Kubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" Review: Solid, stable KDE spin with KDE 4.13.0

Kubuntu is one of the distros which didn't undergo a lot of change over the last 2-3 years. Mostly it has been a stable distro with a stock KDE interface and a mix of KDE-nonKDE packages. Though it may not be called the best KDE distro around but it is definitely popular. Unlike distros like OpenSUSE or Chakra, Kubuntu never came with any distro-specific themes but relied more on the stock KDE and user preferred customization.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

On 17 April 2014, Jonathan Riddell has announced the release of Kubuntu 14.04, a new version of the desktop Linux distribution shipping with the shiny new KDE 4.13.0: "Welcome to Kubuntu 14.04 LTS, a brand new long-term supported version with the latest KDE software to enjoy. Long-term support means that bug fixes and security updates will be added for the next 5 years, so you can be safe to use it until 2019. New releases of important KDE software will also be available from the Kubuntu Updates and Kubuntu Backports PPAs. Software highlights: the KDE Applications and Platform 4.13 release introduces a greatly improved semantic search as well as stabilization and improvements in key applications like Okular; Mozilla Firefox 28 as default web browser; Muon Suite 2.2 brings additional improvements to our Software Center applications....".

For this review, I downloaded the 1 GB 64-bit ISO of Kubuntu 14.04 LTS. I used Linux Mint Image writer to create a live USB on a 4 GB pen drive and booted it up on my Asus K55VM with 2.3 Ghz Core i7 processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM and 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce 630M graphics. Post live boot, I installed it on a 50 GB partition.

Kubuntu 14.04 LTS ships with stock KDE 4.13.0 desktop environment and Linux kernel 3.13.0. Dolphin 4.13.0 is the default file manager.

In this review, I'll take you through first my experience with Kubuntu and then discuss the incremental improvements and new features at the end.


Aesthetics
Kubuntu ships with the stock KDE desktop and familiar KDE Elarun wallpaper. Aesthetics of KDE 4.13 are pretty much the same as was in KDE 4.12, I didn't note any significant different. Mostly the improvements are in functionality like semantic search, improved language support and improvement in applications to make it more accurate and reliable.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

As it is KDE plasma interface looks pretty awesome. Desktop theme of Air and Windows theme of Oxygen in Kubuntu give it a simple and clean look.

To spice things up, I took the wallpapers from my Ubuntu 14.04 installation and installed a conky manager to create my own clean and smart desktop in Kubuntu 14.04 LTS.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Desktop cube in not pre-activated and has to be activated through System Settings -> Desktop effects. Both desktop cube and cylinder with background came out clean in Kubuntu.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

KDE is one of the best desktops to support customization. There are hundreds of KDE themes and effects available online. Even it supports different themes in different workspaces and you can have multiple workspaces. I generally work with 4 workspaces as it supports desktop cube nicely.

In overall, for the beautiful stock KDE interface, I go with a 8/10 for aesthetics, 2 marks penalty for lacking originality.

Score for Aesthetics: 8/10

Hardware RecognitionKubuntu 14.04 LTS worked impeccably right from the live boot. It correctly recognized my laptop's screen resolution, sound card, WIFI, LAN and touch pad. Everything worked as expected and hence, I go with full marks for hardware Recognition.

Score for Hardware Recognition: 10/10

Installation
Installation is typical Kubuntu and no changes there. After a few easy steps and 15 minutes of download of third party codecs and Adobe flash plugin, you have a shiny Kubuntu on your machine.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Score for Installation: 8.5/10

Pre-Installed Packages
Kubuntu 14.04 LTS ships with pre-installed packages sufficient to meet daily requirements of a regular user, namely:

• Office: LibreOffice 4.2.3.3 (Base, Calc, Draw, Impress, Math, Writer), Okular Document Viewer, Korganizer, Sieve Editor
• Internet: Akregator news reader, BlueDevil, Firefox 28, KDE IM, KMail, KRDC, Ktorrent, Quassel IRC
• Graphics: Gwenview, Ksnapshot, Skanlite
• Multimedia: Amarok music player, Dragon video player, K3b CD/DVD creator
• Accessories: Ark Archiving Manager, Kate text editor, Klipper, KNotes, KDE partition manager, KDE Wallet Manager, Nepomuk Cleaner, Startup Disk Creator

Multimedia codecs and Adobe flashplugin get downloaded during installation and works pretty well with Firefox.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Office section is pretty strong with full LibreOffice suite, including Base and Math. Okular document reader works well with PDF documents but can't handle dynamic content in PDFs.

Kubuntu ditches KDE default browsers like Rekonq or Konqueror and opts for Firefox for good reasons. Firefox is definitely the better than these two in terms of stability and functionality.

KMail is another software which I find pretty useful. It is easy to configure for multiple email accounts and works pretty fast. For me it synchronized my Gmail address book very well.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

KDE IM is another software received significant improvement in the recent version. It has now a meta contact support for grouping the same contact across multiple network. The new release also includes more polish and refinement.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I miss a download manager (Kget), a VoIP client (Skype) and an image editor (GIMP) in the list. Otherwise, Kubuntu 14.04 LTS has almost all packages to meet daily needs.

Score for Pre-Installed Packages: 8/10

Improvements in Driver Manager
The previous Additional Drivers application is being replaced by the all new Driver Manager. The manager allows you to install and select the driver you want to use for software that has more than one supported driver, including proprietary drivers. In my case, it correctly selected the driver nvidia-331-updates that I configured in bumblebee.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Installing Bumblebee in Kubuntu 14.04
Bumblebee is right now directly available in Ubuntu Trusty repositories. I downloaded all the packages required for bumblebee to work correctly via the konsole.
$ sudo apt-get install bumblebee-nvidia primus linux-headers-generic bbswitch-dkms mesa-utils nvidia-331-updates

Then I added user to the bumblebee group:

$ sudo gpasswd -a arindam bumblebee

To ensure bumblebee works correctly, the bumblebee.conf file needs to be replaced by the content below:

$ sudo kate /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf

Open the bumblebee.conf in kate and replace the content by the following text:

# Configuration file for Bumblebee. Values should **not** be put between quotes

## Server options. Any change made in this section will need a server restart
# to take effect.
[bumblebeed]
# The secondary Xorg server DISPLAY number
VirtualDisplay=:8
# Should the unused Xorg server be kept running? Set this to true if waiting
# for X to be ready is too long and don't need power management at all.
KeepUnusedXServer=false
# The name of the Bumbleblee server group name (GID name)
ServerGroup=bumblebee
# Card power state at exit. Set to false if the card shoud be ON when Bumblebee
# server exits.
TurnCardOffAtExit=false
# The default behavior of '-f' option on optirun. If set to "true", '-f' will
# be ignored.
NoEcoModeOverride=false
# The Driver used by Bumblebee server. If this value is not set (or empty),
# auto-detection is performed. The available drivers are nvidia and nouveau
# (See also the driver-specific sections below)
Driver=nvidia
# Directory with a dummy config file to pass as a -configdir to secondary X
XorgConfDir=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d

## Client options. Will take effect on the next optirun executed.
[optirun]
# Acceleration/ rendering bridge, possible values are auto, virtualgl and
# primus.
Bridge=auto
# The method used for VirtualGL to transport frames between X servers.
# Possible values are proxy, jpeg, rgb, xv and yuv.
VGLTransport=proxy
# List of paths which are searched for the primus libGL.so.1 when using
# the primus bridge
PrimusLibraryPath=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/primus:/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/primus
# Should the program run under optirun even if Bumblebee server or nvidia card
# is not available?
AllowFallbackToIGC=false


# Driver-specific settings are grouped under [driver-NAME]. The sections are
# parsed if the Driver setting in [bumblebeed] is set to NAME (or if auto-
# detection resolves to NAME).
# PMMethod: method to use for saving power by disabling the nvidia card, valid
# values are: auto - automatically detect which PM method to use
#         bbswitch - new in BB 3, recommended if available
#       switcheroo - vga_switcheroo method, use at your own risk
#             none - disable PM completely
# https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/Comparison-of-PM-methods

## Section with nvidia driver specific options, only parsed if Driver=nvidia
[driver-nvidia]
# Module name to load, defaults to Driver if empty or unset
KernelDriver=nvidia-331-updates
PMMethod=auto
# colon-separated path to the nvidia libraries
LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-331-updates:/usr/lib32/nvidia-331-updates
# comma-separated path of the directory containing nvidia_drv.so and the
# default Xorg modules path
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-331-updates/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules

XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia

Now after reboot, you'll see that the bumblebee is correctly picking up the nvidia-331-updates driver and laptop heat is minimized. To ensure bumblebee is working, run the following command in konsole:

$ optirun glxgears

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Repositories

Muon Suite 2.2 brings additional improvements to the Software Center applications, resolving various problems and offering an altogether more refined experience. Ubuntu Trusty repository is the only source of packages.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

There is no synaptic or Apper in Kubuntu and Muon is the only way to access repositories if you are not comfortable with Konsole.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

In addition to the packages provided, I installed GIMP 2.8.10, Chromium browser, and VLC 2.1.2 from the Ubuntu Trusty repositories and further, added third party repositories to install Google Chrome stable, google talk plugin and Skype (with 32-bit architecture).

Adding 3rd Party PPA's to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

These steps are to be run in the terminal to set up the key first, then add the source, update and finally install the stable version of the packages.

#Google-Chrome

$ wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable

#Google Earth

$ wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install google-earth-stable

#Google Music

$ wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/musicmanager/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install google-musicmanager-beta

#Google-talk

$ wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/talkplugin/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install google-talkplugin

#Canonical partner repository for skype

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ trusty partner" >> \

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/canonical_partner.list'

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install skype

Performance

Kubuntu 14.04 LTS gave me decent performance without any lag or instability. Boot time with autologin enabled is one of the fastest I have experienced among KDE distros. It boots on average at 39-40 seconds on my machine, which is 25% lower than average time taken by 64-bit KDE distros (52 seconds).

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

RAM usage is 6% higher than average KDE distros at 590 MB with system monitor running. I hope with more updates the RAM usage comes down. Even in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, I noted the RAM usage to be slightly higher than average GNOME 3 distros.

From Kubuntu 14.04 LTS http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Operating System (64 bit)	Size of ISO (GB)	Base	Desktop	Linux kernel	CPU (%)	RAM usage (MB)	Size of installation	Boot time (sec)
Debian KDE 7.3.0	0.7	Debian Wheezy	KDE 4.8.4	3.2.0	0-5%	423	4.1	49
Neptune 3.3	1.9	Debian Wheezy	KDE 4.11.2	3.10.12	0-5%	439	7.2	53
Netrunner 13.06	1.4	Ubuntu Raring	KDE 4.10.5	3.8.0	0-5%	475	5.9	40
Siduction 13.2.0	1.2	Debian Unstable	KDE 4.11.4	3.12.0	0-5%	478	3.7	60
Mint 15 KDE	1.4	Ubuntu Raring	KDE 4.10.5	3.8.0	0-5%	483	7.0	45
Solydk 2013.11	1.6	Debian Testing	KDE 4.11.3	3.10.3	0-5%	484	6.2	59
Bridge Linux 2013.06	1.0	Arch	KDE 4.10.4	3.12.5	0-5%	490	4.6	39
Mint 16 KDE	1.4	Ubuntu Saucy	KDE 4.11.3	3.11.0	0-5%	496	7.0	37
PCLinuxOS 2013.12	1.6	Mandriva	KDE 4.11.3	3.4.70	0-10%	496	5.8	65
Kwheezy 1.4	4.0	Debian Wheezy	KDE 4.8.4	3.2.0	0-10%	511	12.4	49
Kubuntu 13.04	0.9	Ubuntu Raring	KDE 4.10.5	3.8.0	0-10%	523	4.9	35
Manjaro Linux 0.8.9 KDE	1.8	Arch	KDE 4.12.2	3.10.30	0-5%	528	4.9	45
Mageia 3	1.4	Mandriva	KDE 4.10.2	3.8.0	0-5%	530	3.9	46
Calculate Linux 13.11 KDE	2.3	Gentoo	KDE 4.11.3	3.10.19	0-5%	537	7.1	64
Mageia 4	3.6	Mandriva	KDE 4.11.4	3.12.8	0-5%	540	8	56
Kubuntu 13.10	1.0	Ubuntu Saucy	KDE 4.11.2	3.11.0	0-5%	547	5.2	53
Chakra Fritz 2013.09	1.8	Arch	KDE 4.11.1	3.10.10	0-10%	550	5.0	41
Kubuntu 14.04 LTS	1.0	Ubuntu Trusty	KDE 4.13.0	3.13.0	0-5%	590	4.6	39
OpenSUSE 13.1	4.4	OpenSUSE	KDE 4.11.2	3.11.6	0-5%	593	6.0	53
Chakra 2014.02	1.7	Mandriva	KDE 4.12.2	3.12.6	0-5%	618	4.1	41
ROSA Fresh KDE R2	1.6	Mandriva	KDE 4.11.3	3.10.19	0-5%	620	5.4	53
Netrunner 13.12	1.6	Ubuntu Saucy	KDE 4.11.2	3.11.0	0-10%	623	7.2	48
Manjaro Linux 0.8.8 KDE	2.0	Arch	KDE 4.11.3	3.10.24	0-10%	655	5.0	66
Fedora 20 KDE	0.9	Fedora	KDE 4.11.3	3.12.5	0-5%	691	8.4	77
Korora 19.1	2.4	Fedora	KDE 4.11.1	3.11.2	0-5%	697	9.2	79
OpenSUSE 13.1.1 Education Li-f-e	3.3	OpenSUSE	KDE 4.12.1	3.11.6	0-5%	730	9.3	57
Korora 20	2.3	Fedora	KDE 4.11.5	3.12.6	0-5%	750	8.0	58

Otherwise, it is smooth experience using Kubuntu 14.04 LTS on Asus K55VM. Everything worked as expected. I felt it is a distro worth installing and perfect for production purposes with great stability.

Score for Performance: 8/10

Overall

Kubuntu 14.04 LTS is a totally functional distro with ample scope for user customization. I like it's stability, updated Linux kernel and subtle incremental innovations baked in. Anyway, I don't expect a long term support distro to begin with something radical and unexpected. True to my expectation, Kubuntu 14.04 LTS concentrates on consolidating the good work done over the last 2 years since Kubuntu Precise was released.

If you are KDE fan like me, definitely you should give Kubuntu a try for a trouble free experience. Everything works as expected and it is a definite candidate for production machines. A support of 5 years till April 2019 and ability to include the latest development in KDE through Kubuntu backports makes it further enticing. A definite recommendation from my side for all Linux lovers.

You can download 32 and 64 bit versions from here. The 32-bit version ships with PAE Linux kernel and works well on 64 bit machines with more than 4 GB RAM.

Overall Rating: 9/10
Breakup:
Installation (20% weight): 8.5/10
Aesthetics (20% weight): 8/10
Hardware Recognition (20% weight): 10/10
Pre-installed Packages (10% weight): 8/10
Performance (30% weight): 8/10