Kubuntu 9.10: A Mixed Bag

By
Jeremy
 – November 5, 2009Posted in: Featured Stories, Opinion, Reviews

Right on schedule, the newest iteration of the popular KDE distribution “Kubuntu” has reached version 9.10 and was unleashed into the wild last week. When I checked out the previous version (9.04) I found it to be the worst Kubuntu release since the distribution’s inception. For starters, there was nothing in it that you couldn’t get anywhere else, virtually no polish, and Wi-Fi was completely broken right out of the box and hasn’t been fixed (aside from manually installing third party wireless tools) to this very day. In that regard, there is a great deal riding on Kubuntu’s shoulders this time around. So, does Kubuntu 9.10 make up for the failures of the previous iteration? For the most part, no.

The Good
First and foremost, KDE 4.3 makes its official debut in Kubuntu 9.10. This is huge, because KDE 4.3 is the first version of the KDE 4.x series that’s ready for primetime. Although it isn’t perfect, it features beautiful artwork and is generally faster and more responsive. In addition, there are a ton of new features in KDE 4.3, and Kubuntu 9.10 includes all of those features naturally by including it as the default desktop.

As far as installation goes, Kubuntu’s install is virtually the same as it was before, with one exception: it looks darn cool. In fact, I’ll even go as far as to say that it’s the best looking operating system installer of any that I’ve personally used. The installation is fast, gave me no problems, and looks awesome. The “Air Theme” being applied to the installer makes it look much more professional.

Also, there has been significant attention paid to consistency in this release. Non-KDE apps look right at home in 9.10, all across the board. It doesn’t matter if you’re using Firefox, Pidgin, Open Office, or whatever other GTK app, it looks like it fits in with everything else in the desktop. While this is easy to integrate into any KDE-based distribution yourself with the installation of just a few packages, it’s very nice to have it set up for you right out of the box.

With the inclusion of KDE 4.3, Kubuntu naturally inherits all of its features. For example, contextual browsing allows you to drill down through your directories without clicking each time or even opening a file manager window until you want to. Other features include a new Plasma theme (Air), the ability to tie activities to virtual desktops, new Plasmoids (widgets), an optional tree view for System Settings, the ability to bold applications by name in Kickoff, and many new features all over the place.

The Bad
Unfortunately, as good as all that sounds, Kubuntu 9.10 isn’t without its fair share of problems. What hurts the release most is the lack of attention it receives compared to other distributions such as Ubuntu itself. (I wrote an article about that issue in particular, which you can view here). In general, Kubuntu 9.10 is very average in just about every area. For example, the new Air theme is available in just about every distribution shipping KDE 4.3 this year, the tweaks to make GTK apps look as though they were KDE apps are also available everywhere else, and in general there is nothing here that you can’t get with other distributions.

Unfortunately, the tradition of Kubuntu not getting as much attention as Ubuntu continues with the newest release. One example of this is the “Ubuntu One” file syncing service. With One, a user can have 2GB of storage space in the “cloud” that would automatically be synced between his or her other Ubuntu machines. As cool as this sounds, Kubuntu apparently wasn’t good enough to get it this time around, so Kubuntu fans will have to wait. In fact, Ubuntu received a great number of custom community themes and wallpapers, and even a fresh login and boot appearance. Kubuntu didn’t receive any love in that area either, and the neglect Kubuntu gets during development is starting to ruin the overall experience.

As far as the Wi-Fi problem of Kubuntu 9.04, that bug is unfortunately still around, though nowhere near as severe. For me, it works off and on (while it didn’t work at all previously) and others that have subscribed to the Launchpad bug report are still reporting issues, even with the final release. It has been mentioned that this problem is due to KDE not having an adequate replacement for a Wi-Fi connection app since the move to KDE4, however I feel that the developers could have just shipped WICD for now which seems to work. Sure, it isn’t a KDE/Qt app, but does that really matter at this point? Just fix it already!

In addition, there is a new feature in Kubuntu 9.10 that actually ends up working against it instead. A new notification system has been implemented, and the cool thing about it is that it stores notification messages (such as incoming instant message alerts) for you to view later in case you weren’t at your desk when the message originally appeared. The downside (and what completely kills this feature for me) is that it isn’t integrated into KDE’s existing notification system, so this means that you’ll have two places to look for notifications, rather than one. In my opinion, this causes a usability nightmare.

There are minor issues in this release as well, such as the login splash screen showing before the login screen. (I have no idea how that can even happen). That issue was reported before release and never fixed. Although that’s an extremely minor issue, no other KDE distribution has that problem and it looks odd.

Conclusion
Unfortunately, Kubuntu 9.10 is a mixed bag. On the good side, it boots much faster now by inheriting the extensive work Ubuntu has put into the boot experience, it contains the latest versions of all of the major KDE apps, and benefits from KDE 4.3 and all of the features it provides out of the box. On the downside there isn’t really much here you can’t get anywhere else (I easily mimicked most of the Kubuntu tweaks during my Arch Linux Experiment series), there’s virtually no polish to be found other than with the new installer, and Kubuntu misses out on some great features that are Ubuntu-specific yet again.

If you’re looking for a stable and fast (though average) KDE-based Linux distribution, you can’t go wrong with Kubuntu 9.10. Otherwise, take a look at the upcoming versions of Mandriva or OpenSuse instead, as both will provide a superior KDE experience this time around.

The Good

  • KDE 4.3 is fast, stable, and beautiful
  • Really awesome installer
  • Consistent

The Bad

  • Little to no polish
  • Feature list cannot come close to comparing with Ubuntu or several other KDE distro’s
  • Nothing here you can’t get anywhere else

Overall: 3/5 (Average)

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About the Author

Jeremy is a Certified IT Technician that blogs at ITNewsToday.com in his spare time. He has over ten years of industry experience, and studies the IT industry every single day. Jeremy has become an open source enthusiast over time and is studying for his Linux+ certification. He lives in Waterford MI with his wife Krystal and son Alan. If you enjoyed this article, please consider buying him a pepsi.