is it Kubuntu or is it KDE?

[Christophe Guilbert]

Hi, 

I also want to add my contribution to criticize KDE/Kubuntu , not because I want to criticize the hard work of the developers but because I LOVE KDE and definitely want to stay with KDE in the future however I am just tired and frustrated with the kubuntu 10.04, I am considering switching to gnome which I don't like as much 
I have been a big fan of KDE for +10 years, I get rid of windows a long time ago do I have KDE on all any computers I own (+10 desktop and 3 laptops).
The problem is that I have to spend days , weeks to figure out how to configure it , this is too much, I am glad we have this list thought, I hope we can work out the problems

Here are my frustrations , 
1) I spent days to try to install my ATI card with double display , only the manual install of ATI proprietary driver worked (the automatic install was working fine on kubuntu  8.04) - that means no automatics update for the futurs.
2) the network-manager which is install by default is sucks , I can't set a static IP easily , there no possibility to configure the IP in the setting anymore.
3) kpackagekit edit is really not as good as the previous KDE, I like something like the ubuntu software, but for some reason it does not work very well on Kubuntu , its a pain to select the package.
4) Transition between KDE 3 and 4 went really bad , thanks I did some backup , I had to start from scratch (well I wanted ext4 anyway) and manually rebuild my users home directory 
5) I use nxnomachine extensively and have numerous problem with KDE since KDE use extensively the edge display like NX nomachine, I use NX nomachine 24/7, if I can't make it work, its going to be a huge problem for me.
6) Could not find any tool to mount my HD in fstab using the label , etc .... you could do that with the old KDE
7) programs like kpdf lost .... ( I know it has been replace , but why not keeping the same name) my fingers did type kpdf for 10 years  , I guess I need to create a kpdf alias for Okular ! ;-) 

On an all , all those things together make me feel regrets that I install the new Kubuntu , this is not all negative thought , the graphic is really nice ,USB device mounting is great under dolphin,  many application are just better than ever. however I don't want to struggle that much to make my computer  working.


I  know it is not the purpose of the LTS distribution , but I really hope that the KDE/kubuntu team are going to release a more stable and functional release in this LTS 10.04 because once more I like the KDE concept but I am sure that a lots of people are going to turn away from KDE.

Anyway it was my 2 cents advice, KDE need to be more mature and I will wait for that

thanks for reading this.


Chris





On 29/08/2010 22:28, Luca Ferrari wrote:

> > Hi all,
> > I don't want to start a flame here, just to discuss and share opinions on my
> > favorite (until now) desktop and distribution. At the moment I'm running
> > kubuntu 10.04 with kde 4.5.
> > I've been running KDE since version 1 and never left it to switch to another
> > desktop, even when the "not-so-usable" 4.0 issued. I personally believe KDE is
> > the best desktop ever made, with ideas 100 steps behind other desktops. Plasma
> > is amazing in concept, QT are wonderful to use and develop, the desktop is
> > fully integrated, KMail and Kontact are the best mail&  pim program I've ever
> > seen.
> > However, in the last kubuntu releases I'm having too much problems, and I
> > don't understand if it is the distro or the desktop. My audio is not working
> > at all, the network applet is unable to connect me to a not WPA2-PSK access
> > point, my broadband modem is recognized, but does not work, and in general the
> > desktop is too much slow when switching between applications. Moreover,
> > konqueror is freezing sometimes and making the whole desktop locked for almost
> > a minute. Finally, amarok fails to tag my mp3s without errors. All the above
> > has been reported to this mailing list.
> >
> >
> > Now, just to give it a try, I installed the gnome desktop and...everything
> > worked fine: the modem, the audio, the network applet and most notably all the
> > desktop effects were running smooth.
> > This led me to think that the problem is not in the desktop itself, but maybe
> > in the distro, that is not giving to the desktop the same care as the gnome
> > counterpart. I personally don't like gnome very much, because I believe KDE is
> > too much better. I don't like the file manager, the menu without the search
> > (that is an upcoming of gnome 3) and in general the look and feel. However, my
> > desktop as it is now is almost unusable for me, so I'm considering switching
> > to something that "just works".
> >
>   
I can tell you I share your concerns and thoughts. Not about switching 
desktop but maybe distro. For me the switch to 10.04 have been nothing 
but troublesome. Unfortunately it seems the hardware on my new laptop is 
too new for Karmic (that I had working nicely) as I get no graphics at 
all when I try a liveCD.

But in 10.04 I have graphic driver problems, sleep function is erratic, 
hibernate does not work at all, cpu consumption seems higher than it 
should be, battery life shorter than it should be etc etc.

I have a feeling from "running around the net" that many issues relate 
to the kernel chosen for Lucid so I hope that if I hang in there for 
Maverick things will get back to functional.

But if Maverick does not do it for me then I will absolutely go 
PCLinuxOS or Fedora or something and at least give it a spin.

Note this is not meant to insult developers/maintainers - but to me I do 
not quite see how 10.04 can be LTS material. And I raised that issue 
even before it was released as I was concerned over the mismatch in 
timing between Ubuntu and KDE releases.

Best,
Sinclair

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