KDE isn't for me

[Marantz]

Wow... just wow. I can't express how disappointed I am in KDE4. When I started my Ubuntu experience I wasn't pleased with gnome so I went to KDE and was happy and snuggly. Then as I learned more about Linux I ran back over to gnome. Seeing KDE4 and Kubuntu and missing some of my KDE applications running flawlessly I ran back over to KDE to be presented with this...mess.

First, I can't figure anything out in a GUI sense for configuration so I dropped that idea quickly and ran back to the console. Second, I had a hell of a time with my display driver working, then to top it off...audio still doesn't work out of the box like it did with regular old Ubuntu.

Maybe I'm jumping the gun, but I just can't do KDE right now, but unfortunantly a client I have wants to keep it, so I ask you guys, what have you done to make your desktops work a little bit smoother?

Oh, and one more thing, this new launcher menu pisses me off to no end. I can't stand click click click click to get to where I want to go. Rawr!

[jbysmith]

I gave KDE 4.1 a spin for a couple days.. some neat new features but it's just not for me. (Bugs aside, that's to be expected) I'm sticking with KDE3 for a while yet.

Most of the configuration stuff can be done just like KDE3 via kcontrol. Last I checked it's not on Kubuntu's default menu, but you can add it easily enough.

When I toyed with it, with my nVidia card anyway I didn't have much of a problem getting the proprietary drivers going, I just downloaded them from nVidia's site and ran it from the console just like I do with Gnome. My audio I could never figure out though. Using a Creative Labs Audigy 2. It works just fine, except for muting. Just can't mute the thing no matter what I do, but it works properly in Gnome. Via kmix, console utilities, whatever.. go figure. (This happens on *every* KDE distro I've tried.)

For the launcher.. yea I don't care for Kickoff at all. Different isn't always better, at least for me. If you want, you can remove that launcher and add the old-style KDE menu instead.

As far as the file manager goes.. I'm actually kind of getting into Dolphin in 4.1. It's not perfect yet, but it's getting there. Again, you can always switch to Konqueror if you prefer.

If KDE4's just not your thing yet, you can always stick with KDE3 too. It's not going anywhere anytime soon, and I still prefer it myself, just my opinion anyway. I tend to bounce back and forth from my Arch KDEMod and Ubuntu Gnome desktop every other day.

[miggols99]

It's probably Kubuntu fault. They have a bad reputation for being especially buggy...if you want to try KDE 4, I recommend trying openSUSE. They are very good with KDE.

[gjoellee]

I find KDE slow on computers with a little older computers (from 2003). Thats why I use GNOME instead. Now I am more used to GNOME so I am not going to change to KDE:)