[SOLVED] How to get pure KDE desktop in Kubuntu

[fballem]

Hi,

I notice when I install Kubuntu 14.04, there are a number of applications that are not part of KDE. The two big ones are Firefox and LibreOffice. I'm not sure what else is installed that is not KDE. I am new to KDE and want to get familiar with the tools that it provides.

So, my question is simple: Is there a way to get a pure KDE environment in Kubuntu?

Thanks,

[whatthefunk]

I tried that once. It was very difficult and in the end made some thing near impossible to do. For a web browser, you can try Rekonq. Its decent, but lacks a lot of features that other browsers have and doesnt have the plugins that Chromium or Firefox have. You can try replacing Libreoffice with Calligra. The main problem with Calligra is that you can't save things in Microsoft formats. So if you need to submit a work project or school assignment in .doc format, you're out of luck.

If you just want a simple system and don't have to do anything special on it, you can probably get away with a more-or-less pure KDE install. But if you want to do more, pure KDE is impossible. Here are some non-KDE programs that dont have an adequate KDE alternative and that I cant live without:
-VLC - Dragon player is ok, but has issues playing something and sometimes wont play subtitiles. VLC plays everything you throw at it.
-Inkscape - if you want to do vector graphics on Linux, Inkscape is the only way to go.
-Wine - the only program available for opening Windows programs
-Steam - not KDE
-Audacity - havent found a better Linux audio editor

It would be nice to have a pure KDE environment, but functionality is far more important.

[fballem]

Pure KDE in Kubuntu

I tried that once. It was very difficult and in the end made some thing near impossible to do. For a web browser, you can try Rekonq. Its decent, but lacks a lot of features that other browsers have and doesnt have the plugins that Chromium or Firefox have. You can try replacing Libreoffice with Calligra. The main problem with Calligra is that you can't save things in Microsoft formats. So if you need to submit a work project or school assignment in .doc format, you're out of luck.

If you just want a simple system and don't have to do anything special on it, you can probably get away with a more-or-less pure KDE install. But if you want to do more, pure KDE is impossible. Here are some non-KDE programs that dont have an adequate KDE alternative and that I cant live without:
-VLC - Dragon player is ok, but has issues playing something and sometimes wont play subtitiles. VLC plays everything you throw at it.
-Inkscape - if you want to do vector graphics on Linux, Inkscape is the only way to go.
-Wine - the only program available for opening Windows programs
-Steam - not KDE
-Audacity - havent found a better Linux audio editor

It would be nice to have a pure KDE environment, but functionality is far more important.

Thanks for the reply - and I understand the difficulty - it might be best in my current circumstance to stick with Unity.

I'd like to follow-up with a question - does anyone know if KDE is used anywhere in a commercial setting? Most of the commercial distributions - Red Hat Enterprise and Oracle use GNOME. I'm not sure about Enterprise Suse. Ubuntu uses Unity. Since those are the major enterprise distributions (that I can recall at the moment), I do wonder if there are any commercial environments where KDE is used.

Thanks again for the reply,

[whatthefunk]

Thanks for the reply - and I understand the difficulty - it might be best in my current circumstance to stick with Unity.

I'd like to follow-up with a question - does anyone know if KDE is used anywhere in a commercial setting? Most of the commercial distributions - Red Hat Enterprise and Oracle use GNOME. I'm not sure about Enterprise Suse. Ubuntu uses Unity. Since those are the major enterprise distributions (that I can recall at the moment), I do wonder if there are any commercial environments where KDE is used.

Thanks again for the reply,

I dont know about that. GNOME apps generally work fine in KDE. Ive been using KDE for years with all the programs that I listed installed and have had no problem.

For info about commercial uses:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubuntu#Deployments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE#Notable_uses

[fballem]

Thanks for the information - it was most helpful.

[NickStone]

There is the SUSE Linux Enterprise Edition and Mandriva which both use KDE. Both are created for enterprises.

[GreyGeek]

There is the SUSE Linux Enterprise Edition and Mandriva which both use KDE. Both are created for enterprises.

And both are fine distros!

[SteveRiley]

If you just want a simple system and don't have to do anything special on it, you can probably get away with a more-or-less pure KDE install. But if you want to do more, pure KDE is impossible. Here are some non-KDE programs that dont have an adequate KDE alternative and that I cant live without:
-VLC - Dragon player is ok, but has issues playing something and sometimes wont play subtitiles. VLC plays everything you throw at it.
-Inkscape - if you want to do vector graphics on Linux, Inkscape is the only way to go.
-Wine - the only program available for opening Windows programs
-Steam - not KDE
-Audacity - havent found a better Linux audio editor

Possible KDE or Qt alternatives:

* VLC -> mplayer2 + smplayer. Likely to be replaced by mpv + cmplayer.
* Inkscape -> Karbon

[kubicle]

Possible KDE or Qt alternatives

VLC uses Qt (on linux and windows)

[SteveRiley]

Right. Sigh...typing before thinking again!

[Teunis]

IIRC the Munich distro is also KDE.

But most of us don't care all too much, you install what suits your needs.

A while ago I did a bare bone server install and then added KDE, it worked.
And soon afterwards I added Kubuntu because so much stuff was not there