Kubuntu

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Overview
Kubuntu is a version of Ubuntu which replaces the GNOME desktop environment (the default in Ubuntu) with KDE.

Reference

 * home page

Kubuntu 9.04
2009-02-27 Kubuntu 9 Alpha 4 is much more usable than the earlier KDE4 releases I tried. I went ahead and installed it on my main system because I didn't really have anything to lose, and it has actually been quite stable and more responsive than my previous system (Ku8.04). It also knows how to talk to my video card without any custom drivers, which earlier versions didn't.

The KDEtwitter applet has some minor problems; if you allow it too many lines, it can cover the taskbar -- thus making it impossible to minimize again (you have to click on its icon in the taskbar to toggle it). Workaround: move the taskbar to the left side of the window, so you can access the icon again. Unfortunately, once it has grown to a larger size, it seems to get stuck there; they really need to make it movable and resizable.

The screen is now resizable (see notes below)... but I still don't understand why they still don't include screen size in the options you can access by right-clicking the desktop.

2009-03-02 the calculator applet doesn't let you enter numbers from the keyboard (mouse-only), and has no advanced mode for anything beyond basic arithmetic. Useless. They should set it to invoke SpeedCrunch instead.

The "K" menu now lacks a "Run Command" option, and you can no longer right-click on menu items to do various things with them as you could in KDE 3. Even in the new "kickoff style" menu, the right-click options are limited. Hope this will be fixed soon.

2009-03-05 The "detail" and "tree" view modes in Konqueror have been condensed into a single view, "detail", plus a checkbox option to turn on the tree. Unfortunately, (a) the checkbox is hidden in the preferences dialog, and (b) its value is not saved across sessions (nor is the view setting, but that's not new). So each time you start Konq, you have to set the view and go into the preferences to turn on the treeview. Saving settings doesn't seem to help. (I've become convinced that Konq developers are command-line-aholics who never actually use Konq, except possibly as a web browser.)

The problem with Konq "caching" its view of folders and refusing to refresh (even with shift-reload) until you actually enter the folder (and do a shift-reload) remains. Also, you can no longer get properties of folders by clicking on them in the left panel, and other left-panel operations seem to be more restricted than before.

On the bright side, there's finally a Samba configuration tool that actually gets shares working somewhat without requiring manual editing of smb.conf. Unfortunately, I can't seem to set my shares to be writable. There doesn't seem to be any way to change workgroups (you still have to edit smb.conf for that).

Kubuntu 8
2008-09-08 The KDE 4 version of Kubuntu 8.04 is both very shiny and very sucky. Many things are missing, such as a way to resize your desktop if X unaccountably decides your display only does 600x800 (this can happen if you boot up while your KVM switch is set to another machine). However, if you really want to try it, definitely get the upgrade to KDE 4.1 from [http://www.kubuntu.org/news/kde-4.1.1? here] (repository source to add).

Kubuntu 8.10 (which has the much-improved KDE 4.1) runs on my Sony Vaio PCG-F650 (256 MB), though it's rather sluggish in general and tends to get disconnected from the WLAN. I'll probably be installing the less-demanding Ubuntu or Xubuntu, since Kubuntu seems to be going more Vista-ish in general (RAMhoggery being just one example of that).

Kubuntu 7.04
2007-04-24 Kubuntu 7.04 has been giving trouble for some installations.
 * It upgraded ok from Kubuntu 6.10 on a Sony Vaio PCG-F650, although the wireless card needs to be manually reactivated after booting
 * It failed to upgrade from Kubuntu 6.10 on a Compaq Presario; the upgrade seemed to complete without errors, but the m-achine would not boot
 * The install/liveCD would not boot unless there was a readable floppy in the A: drive
 * A fresh install seemed to complete without errors, but the machine would not boot: screenshot