Kubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)
Sound and Multimedia
I had no problems with sound working in Kubuntu. The only thing I needed to do was to install flash to run YouTube videos. Once flash was installed the videos played well and sounded fine.
One thing I found lacking was the non-inclusion of the PiTiVi video editor. I was puzzled to find that it wasn’t available in Kubuntu. It certainly would have made sense for it to be included in the Multimedia applications menu by default for users that want to edit videos.
If it’s available in Ubuntu 10.04 then why not have it available in Kubuntu 10.04?
Flash wasn't installed by default in Konqueror.
When first opening Konqueror, a menu will popup asking if you want to install plug-ins.
Problems & Headaches
As I noted earlier, one of the things that puzzles me about Kubuntu is that it uses a totally different desktop theme that looks nothing like Ubuntu’s. Some may find this pleasing but I do not. The Ambiance theme in Ubuntu 10.04 helps set it apart from other distros and makes it easy to identify at a glance. I’m not sure why the folks at Canonical don’t do a KDE version of Ambiance for Kubuntu. The default desktop theme is basic and essential branding for Canonical’s desktop product and there’s no reason for Kubuntu to look so different from Ubuntu.
The use of F-Spot as a replacement for GIMP has been very controversial among Ubuntu users. But in Kubuntu, neither application is installed by default. So there really is nothing for desktop users to use as an image-editing program. This is an odd decision on Canonical’s part. Why isn’t one application or the other included in Kubuntu?
One truly bizarre omission is Gwibber. Gwibber is the social media client found in Ubuntu but there seems to be nothing similar available in Kubuntu. This is particularly odd in light of this bit of text from the Kubuntu News page:
“Our selection of tools and applications will provide you with all that you need for most of your tasks, with many more available just a few clicks away. Whether browsing the web, playing your music, composing an email or connecting with your friends on social networks, Kubuntu 10.04 LTS brings you a stable, innovative and attractive platform for all your desktop needs!”
Huh? Connecting with friends on social networks? How? With what? I looked on the Internet applications menu but Gwibber wasn’t there and neither was anything else to replace it. If Canonical is going to market Kubuntu as being social media friendly, it really needs to make sure that there is something along the lines of Gwibber included with it.
Another inconsistency is that the title bar buttons are on the right, unlike in Ubuntu where they are on the left. Yes, I know that some people prefer them on the right but it seems clear that a single standard from Canonical on this would make sense. And no, I’m not buying the excuse that since this is KDE the buttons are fine on the right. Some interface consistency would probably be helpful to most users.
Firefox was not installed by default but there is an installer built into the Internet applications menu. Frankly, I’d rather that Firefox be the default browser but this is a KDE distro so it’s not surprising that Konqueror is the default browser. Konqi is a fine browser in its own right but I still prefer Firefox or Chrome for my daily browsing needs.
Finally, I was shocked to notice that Ubuntu One was nowhere to be found in Kubuntu. Um…isn’t Ubuntu One (the music store and the online service) an important part of the Ubuntu experience? Shouldn’t there be some trace of them in Kubuntu? Is Ubuntu One only meant for GNOME users?
What a strange situation for Kubuntu users. It’s as if their money isn’t wanted by Canonical. The decision to omit Ubuntu One from Kubuntu makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
You'll find a Firefox installer built-into the Internet applications menu.
You'll need to install Firefox.
(91 votes, average: 1.99 out of 5)
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(4.83 out of 5)
I could be wrong, but I believe Kubuntu is completely a community project and other than the logo and the repos, the project is not driven by Canonical at all.
Hi Jeff,
If you go to the official Kubuntu site and look down, you’ll find this text at the bottom of the page:
“Kubuntu and Canonical are registered trademarks of Canonical Ltd. ”
And if you look on the FAQ page, you see this:
“What is Kubuntu?
Kubuntu one of the distributions from the Ubuntu family (alongside Ubuntu Desktop and several other variants). Our Kubuntu CDs are made up of Ubuntu’s base plus KDE Software Compilation. You can get exactly the same effect by installing Ubuntu and adding the KDE Software Compilation packages (and removing the Gnome packages) from the Ubuntu archives.
Is this a fork of Ubuntu?
No, it is an official part of Ubuntu. All our packages are in the same archives.”
All of that means that users are probably going to think that Kubuntu is simply the KDE version of Ubuntu and would be as polished in all respects. Unfortunately it’s not, as I indicated in the review.
Hey Jim Lynch! do you happen to be Dan Lynch’s Brother? from Linux Outlaws? that would be so cool/awesome!
Anyways a very great review as always it was in-depth and showed everything! Kubuntu sadly seems to have its own mind of what packages they want. (mostly KDE ones?) I’m surprised not to see a video editor installed either they could do Kdenlive if they love kde apps so much.(it’s kinda buggy though) but maybe they are running out of space on the small CD they use? so thats not an option.
BTW. Fedora has said they will be using DVDs (Only about 900 MB) from now on to distribute it in KDE and Gnome Edtions Plus the huge multi installer. this means they hopefully won’t have to cut out things. I think ubuntu should consider this. CDs are now becoming a limitation sadly.
Hi JD,
No, no relation to Dan Lynch that I know of…but I do have a lot of relatives so you never know!
Thanks for the positive feedback. Much appreciated.
I agree, CDs are passe to a certain extent at this point. Too small for today’s desktop distros, for the most part. Although some of the smaller, light-weight ones are still fine on them.
wow. one of the best review i have read. very detailed and still to the point. it seems you have discovered all the flaws in kubuntu and i totally agree with you. canonicle treat kubuntu like step child whom they don’t love. there are lots of distros thriving on kde desktop, if same attention could be paid on kubuntu then they can have best of both world (well best of all the world considering xfce and lxde) this is the reason i install kde in regular ubuntu.. its plain vanilla kde so i dont miss a thing.
Are you seriously complaining about the KDE4 theme? Have you SEEN how many KDE Themes are available? There are like 20 and only about 10 of them are any good. ALL KDE4 based Distros use one of 2 themes. Oxygen or Air, period.
@ abhifx:
Actually, Kubuntu 10:04 is 1000 times better than its Ubuntu counterpart for this release. Ubuntu is completely worthless for the next 6 months, and if Shuttleworthlesses ideas for 10:10 are any indication … the next year as well.
The best KDE-Buntu is Mint KDE Edition. Mint Kde is Kubuntu derivatif with some fine tuning here and there.
The English translation for the word Kubuntu is “Krap”.
quote: Jim
I suspect I will be hammered for this review by some KDE users. But I said what had to be said. Canonical needs to make Kubuntu its own or stop releasing it altogether and just focus on the GNOME version.
Do you want me to hammer you then? You know better than that. I respect your viewpoint and the viewpoint of others. I do have some issues to take with your review, however.
I respect your viewpoint that Canonical, if it intends to brand itself with Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and Mythbuntu, ought to take branding into consideration. Clearly they did in this release with Ubuntu. However, I am not certain just how many employees of Canonical are a part of the other four projects. I suspect it is not more than a tenth to a quarter as many, and that explains the difference in focus, at least to me.
Jim, the reason that I follow Kubuntu is that it is always the very first Debian based system that has binary packages built for versions of KDE. It is ironic. In Debian, the GNOME distribution is quite stable – and fairly clearly the preferred desktop in the Debian Stable release, but it takes a back seat in Unstable, where it can be quite erratic. Canonical’s first significant contribution to the party is that they really flesh out GNOME and help both Debian and Mint, to name two Debian-oriented distributions.
We don’t see the emphasis quite as directly with KDE because the Debian KDE packagers only release every 2-4 maintenance releases (in fact, until last night, their last release was KDE SC 4.3.4, which is 3-4 months old now. As of today, KDE SC 4.4.3 – four updates later, is FINALLY in Debian Sid.) In contrast, Kubuntu has been building updates within days of new packages, and is a reference release for KDE. OpenSUSE DEFINITELY gets the crown in this respect – it is THE release that KDE itself uses for Live CD sample releases (not too surprising, given the long time German roots).
My point in this is that Canonical focuses most of its KDE effort on building binaries early and often so that KDE Alpha and Beta testers have a platform to use. Arch, Sabayan, Gentoo, OpenSUSE, and Mandriva are the other leaders, most everyone else lags by at least a month, sometimes six months or more, in this area.
I therefore consider your review this time a bit too strongly tilted to the visual effects, which we all know are easy to modify. I do respect your view on branding, and if they had more time and money to spend, it might be nice to throw more into Kubuntu and Lubuntu. In time, that may happen. Curiously, Xubuntu, while not heavily branded, generally has the best appearance, from an artistic viewpoint, of any of the releases. I’ve not seen strong branding there, either, though, at least not in the past. I’d like to read your viewpoint on that.
A 2.5/5, simply based on weak branding is not what the average consumer cares about. How does it work? My experience throughout the Alpha and Beta test cycle suggests that this release works every bit as well as Ubuntu. The only thing it lacks are those small points. A 3.5 rating at the least is a more reasonable rating, considering that the installation is trivial, the packages you want to add are omitted only for space reasons to fit on a CD instead of mandating a DVD. Grabbing the Ubuntu Package Manager, or for that matter, low level tools, such as gdebi or aptitude, are only as far away as a kpackage, dpkg, or apt-get installation request.