I'm having a *lot* of trouble getting Kubuntu 15.04 to work smoothly. I'm posting here not looking for specific solutions, but rather trying to get a sense of whether others are having similar problems and to vent a little.
First off, let me explain my usage profile. I'm looking primarily for media consumption (music and videos mostly) and games. I'm not a developer, and have only a passing interest in programming. So why Linux? Firstly, audio quality. I'm not sure of the technical reasons why, but music sounds much better on Linux than Windows. The hardware can be absolutely identical, but if Linux has an audio driver for the sound card, the audio sounds leagues better than on Windows. Secondly, I'm a born tinkerer. Linux really scratches that itch. Finally, I admire the ideals of open source, even if I'm not religious about implementing it. If I were, I'd probably stick to the idealogically pure Debian, and forget about DRM'd games.
So why KDE? For me it's the most usable desktop environment of all the major desktops, KDE 5 is gorgeous, and I love the notification system and the strides that have been made in usability.
But I'm having no end of problems with graphics drivers. Open source and proprietary drivers both have issues, for both nVidia and AMD. Am I alone in this, or are other users having any problems with graphics drivers? Is this something peculiar to 15.04, or could I dodge this bullet by downgrading to 14.10? Ironically, the only hardware I've had no problems with is my ancient Radeon 5750. It runs the fglrx driver, sddm and Plasma 5 with nary a hiccup. Downgrading my graphics card is not a palatable option to get a smoothly functioning OS.
So in conclusion, is anyone else having issues or am I an outlier? Is it because Kubuntu 15.04 is being too "bleeding edge" by pushing KDE 5 Plasma? Should I just give up on the latest release and look to an older distro?
First off, let me explain my usage profile. I'm looking primarily for media consumption (music and videos mostly) and games. I'm not a developer, and have only a passing interest in programming. So why Linux? Firstly, audio quality. I'm not sure of the technical reasons why, but music sounds much better on Linux than Windows. The hardware can be absolutely identical, but if Linux has an audio driver for the sound card, the audio sounds leagues better than on Windows. Secondly, I'm a born tinkerer. Linux really scratches that itch. Finally, I admire the ideals of open source, even if I'm not religious about implementing it. If I were, I'd probably stick to the idealogically pure Debian, and forget about DRM'd games.
So why KDE? For me it's the most usable desktop environment of all the major desktops, KDE 5 is gorgeous, and I love the notification system and the strides that have been made in usability.
But I'm having no end of problems with graphics drivers. Open source and proprietary drivers both have issues, for both nVidia and AMD. Am I alone in this, or are other users having any problems with graphics drivers? Is this something peculiar to 15.04, or could I dodge this bullet by downgrading to 14.10? Ironically, the only hardware I've had no problems with is my ancient Radeon 5750. It runs the fglrx driver, sddm and Plasma 5 with nary a hiccup. Downgrading my graphics card is not a palatable option to get a smoothly functioning OS.
So in conclusion, is anyone else having issues or am I an outlier? Is it because Kubuntu 15.04 is being too "bleeding edge" by pushing KDE 5 Plasma? Should I just give up on the latest release and look to an older distro?
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