trying Kubuntu on Ubuntu

This was not hard to do, and I’d recommend it to anyone. Kubuntu offers the KDE interface, while Ubuntu has the Gnome one. Most important here, is what’s your preference. A decent breakdown of the differences between the two can be found here. But you’d probably have to try each one out to see which works for you better. Also somewhat important is that many applications are made specifically for one or the other interface, though they still CAN be used on either. So if you like KDE software better, then maybe you should stick with the KDE desktop, though it’s not completely necessary.

I will be linking to Psychocats for this post, and here they have a great rundown of how to install Kubuntu onto your Ubuntu (i.e. try KDE on your Gnome). For the full experience, you will have to install about 500mb of stuff. (and no, you will not lose anything in the process)
Kubuntu is blue by default, and has a different desktop layout. I didn’t delve too much further myself - it just wasn’t working for me. With the wider bottom toolbar and the bottom-left corner main menu, it reminded me of Windows too much, and that turned me off. For me, Gnome is much more new & exciting — though I’m sure all of this could be taken care of by customizing it to your needs… One user posted that the inherent ability for KDE to rt-click and choose where a file should go makes it better than Gnome (which is more limited?). Others like the software geared towards KDE much more (it’s hard to miss them, they almost all start with the letter “K”, like Konqueror, Kmail, KOrganizer, Klipper, etc). And others just like the default blue…

Granted, I didn’t give KDE too much of a chance — I only spent 5 minutes with it before I removed it all — but I’m still happy with my Gnome, and glad that I at least saw what I was missing (or not).