No. Don’t do it.

As someone who just transitioned from a dual boot setup to full Linux with Kubuntu, I cannot recommend using any Ubuntu flavored distro to anyone. And that’s coming from a hardcore 20 years fan of Ubuntu’s.

Since 24.04, Canonical decided to impose the use of Snap packages for some software. Including Firefox, Thunderbird and CUPS printing system to name a few. There are no other options to install these software other than Snap packages. And using the apt-get command installs Snaps for these applications as well.

I don’t have anything against Snaps. In theory having these applications as Snaps is a good idea. But the sandboxing nature of that packaging system can lead to broken features, especially with browser extensions. Flatpak isn’t immune to this either.

Not having an alternative way to install software that is broken by the provided new packaging format, is a big problem.

The great thing about Ubuntu is that it’s in between having bleeding edge software and stability, and also having one, if not, the biggest software selection in their repos, along with tons of documentation and user provided solutions. No other distros hit that balance.

I think the closest thing you can do to using Kubuntu 24.10 would be to install Debian Testing, which is already pretty stable in comparison to other distros. Plus you get the same Debian way of doing things as Ubuntu, minus the restrictions provided by forced snap usage. Plus if you set it up right, you get a rolling release distro.

Personally I was able to work around the snap issues, but if I hit another hurdle with snaps, I think I’ll just say fuck it and install Debian Testing.