First look at Kubuntu 10.04

[Doug]

Hello, and probably goodbye.

I d/l'd Ku 10.04 and set up the live edition.  Now I know what the guys 
on the SUSE list are bitching about with KDE 4.4.x. (I think yours is 
4.4.2.)  What a horrific mess!

I have been using PcLinuxOs for a couple of weeks now, and it says
it has KDE 4.4.5, and this looks a lot more like the old KDE 3.x.
(I don't know why Ku couldn't get it right!) I have installed PcLOs. And 
everything I've tried WORKS. (Almost all of it worked live, too.)

Anyway, in spite of the terrible screen, no video, no music, no mail--it 
wants some kind of security stuff--no printer--it knows what it needs 
for HP 2200D, but can't supply it--it can't just try Postscript, which 
should work, I went as far as I could.

So I d/l'd Ubuntu 10.04. Ran that live.  Still no music, but it says it 
needs mp3 drivers for sound, and mpeg drivers for video, and of course
running off a CD, it can't d/l them and install them anywhere, so I'll
give it a pass for now.  Printing works fine, altho slowly--I guess 
that's due to the live configuration.  Email is set up and works.
I'm not happy about the system tray being on the top, or the x and _
being on the left instead of the right, but I could live with that.

So why am I messing with xxbuntu?  I'm signed up for a college course in 
Unix/Linux in the fall, and I figured since the -buntu distros
seem to be the most popular, I'd go with that, in the absence of
information from the CS department over the summer, and I am fairly
familiar with KDE 3.x.  So on the laptop I just ordered, it will be
Ubuntu, without the K.  Too bad.  I was hoping for better.  (Of
course, the CS instructor may tell me to install Debian, who knows?)

I will respectfully await replies, and I have some time before fall,
so If someone can suggest remedies, I'll go look, but in the meantime,
I'll pursue Ubuntu.  And get work done on PcLos and W7.  If there
are suggestions, I remind the suggester that I'm a tyro at this:
that's why I signed up for the course.

--doug
-- 
Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. 
  --A.M. Greeley