Kubuntu 25.04 - reviews.

[Nunzio_77]

Hi,
A few days ago I installed Kubuntu 25.04 on a laptop of mine that's about 20 years old, and which I've done a small hardware upgrade over time.
My laptop is an Asus F3Sr with 4 GB of RAM, an Intel Core Duo 2 CPU, an ATI Radeon 2400HD graphics card, and a 512 GB SSD.
From my experience, Kubuntu 25.04 is running spectacularly smoothly, without slowing down the laptop despite its age.
The KDE Plasma interface is very attractive and renders the graphics of web pages, apps, etc. very well. The system runs very smoothly, and startup and shutdown times are very fast (just a few seconds).
I'm very happy to have switched back to Kubuntu 25.04 after trying LMDE 6, which caused audio issues when using a USB microphone with Audacity (a lot of background noise) and a few crashes. Audacity works perfectly with Kubuntu 25.04, as have other apps so far.

Is anyone else using Kubuntu 25.04? How are you finding it?

PS: Many Linux distributions these days don't make you miss Windows at all, whether in terms of graphics, smoothness, or functionality.

 

[lokamoka820]

Kubuntu is a good KDE distro, but I found myself using GTK apps mostly, so I stopped using Qt desktop environments in general to reduce libraries/dependencies installed on the system.

Regarding comparing Kubuntu to LMDE will not be fair in my opinion because they are based on different parent distro which is Ubuntu and Debian respectively, and Ubuntu known to be more ready out-of-the-box to use than Debian which needs to be configured properly by the users to fit their needs, yes LM team try to make LMDE as much ready as possible, but this depends on Debian capabilities, and this what makes Ubuntu a major distro not just another Debian-based distro, and this is why Ubuntu is the most distro that have derivatives, so if you like Cinnamon desktop environment LM will be more ready out-of-the-box than LMDE.

I'm glad to see more users try Linux and like to use it.

 

[Nunzio_77]

Kubuntu is a good KDE distro, but I found myself using GTK apps mostly, so I stopped using Qt desktop environments in general to reduce libraries/dependencies installed on the system.

Regarding comparing Kubuntu to LMDE will not be fair in my opinion because they are based on different parent distro which is Ubuntu and Debian respectively, and Ubuntu known to be more ready out-of-the-box to use than Debian which needs to be configured properly by the users to fit their needs, yes LM team try to make LMDE as much ready as possible, but this depends on Debian capabilities, and this what makes Ubuntu a major distro not just another Debian-based distro, and this is why Ubuntu is the most distro that have derivatives, so if you like Cinnamon desktop environment LM will be more ready out-of-the-box than LMDE.

I'm glad to see more users try Linux and like to use it.

Thanks for the detailed feedback.
Yes, I know that Kubuntu is a derivative of Ubuntu with the KDE Plasma desktop environment, while LMDE 6 (Linux Mint) is a derivative of Debian. I had installed LMDE 6 on that laptop because Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.1 (an Ubuntu derivative) would take about 5 minutes to boot, with a black screen, which didn't happen with LMDE 6, and it doesn't happen with Kubuntu 25.04. As I wrote before, I decided to go back to Kubuntu because I really like the KDE Plasma desktop environment, and for now, I'm not too concerned about the SNAP repositories, etc. Maybe one day I'll change my mind, but for now, I'm fine with it, and I find Kubuntu to be really high-performance and complete.
Yes, I agree with you that many users are now migrating from Windows to Linux, perhaps also because the Linux era, with its improved and simplified desktop environments, is attracting more users, making the transition from Windows to Linux easier and more painless. Furthermore, Microsoft's commercial policy, with its "mandatory" migration to Windows 11 and the related "mandatory" replacement of hardware if it's not compatible with Windows 11, is facilitating this migration for those who don't want to waste money on throwing away still-perfectly functional PCs/laptops.

 

[lokamoka820]

Thanks for the detailed feedback.
Yes, I know that Kubuntu is a derivative of Ubuntu with the KDE Plasma desktop environment, while LMDE 6 (Linux Mint) is a derivative of Debian. I had installed LMDE 6 on that laptop because Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.1 (an Ubuntu derivative) would take about 5 minutes to boot, with a black screen, which didn't happen with LMDE 6, and it doesn't happen with Kubuntu 25.04. As I wrote before, I decided to go back to Kubuntu because I really like the KDE Plasma desktop environment, and for now, I'm not too concerned about the SNAP repositories, etc. Maybe one day I'll change my mind, but for now, I'm fine with it, and I find Kubuntu to be really high-performance and complete.
Yes, I agree with you that many users are now migrating from Windows to Linux, perhaps also because the Linux era, with its improved and simplified desktop environments, is attracting more users, making the transition from Windows to Linux easier and more painless. Furthermore, Microsoft's commercial policy, with its "mandatory" migration to Windows 11 and the related "mandatory" replacement of hardware if it's not compatible with Windows 11, is facilitating this migration for those who don't want to waste money on throwing away still-perfectly functional PCs/laptops.

You are welcome.

Unfortunately, you are not alone who founds problems with Linux Mint, this is because LM developers start to remove a lot of Ubuntu components rather than just building over them, which makes stability issues, and a lot of users asked the developers to concentrate on LMDE instead rather than working on 2 distros in the same time, this is why Ubuntu Cinnamon released.

Now to be more clear, a derivative distro is a Linux distribution that is based on another original distribution, incorporating its features while adding modifications or customizations to suit specific needs or goals, but Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ununtu Cinnamon are other Ununtu flavors are just Ubuntu with different desktop environment, which makes them very stable compared to any other Ubuntu derivative distros.

 

[piquiteco]

@lokamoka820 @Nunzio_77 I was using Zorin on my old computer until a while ago, but sometimes it would lag when watching videos on the web, which was a pain, so I went back to Linux Mint XFCE and it worked perfectly. It's a shame that Zorin didn't work on my old computer, because I really liked the much more modern look of the Zorin distro.

 

[lokamoka820]

@lokamoka820 @Nunzio_77 I was using Zorin on my old computer until a while ago, but sometimes it would lag when watching videos on the web, which was a pain, so I went back to Linux Mint XFCE and it worked perfectly. It's a shame that Zorin didn't work on my old computer, because I really liked the much more modern look of the Zorin distro.

XFCE way better for old devices, I know it could be ugly in its default state, but customizing it has no limits.

 

[Nunzio_77]

You are welcome.

Unfortunately, you are not alone who founds problems with Linux Mint, this is because LM developers start to remove a lot of Ubuntu components rather than just building over them, which makes stability issues, and a lot of users asked the developers to concentrate on LMDE instead rather than working on 2 distros in the same time, this is why Ubuntu Cinnamon released.

Now to be more clear, a derivative distro is a Linux distribution that is based on another original distribution, incorporating its features while adding modifications or customizations to suit specific needs or goals, but Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ununtu Cinnamon are other Ununtu flavors are just Ubuntu with different desktop environment, which makes them very stable compared to any other Ubuntu derivative distros.

Thank you, your explanations and details are very interesting. I completely agree with what you wrote about derivatives. I've only been exploring this Linux world for a few months. I also tried Ubuntu Cinnamon on the same laptop, precisely to avoid using Linux Mint, which is an Ubuntu derivative, rather than using Ubuntu directly. Unfortunately, however, I don't know why it slowed down my laptop and caused some system crashes, whereas Kubuntu works very well. Furthermore, Ubuntu Cinnamon is the only one that recognized the driver for an external WiFi antenna I have to improve speed. LMDE and Kubuntu don't recognize it, and honestly, I still haven't been able to get them to recognize the drivers I found online. At the moment, I'm using the internal WiFi, which has been recognized without any problems. I don't like the GNOME desktop environment at all.

 

[Nunzio_77]

@lokamoka820 @Nunzio_77 I was using Zorin on my old computer until a while ago, but sometimes it would lag when watching videos on the web, which was a pain, so I went back to Linux Mint XFCE and it worked perfectly. It's a shame that Zorin didn't work on my old computer, because I really liked the much more modern look of the Zorin distro.

Have you tried Zorin version 17.3 (core build)? In version 17.3, they've streamlined GNOME (the desktop environment on which Zorin's interface is based).

 

[lokamoka820]

Thank you, your explanations and details are very interesting. I completely agree with what you wrote about derivatives. I've only been exploring this Linux world for a few months. I also tried Ubuntu Cinnamon on the same laptop, precisely to avoid using Linux Mint, which is an Ubuntu derivative, rather than using Ubuntu directly. Unfortunately, however, I don't know why it slowed down my laptop and caused some system crashes, whereas Kubuntu works very well. Furthermore, Ubuntu Cinnamon is the only one that recognized the driver for an external WiFi antenna I have to improve speed. LMDE and Kubuntu don't recognize it, and honestly, I still haven't been able to get them to recognize the drivers I found online. At the moment, I'm using the internal WiFi, which has been recognized without any problems. I don't like the GNOME desktop environment at all.

Cinnamon desktop environment, known to be heavy if not the heaviest on CPU, I noticed that when I use it on my laptop the CPU temperature always become high whatever task I do, this will cause slowdowns sometimes, and Ubuntu Cinnamon is a new distro compared to Kubuntu and Linux Mint (almost 3 years old) so it will crash from time to time.

Regarding external Wi-Fi antenna I think it is recognized by Ubuntu Cinnamon because it relies on GNOME Network Manager which simple and robust compared to other desktop environment's network managers, and it often includes more drivers by default which makes it more plug-and-play, while Linux Mint tries to eliminate as much GNOME components as possible in its cinnamon desktop environment.

If GNOME desktop environment can recognize your external Wi-Fi antenna, try to find the driver and install it manually in any distro you need to use, I hope this could help.