Q4OS Forum

TMBK

Member

Registered: 2020-04-06

Posts: 3

Q4OS with KDE vs. Kubuntu on newish hardware

Hello, I'm new to Q4OS and generally not very Linux-savvy, so apologies if anything I say is too obvious, too naive or whatever. ;) I'm also not sure if this is the right forum and the right part of it to ask this question.

I installed Q4OS on my 12-year-old old Thinkpad X300 (Intel Core 2 Duo 1,2 Ghz, 2 GB RAM) and was surprised to find out that even KDE Plasma runs fairly well on it.

I'm now preparing to to switchswitch a newer PC to Linux (Thinkpad T430 Intel Core i7, 8 GB). I was going to install Ubuntu or Kubuntu. However, considering that KDE Plasma even runs well on the weaker hardware, I'm wondering if I shouldn't install Q4OS on it, too.

Do more heavy-weight distributions like Kubuntu actually have any advantages in comparison with Q4OS? Is there anything they can do that Q4OS can't?

Thanks in advance for any hints!

detoo

Member

Registered: 2019-01-17

Posts: 86

Re: Q4OS with KDE vs. Kubuntu on newish hardware

Under the hood, Q4OS is Debian; Kubuntu is Ubuntu. If you try a Debian vs. Ubuntu search you'll get lots of hits that might help you decide which way to go.

deanr

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2019-09-07

Posts: 60

Re: Q4OS with KDE vs. Kubuntu on newish hardware

Thankfully installing Linux OSs is free so you can try them out without it costing anything.

In my experience, different operating systems work differently on different hardware. The reason I discovered Q4OS is that I found Kubuntu, Netrunner & Manjaro were all very problematic and were either full of bugs or would keep crashing. Other people report they are all reliable but that certainly was not the case for me.

TMBK

Member

Registered: 2020-04-06

Posts: 3

Re: Q4OS with KDE vs. Kubuntu on newish hardware

Thanks both of you.

I have already tried various distributions in Virtualbox and didn't notice any significant differences between Kubuntu and Q4OS with KDE in terms of usability. I was thinking of under-the-hood, performance- or maintenance related differences that may only become important later. From your replies I understand that there are no straightforward differences here.

deanr

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2019-09-07

Posts: 60

Re: Q4OS with KDE vs. Kubuntu on newish hardware

Thankfully installing Linux OSs is free so you can try them out without it costing anything.

In my experience, different operating systems work differently on different hardware. The reason I discovered Q4OS is that I found Kubuntu, Netrunner & Manjaro were all very problematic and were either full of bugs or would keep crashing. Other people report they are all reliable but that certainly was not the case for me.

You might just want to look at the package lists. The 'Buntus have a reputation of being bloated i.e. having loads of stuff you might never use. On the other hand, other distros are likely to have lacks that can cause annoying issues. Q4OS not coming pre-installed with gdebi, for example, springs to mind.

Last edited by deanr (2020-04-10 19:04)

OldRunner

Member

Registered: 2020-04-11

Posts: 35

Re: Q4OS with KDE vs. Kubuntu on newish hardware

Thanks both of you.

I have already tried various distributions in Virtualbox and didn't notice any significant differences between Kubuntu and Q4OS with KDE in terms of usability. I was thinking of under-the-hood, performance- or maintenance related differences that may only become important later. From your replies I understand that there are no straightforward differences here.

In fact, you can try a few more Distros, for example MX Linux (lightweight but really fast OS) with a very wide and easy to install list of add-ons or ExTix 20.04 Neon (KDE) already on Ubuntu 20.04, and I also recommend checking Solus (Neon) - created completely from scratch, but not inferior to anything else.
Try the OS and choose the one that suits you best

Tolkem

Member

Registered: 2019-10-06

Posts: 487

Re: Q4OS with KDE vs. Kubuntu on newish hardware

I'm now preparing to to switchswitch a newer PC to Linux (Thinkpad T430 Intel Core i7, 8 GB). I was going to install Ubuntu or Kubuntu. However, considering that KDE Plasma even runs well on the weaker hardware, I'm wondering if I shouldn't install Q4OS on it, too.

I'd say go with Q4OS; IMO, Debian is way more reliable and stable than Ubuntu and like you just said KDE runs very well on Q4OS.

TMBK

Member

Registered: 2020-04-06

Posts: 3

Re: Q4OS with KDE vs. Kubuntu on newish hardware

Thank you all for your input! In the meantime, the last distribution I tried on the newer notebook was KDE Neon and I decided to stick with it for the time being, as it worked alright and I don't think it would be worth the time trying to make it even faster.