Ubuntu vs. Kubuntu ... just one!

[Nils Kassube]

Rick wrote:
> Since several of my requests for information about applications to do
> certain things either went unnoticed or there simply was no one who
> knew the answers, 

There was probably nobody who had an answer. It is unlikely that you would 
be completely ignored by everybody.

> I began to explore in Kubuntu. I used the following 
> advice:
> You could do $ sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop to cleanly
> install KDE and $ sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop to cleanly
> remove GNOME

Who's advice? "sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop" will not remove all of 
Gnome. "ubuntu-desktop" is a meta package to invoke everything needed for 
the Gnome desktop, but if you remove it, all the other packages it  
depends on, will still be there.

> Well, I did find some suitable KDE applications and gained a little
> insight into Kubuntu, BUT
> the above command lines did NOT do what they were supposed to do. I
> have repeated the above lines several times to uninstall and install
> Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Right now I have both Ubuntu and Kubuntu  ...  and
> KDE 4 as alternatives at login. I do not want all those alternatives.

What is the problem of having alternatives? I don't know about GDM, but 
with KDM I don't see the alternatives for the login, unless I invoke the 
appropriate menu. It uses the last used desktop for the next login. 
Therefore, I usually login to KDE without any extra selection unless I 
really have a need to use Gnome. I think, the same should apply to GDM.

> There are some K-programs which are clearly superior to what I found in
> GNOME, like Dolphin and NoteCase and the font installation system. What
> confuses things to an incredible degree is that shortcut icons
> (launchers) are not deleted together with the program, and often they
> continue to work even after they have been deleted / uninstalled.

If the shortcuts continue to work, the programs aren't really removed.

> How can I now (short of a clean installation) return the computer to
> Ubuntu, with a few selected KDE programs to supplement the Ubuntu
> arsenal?

Sorry, can't help you there. I would start synaptic and select the 
individual packages to remove. But that would take a long time, so I 
usually just leave unused packages installed. I can't imagine why that 
could be a problem unless you only have little disk space left.


Nils