I understand the fear of installing. When I first started in Linux a dozen
years ago, it was very different. I was using Mandrake (now Mandriva) and
lived in dependency hell for two years till I switched to Debian based
distros. Things broke all of the time. So I understand a bit of the concern.

However, we have come a long way. Linux invented the app store and most
people are familiar with the concept of installing apps from the iPhone and
Android. Installing an application from the Software Center or Synaptic is
just reading a name from a list with description. Putting in you password
and waiting. That should not induce too much fear any more. The fear is
most likely in messing things up once you have it they way you want. That
can happen just as easily with an upgrade as with an installation and is
not peculiar to Linux. Computers with all of the peripherals and
applications can be finicky. One can adversely affect the other or there
can be memory leaks and conflicts that freeze or crash even in the W
operating system. I suggest that you start small and make modest changes
and then once your comfort level builds then you try more.

I am a Kubuntu guy and have not found anything that can come close to KDE
in terms of its functionality and power, not to say configurability. People
is GNOME-osphere, that includes Unity, GNOME Shell, Cinnamon and Mate are
headed in one direction which is the opposite of KDE. That is fine if that
is what you want.

I resent dumbing down the interface. I resent having features stripped and
things simplified to the degree that they become harder to user and in some
cases useless. Nautilus is a case in point. Users of older versions may not
understand my point, but users of the newest will. Dolphin, the KDE file
manager, is head and shoulders better. You can actually use it. People will
use what they want.That is the way it should be. Just understand that it
does not have to be that way. You have lots of choice.

Incidentally, Linus Torvalds is back to KDE. He was originally a KDE user,
then flipped out as he is prone to do, when they went to KDE 4 some years
ago. In much the same way as some users have flipped over the loss of GNOME
2. He switched to GNOME 2 for a time and was not happy. When GNOME 3 came
out he denounced it and moved to XFCE. Now he is back to KDE 4. Who knows
for how long? My point is that you do not have to take what is given with a
distribution. You can modify it to suit your changing needs.

For an older computer you should definitely get a desktop environment/
distribution that will not eat up resources. That would be XFCE or LXDE,
IMO. There is no advantage to GNOME 3 based desktops such as GNOME shell,
Unity, Cinnamon or a KDE desktop. They all are higher end in terms of
resource consumption. The problem IMO is that when you simplify and remove
features that it should run faster than say, KDE which has way more
features. That is not the case. You are getting less without any benefit
--- unless you like things stripped down. My opinion on this is why not get
the whole enchilada and use only what you want and configure it to your
liking instead of getting something that you are unhappy with and then
grumbling.

(To the moderator this is off topic, but so are the people who prompt me to
be off topic, so I ask you to consider what I write before ruling it
controversial. I think some people are out of line and not being helpful
and hope that you will take this the right way. I am singling nobody out by
name. If you choose to not print this then I suggest that you deal with the
problem of people making unhelpful suggestions and trolling.)

I think that I have said enough about Mint. You either like it or not. In
my case, not. I have provided reasons which you can discount or not. It is
just opinion.

Mint users are getting to be tiresome to me. Their suggestion
for everything, even the smallest problem, is to install Mint. There is no
silver bullet.

Mint has the same kernel, the same drivers, the same GNU libraries, the
same bootloader and installer as Ubuntu. All are taken right from Ubuntu's
repos. Where it differs is the desktop environment, a few apps and
cosmetics. That does not make it better, just different.

Problem #1 is Mint users are asking people to switch from Ubuntu to Mint
which means re-installing which is a lot of work for many users. So when
they re-install everything that requires re-installing, the root directory,
is basically the same in Mint and Ubuntu. The desktop environment, branding
and theming are different. Most of that occurs once once X loads. You can
add the Mint sources to Ubuntu and vice versa. That is how similar they
are. You can add Mint themes, apps, menu, and desktop to an
Ubuntu installation. I have done it many times. Yet, for some reason, Mint
users persist in the notion that Mint is superior. That is blatantly false
and FUD.

Problem #2 is that it is not helpful to have only one solution to all
problems. And if that one solution is based on FUD it is destructive and
not helpful at all. This is supposed to be a help forum. You are supposed
to *read* what the person is *asking* and them try to help them out of it.
To suggest that if you install Mint or Puppy that your problem will go away
is not a solution. It is blowing somebody off.

If the question is what distro should I install then it is fair to suggest
Mint or Puppy. The topic here is kubuntu ubuntu. I see no mention of Mint
by the questioner. It is like the only contribution for some people is to
suggest Mint at every opportunity whether it is germain to the topic or
not. Are you serious that you see as helpful? You could be sending someone
on a wild goose chase, making more work and in the end they may end up
where they started, with the same problem. Granted a fresh installation can
improve most systems, but that could be accomplished with what they had as
easily as with Mint.

I am sure that Mint users are happy. That is good. But you do a disservice
to others who are not asking to re-install or make more work for
themselves. To me this is borderline trolling. You are lurking and then
getting in an advertisement in for Mint on an Ubuntu forum. It is trying to
build your favourite distro up at Ubuntu's expense. I defend Unity,
Canonical and Ubuntu perhaps more than I should since Kubuntu is no longer
related to any of them.

Problem # 3 is that this kind of behaviour is not healthy for the Linux
community. We need to grow and we best can do that by being constructive
and not destructive. I would like to see an end to the attacks on Unity and
Ubuntu and the senseless and unhelpful comments. Please read the question
and if you cannot answer it then do not look for it as an opportunity to
troll. I find this annoying and I am not even an Ubuntu or Unity user.