Developer Blue Systems Working state Current | OS family Unix-like Source model Open source | |
 | ||
Initial release April 8, 2005; 11 years ago (2005-04-08) Latest release 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) / October 13, 2016; 5 months ago (2016-10-13) | ||
Kubuntu (/kuː.ˈbuːn.tuː/ koo-BOON-too) is an official flavour of the Ubuntu operating system which uses the KDE Plasma Desktop instead of the Unity graphical environment. As part of the Ubuntu project, Kubuntu uses the same underlying systems. Every package in Kubuntu shares the same repositories as Ubuntu, and it is released regularly on the same schedule as Ubuntu.
Contents
Kubuntu was sponsored by Canonical Ltd. until 2012, and then directly by Blue Systems. Now employees of Blue Systems contribute upstream, to KDE and Debian, and Kubuntu development is led by community contributors. During the changeover, Kubuntu retained the use of Ubuntu project servers and existing developers.
Name
"Kubuntu" is a registered trademark held by Canonical. It is derived from the name Ubuntu, prefixing a K to represent the KDE platform Kubuntu is built upon (following a widespread naming convention of prefixing K to the name of any software released for use on KDE platforms), as well as the KDE community.
Since ubuntu is a Bantu term translating roughly to "humanity", and since Bantu grammar involves prefixes to form noun classes, it turns out that the prefix ku- having the meaning "toward" in Bemba, kubuntu is also a meaningful Bemba word or phrase translating to "toward humanity". Reportedly, the same word by coincidence also takes the meaning of "free" (without payment) in Kirundi.
Comparison with Ubuntu
Kubuntu typically only differs from Ubuntu in graphical applications and tools:
Kubuntu's Plasma Desktop is fully customizable without extra tools or configuration file editing. Originally designed to ease transition for users from other operating systems (such as Microsoft Windows) by allowing a similar desktop layout, the KDE Plasma Desktop incorporates widget-centric modularity that allows the user to incorporate function similar to all other operating systems and also create new functionality not found in other operating system desktops. Desktop effects are integrated in the standard KWin installation, and enabled by default.
Because Ubuntu and Kubuntu use the same sources, any application intended for one is installable and runnable on the other. Consequently, it is very common to see situations such as Firefox running on Kubuntu, or K3b running on Ubuntu.
History
The birth date of Kubuntu was the 10th December 2004 at the Ubuntu Mataro Conference in Mataró, Spain. Canonical employee Andreas Mueller, from Gnoppix, had the idea to make a Ubuntu KDE deviate and got the allowance from Mark Shuttleworth to start the first Ubuntu deviate, called Kubuntu. On the same evening Chris Halls from the Openoffice project and Jonathan Riddell from KDE started volunteering to the newborn Project.
Mark Shuttleworth, in an interview shortly after Ubuntu (which now uses the Unity desktop environment, previously having used GNOME) was started, stated:
I believe that the KDE community does phenomenal work, and having a community-driven distribution to showcase that work will help attract users and developers to the project. Our overall goal in the Ubuntu project is to further the adoption of free software on the desktop and the server, and we recognise that KDE is an essential part of the mix of desktop environments that allows people to find the best environment for their needs.
The Kubuntu team released the first edition, Hoary Hedgehog, on April 8, 2005 (2005-04-08).
K Desktop Environment 3 was used as default interface until Kubuntu 8.04. That version included KDE Plasma Desktop as unsupported option which became default in the subsequent release, 8.10.
On February 6, 2012 (2012-02-06), Canonical employee Jonathan Riddell announced the end of Canonical's Kubuntu sponsorship. On April 10, 2012 (2012-04-10), Blue Systems was announced on the Kubuntu website as new sponsor. As a result, both developers employed by Canonical to work on Kubuntu – Jonathan Riddell and Aurélien Gâteau – transferred to Blue Systems.
Releases
Kubuntu follows the same naming/versioning system as Ubuntu, with each release having a code name and a version number (based on the year and month of release). Canonical provides support and security updates for Kubuntu components that are shared with Ubuntu for 18 months – five years in case of long-term support (LTS) versions – after release. Both a desktop version and an alternative (installation) version (for both x86 and AMD64 platforms) are available. Kubuntu CDs were also available through the ShipIt service (discontinued as of April 2011).
System requirements
The desktop version of Kubuntu currently supports the Intel x86 and the AMD64 architectures. Some releases support other architectures including: SPARC, PowerPC, IA-64 (Itanium), and PlayStation 3 (however, a firmware update from Sony in April 2010 disabled OtherOS, making the PS3 unable to run other operating systems).
The minimum system requirements for a desktop installation are a 700 MHz x86 processor, 512 MB of RAM, 5 GB of hard drive space, and a video card which supports VGA at 640×480 resolution. The recommended system requirements for the desktop installation are a 1 GHz or better x86 processor, 1 GB of RAM, 15 GB of hard drive space, and a video card which supports VGA at 1024×768 resolution, and optionally supporting visual effects.
If "Desktop effects" are desired, a supported GPU is required.
Deployments
Kubuntu rollouts include the world's largest Linux desktop deployment, that includes more than 500,000 desktops in Brazil (in 42,000 schools of 4,000 cities).
The software of the 14,800 Linux workspaces of Munich was switched to Kubuntu LTS 12.04 and KDE 4.11.
The Taipei City Government decided to replace Windows with a Kubuntu distribution on 10,000 PCs for schools.
The French Parliament announced in 2006 that they would switch over 1,000 workstations to Kubuntu by June 2007.
A Kubuntu distribution, by La Laguna University, is used in more than 3,000 computers spread in several computer labs, laboratories and libraries, among other internal projects in the Canary Islands. Since October 2007, Kubuntu is now used in all of the 1,100 state-run schools in the Canary Islands.