Tuesday, 7 January 2020

First Kubuntu computer

So the NUC gets Kubuntu. The primary reason for wanting it on this is with the screen layout with vertical screens, wanting to have the taskbar in the middle between the two, with one taskbar for both. With a TV as the upper screen and the lower screen a smaller computer monitor turned into portrait mode, the logical place to put the taskbar is at the top of the computer monitor, and leave the TV with no taskbar wasting space on it. Don't have to move the mouse so far to get to the taskbar from the top screen either.

The installation was of Kubuntu 19.10 and went very smoothly. As we all know, Kubuntu is the version of Ubuntu that has KDE as its default desktop environment. It is being trialled as an alternative to Lubuntu for offering the same ease of installation whilst also giving us the full bells and whistles of the KDE desktop. How well it performs on lower spec hardware, of course, is the 64 million dollar question. Lubuntu is well known as being optimised for low spec and KDE with the bells and whistles, traditionally, has not been in the same league whatsoever. But the latest versions of KDE have belatedly addressed this concern, and so as we expect the cutting edge release of Kubuntu is likely to include the very latest stable edition of KDE, we assume it will be a bit less of a resource hog than its predecessors.

This is the first time I have installed any of my computers with Kubuntu, as I already have plenty of experience with KDE on Debian. Only a computer that already has Lubuntu would be considered for Kubuntu. Anything running Debian will stay that way as I prefer Debian over Ubuntu for most things, the only reason I am making use of Lubuntu or Kubuntu is they are different enough from plain Ubuntu and include all the missing proprietary bits that Debian omits by default. Hence easier to get going on laptops or other computers with wireless and bluetooth etc.

Once again it is interesting to try the alternatives to Xubuntu which I have now completely abandoned. This is due to it being so slow to be updated, and consequently it has a very dated look either in Ubuntu or Debian form, although some other distros using XFCE by default such as Manjaro have managed to give it a very modern appearance.