Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 4691

Installed the new Kubuntu beta, version 6.06, aka "Dapper Drake Flight 3" today. Install was painless, and unlike the previous iteration ("Breezy Badger") I didn't have to dick around with configuring x.org to get X to run. The XP install complained because I had resized its partition, but other than that there were not any problems.

I don't really consider myself knowledgeable enough to comment on Kubuntu as compared to other distros, but here are some observations from a simple user's point of view.

Most pleasantly, the package repositories contain Firefox 1.5, which the Kubuntu development team had said would not be included (the Breezy repos contain 1.07). Not sure why they changed their mind, or if it's only from a beta, but it's nice not having to install from source).

Overall I like the distro except for a few issues:

1. When using a KVM, you will still get "crazy mouse" (random movement/clicks) problems, which is apparently a kernel issue. The old fix (adding "psmouse proto=imps" to /etc/modules) no longer works; now you have to edit modprobe.d.

2. Kubuntu still ships without the ability to play mp3s in either of two default music players (kaffiene and amarok). The suggested fix in the Kubuntu FAQ doesn't help in Dapper. Still working on this.

3. The Adept package manager is broken--it claims to be unable to read sources.list. However, apt-get and Synaptic work just fine. Not sure what the issue is.

All in all, it's a beta release, but a pretty slick one (not that I'm really any judge).

My to-do list (if anyone wants to give pointers, please feel free):
- Get some audio & video codecs installed so I can play my MP3s, mpegs, etc.
- install ATI's drivers
- get the DVD player working (this is in both Kubuntu and XP).

At some point this summer I will probably start mucking about with some different distros than CENTOS and Kubuntu, but for now, these work fine.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: London UK
Posts: 567

still won't work on my fucking laptop though! - fucking 17" widescreen!!!

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