Yes, I changed to KUbuntu a few hours ago.

And it’s surprisingly good. After a decade of using RPM-based distributions (first Red Hat 5.2, then Mandrake, then Red Hat 9, then Fedora), I’m now using a Debian-based distro.

And so, andrea (my previous Linux installation) is no longer. Gabriela (this KUbuntu deployment) took its place.

So what’s different?

Package management

Adept is used to install and remove packages. It’s dramatically faster than Smart and Yum, the two solutions I had been using in Fedora. It uses way less memory. Honest, it’s an order of magnitude faster.

Responsiveness and performance

Having my usual stack of applications open (tons of Konqueror windows, aKregator, Evolution, Valknut, KTorrent, KGet, gtk-gnutella, Amarok) is no longer a recipe for disaster. It runs smoothly. It doesn’t get memory-starved. Mind you, this computer has only 768 MB of RAM.

It certainly boots faster too (not that it matters, since I tend to go for weeks without rebooting).

Looks

The default KUbuntu theme is very elegant. It resembles Plastik, but better.

Software availability

All of the applications I had installed throughout the years are available for KUbuntu. Installing them took a couple of hours only, and absolutely no intervention during installation (except for the Flash player license agreement).

Hardware

All of my hardware is working now — including one network card that didn’t work before.

The network manager application is faster and easier to use than Fedora’s.

Configuration

The configuration center is complete. It’s more complete than Fedora’s, and it feels very well integrated in the operating system.

Power management

I couldn’t make hibernation work. The computer would hibernate alright; but, on boot, the hard disk light would stay on, and the grub prompt would hang for a fairly long time. I know for a fact that hibernating a computer cannot physically damage a hard disk, but shivers ran down my spine for quite long — especially considering I currently don’t have any backups, and I don’t want to lose my 80 GB, 15.000 track music collection I have painstakingly organized by hand.

Sudo!

Sudo make me a sandwich! After years of having to type su followed by a password, it’s refreshing only to have to prepend sudo and typing the password only once.

You should change too

There’s a reason why the Ubuntu family of Linux distributions is the most popular now. It’s simply superior.

Give it a try today. After the (admittedly) long download of the live CD, you can try it without touching your hard disk… then take the plunge and install it.