PCBSD / Kubuntu

[cchase88]

I've been interested in learning about *nix. Has anyone used PCBSD, and if so how does it stack up to Kubuntu (KDE version of Ubuntu) and visa versa?

 

[todpod]

Being far from an expert here, just installed PC BSD, Had Kubuntu installed. I like the .pbi packages for PC BSD they were pretty slick. Most everything worked pretty well in Kubuntu, had some issues installing stuff. Video in Kubuntu kinda sucked, it did work most of the time, but the players seemed lacking. If you want to really learn nix stuff then get a distro like free bsd, debian. I was looking to replace windows, Kubuntu did pretty well with that, but not quite up to snuff, maybe fiesty fawn wll do that. PC BSD doesn't seem to have enough packages yet.

 

[cchase88]

Sweet, I've heard alot about debian before, would that be too advanced for a beginner at *nix systems? I've messed around some with installing FreeBSD and getting Xfce/KDE running and everything.

 

[Karot]

I like PC-BSD much better than Ubuntu and Kubuntu. PC BSD is FreeBSD with some usability features layered on top. PCBSD also does better at hardware detection that Ubuntu, at least for me.

Kubuntu IS Debian. You can do a lot of Debian things and have access to the same great package manager. The only thing that bugs me about it is that you have to do everything with sudo.

I'd recommend PCBSD but if you really want to try Linux, definitely try SuSE.

 

[todpod]

I just want to make a move as painlessly as possible. I can do everything pretty much with Kubuntu that I can in windows. I am not looking to be a linux junky. Just download it as see what happens.

 

[Karot]

Try SuSE. You'll be very pleased.

 

[TonyRic]

Originally posted by: Karot
Try SuSE. You'll be very pleased.

Not out of the box he won't. By default, the included players disable mp3 playback and Xine won't allow (again by default) you to install libdvdcss2 to play DVD's. This kind of crap is what drove me from SuSE in the first place 2 years ago. I have tried two releases since and that issue still exists. Ubuntu is the best Linux Distro (in my opinion) for any beginner out there. Better to get Ubuntu and then install kubuntu-desktop on top of it though.

 

[slugg]

Originally posted by: Karot
The only thing that bugs me about it is that you have to do everything with sudo.

Not entirely true. By default, Ubuntu and Kubuntu don't come with a root user password (for security reasons) so you're partially right. But, there's a "fix" for it. All you have to do is enter a password and then you can create super user sessions (root). To do it, open up a terminal, then:

- dont enter quotes.. i use them to be clear, thats all.
- in the console, type "sudo passwd" and hit enter.
- it will prompt you to enter your password. This is for "sudo" to work. At this time, enter your password and hit enter.
- Since we did the "sudo" command, it'll run the "passwd" program as the root user. Now it'll ask you to enter a new unix password. Enter whatever password you'd like for your root user.

At this point, you're now able to create super user sessions using your root password! To do this, you can either log in as "root" in the terminal, or you can just enter the command "su" (for Super User) into any console regardless of what username you're currently under.

edit: woops. I forgot about the OP's question. Here it goes

Kubuntu or Ubuntu are both great choices to get started. There is a LOT of beginner friendly information available about these distros.

The biggest complaint I hear about Kubuntu and Ubuntu is that audio and video support isnt good out of the box. This is because of licensing issues with the codecs (like mp3). After you install Kubuntu/Ubuntu, you can easily install the proprietary, free but closed source codecs and voila, good media support.

I just started getting into linux in early January. Since then, I'm almost completely switched to linux and open source software. I even play World of Warcraft in linux. I still have windows for the games that wont work under linux (such as Steam based games. The games work, but Valve Anti-Cheat doesnt). I've tried Gentoo, Sabayon, Debian, Fedora, Suse, Ubuntu, and Kubuntu. Out of all of them, I'd recommend Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Currently, Kubuntu is my weapon of choice

Any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Karot]

Ah ah heck. Your advice has come too late slugg! I've already switched from Ubuntu.

And why don't you just use VLC to play stuff? Support for tons of stuff out of the box and it's easy to use.

 

[slugg]

vlc is nice yea... Just saying, if you want to use the included software (like Amarok, which is totally awesome), you still have the option