Posted on Wednesday 16th of May 2007 at 14:40 in Linux

Review of Kubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn was released some time ago now and while I reviewed it almost immediately, once again I left Kubuntu out in the cold. I (like many others) prefer KDE over Gnome so I apologise for the delay and will give it the normal treatment.

Kubuntu is the KDE equivalent of Ubuntu (which uses the Gnome environment) but while they are directly related; comparison between the two is expected but probably foolish. I've come to understand that these siblings can be anything but identical.

Installation
Taking so much from the confident Ubuntu installation, Kubuntu handles almost everything exactly the same (if not exactly...) so there are no surprises here.

kubuntu desktop

Networking
One of Ubuntu's triumphs is how comfortably it handles networking and Kubuntu is no different. My ADSL was picked up in moments and Samba shares were instantly accessible - something I consider to be a crucial bit of functionality these days. I *do* have an FTP server running in the house but I shouldn't have to use it; and I'm happy to report that Kubuntu allowed me easy access to my files. It's a nice graphical interface, no worries, concerns or stumbling blocks.

kubuntu samba

Media playback
Networking was as comfortable as expected given how well Ubuntu excells so I'm expecting media playback to be comparable too. As usual I have a DVD-Rip of Family Guy sitting on my desktop ready to be played. Opting to play the video opens Kaffeine (again, an application I'm not confident with) which simply provides a black screen as it accelerates through the 25 minute video in 5 seconds.

Not a good start. Instead I opt to use the Adept package manager to obtain another application that I am more happy with: VLC. Further testament to the ease-of-use that Adept offers means that VLC can be sourced easily, downloaded and installed automatically.

kubuntu family guy

Opting to play the video in VLC results in flawless playback; sufficient to make me wonder why VLC isn't offered as a default application. It's the most capable and (arguably) popular video player in the open-source market so why must I be offered second-best things that don't do the job properly. I'll discuss this more in my conclusion.

Applications on offer
Despite my annoyance (above) over video playback applications, the rest of your needs are quite comfortably catered for without having to use Adept. Amarok is present for your MP3 needs - which is undoubtably one of the best mp3 players available in the world. OpenOffice is here as expected but GIMP is ominously missing; as is any image editing application which I think is a major faux pas.

The 'average' user would want the ability to edit images, even if that's only in an application as basic as Paint. I find it odd that GIMP is missing considering it's free, popular and comprehensive. Sure it's not hard to obtain (as I happily proved) using Adept but it's the principle that new users shouldn't have to.

More-over, it frustrates me when Firefox isn't preloaded too because Konqueror isn't as good a browser as Firefox. They're both free so it just feels like Kubuntu isn't loaded with the best tools for the job.

General use and aesthetics
It's a good looking release (as expected) and it is massively usable. It looks nice, it handles nicely and it shares the same thriving community that benefits Ubuntu so much. It's easily as good as it's Ubuntu counterpart in my opinion. I played with it for a few hours and I could probably live here.

Although Oli from ThePCSpy.com might disagree considering he spent most of today battling with Ubuntu and his confusing RAID5 array. I think the lesson from the entire situation is that testing a release is fine; living with it may reveal entirely different things altogether.

Kubuntu 7.04 is an excellent release, powerful, customisable yet strangely lacking in obvious applications. Supplying me with Kaffeine that doesn't manage common codecs directly post-install when VLC is a better alternative doesn't make sense. GIMP's ominous absence is concerning too, making me question whether Kubuntu could try and stab for the "most usable" title I discuss so frequently. It's excellent though, usable and intuitive - just with some strange decisions in terms of the offered applications. If you can use Adept (which is almost certain) then you'd get on well with this release.

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Comments

Showing most recent 14 of 14 comments [View all comments]

Completely agree with manmath sahu. Visit http://pclinuxos2007.blogspot.com to know more.

sudhansu sekhar

Good review! Kubuntu is great for them who want a pure and simple way of working. But the home desktop users should go for an OS that just fulfills their needs, whatsoever. And that is PCLinuxOS. Visit Tweaking PCLinuxOS.

manmath sahu

I have used been using Kubuntu (not 7.04, but older) for several months now.
yes Krita does come with it. It also comes with KPDF which I did not like and had to install Adobe for linux. However Adept is a very useful installer package.
I am about to test Ubuntu feisty fawn on my new laptop, so will post somethingon that soon. Also Fedora 7 is another thing I will test.

Nari

I’ve been running Kubuntu full time on my laptop for a good 8 months now and have been extremely pleased with it. I tried out a lot of distros and it was the only one that handled my hardware perfectly from the start. I don’t see a big problem with not having software like Firefox and Gimp, because they are sooo easy to add yourself from the repositories (as long as you have a fast connection.) I think that’s the one of the great things about Linux... you can make it into anything you want. I use PClinuxOS on my desktop (again because it worked best with the hardware,) and it’s great too. I have basically the same set of programs on both, and your basic user would have a hard time telling the difference. I think as long as you’ve got a distro that’s stable, easy to configure, and works with your hardware, then you should be just fine... and it’s obviously not gonna be the same for everyone.

LAZ

I installed Suse 10.2 and Kubuntu FF a bit later.

First of all, I am impressed by both distros. They both offer an impressive almost-out-of-the-box functionality, both have massive communities that can walk you through most any issue.

However, at this point, I’m looking forward to upcoming openSUSE 10.3 release. If I remember correctly, 10.2 was released long before FF. IMVHO, it was a more mature OS than Kubuntu *is* today, and the 2007 candidate from Novell is not openSUSE 10.2, but the next release, the openSUSE 10.3.

One thing that impressed me very much while using openSUSE was that I never ever needed to go into the command line, except for the one time I went ’down’ to fix the Xorg configuration (just some minor adjustments due to install of the proprietary fglrx ATI driver, as opposed to having to manually reconfigure X after installing the same driver on Kubuntu). On the other hand, Kubuntu made it almost easy to install codecs (it does offer to install them automatically, but the install dialog hangs near the end, managing to install the codecs properly anyway).

I am currently trying out Mandriva One, and PCLinuxOS, because none of other distros had a ready-to-use package for a PHP debugger. But that is not a bit minus for any of the distros. ;-)

bugger

Kaffeine was not showing your movie correctly because you had not installed the required codecs to play it!

Remember that there are some restrictions for a number of codecs (in a few countries), and this is why the Ubuntu team decided not to include them.

VLC comes bundled with these codecs (instead of using the system’s codecs) so thats why it worked flawlessly with your video. This is also why it cannot be installed by default on a (k)Ubuntu system.

str1der

I`m living with Kubuntu.
Yes, there have been some issues, but none that I couldn’t fix.
I`m still disappointed in provided video players.
I`m sticking to GMplayer, it does a hell of good job.

Adept Manager is working just fine. Remember to hit preview before installing or removing anything. You might run into the surprise of removing your desktop.

EpsDel

It seems a sort of Kubuntu policy is to keep KDE/Qt apps as possible, so it is why GTK software you mentioned aren’t included there.

I think GIMP is an overbloated solution for most of the "ordinary users", as they need to process their digital photos only, not to paint. Digikam embedded editor does that job nicely.

Kaffeine has worked well with DVD’s out of the box and with other formats after apt-getting xine plugins (someone should install it anyway to play mp3’s with amarok). It is new for me too, as I used to KPlayer before, but I’m not missing it anymore.

Yes, there is no Firefox and it is pity. Konqueror is great, but a lot of modern web-interfaces (e.g, GMail) don’t work with it. So it was one of the first packages I installed immediately.

From my point of view, the major problem of Kubuntu (Ubuntu as well) is lack of original Sun Java. Strangely, it’s already GPL’ed, so there was no legal restrictions to include it into distribution.

Alex

I too tried the same three distro’s , Mepis 6.5 , PCLinux 93-a and TR4 and Kubuntu 7.04 .. Being I’am using a router + a cable connection this prove to be too hard for [only] PClinux to self configure a interent connection for me! As a new Linux user , if a Distro cant get me on the internet-Your No good to me! I used the other two for almost a week, I found Mepis 6.5 to be the easy to use for me. I did have to down load 2 files to get DVD play back working. The" Mepis lovers" Fourm is laid out smartly+ I found them to be VERY willing to help out a new-b . I cant ask for More !

Slow-Motion

I also agree.. I’ve been distohopping since 2004.. Name it I’ve tried it Home use mainly..

PCLinuxOS #1
Arch #2
VLOS/Gentoo #3
Kubuntu #4
Sidux #5
Ubuntu #6

Lycan

Hi,

this is nice review from someone that take few hours with Kubuntu. The same impressions I have at the beginning, but after I decide to install it and use it for 2 weeks problems start to come out.

I try many distributions (approximately 40) and come out with just a few as useful for long term (KDE oriented):
1. PCLinuxOS (choice #1)
2. SimplyMEPIS
3. Kubuntu (not in this list any more)

My major idea is to have few GOOD distributions which I can use daily and after longer period of testing to use it in my IT company (to remove this M$ as we do not depend on it anymore).

1. Chance
I "try to use" Kubuntu several months ago and this was version 6.x (some final release). Installation and look&feel deserve 10. From 3 mentioned distributions Kubuntu have the poorest system administration possibilities through desktop environment (but if you have basic knowledge this is not big issue). Bigger problems are stability and many small KDE crashes which makes daily work very annoying. At that time I give up from Kubuntu and decide to wait for 7.04.

2. Chance
When 7.04 comes out I also buy new notebook - so great time for testing :) I try all 3 distributions to check how they recognize my HW and even install all of them to see them in real work, but decision already was made I will give a second try to Kubuntu (as I use first 2 distributions already on 2 other machines). Again 10 for look&feel, again 10 for recognizing HW and installation process. Again possibilities to set everything is not significantly improved in compare with previous version?! OK, no problem, little work in command line helps from time to time :) So, beginning was pretty good more or less. But smile goes from my face after few days - same issues start to occur!!! Every day few smaller crashes of application or even desktop environment?! Well, I use windows very long and "I am used to" some small crashes from time to time - but this annoying. Hey, "big" name like UBUNTU stays behind this distribution.

3. Chance
NO WAY - it is removed from MY list!!!

I am not a person that emotionally "connect" to some distribution - just look from user side (what are my needs):
- KDE
- live distribution to check recognizing HW in advance
- easy installation
- easy setting through desktop environment
- easy updating (do not care if this is synaptic or apt-get or ...)
- stability

Old PCLinuxOS .93 was on my machine for 1.5 year and for that period I have only 1 problem - and that problem I cause by my stupidity!!! NO problems with system ever - even the smallest one, and this machine is used at least 14 hours per day. This machine is sold with PCLOS on it and still works perfect. Also, this distribution offers the best possibility for setting everything through desktop environment.

SimplyMEPIS 6.5 I use on other machine for few months and this is also very stable distribution, with little less possibilities for setting through desktop environment from PCLOS, easy to update and repositories rely on ubuntu. I had few minor application problems, but not complete crashes.

After struggling with Kubuntu on my notebook, I decide to put test version of PCLinuxOS TR4. This is TEST release - but it is working! I do not need anything more then simple working! I am testing it for more then a week now, machine is used for more then 12 hours a day and no crashes or some malformation work with HW - and this is TEST release :)

CONCLUSION:
Kubuntu is good distribution but UBUNTU team can learn a lot from "small" distributions like PCLinuxOS or MEPIS. Ordinary users (that comes from M$ to Linux) looks for ordinary things, stable user friendly distributions - nothing else. Simple, isn’t it ;)

Zocky

VLC, GIMP and Firefox are even not installed by default, because they’re GTK which is not looking good in a QT environment. I think that’s another big reason. And Kaffeine is better working for me than VLC!^^

Henubis

I use kubuntu, and I’m happy with it. I love KDE desktop! But the problem is KDE haven’t the best software on the open source market. I use Thunderbird instead of KMail, Firefox instead of Konqueror, TomBoy instead of KJots, OpenOffice.org instead of KOffice, Synaptic instead of Adept ... The best applications are on GNOME, but I like the KDE look & feel. That applications works well on KDE too. Maybe a little memory and cpu consuming more.
Anywhere, You can’t understand (K)Ubuntu if you don’t care licensing problems. Ubuntu leeds the free/open source software revolution. This wish cost in termen of usability for legal concerns.
Please, take a look on it.
But, thank you for your interesting blog. It is my favorite.

speedygeo

About the defaults:
You mention that Gimp is not provided - but is Krita provided? Krita has some advantages compared to Gimp, like better Colour management and the ability to handle images with more than 8 bit depth (of course there are some disadvantages as well...).

About Firefox vs. Konqueror - well, it simply uses KDE, and the KDE browser is Konqueror ;) Seriously, with the upcoming KDE 4 I guess there will be at least the option to use Webkit (maybe inside of konqueror, maybe as a replacement), which will give you a much better surfing experience!

About the vlc/kaffeine thing: the video was broken in kaffeine because not all codecs for xine where installed by default (libxine1-plugins and co) - that is for legal reasons.
Ubuntu comes in handy here because it has an application recognizing that and offering you to download the necessary codecs. This feature is still missing in Kubuntu, however.
And for the same reason vlc is not installed by default: patent problems prevent this. So if you afterwards install vlc or the missing plugins of xine doesn’t matter, the result is the same.
But, as said before, Kubuntu could have done it better by adding a wizard to offer you to add the missing codecs.

You might want to install the xine plugins anyway because I think amarok (which uses xine as a back end) might not be able to play mp3 files without the plugins. Also, you could try to play the video afterwards just to see if I was right or mixed something up ;)

Notthistime

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Review of Kubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn