Has Kubuntu become less stable?

[Mark Greenwood]

On Saturday 25 Dec 2010 22:31:44 Jeffrey Barish wrote:
> When I first started using Kubuntu a few years ago, I remember reading 
> complaints from people about how it had become less stable with 
> successive releases.  I was mystified by these complaints because I 
> found Kubuntu pleasant to use and reliable.  However, I was reminded of 
> the remarks when I upgraded to 10.04.  When 10.10 came out, I did a 
> clean installation hoping to eliminate any problems attributable to 
> kruft.  A few problems did vanish, but I am still amazed by the number 
> of problems I am experiencing.  I upgraded to KDE 4.5.4 hoping that the 
> latest code would solve the problems.  It did not.  I guess I am going 
> to hang on a little longer because there is so much that I like about 
> Kubuntu, but I'm wondering whether anyone else has had the same 
> experience.
> 
> Here's a sampling of some of the problems I am having.  The most 
> serious is that after running for 2-3 days, dbus-daemon starts 
> consuming 100% of CPU and the CPU temperature goes to 85 (it's normally 
> around 50).  I have to reboot regularly in an effort to forestall this 
> problem, but I still fear what could happen to my computer if I don't 
> catch the overheating quickly.
> 
> An especially annoying problem is that drop-down menus often do not 
> appear.  I get sort of a ghost of the menu, but no text is visible.  I 
> have to activate the drop-down over and over before eventually it does 
> appear.  I have had the X server lock several times.  Screen updates 
> often do not occur properly.  For example, half a window might scroll 
> while the other half does not.
> 
> KOffice tools are seriously broken.  KOffice used to be a joy: simple 
> to use and fast.  Now it's slow as a dog (I have one file that takes 
> about 5 minutes to open); it consumes screen space with a docker that I 
> don't use and can't remove.  It sometimes insists on scrolling whenever 
> I type anything so that the text is no longer visible.  Dates cannot be 
> formatted (meaning the formatting that I apply disappears when I reopen 
> the file).  KSpread seems unable to display the grid.  KNode was 
> missing some icons, but fortunately they have reappeared in the latest 
> upgrade.  On reboots, KDE still cannot keep track of which desktop some 
> programs were on.
> 
> And so on.  Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a deterioration 
> in stability?
> 

I think probably what you're seeing is just the immaturity of KDE4. I went through the same pain with KDE 3.3, 3.4, and the early revisions of 3.5. KDE4 has been a similar story. It's par for the course. KDE4 wasn't even useable until 4.2 came out, in fact I switched to Gnome for 6 months (an unpleasant experience I don't want to repeat). If history repeats itself, as it has a habit of doing, then once the KDE developers have finished developing all the fun new features KDE will start to become stable again. My guess, based on nothing, is that this will happen around KDE 4.8, just in time for KDE 5.0 to start the process all over again :-) 

For the record, I'm not seeing any of the problems you describe, with the exception of KOffice which for me is pretty much unuseable, but I definitely would not count KDE4.6 as anything like as stable or reliable as 3.5.4.

Mark