The one thing that I have noticed about Kubuntu is that it is noticeably faster than other versions of Linux I have previously used on computers of greater or equal hardware configurations. Debian based Linuxes, such as Kubuntu have a reputation for being faster than some other brands of Linux. I have run Fedora Core 3 on a similarly equipped machine and I currently have SUSE 9.3 Professional installed on a Dell Latitude laptop with an 850 MHZ Pentium III and 256 meg of ram. On both of these machines, Open Office 2.0, Firefox and other programs are more sluggish as compared to Kubuntu. I realize that a lot more is involved in comparing performance, including background programs, kernel variations, hardware configurations, etc., but simply from a user perspective Kubuntu appears snappier.