When comparing Kubuntu vs Hardened Gentoo, the Slant community recommends Hardened Gentoo for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for misanthropes?” Hardened Gentoo is ranked 36th while Kubuntu is ranked 41st. The most important reason people chose Hardened Gentoo is:
Your only real options for a widely supported hardened distro are the Red Had distros (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora) of which Fedora is your best bet for a desktop , or Gentoo. You can make a hardened kernel in Gentoo while stripping unnecessary features, creating a much smaller attack surface, and using in-kernel mitigations others don’t.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Full featured desktop environment that is actively developed
Unlike some abandoned, unfinished distros, Kubuntu is up to date and offers a fully functional desktop environment that targets workstation users.
Pro Stable as hell
Super stable, never crashes.
Pro Good hardware recognition
Pro Everything is highly customizable
Pro It also has paid technical support available
Pro Comes preinstalled in several laptops and desktops
Comes preinstalled in several laptops and desktops. (Tuxedo, Slimbook, laptopWithLinux.com, Kubuntu Focus, Vant and other companies).
Pro An outstanding number of packages and PPAs, backports PPA
Pro Kubuntu Focus Suite provides highly tested, curated ecosystem for pros
Pro Very stable
Kubuntu is very stable, you can easily install the appropriate Nvidia drivers for your machines, and not have dependency problems whatsoever. KDE offers a great user experience, and Dolphin is a great file manager.
Pro Customizable
You can easily adjust the workspace to your needs.
Pro Light
Pro Supports custom hardened kernels
Your only real options for a widely supported hardened distro are the Red Had distros (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora) of which Fedora is your best bet for a desktop , or Gentoo. You can make a hardened kernel in Gentoo while stripping unnecessary features, creating a much smaller attack surface, and using in-kernel mitigations others don’t.
Pro Comprehensive hardened guide in wiki
From SELinux to PaX to AppArmor to.... The wiki has got you covered.
Pro Fully customized kernel that prevents server-side malwares with SSO mechanisms
Out of CentOS /RedHat/Fedora a hardened kernel is very easy to make.
Pro Best defense against NOP-sled malwares, even with ROP/COP mechanisms
Out of CentOS/RedHat/Fedora/OpenSUSE/Slackware/FreeBSD/Mandriva and Arch, only Gentoo can best protect you against NOP-sled malwares, even with ROP/COP mechanisms.
Cons
Con Often unstable
There have been several bugs reported. Some of these bugs are: shutting down randomly, refusing to boot, refusing to shut down, menus may act strange, icons may disappear, etc.