Kubuntu 7-10 frustrations

[Jaydear]

I've just assembled a new PC and aim to run XP Pro and Kubuntu,
hopefully getting as good at Kubuntu as I am with XP (not a guru, mind
you).

I could not readily find any info on the www regarding installing
Kubuntu... I'm not saying there isn't any, but Google was not
forthcoming in my searches.

So I left some 80 Gigs free on the first 500Gig HDD and having
downloaded Kubuntu 7-01 and burning a CD from the iso proceeded with
the install.

Kubuntu loaded up on the first attempt - good. I selected install and
answered the various questions, quite confident that I had instructed
the s/w to load Kubuntu on drive 0, and away it went, apparently all
OK.

Now, this is where I think Mr. Gates must be dancing around his office
with glee, at the knowledge that only a super-geek is going to be able
to successfully install this Linux stuff. If that's the case Linux
really poses no threat to M$'s continued over-charging for bloatware.

Why do I rave on? OK, the first thing I discover is that Kubuntu stuck
itself on the second HDD. I am quite sure of what I selected and yet
have absolutely no idea why it did that. So that is nuisance number 1.

I decided to persevere and managed to find a place where I could enter
a static IP address, etc. which also seemed to go in OK. But not able
to connect to the network.

Nuisance number 2. Try some help... no, the help only seems to work if
you have a working connection - not real useful if that's what you're
looking for help with.

So, on another PC with XP Pro I was able to get onto the Kubuntu
website and found out that I need to set up a Samba server. I had no
luck following the instructions. In some places in Kubuntu it says
Samba is in and running. In others it says there's no servers set up.
Getting pretty frustrated now and gave up for the day.

It seems that the installer 'knows' there's a Windows installation on
the machine, so it would be nice if it defaulted to setting up Samba
to be useable on a Windows network. If it doesn't 'know', maybe the
question could be asked during the setup procedure. Just my two cent's
worth.

Anyhow, I've tried again today still with no progress. I want to
uninstall Kubuntu and try another day, maybe. I'd really, really like
to give it a fair go. Nuisance number 3. Now I can't find any
uninstall options. How do I get rid of K and the Grub loader and get
it to install where I want it?

I'd really like to get K7-10 up and running, but IMO it's not
friendly. Maybe I've been spoiled by friendly OS-X and various Windows
iterations. The Samba thing is way too frustrating. Over the years
I've set up plenty of PCs (Win 3.11 through to XP) and more recently
Macs and got the networking fine tuned and on the www without dramas
or any tech support, so why is setting up the same thing on Kubuntu so
bleeding hard?