just out of curiosity could you run it on Ubuntu or is there more different then just KDE vs Gnome
Nope,... You'd have to install the Kubuntu desktop over the Ubuntu one (and thereby replacing any inconsistent packages),... essentially making your Ubuntu into Kubuntu... LinuxMCE is dependent on the QT framework, which is what KDE is based on... And I don't think that just installing KDE as an additional DE on Ubuntu would suffice... That's not to say that you could not (theoretically) start with a Ubuntu install, and them convert that install to a Kubuntu install... I was going to try that, but opted for installing from Kubuntu instead... However, I'm installing a few more packages than the average Kubuntu... and will see how it holds up...