i did basically everything you did to get my kubuntu working on both my intel pcs and amd/ati pc

it’s a lot of hassle to get things working

i for one am against the fixed 6 month release for kubuntu, it should be released when ready.

i don’t see ms or apple releasing their OSs on a fix date ever

kubuntu messed up some first impressions i had for my friends of kde4

am going to check linuxmint’s kde releases instead from now on (for my buddies), as i think they always get most things resolved on your behalf and add some extra useful stuff (like the 1 click live irc chat support, software center, etc).

I really hope you are not judging the quality of KDE4 on the experience with Kubuntu. That would be totally unfair to say the least.

I have done a lot of installations with Mandriva 2009.1 running KDE4. I only had to make some little tweaks now and then to make some merely personal adjustment for the consumer (some do not like the copy notifier for instance). I had no complaints about anything. Everybody runs (and really likes) KDE4 without any problem. I tried Kubuntu, but this is a really not advisable at this moment. A lot of tweaking has to be done to make things just as usable as KDE4 on Mandriva (or OpenSUSE etc.).

And KDE4 not ready yet? Yes – KDE4 does things a bit different, but to say it is not usable or not mature enough is a gross exaggeration in my opinion. KDE4 is absolutely ready for use on a day to day base. I think some people have a bit trouble to let go some old habits and change to new ones. You cannot design a new window environment without changing anything. That would be contradicting itself. If some people are too rusty and not capable to adapt to this new environment they can keep the old KDE for a while. No problems with that. People that have never used KDE before have no trouble adapting at all! The real trouble is with people whom want progress and at the same time do not want changes. I am however fully switched to the new KDE environment and certainly will not switch back to the old version of KDE, Gnome, XFCE or anything else.

well, since we’re separating the apps and the DE, I’ll just talk about the DE itself:

• Desktop folderviews – this has worked wonders for my project workflows. I routinely create new folderviews for my active projects so that I can readily access them anytime.
• Having a dedicated “Devices” plasmoid on my panel means I don’t have to go scrounging around my desktop to look for a device icon to unmount.
• I know KRunner and GnomeDo compete on roughly the same functionalities, but the last time I looked at GnomeDo (which does look prettier), it seemed a bit more mouse-centric to me, and I’m a heavy keyboard user. And for what it allows me to do now, I really love KRunner.
• The last time I attempted to edit Gnome’s menus, I nearly gouged my eyes out (this was at least a year ago, so do let me know what’s new). Aside from the initial versions of 4.0, I think KDE’s menu editing functionality was pretty much “just works”.
• kioslaves – there’s really nothing like it anywhere else

If I could, I’d avoid something that’s “beta quality” as well. But not to the point of handicapping myself. Some of the other comments here have been recommending that I try out Mandriva, reason being their packaging of KDE is much tighter. I’ll look into that, but I do have other things to consider. For one thing, the Ubuntu family has this very nice ecosystem of 3rd party PPA repos that’re easily found. If I want something that’s not in the default repos, I just google “

I use KDE (3 and now 4) because I’m productive in it. I’m not in Gnome. Blow by blow, there’s not a single application in Gnome that fits my needs better than KDE (neither environment’s browsers currently meet the mark, and I don’t consider Firefox to be a Gnome app). The Gnome desktop on Ubuntu may be rock solid, but it loses its meaning to me when I have to run KDE applications on top of it just to be productive. And that’s exactly what happened to me when I tried out Gnome during the KDE 4.0 days.

In any case, my employees are developers. I try to inculcate a culture of learning in all of them, and that includes the OS they use as well. Someone who refuses to try anything new just for stability’s sake is not likely to attempt to invent a better mousetrap in the course of their work either. I have no use for an employee of this ilk, sorry to say.

BTW, neither do I force the developers to use KDE / Kubuntu. A few of them do use Gnome or XFCE derivatives out of their own preference. But they do need to support it themselves, as I am admittedly not qualified to support them due to lack of experience.

Why would you put Kubuntu on mission critical computers for you and your staff? I’ll admit it that KDE4 looks good, but that’s hardly a reason to use it. I take it you prefer aesthetics over stability? Or is your mission not that critical?

I would NEVER even consider putting any distro’s version of KDE4 on any of my customers computers. That would be foolish indeed. But I guess people like you are going to stick with it no matter what the price. That’s OK, as people like you are the guinea pigs (beta testers) of the world, and we do need those. Have fun compiling kernels and constantly updating. In the meantime, I will continue to be productive with my “never needs fixing”, rock solid gnome install.