Kubuntu Hardy: Mildly disappointing

News Type: Event — Sat Apr 26, 2008 4:33 PM EDT

technology, linux, kubuntu, dawning-valley

Well, it's that time of year again. The time of year when the Ubuntu faithful crash servers everywhere trying to download the newest version of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, or derivative (all at the same time). So instead of doing my usual column, I'm listing what's new in the latest release of Kubuntu and everything that it offers.

Nice things

Kubuntu Hardy has a lot of nice welcome features. First, there's a KDE 4 version, which packs the latest and greatest (but very unstable) desktop environment, as well as the default version with the rock solid KDE 3.5. Compiz Fusion support has (finally) come to KDE with the new Desktop Effects app. Wubi has been bundled as well, making it dead simple for Windows users to install and uninstall Kubuntu.

As far as looks, Kubuntu is basically the same. The theme is slightly different (apparently, an upgraded version of Crystal) and the window manager widgets are now powered by QtCurve, which offers really nice integration between Gnome and KDE. But you've still got the nice familiar KMenu, the powerful taskbar Kicker, and all of the Kicker applets.

The applications have all had incremental upgrades. In the kubuntu-restricted-extras metapackage, IcedTea Java replaces Sun's official Java. OpenOffice.org has been upgraded to the latest version (2.4.0). Many KDE-PIM pieces have been stabilized and enhanced. And as noted above, Compiz Fusion can be easily added with a click of a button.

Not-so-nice things

I'll admit it. Even though I'm a diehard KDE fan, I can't stand Konqueror as a web browser. It's the most awesome file manager in the world (Finder and Windows Explorer have nothin' on it), but it is a horrible web browser. KHTML (the engine that powers it) is most possibly the worst renderer ever. It's not quite as fast as WebKit (the Safari engine) and won't render everything like Gecko (the Firefox engine) will. Most important of all (to me), it won't work perfectly with Gmail and Google Calendar. Yes, that's Google's fault. But if I can't check my email or my calendar, I've got problems. Plus, I've grown to love Firefox's extensions. And since Firefox 2.0 always worked pretty well in KDE, I always used Firefox over Konqueror. But Kubuntu Hardy shipped version 3.0 of the popular browser. One of the new "features" was the ability to automatically theme according to the platform. So Windows XP users got an XP theme, Vista users got a Vista theme, OS X users get a Mac theme, and Linux users get a... Gnome theme. No KDE theme available. And Gnome themes look plain ugly in KDE. Plus, there is the fact that it doesn't always display right. Like in the case of Firefox 3.0. The tabs won't even display right. I know Firefox is a Gnome/GTK app, but it has always focused on a consistent interface across the platforms. Firefox 3.0 has failed that for now.

Also kind of upsetting is the video card changes. Before, you used to have two options for configuring your graphics card: running the command sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg or using the graphical interface. However, they've now taken out the video portion of the first code. Why's that bad? Because the second option doesn't always work. In fact, for me it didn't. It certainly detected my Radeon x300 card off the bat, but it gave me an older driver (ati, rather than fglrx) and wouldn't let me change it. This took away my ability to use 3D acceleration, which meant that I couldn't play too many 3D games. Or run Compiz Fusion. Not a good situation to be in. I finally figured it out, but it wasn't exactly intuitive.

Update: I reinstalled Kubuntu, and the fglrx driver installed without a hitch this time. Still wish the dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg would come back, though.

Finally, I've started having a problem that I had in Edgy but seemed to be fixed in Feisty and Gutsy. That is, when Kubuntu shuts down, it often will hang. The only way to turn it off is to hold down on the power button or run the old REISUB trick. I'm thinking this is probably related to my fglrx driver, but it's kind of annoying since it wasn't there before. Note: fglrx is NOT installed by default. However, many ATI users end up installing it as it usually is required for high end graphics

Conclusion

Overall, I'm not as excited as I originally was about Kubuntu Hardy. The Compiz Fusion enabler was especially nice, since I never quite got Compiz to work on previous distros. Wubi is certainly nice, but only for switchers (not old-time Linux users like me). And with problems that should definitely not be there, Kubuntu Hardy is rather mediocre.

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8.0

{"commentId":1737467,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

Andy Min

On the other hand, I heard that the Gnome counterpart, Ubuntu, was a huge success. Kudos to Canonical for getting at least one right.

{"commentId":1737467,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

3 votes

#1 - Sat Apr 26, 2008 4:33 PM EDT

{"commentId":1737576,"authorDomain":"finalcut"}

finalcut

I did a clean install of Ubuntu last night and it went swimmingly. I'm using the closed Nvidia driver but it downloaded it and installed it perfectly on my Del m170 xps laptop. Overall I'm very happy with it.

I've already gotten most of my dev environment configured (apache2, coldfusion 8, php, ruby, and jdk 5 and 6 and eclipse)

I'll still have to run windows in the new virtualization option for when I have to do some windows .net development (I know about mono but can't risk it when dealing with the code for my customer).

Amazingly this has been, by far, the smoothest and easiest OS installation I have ever done BAR NONE. Video Card, Wireless Card, external drive, everything worked perfectly right off the bat.

{"commentId":1737576,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"finalcut"}

2 votes

#1.1 - Sat Apr 26, 2008 5:27 PM EDT

{"commentId":1739009,"authorDomain":"rel3vant"}

badkungfu

That's too bad about Kubuntu. I upgraded Ubuntu yesterday and everything went pretty well. I think i have my system so customized that it takes me longer to figure out what changed. Ruby still works, and that's all that really matters :)

A lot of 'polish' in this release. The improvements in the control panel, bluetooth management and SMB shares are definitely nice. I did have to recompile ALSA to get my sound working, though. Also, I had Firefox 2 and 3b4 installed since some extensions I rely on haven't been fixed for 3 yet- so it bugged me a little that it removed 2 for me. Easily fixed.

I second the kudos to Canonical for Ubuntu and hope that they'll fix those issues with Kubuntu soon.

{"commentId":1739009,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"rel3vant"}

2 votes

#2 - Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:31 AM EDT

{"commentId":1739650,"authorDomain":"mipadi"}

mipadi

Don't feel too bad about the theme -- the Mac OS X theme in Firefox 3 isn't so great, either.

And Konqueror might eventually be moving to WebKit.

{"commentId":1739650,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"mipadi"}

2 votes

#3 - Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:07 PM EDT

{"commentId":1739767,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

Andy Min

You all sound pretty fortunate... because today, GRUB stopped working. So yeah, right now I'm in SLAX on my alternate computer while reinstalling Kubuntu :-(

Hopefully, it was just a freak accident and this new version will be a little better...

{"commentId":1739767,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

3 votes

#4 - Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:54 PM EDT

{"commentId":1740192,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

Andy Min

Well, reinstalled, and I'm having less problems. I guess at least a little bit of it was due to a faulty install (though how, I have no idea).

{"commentId":1740192,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

3 votes

#4.1 - Sun Apr 27, 2008 6:02 PM EDT

{"commentId":1744802,"authorDomain":"doog"}

doog

For ATI card users, use gdm instead of kdm and you should be able to log out without black-screens.

I have a Gnome/Hardy beta installation running the latest updates and when I installed kubuntu-desktop, Firefox will not run in KDE. I've reconfigured, uninstalled/reinstalled but not Firefox in KDE. I went with kdm and got the black-screen on logout and when I rebooted and went back to gdm, logout in KDE worked. Go figure.

Kubuntu-KDE4 is looking good but as mentioned, way way unstable right now.

{"commentId":1744802,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"doog"}

1 vote

#5 - Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:13 PM EDT

{"commentId":1834201,"authorDomain":"sasa-tomic-forwarded"}

Sasa Tomic

This solved the problem of logging-out and/or rebooting with ATI drivers and KDM for me:

http:// www.kalaj.org /blog/2008/05/23/solved-blank-screen-on-logoutreboot-with-ubuntukubuntu-hardy-heron-804-on-t60-with-ati-card/

good luck!

{"commentId":1834201,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"sasa-tomic-forwarded"}

1 vote

#5.1 - Fri May 23, 2008 12:45 PM EDT

{"commentId":1744822,"authorDomain":"jaybutler"}

Jay Butler

Andrew: I have relatively limited exposure to Linux (basically using my current box as a file server and MySQL server). Why would you choose KDE over Gnome? I used KDE when I had a SuSE box, but stuck with Gnome for Ubuntu.

{"commentId":1744822,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"jaybutler"}

2 votes

#6 - Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:19 PM EDT

{"commentId":1744930,"authorDomain":"linux-dad"}

Randall Burt

That particular question (Gnome vs. KDE) is an old one. The epic flame wars that erupt now and again often boil down to religion. One could argue the technical merits of GTK vs. Qt, but the reality is that you will likely chose the one that "feels" right to you. You really can't go wrong one way or the other, so spend some time in both if you feel like you're missing something. If you're productive and happy in Ubuntu/Gnome, there really is no compelling reason to switch.

{"commentId":1744930,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"linux-dad"}

2 votes

#6.1 - Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:54 PM EDT

{"commentId":1745868,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

Andy Min

Really stupid answer, actually. I originally went with KDE because of Kopete. See, Kopete had audio/video capability while Pidgin/Gaim didn't. I thought you could only run KDE apps on KDE (you can actually run them on Gnome as well). :-P

I stuck with it because I like the "look" better and because KDE is overall (generally speaking) more easily customized than Gnome (though that's not always true, that's the stereotype).

{"commentId":1745868,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

3 votes

#6.2 - Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:20 AM EDT

{"commentId":1744951,"authorDomain":"jeremyblacroix"}

Jeremy LaCroix

No offense, but your reasons for calling Kubuntu "mediocre" are petty and not the Ubuntu developers fault. I too have some minor issues with Kubuntu, but not the same ones you've mentioned. Even if Kubuntu has a few problems, I think you're not giving it enough credit.

{"commentId":1744951,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"jeremyblacroix"}

1 vote

#7 - Mon Apr 28, 2008 11:01 PM EDT

{"commentId":1745874,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

Andy Min

Don't get me wrong, I love Kubuntu. I still run it. And I certainly don't blame the devs for everything, especially the Firefox 3.0. But the hanging thing is really annoying, and the dpkg-reconfigure trick is I believe the fault of the devs.

{"commentId":1745874,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

2 votes

#7.1 - Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:23 AM EDT

{"commentId":1745235,"authorDomain":"tedc"}

TedC

For the reboot problem, try adding reboot=b to the kernel arguments in /boot/grub/menu.lst, run "sudo update-grub" and reboot. My new dell requires this, as it doesn't do anything when told to do a cold reboot rather than a warm one.

{"commentId":1745235,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"tedc"}

2 votes

#8 - Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:18 AM EDT

{"commentId":1745250,"authorDomain":"nixternal"}

nixternal

The issues you noted are not Kubuntu issues. Firefox is Firefox, but you can make it look a tad bit better with the gtk-qt-engine-kde4 for KDE 4 or gtk-qt-engine for KDE 3 releases. The xserver-xorg feature you are talking about isn't Kubuntu's fault either. Like you, I kind of miss it as well. As for fglrx shutdown issue, I don't experience it with my Radeon 9700, but I prefer the radeon free driver over the fglrx driver. You shouldn't get the fglrx driver installed by default anyways, as it isn't included on the CD last I checked. We have included an application called Jockey, which used to be the Restricted Driver Manager, in Kubuntu that will do the installation and configuration of the fglrx driver for you.

We Kubuntu developers appreciate your review, however I think most of us would ask for a tad bit more research on the issues you are having before blaming Kubuntu and calling it mediocre. I think Kubuntu totally rocks considering 99% of its work is done by the community and not full-time paid developers.

{"commentId":1745250,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"nixternal"}

4 votes

#9 - Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:26 AM EDT

{"commentId":1745894,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

Andy Min

The issues you noted are not Kubuntu issues. Firefox is Firefox, but you can make it look a tad bit better with the gtk-qt-engine-kde4 for KDE 4 or gtk-qt-engine for KDE 3 releases

True enough.

The xserver-xorg feature you are talking about isn't Kubuntu's fault either. Like you, I kind of miss it as well.

I have to disagree here. If not Ubuntu's, whose fault was it?

As for fglrx shutdown issue, I don't experience it with my Radeon 9700, but I prefer the radeon free driver over the fglrx driver. You shouldn't get the fglrx driver installed by default anyways, as it isn't included on the CD last I checked. We have included an application called Jockey, which used to be the Restricted Driver Manager, in Kubuntu that will do the installation and configuration of the fglrx driver for you.

I'm still not sure it's due to fglrx. You are right however, that fgrlx isn't included by default. I'll clarify that. However, if the average user enables it (since most sites tell you to do that anyway), he will be very confused when Kubuntu won't shut down.

We Kubuntu developers appreciate your review, however I think most of us would ask for a tad bit more research on the issues you are having before blaming Kubuntu and calling it mediocre. I think Kubuntu totally rocks considering 99% of its work is done by the community and not full-time paid developers.

Well, I have to disagree. I still find it rather mediocre compared to the rest of the distributions, since it required me to reinstall it twice before most of the problems went away. By contrast, Feisty and Gutsy never had any problems. Will I continue to use it? Yes. But I've never had Kubuntu act up so badly that I felt like switching to a different distro.

I do however appreciate you stopping by to voice your concerns. And I am confident that you guys will have sorted out these problems really soon.

{"commentId":1745894,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

2 votes

#9.1 - Tue Apr 29, 2008 9:31 AM EDT

{"commentId":1750363,"authorDomain":"tull"}

Pike

Maybe it's time to try out another distro. Have you given the new mandriva spring a spin? It's really nice here. All my hardware are detected out of the box. Firefox 2.x (with KDE theme) instead of the beta. But most important, I feel mandriva is quite a bit more stable than both ubuntu and kubuntu.

{"commentId":1750363,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"tull"}

#10 - Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:23 AM EDT

{"commentId":1818752,"authorDomain":"Ken-284719"}

Ken-284719

I installed the Kubuntu-Desktop, and so far am very impressed. I had more than my share of problems with Ubuntu Hardy. With the Kubuntu version I have had no problems whatsoever, other than it refuses to boot automatically. I have to hit Esc during startup then hilight Ubuntu Kernel and only then does it give me a login page. I then still have to check the KDE option, or it automatically opens Ubuntu--which by the way has become totally unusable. I have bouncing windows, and different sized scripts popping all over the screen. The only way out, a hard reset.

I only wish I knew how to make Kubuntu the default.

{"commentId":1818752,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"Ken-284719"}

1 vote

#11 - Mon May 19, 2008 2:49 PM EDT

{"commentId":1818841,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

Andy Min

Try running

sudo aptitude remove ubuntu-desktop

In a terminal

If that doesn't work, try

sudo apt-get remove alacarte app-install-data-commercial apport-gtk apturl at-spi bluez-gnome brasero brltty-x11 bug-buddy capplets-data cli-common compiz compiz-core compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-gnome compiz-plugins compizconfig-backend-gconf contact-lookup-applet dbus-x11 dcraw deskbar-applet desktop-file-utils displayconfig-gtk diveintopython doc-base docbook-xml ekiga eog espeak espeak-data evince evolution evolution-common evolution-data-server evolution-data-server-common evolution-exchange evolution-plugins evolution-webcal example-content f-spot fast-user-switch-applet file-roller firefox firefox-3.0 firefox-3.0-gnome-support firefox-gnome-support gamin gcalctool gconf-editor gconf2 gconf2-common gdebi gdm gedit gedit-common gimp gimp-data gimp-gnomevfs gimp-python gksu gnome-about gnome-accessibility-themes gnome-app-install gnome-applets gnome-applets-data gnome-cards-data gnome-control-center gnome-desktop-data gnome-doc-utils gnome-games gnome-games-data gnome-icon-theme gnome-keyring gnome-mag gnome-media gnome-media-common gnome-menus gnome-mime-data gnome-mount gnome-netstatus-applet gnome-nettool gnome-orca gnome-panel gnome-panel-data gnome-pilot gnome-pilot-conduits gnome-power-manager gnome-screensaver gnome-session gnome-settings-daemon gnome-spell gnome-system-monitor gnome-system-tools gnome-terminal gnome-terminal-data gnome-themes gnome-user-guide gnome-utils gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-alsa gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-apps gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio gstreamer0.10-tools gstreamer0.10-x gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-murrine gtk2-engines-pixbuf gtk2-engines-ubuntulooks gtkhtml3.14 gucharmap guile-1.6-libs gvfs gvfs-backends gvfs-fuse human-icon-theme human-theme hwtest hwtest-gtk im-switch jockey-gtk language-selector libalut0 libarchive1 libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libavahi-glib1 libavahi-ui0 libavc1394-0 libbeagle1 libbonobo2-0 libbonobo2-common libbonoboui2-0 libbonoboui2-common libcairo-perl libcairomm-1.0-1 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio-cdda0 libcdio-paranoia0 libcdio7 libcompizconfig0 libdecoration0 libdeskbar-tracker libdmx1 libdv4 libebook1.2-9 libecal1.2-7 libedata-book1.2-2 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libedataserverui1.2-8 libeel2-2 libeel2-data libegroupwise1.2-13 libenchant1c2a libespeak1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libexempi3 libflickrnet2.1.5-cil libgail-common libgail-gnome-module libgail18 libgamin0 libgconf2-4 libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-google1.2-1 libgdata1.2-1 libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgimp2.0 libgksu2-0 libglade2-0 libglade2.0-cil libglew1.5 libglib-perl libglib2.0-cil libglibmm-2.4-1c2a libgmime-2.0-2 libgmime2.2-cil libgnome-desktop-2 libgnome-keyring0 libgnome-mag2 libgnome-media0 libgnome-menu2 libgnome-pilot2 libgnome-speech7 libgnome-vfs2.0-cil libgnome-window-settings1 libgnome2-0 libgnome2-canvas-perl libgnome2-common libgnome2-perl libgnome2-vfs-perl libgnome2.0-cil libgnomecanvas2-0 libgnomecanvas2-common libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd-common libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0 libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomeui-0 libgnomeui-common libgnomevfs2-0 libgnomevfs2-bin libgnomevfs2-common libgnomevfs2-extra libgpod3 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0 libgtk2-perl libgtk2.0-bin libgtk2.0-cil libgtkhtml2-0 libgtkhtml3.14-19 libgtkhtml3.16-cil libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-common libgtkspell0 libgtop2-7 libgtop2-common libgucharmap6 libguile-ltdl-1 libgvfscommon0 libgweather-common libgweather1 libhesiod0 libidl0 libiec61883-0 libkpathsea4 liblaunchpad-integration1 liblircclient0 liblpint-bonobo0 libmetacity0 libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo1.0-cil libmono-corlib1.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil libmono-data-tds1.0-cil libmono-data-tds2.0-cil libmono-security1.0-cil libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip0.84-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil libmono-sqlite2.0-cil libmono-system-data1.0-cil libmono-system-data2.0-cil libmono-system-web1.0-cil libmono-system-web2.0-cil libmono-system1.0-cil libmono-system2.0-cil libmono0 libmono1.0-cil libmono2.0-cil libnautilus-burn4 libnautilus-extension1 libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libnet-dbus-perl libnm-glib0 libnotify1 liboil0.3 liboobs-1-4 libopal-2.2 libopenal0a liborbit2 libotr2 libpam-gnome-keyring libpanel-applet2-0 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpolkit-gnome0 libpoppler-glib2 libportaudio0 libpt-1.10.10 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l2 libpulse-browse0 libpulsecore5 libpurple0 libqthreads-12 librarian0 librsvg2-common libscrollkeeper0 libsexy2 libshout3 libsndfile1 libsoup2.4-1 libsqlite0 libstartup-notification0 libtotem-plparser10 libtracker-gtk0 libtrackerclient0 libvte-common libvte9 libwnck-common libwnck22 libx11-xcb1 libxevie1 libxklavier12 libxml-twig-perl libxml2-utils libxres1 libzephyr3 mesa-utils metacity metacity-common mono-common mono-gac mono-jit mono-runtime mousetweaks nautilus nautilus-cd-burner nautilus-data nautilus-sendto nautilus-share network-manager-gnome notification-daemon o3read obex-data-server onboard openoffice.org-gnome openoffice.org-gtk pidgin pidgin-data pidgin-otr pkg-config policykit-gnome pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat pulseaudio-module-gconf pulseaudio-module-hal pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils python-brlapi python-cairo python-gconf python-gdata python-glade2 python-gmenu python-gnome2 python-gnome2-desktop python-gnomecanvas python-gst0.10 python-gtk2 python-gtkhtml2 python-gtksourceview2 python-launchpad-integration python-notify python-numeric python-pyatspi python-pyorbit python-sexy python-virtkey python-vte rhythmbox rss-glx scim scim-bridge-client-gtk scim-gtk2-immodule screensaver-default-images scrollkeeper seahorse sgml-base sgml-data shared-mime-info software-properties-gtk sound-juicer sqlite sqlite3 ssh-askpass-gnome synaptic system-config-printer-gnome system-tools-backends tangerine-icon-theme tomboy totem totem-common totem-gstreamer totem-mozilla totem-plugins tracker tracker-search-tool transmission-common transmission-gtk tsclient ubufox ubuntu-artwork ubuntu-desktop ubuntu-docs ubuntu-gdm-themes ubuntu-sounds ubuntu-wallpapers update-manager update-notifier usplash-theme-ubuntu vinagre vino whois xdg-user-dirs-gtk xml-core xsane xsane-common xscreensaver-data xscreensaver-gl xsltproc xulrunner-1.9 xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support yelp zenity

(see http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/purekde for more)

{"commentId":1818841,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

1 vote

#11.1 - Mon May 19, 2008 3:13 PM EDT

{"commentId":1818929,"authorDomain":"politicalcenter"}

politicalcenter

For those still interested in Vista 64, Ubuntu is a godsend. Only wish I could get one driver to work.

I have installed it on a desktop and an HP notebook. The latter convinced me that I did the right thing. It took a bit of work, but wireless is now working fine, with less hassle than I assumed, and all the rest of the proprietary crap on HP machines also worked.

Still wished that Creative X-Fi drivers and hardware worked right, but that is apparently only a bit of work away.

Besides, more interested in what business is doing than anything else at this point. Need to be well versed on these preferences.

{"commentId":1818929,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"politicalcenter"}

2 votes

#11.2 - Mon May 19, 2008 3:33 PM EDT

{"commentId":1818800,"authorDomain":"Ken-284719"}

Ken-284719

I forgot to mention, I still am learning about Linux.

I am sure that somewhere I have managed to screw up m install.

What I do know, is right now when I'm using Kubuntu. Every application I need, works great! I had no streaming video sound, with Ubuntu. With Kaffeine all work, and the picture is much better.

{"commentId":1818800,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"Ken-284719"}

2 votes

#12 - Mon May 19, 2008 2:59 PM EDT

{"commentId":1818845,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

Andy Min

One suggestion is to just reinstall Ubuntu or Kubuntu completely from the CD. Just back up before doing so. I've often done this to repair a screwed up install.

{"commentId":1818845,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}

2 votes

#12.1 - Mon May 19, 2008 3:14 PM EDT

{"commentId":1821793,"authorDomain":"brandonmay"}

Brandon May

Andrew-
I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, but I wanted to give you a vote since you are a friend of mine. Be well.

{"commentId":1821793,"threadId":"256023","contentId":"1454780","authorDomain":"brandonmay"}

2 votes

#13 - Tue May 20, 2008 11:37 AM EDT

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"256023","isPrivate":false}

ANDY MIN

Backyard

Kubuntu Hardy: Mildly disappointing

Nice things

Not-so-nice things

Conclusion

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