I'd like some info on Kubuntu 8.04

[Raichu]

A few years ago I tried Kubuntu on my old computer. It was a miserable failure so I ended up using Fedora 4 (read about it in this post).

I've just bought a new (well, second hand) PC and I asked around about the latest Fedora, but I was told that Ubuntu and Kubuntu have improved to the extent that now they are more likely to work better than Fedora. Before I go ahead with Kubuntu, if I could have a bit of people's time to help me with a few enquiries, I'd really appreciate it.

(1) I believe Kubuntu 8.04 is the latest stable release. Is the version of KDE it uses stable?

(2) Does it have good Japanese language support, i.e., keyboard input with good dictionaries and nice fonts? (I've been quite happy with support in Fedora 6 I use at work so I'd be disappointed if Kubuntu is not as good.)

(3) I live in Sydney, Australia. What is the easiest way to get hold of a CD? (I don't have the bandwidth for a download.) I don't mind paying a few dollars.

(4) This may sound like a newbie question, but does it come with Konqueror, Kate and Kiten? (I ask because distrowatch does not list these as coming with Kubuntu.)

Thanks in advance for your help...

[Troberg]

Re: I'd like some info on Kubuntu 8.04

1. Yes, it's stable, assuming you use the KDE3 version. I'd advice waiting a bit until switching to KDE4, as KDE4 is not as feature complete as KDE3 yet, and there is nothing broken in KDE3.

2. No idea, I don't understand Japanese. The support for languages I understand is good, however, but since Japanese is a bit different, I wouldn't draw any conclusions either way from my experience.

3. The free shipment service. Just order and get it, no cost at all. It may take a week or two, though. Other options is to ask someone with the bandwitdh or to find a local Linux user group.

4. Yes, yes and don't know. Even if Kiten is not included as default, the repositories are huge so you'll probably be able to install it with a few clicks.

[claydoh]

Re: I'd like some info on Kubuntu 8.04

to add to the above, you order your free Kubuntu disk here:
https://shipit.kubuntu.org/
though it can take a while to get

You can purchase a dvd directly from ubuntu here but cd's seem to only be sold in bulk there.

There are plenty of cheap places to order cd's, such as Osdisk
http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.c.../linux/kubuntu
I couldn't tell you about shipping costs.

There is an Ubuntu LoCo team in Australia, so I am sure they could help getting you a disk
http://ubuntu.org.au/

[Raichu]

Re: I'd like some info on Kubuntu 8.04

Thanks for the replies. It looks like I have a number of options to follow up on getting it.

However, Japanese support is still an issue. Poor support would be a showstopper for me. Anyone have any idea how I can find out about it?

[arochester]

Re: I'd like some info on Kubuntu 8.04

How about asking people on the Ubuntu Japanese Forum in Japanese? http://forum.ubuntulinux.jp/