Unhappy!

[Guest]

I am a very unhappy user of Kubuntu 8.10. I prefer Kubuntu to Ubuntu. The default KDE 4.0 install is a mess. Straightforward things like User & Group management as well as proper display control features from System settings are missing. How can that be? Is User & Group management hived off to another system control applet? Installing the nVidia driver is a nightmare. Just does not work. In fact I like the KDE 4 interface but if it fails me is these simple things, then I have to join the chorus against the usability of KDE 4.
By the way if anybody wants to use KDE 4 take a look at OpenSUSE 11.0 http://www.opensuse.org/en/ where it is integrated far better, since Yast takes care of the things I' ve mentioned and you are not lost.

[Nate]

Re: Unhappy!

What version of KDE 4 do you have installed? 4.0 has hundreds more problems than 4.2 beta, for example.

KUser should be installed on your system. Try that for user and group management.

I don't have much experience installing and tweaking video drivers. The latest nvidia driver was installed for me when I upgraded. Do you have the nvidia-glx-177 package installed? That has the 177.80 driver. I know there are even newer beta drivers out there but I'm not sure how to install those yet.

[noelvh]

Re: Unhappy!

I felt the very same why, I even felt let down by the Kubuntu team, but not any more.

I have 8.10 with KDE4.2 and am very happy. Yes it took some work to get it going, and I am sure I will have a few more snags, that is what this forum is for. I will never go back. This is the cleanest looking OS I have seen.

Now I know how you are feeling how could he say this, as that is what I said every time I got a reply saying 8.10 was great.

Noel Vh

[neiby]

Re: Unhappy!

I am a very unhappy user of Kubuntu 8.10. I prefer Kubuntu to Ubuntu. The default KDE 4.0 install is a mess. Straightforward things like User & Group management as well as proper display control features from System settings are missing. How can that be? Is User & Group management hived off to another system control applet? Installing the nVidia driver is a nightmare. Just does not work. In fact I like the KDE 4 interface but if it fails me is these simple things, then I have to join the chorus against the usability of KDE 4.
By the way if anybody wants to use KDE 4 take a look at OpenSUSE 11.0 http://www.opensuse.org/en/ where it is integrated far better, since Yast takes care of the things I' ve mentioned and you are not lost.

Coincidentally, I installed OpenSUSE 11.0 on a PC at work today and I have to say I completely agree. KDE 4 is implemented/integrated far better. I had almost zero display funkiness, whereas with Kubuntu 8.10, I had a nightmare trying to get my display issues resolved. I don't think most casual users would have gone to the lengths I did to resolve them.

[neiby]

Re: Unhappy!

How do we get KDE 4.2? Is it in the repositories?

[blackpaw]

Re: Unhappy!

How do we get KDE 4.2? Is it in the repositories?

Its in the experimental PPA repositories. Instructions here.

Its only in Beta 1 (Beta 2 due this week) so expect funkyness, especially with Kontact and Akonadi, but never less it is *really* good, I'm using it full time.

[neiby]

Re: Unhappy!

Thanks, I've got it installed now!

[bsoderror]

Re: Unhappy!

Pretty slick huh?!?!?! We got some snow comin' down with ice underneath, no roads and now work. Nights like these I like my midnight shift.... get to play all night long as long as my sat. connect doesn't poop out on me!

[noelvh]

Re: Unhappy!

How do we get KDE 4.2? Is it in the repositories?

Its in the experimental PPA repositories. Instructions here.

Its only in Beta 1 (Beta 2 due this week) so expect funkyness, especially with Kontact and Akonadi, but never less it is *really* good, I'm using it full time.

Question about beta release 2?
As I have KDE4.2 beta1 on my system will I get the updates to the beta2 if I have kept the repo I used to install beta1?

Noel Vh

[Nate]

Re: Unhappy!

Yes, they should show up as an upgrade when they're released.

[noelvh]

Re: Unhappy!

Yes, they should show up as an upgrade when they're released.

Great and thanks.

Noel Vh

[neiby]

Re: Unhappy!

I played with KDE 4.2 last night and it is definitely buggy. I had a rather chaotic experience with Kopete notifications. It would be hard to describe, but it snowballed into a crash. I've noticed a few other things, too. It looks pretty decent, not great. It's a graphical improvement over 3.5, but it seems to be fairly unstable. Use at your own risk.

[Zorael]

Re: Unhappy!

I've been using the KDE 4.2 beta 1 for perhaps a week now and I've found it to be pretty stable. I'm not using Kopete until they fix the missing MSN plugin though.

That said, I have managed to get plasma to crash once or twice, but it seems to restart after perhaps 30 seconds so nothing I lost data from. And to be fair it only happens when I tinker with its settings, and not during normal use. Still, instability.

[noelvh]

Re: Unhappy!

Buggy KDE 4.2 beta,
I gave this a try 2 weeks ago, and was not happy at all. Every thing crashed on my laptop, but not my desktop. I took a moment to see what was different between the 2 systems. The laptop had been running 8.10 since it was released, and my desktop was just installed the day before I upgraded to KDE4.2.

I then backed up the laptop and did a clean install, updated it, then put KDE 4.2 beta1 on it. I do have a crash or 2 but it fully recovers from the crash in about 2 minutes. I have to say I have about 4 crashes a week so far. That is not to bad as I was getting that with base 8.10. The only difference in the crashes was 8.10 base did not recover like KDE4.2 did.

I am very happy with a clean install of KDE4.2 and am waiting for beta 2 this week.

Noel Vh

[neiby]

Re: Unhappy!

I've only really used KDE 4.2 for a couple of hours, but I noticed several little bugs. The Kopete notification thing was unbelievably annoying, though. Notifications, in general, is something that I don't like about KDE. They're always so big and obtrusive. Why do icons and notifications always have to be big? I much prefer the way Windows handles that stuff.

In KDE, the notifications are always giant-sized and sometimes appear in places that don't make it overly clear what they're for. The taskbar icons are not differentiated enough or clear enough, so it already seems cluttered. when you add giant notifications to the screen, it gets to be a little overwhelming.