• (-) install process froze on the background screen (most likley a video driver issue), used the video fail safe and proceeded with install
• (+) the rest of the install was very easy, well thought out, and simple
• (-) grub was installed on the wrong drive, had to change the bios to boot to grub
• (+) GDM login screen is nice
• (-)installed Nvidia graphics driver failed, with a “jokey” backend crash
• (-) Gnome theme is better, but just needs a log of work
• (-) Gnome takes up to much of the screen with overly large fonts, windows decorations, menu drop down selections, etc…
• (+) installed KDE4 was easy
• (+) new software install center is very nice
• (-) Firefox looks like CRAP in KDE, this has been an issue since KDE 4.0, WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN FIXED!!
• (-) Firfox fonts like like CRAP in KDE, this has been an issue forever, WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN FIXED!!
• (-) Firefox is slow in Ubuntu, when compared to Firefix in windows, this has been an issue forever, WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN FIXED!!
• (-) KDE crashed within 5 minutes of use
• (-) CTRL + ATL + Backspase does not appear to work, WTF Ubuntu, are you trying to make life harder for Linux users
• (-) Firefox launch feedback is broken in KDE, still an issue for years now!!!
• (-) QtCurve does not work, again WTF
• (-) KDE volume control does not preform as expected, also muted by default

I am no longer a Linux fanboy, thus changing my philosophy on Linux and operating systems in general. I changed because I really asked a fundamental question about operating systems, “What should an desktop OS do?”. Here is the answer :

• boot the computer to nice easy to use GUI
• provide multitasking, preemption, filesystem, memory management, interrupts, device drivers, and networking
• provide a standard GUI toolkit for software
• provide a stable API for software
• provide hardware abstraction for software

After that is done then the OS should get out of the way and allow the user to use his/her software.

Linux does most of the things very very well, but one it does not really kills it. Linux does not run most of the software out there. Granted it written for Windows and not really Linux’s fault, but users don’t care. For me it is the following software : Altium Designer (electronics engineering software), iTunes, AnyDVD, games (currently that’s Team Fortress), Autocad. I run a lot of other software, but those have Linux ports or alternatives that work as good or better in Linux. If the Linux guys (Linus, Ubuntu, Redhat, Suse, etc..) really want Linux to work on the desktop then they should speed most of there time on Wine. Wine allows Windows software to run under Linux, but it only works on a small selection of software.

I still think Linux is a great OS, and superior at some tasks then other OS’s such has servers, supercomputers, and embedded hardware.  Actually in the embedded market (smartphones, GPS satnav, cable/video boxes) Linux will most likely dominate the market in the next few years.  I still run Linux on my home server, dual boot on my desktop (just to check out Ubuntu), and run Linux on all work servers (file and web server) but on my desktop I run Windows XP.

For the desktop Windows and Mac OS X will continue to the only real choice for the majority of the computer users.  For some users that only use a computer for e-mail and internet access then Linux might work for them.  But as soon as they want anything else (iTunes, videos, games), then they will have problems.  Actually the next computer I purchase will be a Mac, and I can’t wait!

UPDATE

Now with fewer misspelled words.

I need to add that this is not a knock of opensource. I actually prefer open source when it is possible (Firefox, Thunderbird, Openoffice, Miro, VLC).

I consider myself an advanced user, but not a programmer.

Even with Mac, I will have to dual boot with Windows for games and other applications. Macs are generally more restrictive than PCs, I just want to learn the “other” major computer system (Windows, Linux, Mac).

Just installed Ubuntu 9.04 beta, and I still have no option for mounting a windows/samba share via Gnome or KDE (the two main desktop environments).  It is freaking 2009, Windows has had this feature since 1995.  This is a prime example my I am no longer a linux fan boy.

As along as the developers don’t listen to the users, Linux is always only going to be a server and embedded operating system.

KDE 4.2 has been released.  My initial impressions are fairly good, although this is what should have been 4.0.  There are still some pretty major bugs with causes some crashes, that anyone using a modern desktop (Windows XP, MacOS X, Gnome, KDE) should not have to put up with.  Again this release should have been the starting point not the second major release in the series.

KDE 4.3 is out and I’ve been using it for a little bit.  It’s better, but it’s still not stable and has performance issues.

www.osnews.com/story/22662/Your_KDE4_Experiences

KDE 4.0 sucked. KDE 4.1 is what KDE 4.0 should have been, it’s actually usable (for a linux guy). It is still not ready for everyday use, if you want stability or usability. There are still some problems (many of these are not directly the short comings of KDE but of other apps/programs that exhibit a problem under KDE 4), with the most important being stability and speed.

Problems

• Dolphin crashes, alog – Konqueror (web) does not render many pages correctly (www.digg.com)
• still missing features available in 3.5 series
• several minor theme/widgets problems (nothing major) – no printer manager in the control panel
• can’t mount network shares from file manager (dolphin)
• after 8 years of using kde, they still can’t do this, Windows has does this (they call it mapping) for at least 10 years now **WTF**

Problems (3rd party)

• very bad 2D performance using an Nvidia card with the Nvidia dirver (can be better with latest driver from nvidia and several xorg.conf and command line tweaks)
• Firefox 3 tads look very bad using when using the gtk-qt-engine-kde4 theme (work around using Kde4 + Firefox3 theme)

Good features

• looks good, mostly
• Dolphin is usable (very good start, still needs some major usability work and more features)
• Oxygen style is better than before, still needs tweaking
• Ozone is a better window theme than the previous Oxygen window theme, be sure to install gtk-qt-engine-kde4, as it can make your gtk based applications look like QT4 apps

Conclusions

KDE 4.1 should have been KDE 4.0 RC1. KDE 4.0 should have been KDE 4.0 Alpha 1. KDE 4.1 is not stable, and is not usable as a primary desktop. I hope that KDE 4.2 solves these problems, but we will have to wait until 2009 to find out. It looks like the developers have stop listening to the regular users.

Bottom Line

Normal user need to wait for KDE 4.2. Tech users can use KDE 4.1. KDE developers need to realize that Linux is much more popular now, and new releases to desktop environments can not come out with less features, in-stability, and more bugs then previous versions. KDE 2 was released in 2001, when Linux was almost exclusively used by tech people. Now normal “Joe Blow” people are using Linux, and they will not tolerate suck crap. More to come.

References and Links

techbase.kde.org/User:Lemma/KDE4-NVIDIA
www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=115916
tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/07/30/install-kde-41-in-ubuntu-and-make-gtk-applications-look-good/
news.softpedia.com/news/How-To-Install-KDE-4-1-On-Ubuntu-8-04-91034.shtml