Aslo, to make things clear, I'm using Ubuntu on the desktop, hence the Ubuntu-centricity of the above.
Audio/video codecs and so on are in much the same situation as the Sun JVM. There's a nice program called 'automatix' that installs all the conspicuously absent stuff on Ubuntu with minimal fuss.
The Ubuntu live CD is *slow* when compared to other live CD distributions like Knoppix. I attribute this to a lack of otimisation for live running in what is fundamentally an install CD. Ubuntu runs perfectly well once installed to hard disk.
Kubuntu is Ubuntu with a load of KDE desktop applications instead of all the Gnome ones. See also Xubuntu. It is possible to have all the Kubuntu and Ubuntu packages on the same system (should one user prefer KDE, another Gnome). It is also possible to be running a Gnome desktop and install and run a specific KDE package that you need to use, or vice-versa. The package manager will Do The Right Thing and install whatever KDE libraries etc are required to run it.
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Audio/video codecs and so on are in much the same situation as the Sun JVM. There's a nice program called 'automatix' that installs all the conspicuously absent stuff on Ubuntu with minimal fuss.
The Ubuntu live CD is *slow* when compared to other live CD distributions like Knoppix. I attribute this to a lack of otimisation for live running in what is fundamentally an install CD. Ubuntu runs perfectly well once installed to hard disk.
Kubuntu is Ubuntu with a load of KDE desktop applications instead of all the Gnome ones. See also Xubuntu. It is possible to have all the Kubuntu and Ubuntu packages on the same system (should one user prefer KDE, another Gnome). It is also possible to be running a Gnome desktop and install and run a specific KDE package that you need to use, or vice-versa. The package manager will Do The Right Thing and install whatever KDE libraries etc are required to run it.