Kubuntu 9.04 Quick Review
Posted on | May 11, 2009 | 6 Comments
I just upgraded my work laptop from Kubuntu 8.10 to 9.04. I did the upgrade over a wired connection, and it took me about 5 hours to download and install all the packages.
The upgrade went smoothly, and I couldn’t find any major configuration hiccups that renders my box useless so far.
There are a few things that I like right away when I booted up the first time. The main thing is that things render more correctly. The default font selections are generally smaller than in 8.10, which is really good, because it was too big. Check boxes render correctly, which is great because web pages with a lot of checkboxes, like Gmail, used to render awfully before.
I also noticed that some javascript rendering animations that didn’t work in firefox in 8.10 are working now working. This and the rendering issues are very important to me as a web developer.
Now the bad part… The color theme!! The default color theme seems to me as an unfinished work to me. The color choices are fine for common windows and tools. However, KDE Plasma widgets seem to use inverted colors for background, but they do not invert the text colors! Semi-black on semi-black just do not work in computer screens! I’ve done some color tweakings to get it to be acceptable, but it’s not pretty yet. Shouldn’t the default color theme be at least usable?
The second complain that I have is the speed! The Kubuntu 9.04 Release Page claims that Kubuntu 9.04 is faster than 8.10. Plasma seems to be hogging my processors much much more than before. As I write this blog, several times Plasma seem to suck all the juice that my processors have, and make the desktop freeze for good minute !
Another thing to consider for Kubuntu user is the retirement of K Network Manager widget. They have replaced it with Plasma Network Manager widget. This widget is not added by default to your toolbar, so you need to add it there, and re-configure your connection.
I realize that this is just a quick review, written the same day after my upgrade. I may find more things that I like/don’t like with it. However, I thought I’d write my first impressions.
I am not totally happy with this release (not Kubuntu in general, just the release), but I am not totally dissapointed either. Half a year ago, when I first installed 8.10, I really wasn’t happy with the quality. However, with time as updates came, it became more stable. I am eagerly waiting for updates from Kubuntu in the next few days to make my workstation better.
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6 Responses to “Kubuntu 9.04 Quick Review”
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May 12th, 2009 @ 9:28 am
I am curious what machine you are running kubuntu on because I have not encountered any of these problems with my dell latitude e6400.
Install took me maybe two hours. everything works, no freezing, and I have no problems with my color themes. After using the gnome desktop for the last 5 years, the new KDE desktop is a breath of fresh air.
May 12th, 2009 @ 11:24 am
I am running Dell Vostro 1310 laptop. I think it has Intel Onboard Video chip. I am still discovering issues with my Plasma desktop this morning. It’s a bit of a productivity drag right now. Hopefully I can get it spiffy soon.
May 12th, 2009 @ 12:39 pm
I finally found the bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=188719.
So Plasma will creep up in CPU utilization due to reading some socket that’s not really available. Caused by the clock widget!
Killed the widget, it’s usable now.
May 12th, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
Sad that I have to periodically run:
ps ax |grep 'ksocket-ezra/plasma' |awk '{ print $1 }' | xargs kill -9to get some sanity with this machine…May 12th, 2009 @ 7:08 pm
Speed…the reason I use Xubuntu!
July 2nd, 2011 @ 9:53 pm
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