Minimum list of requirements for KDE4/Kubuntu 8.10

[Hein van Rensburg]

I agree with Larry and have now done 15 installations with Kubuntu 8.10
and Ubuntu 8.10 on on hardware which is from very old to brand new and
also notebooks which is 5 years old and brand new.

In Ubuntu everything works and is easy to set up in a network and has
some really nice new facilities.

In Kubuntu 8.10 most things work and it is fine for a single computer
which has a always on Ethernet connection to the Internet. The new
Kontact is really great, Dolphin is working fine, the plasma desktop is
fantastic and it is generally a much more capable distribution than
anything else in sight.

However, I believe there is a range of principle functions which must
work for a distribution to be released. That is unfortunately not the
case in Kubuntu 8.10 and leading to the gripes which is seen on this
list and other locations. My observations are:

a. Networking is totally broken. It is just IP 6 and you can't even ping
another computer anywhere. This all works in Ubuntu but not in Kubuntu.
Do not even try to set up a small network with Kubuntu 8.10. You will
not be able to connect to anything on your network. This is really
unacceptable.

b. Network manager does not work for notebook computers with 2
interfaces. This program has been broken since Kubuntu 7 and really
needs some priority and management attention. It is impossible to set up
notebooks with DSL dialup links which many countries and thousands of
people use. Again the new network manager in Ubuntu is great. This
program alone has been the reason many people are turning away from
Kubuntu. I personally have filed several bug reports on this and nothing
ever gets done.

These capabilities are a basic minimum for a successful release in my
opinion. We have again succeeded to alienate a large part of our user
base just as we had in 4.0.