As I’ve mentioned before, I prefer KDE to GNOME, so I use Kubuntu on my primary computer (a laptop). I normally test releases of Kubuntu well before they’re actually released, in order to help the community in finding bugs – it’s a good way for someone who is experienced with Linux to help out, without having to dive into someone else’s code, worry about packaging, and other annoying stuff like that. So, last week, I did a clean install of Kubuntu 11.04 Beta 1.
Kubuntu 11.04 is based on the 2.6.38 kernel, which includes the new automatic group scheduling feature, as well as host of other improvements, which you can read about at KernelNewbies.org. Also included in the beta is KDE 4.6.1 (at the time of this writing, it has been updated to 4.6.2, which is the version that Kubuntu 11.04 will ship with).
So far, my experience testing this release of Kubuntu has been the best testing experience I have had with Kubuntu – I have had 0 application crashes, and have not run into any other bugs. Normally, at this point in the process, there is at least one application that crashes or has a bug, but so far…. nothing. It’s been rock solid since the day I installed it.
One issue that I was glad to see fixed in this release is the styling of GTK applications in KDE, especially Firefox. A lot of work has gone into making GTK applications fit in visually alongside Qt4 applications, and there would be problems when using a dark color scheme, particularly with Firefox. I am happy to report that Firefox 4 now integrates perfectly with the look and feel of native Qt applications.
Overall, everything works as expected, and the entire desktop is visually appealing, which are the two most important things I look for in a release of a desktop version of Linux. Being a beta release, it is of course not intended for the average user (there are still bugs to work out, though I haven’t encountered any), but it does provide a good first look at the next version of Kubuntu. With the main version of Ubuntu switching to Unity, there are bound to be some users who wish to move away from the standard Ubuntu desktop, and Kubuntu may be turn out to be a good fit for them. Speaking of Unity… there’s a good chance that I will check it out, and if I do, I’ll be sure to give you my thoughts on it, so stay tuned.
I’m one of those users that used Ubuntu so far and don’t like the future of it with neither Unity nor GNOME 3. So currently I’m looking for an alternative, Kubuntu being the first one. So it is great to hear it works well. Maybe even I will try the beta.
I was just wondering if you have ever experienced the issue with transferring large files (1.5GB or more) to USB drives. The issue being that it writes intolerably slow, uses nearly 100% of the CPU, and sometimes locks up the system. This has been an issue for me with every version of Kubuntu (and other KDE distros) going back to 9.04. I’ve never been able to find a solution to this and was just curious if you knew anything about it. Thanks. (I know that this is not the proper forum for this, but I really have searched to no avail.)
Hi! I personally have not experienced this kind of issue, but I did find some bug reports in Launchpad (here and here) that suggest that numerous other people have had this issue. It seems to depend on your hardware. I would suggest filing a bug against the Linux kernel in Ubuntu. Follow the directions on this page to find out what information the kernel developers will need attached to your bug report. Good luck!
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. The problem seems to be related to KDE and not the Linux kernel because I am using Ubuntu as we speak and I do not have this problem. However, I will still file a bug report. Thanks for your suggestions.
Thank you for the review Nick. I have been neglecting my beta testing for the last few releases so this Unity deal freaked me out. I am testing it now and I am dissatisfied. I have always walked the fence with Gnome and Kde but this has me thinking. I have a spankin new Toshiba Satellite that needs the newest kernel for the hardware. I will have to dual boot KUBY 11.04 WITH win7. I don’t have any other options.
If you need a more up-to-date kernel, there’s always the Ubuntu Kernel PPA, which, as of right now, looks like it has a package built from the 2.6.39-rc4 kernel. Your hardware might all work with that kernel.