recommended.

Whaddya think?

moved to a suitable forum, Linux - Newbie.

I tried Kubuntu 64 bit a couple weeks ago myself and had a few issues with it....now I'm running PCLinuxOS rather fine.

But I'm new here myself...so...

I'm a bit biased because I have used Kubuntu for several months. It is the best distro I have come across and I have tried many. The Kubuntu forum is a helpful place - http://kubuntuforums.net

Another way of finding out what you, personally, like is to try live-CDs. These run totally from the CD and leave your hard drive/machine untouched. See http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

Big ups to Kubuntu.

Thanks for the feedback!:)

I've got a lot of software for the kids (mostly Win 9.x compatible) which would be good to stil use.

I've read about the "Wine" program which allows you to run some windows programs with Linux.

Anyone used it (or any other?).

What's it like?

Would it (possibly, probably, unlikely) work?

:Pengy:

Ta!

With regards to your original question. I used Ubuntu back in the days of Hoary Hedgehog and liked it a lot. I did try it with the KDE desktop (as in Kubuntu) but somehow it didn't seem to work as well, for me the Gnome desktop just seems to run better with Ubuntu However, it may have come on a lot since then?

As a fanatical Zenwalk user I am tempted to recommend that but it may be a bit TOO different for you. Ubuntu/Kubuntu is certainly very good and does have excellent support in the forums.

WINE is one option but what kind of software are you talking about? Linux (and Ubuntu in particular) provides a large selection of kids games and educational software. My youngest loves Tuxracer and Tuxpaint. There is also an excellent educational games package called Gcompris that my kids like. It has things like space invaders with maths sums instead of aliens.

You should know that it is a lot easier to add Linux to a PC running Windows than vice versa. So even you cannot get XP up and running it would be worth getting an old copy of Win98 and installing that first. Then you would have a dual boot system which is especially useful if you have problems with Linux and need to access the internet for help.