With Windows 10 support at an end, and Window 11 still a bit of an AI-riddle mess, there has never been so much interest in trying out Linux as there is today. If you’re looking for a Linux distro that will be easy to adjust to when coming from Windows, look no further than Kubuntu.
Kubuntu resembles Windows
One of the biggest stumbling blocks when you switch between operating systems is the user interace. How do you open and close apps? Where do you find apps? What is navigating the settings menu like?
In this regard, Kubuntu shines.
The taskbar and “Start menu” very closely resemble the sort of thing you would find in Windows. I think Kubuntu’s Start menu is particularly reminiscent of Windows 10’s Start Menu, which featured a number of pinned programs on the right side and a list of your applications on the left. You can pin new apps to it by right-clicking them and selecting “Add to favorites.”
The Settings app is also extremely intuitive, and I’d compare favorably it to the Settings menu you’d find on macOS. Unlike Windows, you have only one place you need to go to find things. You don’t need to remember which setting is buried in the Control Panel and which setting has been halfheartedly ported into the newer Settings app.
As one final bonus, finding and installing apps on Kubuntu (like most Linux distros) is easier than on Windows. You just use the Discover app to handle adding, updating, and removing applications, and system updates. I’d recommend starting with the KDE apps if you need an app for something—they’re usually excellent.
These are just a few examples, but the principle holds throughout the user interface: if you’re used to Windows, you’ll feel right at home with KDE Plasma on Kubuntu.
Kubuntu’s default apps are better than Windows
No one wants to start using a new operating system only to have to chase down a million different apps just to use their PC like they normally would, and here, once again, Kubuntu shines.
Kubuntu is a modified version of Ubuntu, which trades out Ubuntu’s usual desktop environment for KDE Plasma.
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Kubuntu also comes preloaded with a handful of excellent KDE apps, like Okular (a document viewer), Dolphin (a file explorer), and Konsole, which is the Terminal. Spectacle, the included screenshot program, is at least as capable as the Windows Snipping Tool, and I’d argue better in most ways.
My favorite included app is KDE Connect, which allows you to pair your phone with your PC over your local area network so that you can use your PC to send and receive texts, exchange files between your phone and your PC, and control either device. I’ve put it against Microsoft’s Phone Link on a few occasions and found that KDE Connect is consistently more reliable—impressive for something that is completely free.
Above and beyond what is included when you install the operating system, KDE also produces a slew of other programs that you can count on to meet your needs out of the box. Kdenlive, a video editing program, can hold its own against Adobe Premiere and DaVinci resolve. Kate is an advanced text editor comparable to Microsoft’s VS Code.
I’ve tried a ton of the KDE apps over the years, and while I don’t use all of them daily, they’re all good. Having a one-stop-shop for all of your basic (and sometimes advanced) application needs makes moving from Windows to Linux way easier than it might be otherwise.
Debian and Kubuntu have great support
Ubuntu is the most famous Linux distro, and the underlying Linux distro—Debian—powers a ton of other popular distros, like Linux Mint. Kubuntu itself is mostly Ubuntu. What does that mean for the end user? Documentation for everything.
Whether you’re trying to troubleshoot an error or if you just want to do something complicated, using a system based on Ubuntu (Debian) means that there is an enormous amount of support available on the internet for everything. That goes a very long way to making the transition from Windows to Linux way less painful than it would be if you needed to hunt through dozens or hundreds of pages of technical documentation just to sort out a basic issue.
The only area you can’t lean on Ubuntu solutions for is the desktop environment, since Kubuntu uses KDE Plasma rather than GNOME. However, KDE Plasma is very popular itself, and you’re not likely to have any problem finding discussions and solutions related to any issue you may face.
Kubuntu runs on anything
Windows is notoriously bloated these days, and Windows 11 doesn’t help the issue. Moreover, Windows 11 also imposes some pretty stringent hardware requirements: 4GB of RAM, it only supports “modern” CPUs, and you need TPM 2.0—something not found in a lot of PCs that are perfectly capable.
Once again, Kubuntu—like most other Linux distros—excels in this area. You could run it on a single GB of RAM and an ancient dual-core processor if you really wanted to. In practice, I’ve run Kubuntu 25.04 on systems with a quad-core from 2010 and only 8GB of RAM and found it is snappy and responsive, while Windows 11 dragged horribly on the same system. When I put Kubuntu on my now 5-year-old laptop, I went from worrying about how soon I’d need to buy a new laptop to a device that feels and runs like it is brand new.
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I haven’t missed Windows yet.
If you do find that Kubuntu is a bit sluggish on an older system, you can also turn down the visual effects in the settings menu to ensure you get better performance.
Once, switching to Linux was a bit difficult. The user interface wasn’t as fully developed as Windows, and you often had to lean on a command-line interface to get basic things done. Today, that isn’t the case—I haven’t touched the command-line for a “regular” task in the entire time I’ve been using Kubuntu. And, as an added plus, you don’t even have to give up gaming anymore, mostly due to Proton, a compatibility layer included with Steam.
