Xubuntu: Best for Simplicity and Stability Plus, if you want to install a non-KDE app, it often means installing a host of non-KDE files to make it work, which adds to the clutter. The drawbacks? The remaining K-apps and their dependencies tend to clutter up the hard drive. In addition, the developers have steadily replaced many of its infamous K-apps, like the browser, email, and office suite, with Firefox, Thunderbird, and LibreOffice. Its Dolphin file manager is usually regarded as being among the most productive in computing. Although there are no official minimum system requirements, this means that it may not seem quite as light or as nimble as Ubuntu in size or resources (and there is no 32-bit version).īut Kubuntu offers a much more pleasant look and feel than Ubuntu, as well as the flexibility to tweak the desktop to look like almost anything you want. Kubuntu uses the KDE Plasma desktop and assorted KDE apps (Kwallet, anyone?) on top of the Ubuntu base. Kubuntu: Best for Tweaking and Customization Having said that, the Software app, which handles installation, is clunky and prone to crashing and has been under “repair” for years.

The software, including the LibreOffice office suite, Firefox browser, and Thunderbird email client, are mostly drop-in replacements for anything that Windows offers. You’ll need to install a couple of apps, like the GNOME Tweak Tool, as well as maneuver through the jungle that is the GNOME Shell extension website and its mini-apps. The GNOME desktop, with its left side dock, is surprisingly intuitive, even if it’s hardly conventional and not necessarily easy to fine-tune.

It needs just 4GB of memory and a 25GB hard drive (Take that, Windows 10!). Ubuntu will install quickly and easily on almost any modern hardware, often in as little as 5 or 10 minutes. Find out what each does-and doesn’t do-so that you can decide which works best for you: Ubuntu: Best for Linux First-Timers Here’s a look at four of the Ubuntu distros. The flavors are about practicality rather than command-line geekiness. Since these flavors are built to make Linux more accessible, they’re not necessarily going to score upvotes in a geeky Reddit thread. That means that some are more full-featured, while others are more lightweight-so each feels a little different. However, each has different desktop and flavor-specific applications. They include the same Linux kernel and low-level system utilities. To pick properly, you’ll need to understand the strengths of each “flavor.” That might be the bling and polish of Kubuntu, the “set it up and forget about it” of Ubuntu, the retro simplicity and stability of Xubuntu, or the ability of Lubuntu to run on older and less powerful hardware.ĭespite the different names, all of these are based on the same underlying Ubuntu software.

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