[ubuntu-uk] Kubuntu vs Ubuntu for new users

[Scrase, Eddie]

I'm probably stating the obvious here, but if the two bars are a problem, you can always move everything from the top bar down to the bottom and then delete the top bar (which is what I have done on my installation).  You can also replace the Gnome Applications/Places/System menus with a combined menu along the lines of KDE or Windows, although as far as I'm aware, you can't add text label to it.

> So far I'm finding KDE seems to be a bit more responsive and erm...
> sharper than gnome, but it doesn't seem to be as solid. I've found
> myself experiencing more application crashes in kde although as I'm
> using the tribe 5 release of 7.10 it could be because of that.

Some time ago I read an article where someone did a comparison of the memory usage of Gnome, KDE, and XFCE.  Gnome used more memory that KDE, which may explain why KDE seems more responsive than Gnome.  For what it's worth, XFCE was significantly better than either Gnome or KDE, and I have to say that I do like XFCE (and have it running on a very old Toshiba laptop).

> There seem to be more options for configuration in KDE, but I'm not so
> sure that new users would use them, and that they may get a bit tied
> up in them. Gnome layout seems a bit more sane, and I imagine it makes
> more sense to a new user.

Despite KDE being more customisable, I do personally like the simplicity of Gnome.