Ubuntu vs. Kubuntu ... just one!

[Rick]

On Fri, 2008-07-04 at 11:42 -0400, Bart Silverstrim wrote:
> 
> Rick wrote:
> 
> > It's all over. I'm writing this from Windows, because I can no longer 
> > get into Ubuntu. I removed the KDM and made sure GDM was still intact, 
> > but something still wanted a Kubuntu startup. Some data I saved; some is 
> > lost inside Ubuntu, but when I pass GRUB there's only chaos. Too bad. 
> > I'd just bought the Turbo driver for my printer, which Ubuntu doesn't 
> > support. Now I have to decide whether to dry my tears from the 8.04 
> > installation disk and try again, or wait six months for the next 
> > release. I do want to free myself from MS, but doesn't it seem just a 
> > little ridiculous to require so much fiddling just to achieve minimum 
> > functionality? 
> 
> What minimum functionality? What are you trying to do?
> 
> >Especially when I can already do everything on Windows. 
> 
> If you're happy with what you already have, why are you trying to change it?
> 
> 
> 
That's the question my wife keeps asking. I guess I'm just stubborn, and
would very much like to exchange Windows for Linux (especially after
Vista).

Let's see. Minimum functionality includes ease of access to said
functionality.
Hardware: printer, scanner, webcam. (I finally bought a driver for the
printer. The scanner "OneTouch 9020 usb" and the "QuickCam" webcam
remain outside the loop. I got a partial response from the webcam -
sound but bad video.
Software: I use the computer for reading multiple languages, generating
multi-lingual texts and site pages (mostly English and Hebrew). I no
longer do translating, so some of the pressure is off. I need a
comparative calendar application (Calendar Magic), a ready translating
application (Babylon), a tabbed note book (Knotes), a tabbed HTML editor
(Homesite), a two panel file manager, an FTP program, a stable of fonts
for the applications and nikud. I need my Firefox browser to open a page
and let me see the news videos in BBC, France24 or other news sources.
Ubuntu 8.04 seemed to provide for some of the functions, and that
encouraged me to search. Bluefish is almost OK for instance. Notecase
and the BSC file manager may be too. Dolphin works fine in Kubuntu, but
not in Ubuntu. I found that Kubuntu provided appropriate ease of access
functionality for such things as language integration and font
installation. Maybe the new Wine will work better, but the version in
the available repositories is still unsuccessful. I'm still looking.

I asked for advice for all of the above, and searched the information
sources. My adventure with Kubuntu is what ultimately crashed the
system. Anyway, that's a glimpse of what I'm trying to do. Ubuntu has
come far in the directions I want, but, well, there's still some to go. 

Rick