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What do you think of Kubuntu 7.10? Keep comments brief, we usually can not respond to comments because there are so many but we do read every one.

• This is the first Kubuntu release which has some negatives compared to previous release (of course it has some positives like gdebi for KDE and restricted drivers). Dolphin and strigi are the most annoying additions. --Chandru
  • Dolphin may be great in KDE 4 but right now it is not worth. In the first day of use I have found two problems. --Chandru
    • There is no way to change file associations without starting konqueror. A module for file associations must be added to "System Settings" or the facility must be integrated into dolphin itself. --Chandru
    • Dolphin doesn't show the right icons for special text files which do not have an extension (shell scripts, python scripts, etc.) in the icon view mode. --Chandru

    • It uses kio_tar to handle .zip files. This kio slave is plagued by [https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=137027 this bug]. It is intimidating especially you plug in a removable media to grab a file from a zip file in it and want to remove the media after copying. --Chandru

      • Also, dolphin doesn't save the view settings. E.g., choose detailed view instead of preview, and select for all folders. It doesn't work. The lack of tabbed UI is also a sore point. Overall, Dolphin might be a good file manager in the future, but right now it is horrible and should have not been included in Gusty. -Yoni
    • Of course Dolphin is not without positives. It has very nice look and feel. It has a simple but sufficiently powerful UI for a file manager. It is these small things which need to be fixed. --Chandru
      • I disagree. A file manager without a tabbed UI is worthless. I can't live without a tabbed UI in a file manager, since I do so much work in my fm so often.
  • Strigi is just a toy. Google desktop search is far better. Strigi's user interface looks bad too with lot of white patches in a blue background. The links are also not clearly visible on a blue background. --Chandru
• If Konqueror comes back (at least till KDE 4 is released) and kfind becomes the default way to search files, Gutsy would be a really great release. --Chandru
• I loved it, jriddell
• Thank you, for new Kubuntu version. I was little suspicious about quality of release, it looked that Ubuntu is much more improved. However, I upgraded to gutsy without any problems. I like Kontact enterprice suite. Its good that Kytchensync now is based on opensync. I like Kbluetooh. From now I can sync Kontact whit my sony ericsson. I waited for that so long..., dumas33
• Compiz is not mentioned. Is Compiz working fine in Kubuntu Gutsy?
• Please! A bit of seriousness!.
• Well I am serious! Just upgraded to Gutsy from Feisty and the system crashed! I have an ATI graphic card, and the comments in the Known Issues are totally misleading. Not only you will get a black screen, but the full laptop will hung (no way to get to the tty's). And the proposed workaround does not work. I had to change the driver from "ati" to "vesa" and I have no 3D HW acceleration.

* I regret to say that this release was a step back, and actually "converted" me back to Ubuntu (with gnome). No flame intended. There are just too many features that were a big deal in the overall Ubuntu release, but they were just included in Ubuntu and not Kubuntu. -Yoni

• compiz integration, user switching, the human theme.
• Dolphin is not good enough. I left a comment in the relevant paragraph above.

• Adept has some usability issues that were not fixed. E.g., https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/adept/+bug/82428.

So not only Compiz does not work, but nothing 3D works with my ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 card which was working perfectly in Feisty with the Open Source driver. Yes, I agree this is serious! Gutsy has not been tested enough. As usual it is a nightmare for those having ATI cards. I take my share of blame for not having taking part on the HW testing, I just tested it in Virtual Machines.

• Fixed the ATI boot issue by disabling/commenting out AGP Fast Writes in the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Now that I have been able to use it for a while, totally a thumbs up (both hands). Now it looks like a professional Operating System. Kernel is fast and responsive, the system is stable. Kbluethooth Server easies the communication with Mobiles phones for file transfer. The direction is up compared to earlier releases.
  • Things working better than in Feisty:
    • - kernel is more responsive - No more annoying blinking when using 3D application in windowed mode and the Radeon ATI Open Source driver - kicker does not suddenly and randomly disappear for ever when setting the auto-hide to 0 seconds - Kbluetooth now is useful to communicate with Mobile phones - again my USB DVB card works again (Pinnacle 200e with beta driver), it was broken in the last kernel update around September 2007 - Compiz is easy to get working
  • Things working worse than in Feisty:
    • - I haven't found anything yet
    Things needing improvements:
    • - no tray icon for Compiz, it should be included by default - in Compiz cannot use the mouse while switching (for example while using Alt+Tab) to select Windows - Compiz still shows white Title Bar with no buttons on maximized Windows with the Open Source ATI Radeon driver
• in virtual machines you can't see that kind of thing that's why you should devote like a different partition to it on a real system or if you have a comp you're not absolutely depending on (my way of doing it) ... a great option. ANDREA54

And it is : kdesu "adept_manager --version-upgrade"

• "Enable PRE RELEASED updates"? I'm a cautious user, why I need pre-released updates to do the upgrade? ToniHelenius

  • the change of instructions for upgrade and the need for -proposed was caused by a bug in Adept not reading the new distro version file properly. sorry for the inconvenience.

    • Will it eventually upgrade to Gutsy without enabling the option? Or is this a permanent state? I think many would appreciate more automated upgrade process! Anyway, thank you all for providing yet another version of this great piece of software! ToniHelenius

      • yes, it will go into -updates in about a week
        • It's been "about a week" now and still no sign... do we know when it will go into -updates yet?
          • I've learnt that it will not go into the -updates repo after all. Enabling the pre-release repo is necessary to download the version of Adept that enables upgrading to Gutsy. The separate repository is necessary so that those who do not want to upgrade to Gutsy will not be affected. only those who want to upgrade will need to enable that repository. The pre-release repository itself doesn't do any upgrading to gutsy. It only upgrades Adept (and a few other packages). You'll still remain on Feisty even after doing that. You still have to trigger the upgrade. There is no mechanism to suggest an upgrade to users automatically, for example for the update manager to suggest: "Would you like to dist-upgrade?" or similar. After you've updated Adept to the version in the "pre-release" repository, you will be asked if you want to upgrade to the new release that way, and those who want to remain in feisty won't be bothered at all.

• There seem to be a couple of very serious issues with local mirrors (authentification-related, probably) so I would get the "not trusted" error (filed bug, #153970) . If anybody else encounters this problem try downloading the alternate image (via torrent, for instance) AVOIDING the direct update and then later on "regular upgrade". Regarding the release: Pretty good job! Great artwork and also neat changes under the hood, I'm impressed! There are but two things that bother me: #1 maybe the entire 3D desktop should also be included given the advertisement that canonical has been doing ... also, why the heck won't a right click on a file give me any good options anymore (e.g. .deb --> install) ? and well even though adapting kde4 ideas is a great idea i think that maybe the inclusion of dolphin as standard is too early ... (and deprecating kcontrol ... not necessary). -- ANDREA54

• How come compiz isn't enabled and set up by default? I thought that was the big story in Gutsy but it wasn't enabled or even installed by default for me.
  • Compiz is born dead for me on Kubuntu as KDE4 will manage composition natively in kwin. So I prefer waiting for this solution.
• How do I do fast user switching in Kubuntu? It doesn't seem as easy as they show in the screenshots for Gnome.
• Couldn't get my adept manager to match the screenshots. Don't have the repositories listed in the instructions in my /etc/apt/sources.list .
• Kubuntu 7.10 is fine, nothing revoltionary in surface. I use Kubuntu since Breezy and I appreciate the work that has been done since. BUT I don't like :
  1. that "Strigi" app wich is really too immature to be included in such a distro
  2. Dolphin as I can't sort my files by type !!! (otherwise I would have gave it a try)

I have been using Linux since 2001 and Ubuntu/Kubuntu since 2004. For the following reasons, I feel that Kubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) is a step backwards:

• Dolphin is now the default file manager: Dolphin is no where near as functional as the konqueror file manager. I'll have to learn how to return konqueror to the default file manager. Then I'll have to uninstall Dolphin. I really don't understand how someone can justify switching to an awful file manager and then requiring users to learn how to write service menus to get back the functionality of the file manager that was replaced. How long until Dolphin has the same functionality as konqueror and konqueror is gone entirely? Couldn't we have saved a lot of that work and just kept konqueror as the default file manager? I assume tweaking the "inode > folder" file association will solve this problem.

• System Settings replaced kcontrol: System Settings is much slower than kcontrol and lacks some of the functionality. Such a radical change in User Interface is confusing to those of us who have been using a distro for years. System Settings is also the first time I've ever had anything crash in Kubuntu. I feel that the tree layout in the left pane of kcontrol was much better than the layout provided by System Settings. I'll have to make changes to my kmenu. How long until System Settings has the same speed and functionality as kcontrol and kcontrol is gone entirely? Couldn't we have saved a lot of that work and just kept kcontrol and not included System Settings? Would there be any harm in doing "sudo mv /usr/bin/systemsettings /usr/bin/systemsettings-origin && sudo ln -s /usr/bin/kcontrol /usr/bin/systemsettings"?

• Speaking of GUI's, why was the restricted driver manager even included in Kubuntu? I can understand it being in the gnome desktop because gnome is notorious for sacrificing functionality for simplicity. Installing nvidia/ati drivers via the command line is much faster. I feel that making a GUI for something that is faster and easier on the command line aids in keeping new users afraid of the command line and wastes developer resources. The command line is always going to be there.. new users need to learn how to use it rather than be afraid to use it. What happens when that gui breaks and the user is still afraid of the cli?
• Compiz and Beryl are, in my opinion, nothing more than resource-wasting, annoying toys. Keep them in the repos for those who want them, but don't make users have to switch window managers and then uninstall Compiz/Beryl. After all, KDE does provide a compositing manager (kompmgr) and I have seen it provide shadows, transparency and other effects. I congratulate the Kubuntu developers for not enabling Compiz/Beryl by default.
• Kubuntu Gutsy is the first time I've seen a distro that doesn't include tty 1-6. I hope Hardy Herron will be better.. I can't live without my tty's. If xorg breaks, I have no alternative but to reinstall Kubuntu. At least in Feisty, I was able to use screen + mutt + irssi + elinks + bash + mc and was able to continue work and not have to worry about it.

Don't get me wrong, I love Kubuntu. But, it just seems that functionality is slowly being replaced by someone's idea of "simplicity", which is not a good thing. Installing a new distro/release is a bit of work and I feel that developers should not compound that work unnecessarily.

• - most users dont want to go to command line, even i who know how to use it prefer to avoid it if possible, if you want to use it its always there for you but the option
  • for those that doesnt wand to use it should also be there the more choice you get the batter so why not add things that make life simpler for most while still allowing those who wish it to use the command line (in my opinion the command line is an archaic technology that should pass from this world and every linux distro that allows uses to use it without needing to open the console is batter then the equal one that you need to enter the console just once)

• I second points 1 and 2 of the above statement : dolphin is less ressources-consuming but lacks several functionalities essential like "sort by type". How come this basic functionnality hasn't been included ? Concerning System settings, I've also suggested for several releases (at least since Edgy) that Kubuntu "System settings" should entirely integrate Kcontrol or links to it, to avoid having everything twice and to avoid having a "System settings" lacking a lot of configuration options. Concerning the "too much GUI" comment above, please, give us a break, and go back to your cave... Anyway, really disappointed by this new release... I'm going to switch back to Mandriva (last release 2008 is really great) after 2 years using Kubuntu. Good luck for the improvements you planned --Nikoo October 20th 2007.
  • I can't see any sense in writing or using a GUI for something that will only be completed once (video driver installation) and takes all of 10 seconds to type in. I can have apt-get download and preparing to install the correct video driver before the GUI even loads. Doesn't everyone keep Konsole open on their desktop?
    • no not evreyone keeps konsole open and no not everyone should learn to use it what is your problem with giving pepole the option of haveing a gui? those it
      • make you less elite? gui is simpler and simple is good - you dont want to use it? no one is forcing you and the option for konsole is always there so you shouldnt force pepole to use konsole also

There are a couple of sticky problems with Gutsy that I've found and from Googling, so have other people

• The X server crashes as soon as xscreensaver starts up. So if like me you have it in ~/.kde/Autostart things can get messy.
  • Update on this. It isn't just xscreensaver causing this problem. It also crashes X when you run Google Earth or IE (via WINE) Bug 146394 refers to this.
• There seem to be problems with NFS filesystems not being mounted at boot time, even though they mounted OK previously. If anybody else has problems with this, an interim fix is to put "mount -a" in /etc/rc.local which will at least keep your system working until this is fixed.

My 2 cents worth:

• As others have said, Strigi really isn't ready. The interface is extremely basic, and it is just too buggy to be useful. For me, after it has indexed about 300,000 documents, it then refuses to index any more or answer any queries. Problem recurs if I wipe the indexes out and start again. -- LukePlant

• There doesn't seem to be any good way of enabling compiz -- no documentation about it, and big problems with all the methods I've tried. -- LukePlant

• I also had lots of problems with upgrades and bugs and regressions. Overall, I was significantly better off with Feisty: http://lukeplant.me.uk/blog.php?id=1107301679 -- LukePlant

I installed Kubuntu Gutsy i386, and this is my feedback: -- francesko

• when I choose Ubuntu (on GRUB), the screen becomes black and there isn't a progress bar... After different minutes, if I press Ctrl + Alt + F1, the Desktop Env. starts! It is the only way to make it work! A black screen, without a progress bar and a login form isn't nice...
• some software is duplicated in K menu (for eg. 'KDE Groupware Wizard' and 'Kontact'). I think that this can make confusion...
• if there is a directory that contains space in the name (for example 'New Folder'), and I open this directory by 'open as root' option (in Dolphin), Dolphin will open 2 directory: a directory named 'New' and another named 'Folder', and than alert me that these directorys doesn't exists.
• when I want rename a file (in konqueror or dolphin), all the old name is selected. It would be better if the extension doesn't will selected.
• In my opinion, Rank, in Adept, would be visible without click on programs. In the actual situation I have to click on all software to see their rank... It would be better if there is another column, for example next to the software's name, that contains the application's rank.
• in grub menu, it would be better if the operating system is called Kubuntu (and not Ubuntu) :P
• if I open Dolphin, and then I close it, an error occurs: "Impossibile salvare i segnalibri in /home/vale/.kde/share/apps/d3lphin/bookmarks.xml. L'errore riportato è: Permesso negato. Questo messaggio di errore sarà mostrato una volta soltanto. La causa dell'errore deve essere risolta al più presto; quasi sicuramente il disco rigido è pieno.". I runned "sudo chown USER : USER /home/USER/.kde/share/apps/d3lphin/bookmarks.xml", and now it works!

The installation went smoothly for me. I was disappointed with strigi, while searching for "my-file.pdf" (which exists) it returned a gazillion results, non of the first few files were pdf documents. I unistalled it and installed google desktop instead. --AChaudhuri

the OpenOffice splash screen isn't blue like this screenshot of Tribe 4: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyGibbon/Tribe4/Kubuntu?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=ooo.png

if I have a file on the Desktop, and I cut it and past it on Dolphin, the file isn't moved, but 'copied'!

• This is a known bug [http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=146133 http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=146133]. It is fixed in KDE 4 version of Dolphin but will never be fixed in KDE 3 as this version is no more maintained --Chandru

kmail is behaving strangely. Whenever I check my imap account from some other client, I see emails being duplicated, I keep on deleting the duplicates and they reappear. So, I now use almost all of Kontact, except kmail. This is quite a serious bug. --AChaudhuri

I'm a long-term Linux user and have used Kubuntu since Breezy. I've upgraded from Feisty to Gutsy four days ago and these are some of my findings. Though they are very negative, I think that Gusty is an overall good release.

• Installing Strigi by default is a GRAVE mistake. This software is in pre-alpha state, unstable, ugly and incabable.
  • On my system, after just about two hours, the Strigi daemon was down and refused to come up again. According to the UI, I had an index ~1GB in size with -1 unique words and documents in it.
  • Strigi refuses to save the list of directories I want to be indexed
  • Indexing has to be started manually which is totally unacceptable from an end user POV.
  • In it's present state Strigi can more or less just index file names and text files. And even that in a stupid manner. For instance, on my machine it returns a load of Java class files with partially matching file names before any useful matches like the Java source code files.
• Dolphin is a very annoying piece of software. I've really given it a chance, but it took less than 10 minutes to break my goodwill: There is no way to turn of the warning messages from the UI when deleting things. I don't really understand the decision to switch from Konqueror as the default file manager. In my opinion, Konqueror and it's all-in-one approach is one of the strongest points of KDE. It's fast, intuitive, usable, highly customizable, powerful and mature. Don't get me wrong, all in all Dolphin is not a bad file manager, it's just really puny compared to Konqueror.
• I'm really missing a Compiz integration with KDE. An impressive UI is really important if one intends to motivate people to switch to another OS. I'd consider that far more important than switching from a perfectly good file manager to an inferior one. Some more notes about compiz and KDE:
  • Compiz 0.6.1 has a bug that makes it unusable when being started as KDEWM because kdesktop will not be treated as desktop window. Apparently, this bug is fixed in 0.6.2
  • When run via ksmserver or KDE autostart after kwin is started it worked very well so far (Nvidia graphic card).
• kdesudo is broken, it can't be used to launch stuff with another non-root account. I had to resort to kdesu.distrib.

Upgraded several machines to Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy. I like the distro but find 2 major annoyances :

• Dolphin in a real pain in the ***. Too big icons, too few information. Ugly. Can't even copy/paste a file path with a mouse click as one would from Konqueror. Right pane is by default too narrow for localized non-english versions words to fit in, and eats too much space if made larger. Simply can't figure out how somebody could ever think that this was more "usable" than Konqueror would be, even for newcomers. Installing this "thing" instead of excellent plain old good Konqueror was a major mistake.
• Simple question : How the hell do I revert back to using Konqueror as my default file manager ?

  • A: Alt-F2, run "kcontrol". Go to KDE Components -> File Associations, select inode/directory, move konqueror to the top of the list, click "Apply". That's it, Dolphin is konquered.

    • Thank's!! Dolphin is 'uncomfortable'. Konqueror is better than Dolphin!!
    • Many Thanks for the hint ! --SP

• [https://launchpad.net/bugs/121653 this bug] broke both "suspend to RAM" and "hibernate to disk" on my laptop with ATI graphics, where it worked just perfect in Feisty. this one really makes me *cry*

• One more thing to add to my previous report : When I say above that I have "upgraded several machines to Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy", I have to say that half of them had both Ubuntu+Kubuntu installed, and I upgraded them using Ubuntu upgrade tool which went good. But the Kubuntu 7.04-only machines I had which I upgraded using adept_manager were a real pain upgrading, i.e.:

  • Version upgrade button not "spontaneaously" appearing, forcing /me to start it manually with the "--version-upgrade" option
  • Network link turned off at some point during upgrade - needs to turn it off then back on again using KNetworkManager : Doesn't happen with Ubuntu tool, and puzzles newbies (a friend of mine just rebooted her machine once her network connection went down).
  • Steps of upgrade sitting down forever, blocking the process (had the issue with some SElinux package...)

  • To summarize, for "each and every Kubuntu-only" machine that I tried to upgrade to Gutsy, I had to finish the job in command-line using aptitude. Too bad. And this includes a (very standard) machine on which I had just installed a fresh new Kubuntu 7.04 (with all updates applied) just 2 weeks ago. Even this one which I expected to be the "perfect standard candidate" failed miserably auto-updating to Gutsy...

  • Futhermore, I have yet another machine on which I first upgraded to Gutsy Beta, then on to Gutsy "final", on which adept_manager yet persists telling me that "a new version is available" and still wants to "upgrade" to Gutsy although it's already done (how the hell shall I make it understand that the upgrade is already completely done, thanks !) ?

• Well, this being said, I love Ubuntu/Kubuntu and prefer Kubuntu because I love KDE and don't like Gnome but I have to stress the point that I find that the Ubuntu overall integration and quality of specific tools is much better than Kubuntu's. I wish the Ubuntu/Kubuntu team as a whole decides to put as much effort in polishing Kubuntu as it does for Ubuntu, as both flavours of the distro are highly needed and should be of equal quality in respect to the provided installation and upgrade tools. This being said, Kubuntu remains my distro of choice.

• I agree with many of the things said already, but not all of it.
• Strigi should be removed, Find Files is fine. Make Strigi an optional desktop applet if nothing else.
• The Control Panel should be used instead of the settings wizard. Also an optional link like the "Add/Remove Programs" should be placed on the Kmenu for it
• The Kmenu needs a new look. The Kmenu icon should be made easier to change the graphic, as well as more options for editing the menu. ex: remove or organize the layout with more options to remove or add links. Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Find Files, as well as Home Folder and Root Folder links(by themselves, without the quickbrowser). I would also like to not have the "Actions" bar separating the programs from the links added.
• I believe Dolphin has the potential to be an excellent file browser. The look is great, it just needs more functionality options that dont get in the way of its simple design and layout. Settings for different folders need to be settable, as well as "Show Hidden Files" shouldnt reset every time you open a folder. The look of Dolphin is great though, and I never liked using Konqueror for a web browser since Firefox was a better choice anyways. Konqueror was a mess, and though it had more options, I prefer the separate File Manager and web browser.
• I hope this is just a temporary problem, but not being able to use vmware has me pretty frustrated.

Besides that stuff, I have nothing but positive things to say about Kubuntu. Its been my OS of choice now for the past year or so, and though I didnt see too much of a noticeable difference from the last version(im not a programmer or anything) besides the Dolphin addition and my vmware not working, I do love the work you guys are doing and appreciate having an OS as great as Kubuntu. Thanks for all the work -Supreme1012

My upgrade was foiled by [https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/95260 this bug]. Doesn't seem like it's going to fixed anytime soon, if ever. Doesn't seem like the installer is going to changed to warn users of this problem during partitioning [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/ubuntu-installer either].

Not to disrespect the hard work of folks here, but 7.10 is a step backward from 7.04 in my opinion. *First the upgrade problems: I got about two hours into the upgrade and got a core dump in the upgrade app. I don't remember the exact error message, I believe it was related to the install step for X11-common, but it left my machine unable to boot into a graphical environment. *After this, I did a fresh install of Gutsy. Here are my issues with the Gutsy Gibbon release: 1) Dolphin is the default file manager, and is seriously lacking in functionality compared to Konqueror. This weak app is missing what I would consider to be really basic stuff for a file manager, such as a location bar. 2) Virtualization didn't work for me. I couldn't boot my windows image with the version of QEMU present in 7.10, even though it works fine under Feisty. 3) File and directory permissions are really messed up, at least for usb devices. I mounted my Sandisk M230 usb mp3 player (Mass-storage class mode), and got strange permissions problems when trying to copy over songs. Even for folders that I had just put on the device, when I removed it and remounted it, I got permissions issues when trying to delete files. 4) Lack of good Compiz integration. This is supposed to be the killer feature of this release, and it isn't even enabled by default. After turning it on, I can see why - it's not ready for prime-time in KDE. Little glitches like the the "update" icon floating in its own borderless window, instead of being in the dock, for instance. *In the end, after spending a couple of days or so fighting with Gutsy, I ended up wiping the disk and reloading the *almost perfect* Kubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn). I hope many of the problems with 7.10 get fixed before the next Kubuntu release. In any case, I don't think I will ever be so quick to upgrade again - once burned, twice shy.

• I am satisfied with Kubuntu 7.10. My comments after using Kubuntu 7.10 amd64 for a few days (fresh install):
  • Minor drawbacks:
    • mplayer - warning message with gnome screensaver,
    • firefox 64bit without java,
    • kiosktool - unstable, I found a few bugs that will be reported soon.
  • Major advantages:
    • static IP configuration works again (it was broken in Feisty LiveCD),
    • flash player for 64bit Konqueror and Firefox,
    • I am able to play VCD again (it was hardly possible in Feisty),
  • Minor advantages:

    • restricted-manager-kde, kubuntu-restricted-extras: why our life should not be easy?

    • kdm - default theme with user icons,
    • simple configuration of 32bit libraries for amd64 users,
    • GDebiKDE.

    In general, I recommend 7.10 to my colleagues. -- Orkanspec DateTime(2007-11-01T00:08:28Z)

My installation experience with small RAM workaround and problems with /etc/fstab and kaffeine.

• I've got an old HP nx 6110 with 256MB RAM (some of it occupied by the graphics card), previously with Feisty/debian dual-boot. I decided to reinstall Kubuntu from scratch using the Gutsy release. The Gutsy desktop booted up using a swap partition in addition to the insufficient RAM. The installation initially failed due to insufficient RAM but after creating a dummy script /usr/local/sbin/swapoff (to keep the swap on; just put "#!/bin/sh" there and chmod +x) Gutsy installation succeeded.

• The next step was to reboot from the HD and I found myself on the console. Some processes, including kdm, seemed unable to write to the HD while others had no problem with that. That reminded me of problems I had with Edgy, namely /etc/fstab doesn't work with the detected UUID partition identification for me. And sure, after changing it to use /dev/sdaX instead I was able to boot to the newly installed Gutsy with KDE.

• The main reason for doing the installation was to make sure I can play DVDs with Gutsy before installing on a friend's machine. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out of the box, the required packages are not on the CD and must be downloaded from the repository. This makes installation with a properly working kaffeine on an off-line machine really painful.
• And, as others have noted, Dolphin really sucks as is. Either improve or drop it.

======== The upgrade wizard seems to contain useful information, but it goes away when I do the upgrade. Either take the info out of the upgrade wizard, or provide a "save" option so I can read it after the upgrade. Thank you.

Installed Kubuntu Gutsy from the i386 Desktop install CD (the image was verified).

Language for the installation was set to Finnish (fi_FI.UTF-8) and Adept failed to complete installing the (security) updates after the installation. I had to finish the package updates with "sudo dpkg --configure -a" from console (said "y" when it asked whether "/etc/qt3/qt_plugins_3.3rc" could be overwritten by the version from the updated package, what had modified that during Kubuntu installation???), otherwise the system was as installed from the CD.

Then I needed to set the language to Finnish from the KDE control center too, because most of the UI wasn't Finnish. After adding Gimp I need to add language-pack-gnome-fi too, Gimp translations didn't come automatically.

Then I tried to set kdm to autologin the person for whom I was installing the Kubuntu for, but couldn't because of bug 175909 (regression from a bug closed in 2005). Most of the time with the installation went to debugging & resolving that issue.

There are also some issues with Kmail which I haven't debugged yet, so in general Kubuntu Gutsy seems to be beta quality at best (security updates, initial language selection and basic tasks related to administration (getting rights from user for it) just have to work). I won't be installing this Kubuntu release near my own or anybody else's machine, hopefully Hardy release will have better QA.

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Adept & kdebi was very buggy + got a seg fault or so on the live CD when trying to use the live CD to reboot/shutdown, etc.. Many, Many SegFaults in Apps. I still get hte bookmarks perm. error. :/ even after all updates. kdm sucked in this version After remocing adept and installing synaptic, then removing kdebi (or whatever) which would freeze up just like adept and installing the regular gdebi & of cource remocing aRts sound system (esp. after removing this), etc.. fixed many problems I had with this ver. of Kubuntu (my first Kubuntu ver. tho :)_). Also after updating to ver. 3.5.9 from the kde site it fixed a screensaver not working problem I had and also since the screensaver didn't work neither would pdigin set the away status after x min. :(, however again after updating it fixed those issues. Alas also after man. changing kernel versions and a few twesks - all is working well. Yes I removed konqueror as it sucks, dolphin rules and is NOT sucky in this ver. of kubuntu like others have said.

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