I recently took a look at Ubuntu Netbook Edition, this week I decided to review its KDE-based counterpart Kubuntu Netbook Edition. As you’ll find out in this review, the two sport radically different interfaces (and I’m not just talking about wallpaper). Which is better for a netbook user? Read on to find out.
Kubuntu Netbook Edition uses the Plasma Netbook interface. Plasma Netbook is geared toward small devices and the interface is very different than desktop KDE. You can use “Search and Launch” to launch applications, or you can browse for applications. You can also search your email, contacts and some web sites. I’ll have more to say about Plasma Netbook in the desktop section.
What’s New In This Release
Since this release is 10.04; it shares some of the same new features as its desktop counterpart. Rather than regurgitate all of them here (since I covered them in the desktop review), here’s a link to the Kubuntu site that lists the new stuff in 10.04.
Firefox running in Kubuntu Netbook Edition, after being installed.
OpenOffice.org comes with Kubuntu Netbook Edition.
The live CD desktop.
On the next page, I’ll take a look at the hardware requirements and the install routine.
(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
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[...] http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2010/05/29/kubuntu-netbook-edition-10-04/ [...]
I tried these back in May just after they came out. While I am not a fan of Kubuntu, I would say they did the best job on this remix. I also had crash problems, but I was running in VMWare Player. In addition to the Plasma interface, I had random app crashes. Also, switching between open apps is not intuitive at all. It took me a while to figure out.
I also had set the resolution to mimic that of a 10″ netbook, 1024×600. The Ubuntu remix seemed to handle it just fine, but it took a few tries for Kubuntu to get it.
I can’t speak to how this would work in a netbook and I don’t have it in my Virtualbox right now, but I’ve run builds like this in the past and they have worked pretty well for me. I have had good success with two distros out of this LTS family: Kubuntu 10.04 (briefly ran Lubuntu 10.04, also installed Ubuntu 10.04) and I also have Peppermint OS One (recently updated) installed.
Peppermint, with the light environment, is quite snappy; I’d expect a light KDE environment to be pretty snappy too.
If I get a chance again, I’ll take a closer look at this. Meanwhile, should I get a netbook or tablet, I’d consider this one (though with the tablet I may be more inclined to do with Android or ChromeOS).
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