Basic things about Linux, Ubuntu and Kubuntu

Hello people,

In this post i will try to share with you some basic things about Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Also i will explain difference between Linux and Ubuntu/Kubuntu and i will give explanation of word distribution.

So first things first. If we exclude a fact that lot of people have never heard for Linux, there are a lot of you who know that Linux exists and that Linux is somewhere around us but are to afraid to try it. There is also common opinion that Linux is actually bad substitution for Windows and that Linux users are some geeks that stare in the black screen and type something all the time. Well all of these things are just a prejudice. 

At the moment there are three major Operating Systems (OS) – Windows, Mac OS X and Linux based OSs. Well Windows and Mac are widely spread and they have biggest user base since a long time ago. Reason is simple, Windows is similar with what we have today for a last 15 years and Mac is extremely user friendly, beautiful and very reliable OS for a last decade. Well they have graphic user interface (GUI), the thing that you see on your screen and where you are clicking with your mouse, and they are commercial products. There are also other reasons for their popularity but we are here to see where the Linux is in this story.

In order to tell you this part i will explain word – distribution. Imagine that you have three producers of car engines with the names Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Mac and Windows use only their engines but Linux engine use a lot of different car producers. Some of the most famous are Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Debian etc. These are various distributions of Linux OS. So you have a OS core which is Linux but you have various factories that produces final product – distributions.

Linux OSs

The reason why i have permanently changed Windows for Ubuntu is because 4 years ago Windows abandoned me in very critical moment. The only solution was to reinstall it and i didn’t have a time to do that. Somehow in that period i have seen Ubuntu v 6.06 and his magic and i started with checking internet about it. Then i have realized that this is the OS i would like to have. Well, a lot of people had a whole bunch of trouble with it but somehow i was determined to succeed.

I had some old but operational Asus laptop in which i have inserted Kubuntu Live CD. After a few minutes a had fully operational OS working directly from my CD. I was astonished and just several minutes later I decided to install Kubuntu for the first time on my laptop. The most beautiful thing was the feeling that almost nothing can harm your system and that all the time you are perfectly safe. I liked that and i still do.

What is the difference between Ubuntu and Kubuntu?

Many people asked me this! Simplest answer is that the only big difference is in GUI (Graphic User Interface). There are three major GUIs for Linux - GNOME, KDE and XFCE. More about them you can read in my separate post if you click here.

Beside GUI there is also certain number of programs that work only on Ubuntu or Kubuntu. It is also important to say that Ubuntu is main distribution and that Kubuntu is its derivate. For me Kubuntu is much more visually appealing but some Ubuntu  fans says that Ubuntu is more stable. If you ask me i think that Kubuntu has better programs. My recommendation for you is to try both of them and see which one better meets your needs.

I hope that i have make some things clearer.

If you have some questions put it in the comment.

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