Linux ubuntu? kubuntu? xubuntu

Howdy

When it comes to Linux I'm uber noob, I tried a version years ago and gave up due to lack of experience and test equipment.

Question is what's the difference of the versions, I hear ubuntu the most and come across kubuntu and xubuntu as variations.

To play and learn about linux what should I start with on my test rig?

I want to learn to dual book linux, use linux, setup linux for maybe a media centre or on laptop for mrs.

Cheers

 

Ubuntu is a pretty popular distro. I first came across it in 2005 when I was at a conference where they were handing out the CDs for free. I played around with it a little bit, and it's nice. It was fast, had lots more software built in, and I had no compatibility or reliability problems with it.

AFAIK, Ubuntu uses the Gnome GUI, whereas Kubuntu uses the KDE GUI. Beyond that, I only have a little experience with it, but I can say that it was a good experience.

 

And the difference in Gnome and KDE is?

 

If your new to Linux, I'd recommend starting out with Ubuntu.

The difference among Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu is the Desktop Environment it uses. Ubuntu uses GNOME, Kubuntu uses KDE, and Xubuntu uses Xfce. GNOME and KDE are considered to be heavyweight while Xfce is considered to be Lightweight (important for older hardware). The main difference between GNOME and KDE is the GUI toolkit it uses ( Gtk and Qt respectively), the user interface, the window manager (GNOME uses Metacity and KDE uses KWin) and the software that comes along with it. Which one is better? It's a matter of preference. In the past, KDE was buggy, but now it's a solid DE and I think it's beginning to be more popular than GNOME. KDE has more of a chrome and flashy feel to it than GNOME. As for Xfce, it's very similar to GNOME, but more lightweight.

There are of course many other differences, but I just listed the main ones above.

I started out with Ubuntu and then branched off to other distributions when I felt ready. It's a solid distribution and great for anyone. Also the learning curve isn't steep which is excellent for the less tech savvy crowd.

 

I'd start with ubuntu, I've been using it for a couple months and I really really like it

 

I say Ubuntu too. I haven't found a convincing reason to try another distro yet, I'm loving this one too much.

 

I've tried both Ubuntu and Kubuntu (also Debian and Knoppix). The only real difference that I noticed was that the Kubuntu actually worked. To some degree, anyway.

IMO it doesn't really even matter which distro you try to get a feel at Linux. All the *Ubuntus are slightly different variants of the same thing, for a beginner I can't imagine the differences being too huge.

 

I'd recommend Linux Mint personally.

It's basically Ubuntu but looks nicer with a better menu and all the necessary extra's already installed, like Flash and the media codecs.

 

I'd download both ubuntu and kubuntu, and give them both a try in a virtual machine. (if you havnt used virtual machines before, its actually very easy. download and install Virtualbox. Click 'new' and it's step by step from there)

That allows you to see which one you prefer. I've tried both of them, and prefer the looks of KDE (kubuntu), but prefer using gnome (ubuntu).

For dual booting linux, make sure you install linux AFTER windows, as it uses the GRUB boot manager, that will detect windows and allow you to boot into it, but the windows boot manager won't recognise linux.

For media centre, theres a linux version of XBMC, which is a nice one, although i believe getting a IR remote control to work with linux can be a bit tricky, but there are plenty of guides on the XBMC forums.

 

Thanks all

Think I'll try ubuntu as that's already downloaded, looking forward to something new, getting bored of all the versions of Windows and trying to improve performance.

I have a HTPC running windows 7 and XBMC as a program (moved on from XBMC on the xbox) so looking to get a nice tidy setup there once tested things

 

I think you can run XBMC as its own OS, which might be worth looking into. If its a HTPC, i don't know much about OS for them but you could also check out some of the linux distros for netbooks meego, ubuntu netbook remix a few others i can't think of. Also check out www.distrowatch.com for more info on linux distros.

 

xbmc live doesn't like my test rig, will try on HTPC but for Mrs's sake having an OS will keep her happy