Back to Kubuntu

[Aries K]

Well I used Kubuntu 9.04 for a while but decided to check out Ubuntu Karmic just to see what the Gnome side is up to(Mainly to try out the new Empathy as well). After Empathy crashed and I could not get it to save/load user accounts I had enough of Ubuntu so I decided to try out Kubuntu again. All I can say is it's good to be back, for some reason Kubuntu feels faster, handles 3d window animations better, and of course handles removable devices better(Ubuntu kept unmounting drives for some reason). Not to mention I really missed Kopete. As soon as I saw the new installer I was impressed, I also noticed that on the kickoff there is now "Kubuntu KDE" branding for the people who wanted that but not enough to tarnish KDE's beauty. The new animations in Kpackage kit are very eye catching. I also notice the Kopete buddy list is way better since it now displays the user status without having to hover over the user's name. Currently I am writing this in Konqueror (which feels faster than Firefox imo) and I am really liking this browser, I think I will use it for most of my everyday browsing. Pretty much everything worked right out the box. Last but not least, Air is absolutely stunning. Props to the Kubuntu team.

[Nate B.]

Re: Back to Kubuntu

Welcome back.

Check out the Arora browser that seems to be coming along nicely as well. A month or so ago it locked up hard on some site but now seems to be able to handle the few sites I've looked at.

[kevinc]

Re: Back to Kubuntu

I thought that I was downloading Kubuntu Karmic Koala Alpha 6, but discovered when I installed it that it was Ubuntu. GRUB 2 is default unless you use expert mode and override it, also ext4 is offered as first choice but you can choose ext3 or many others during the partitioning stage.

I had previously left the Koala after alpha 3 to try a few other distros and now that beta will be out in a few days and the final release by the end of October, I'm looking forward to the Lynx alpha 1.

I was disappointed with Ubuntu Koala not detecting my wireless card (ipw3945) which has been detected by previous versions. Now I need to download another driver for that. Others have reported that network manager is much better behaved now in Kubuntu Koala.

[NormanF]

Re: Back to Kubuntu

If you can't activate the driver via the Hardware Drivers GUI, it has to be done through the command line.
I had my wireless networking up in no time!

[kevinc]

Re: Back to Kubuntu

Fortunately, Kubuntu network manager works much better now. I'm now using wireless with WPA2 and nm.

Its a pity as I remember trying Ubuntu when Jaunty was a beta and it was more impressive then than Kubuntu, but now Kubuntu is way ahead of Ubuntu in Karmic.