Whats the difference between different distributions of ubuntu? [Sitemap]

Egren71

24th October, 2011, 04:54 PM

As i understand it these three are created by the Ubuntu organisation.
Ubuntu is the ubuntu distribution with the Gnome / Unity Desktop.
Kubuntu is the ubuntu distribution with the KDE Desktop.
Lubuntu is the ubuntu distribution with the LXDE lightweight Desktop. It is a lightweight build and less resource hungry than Ubuntu and Kubuntu.

And these four that you mentioned are built on the Ubuntu organisations distribution but tweaked to whatever goal the team that release them want to achieve. I might have Xubuntu and Lubuntu round the wrong way but i don't think its a major difference. But i could be wrong.
Xubuntu is the ubuntu distribution with the XFCE desktop. Another lightweight distribution i think.
Edubuntu is the ubuntu distribution that is geared towards education.
Mythbuntu is the ubuntu distribution that is geared towards TV streaming and media serving.
Ubuntu Studio is the ubuntu distribution that is geared towards Music and video production.

The difference with the later 4 is that they contain all of the Ubuntu packages but will have other repositories in the package manager (Software center) by default that will give them access to software that is not available by default in the main Ubuntu organizations versions.
They will also install by default packages (software) to achieve the functionality that their distribution claims to give.

These packages and repositories can be added to the main Ubuntu distributions but they don't have them by default.

Another distribution that you didn't have in your list is Mint which is another Ubuntu based distribution which is has many of the plugins included by default needed for the functionality you would want from web pages and media players.
There are probably many others.

So in answer to your question of what one is better for a college student? It would depend on how powerful your PC is and wether you wanted everything installed by default when you installed the operating system.
The best thing about linux is it is free, most of them run from live CD's or can be made to run from USB sticks so i would suggest that you download a few and see which one suits your purpose. If you are just doing word processing type stuff then try Ubuntu or Mint if you PC is powerful enough (And it doesn't need to be as powerful as windows would need it to be.).Try Lubuntu if you PC is old and not very powerful. Obviously if you are doing something music or Video based then maybe Ubuntu Studio.

All of the ones listed here are Debian/Ubuntu based there are hundreds of others (See here (http://distrowatch.com/).) some are Debian based and some are not and you will find someone who will suggest most of them. It all boils down to choice, keep trying them until you find one you like. If you look on distrowatch the ones with the most downloads per month tend to have the most support.