[lug] Initial impressions of Kubuntu

[Daniel Webb]

On Tue, Nov 14, 2006 at 06:22:49AM -0700, Collins Richey wrote:

> There may be a problem with power management or something else on your
> system. I know there are boot options to turn this off, but I've never
> used them.

I think I need to use the pnpbios=off option like I do with Knoppix.  It's
just that coming in with no knowledge of Ubuntu, it took me over an hour using
their "easy" graphical installer to figure out how to do that.  So much for
"Linux for human beings".  And yes, I read the release notes, the errata, and
the wiki before I even started, even though "human beings" mostly don't do
those things.  I still found the boot menu and help extremely unintuitive.
 
> I have no problems installing 6.06, but I recommend 6.10 - really 8
> months newer in spite of the numeric difference and just as stable.

I have no reason to try Ubuntu without the 3-year support.  If it weren't for
the temptation of that feature, I would just stick with Knoppix.  I'm at a
point in my life where I don't try new distros for fun any more.  They have to
be measurably better in some way.


On Tue, Nov 14, 2006 at 10:17:29AM -0700, Nate Duehr wrote:

> Sounds like you're going to have to find a way to stay out of the 
> graphical boot menu.  Haven't done Kbuntu, so I'm no help there, but I 
> sure hope there's a way to bypass it and stay at a more "usual" grub 
> setup, or similar?

I finally figured it out on accident:  press escape at the main menu.  Not
that it says that *anywhere* in that "easy" graphical menu.

> I usually consider these types of problems hints that I probably will 
> have OTHER problems with a distro because they're showing off their 
> "skill" at screwing things up right from the start.
> 
> If I'm really dying to run the new one, I'll spend hours screwing around 
> with it or finding alternatives.

I'm mostly wanting to get it working because of the 3-year security updates
feature and because Sean seems to think fairly highly of it, and I suspect he
knows what he's talking about.  So far I may just be finding all the warts,
despite this not being the warty warthog release.

I admin machines for my mom and sister from 1000 miles away, so stuff has to
just work, and never break.  But at the same time, I need security updates
that just work and never break things.  So far, Debian stable has been the
only distro that can meet those requirements, but it is a royal pain to get
all the hardware working with it.