Is this possible?

[cherryfinals]

I'm fortunate in that I have a 'goat' machine that I can play with. Over the last week, I've tried to install, configure and use 8.10 and KDE4 on three occasions. 

Each time, it took more than two hours to get it setup and talking on my network. Twice the updates crashed and forced me to multiple reboots and command-line repairs to get it going again. 

The one time it did install and finish updates, I found that a lot of things that used to work by default were no longer there. And don't get me started on that abortion that is Dolphin.

Yesterday, I finally gave up in disgust and reinstalled 8.04 with KDE3.x.

The entire process from boot to usable machine, including all updates took less than an hour and a half. That system is once more in production and works perfectly.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with Ian that if Kubuntu wishes to remain the desktop/newbie leader, they need to either dump KDE4 or fix ALL the problems to restore usability within the next 60 days. 

As it stands now, I'm no longer recommending Kubuntu to my user base.

Stan

"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt


--- On Thu, 11/6/08, Ian MacGregor <ardchoille42 at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Ian MacGregor <ardchoille42 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Is this possible?
> To: kubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Date: Thursday, November 6, 2008, 4:07 PM
> I'm retired and spend my free time helping other folks
> switch to Linux - I 
> hold classes in my area to accomplish this. I usually offer
> a number of Linux 
> distros with Kubuntu and Ubuntu being the top two.
> 
> I have been using Kubuntu for a while. I spent a half an
> hour installing 
> Kubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) on my main machine and it usually
> takes me another 
> twenty minutes to get up and running. Yesterday I spent two
> hours attempting 
> to fix numerous bugs - I found over 20 bugs. 
> 
> Here's some friendly advice.. bring back KDE 3.5.10.
> Fork it, create a whole 
> new DE based on 3.5.10, do something because I refuse to
> use KDE4* and I'll 
> bet I'm not the only one.. it's the biggest pile of
> feces I've ever seen in 
> the software world. This is a classic example of
> "trying to look pretty and 
> sacrificing productivity in the process". At the very
> least, get rid of 
> plasma. If KDE4 were the only desktop environment available
> in Linux, I would 
> be switching to Microsoft Windows today - yes, KDE4 is
> _that_ bad. Luckily, 
> there are other desktops.. so today, instead of wasting my
> time fixing the 
> problems in Intrepid, I'm going to switch over to
> Ubuntu.
> 
> I'm not going to waste my time filing bug reports
> because KDE4 isn't worth 
> fixing. Sadly, I will no longer be able to offer Kubuntu as
> an option to the 
> folks in my classes.
> 
> Kubuntu has been awesome and intrepid could be awesome too
> but you're letting 
> the kde project kill what once was one of the two the best
> distro's on the 
> planet - today I'll be switching over to the other one.
> 
> If it were the mission of the KDE project to force their
> users over to other 
> DE's and WM's by turning their once beautiful and
> stable desktop environment 
> into total garbage, then I applaud the KDE devs for
> accomplishing their 
> mission.
> 
> Regards,
> Ian MacGregor
> 
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