Kubuntu 9.04 Falls Short

Kubuntu 9.04 was released April 23rd, 2008, and with it brought a newly improved desktop (KDE 4.2), as well as the speed improvements that Ubuntu also gained. Unfortunately, while the new release of Ubuntu last week was completely amazing, the new Kubuntu has a few problems and an almost completely broken network manager that keep it from perfection, yet its speed and stability may still impress.

For those that aren’t already aware, Kubuntu is a member of the Ubuntu family, which also includes derivatives such as Edubuntu and Xubuntu. While Ubuntu uses the GNOME desktop by default, Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop, as well as it’s own set of productivity tools. With Kubuntu, you get Konqueror for web browsing, Kopete for chatting across instant messaging networks (AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, and the like) and OpenOffice for working with word processing and spreadsheets. There is also an application for chatting on IRC networks (Quassel) downloading torrent files (KTorrent) and browsing directories (Dolphin). The default Kubuntu install quite possibly contains everything you need right out of the box.

The installation routine for Kubuntu is largely unchanged from previous releases. That’s a good thing, since the installer it uses has served us very well and gets the job done nicely. Installing Kubuntu is simple. Burn the CD, boot from it, click “install”, answer the questions, reboot, and you’re done. The only big difference I noticed with the installation is the nicer looking location screen. Other than that, this is still the simple and friendly installer we’ve all come to love.

Just like Ubuntu, Kubuntu includes support for the newly stabilized EXT4 file system, which offers a decent speed increase for reading and writing to the drive, among other improvements. The default file system is still EXT3, however you now have the option to choose EXT4 as your file system during installation. Unfortunately, during Kubuntu’s beta process I have read many reports regarding data loss with the new file system. Thankfully, those issues should be rectified with the patches that were included before the final release, at least for the most part. However, even though there have been complaints, I have been using EXT4 on four computers for several months, and I haven’t had a single problem moving several hundred gigabytes of data between them. Regardless, until EXT4 has had more time to harden itself, the risk is yours, so proceed with caution.

Unfortunately, you won’t find that many new features here. Instead, it appears that the focus was to make everything run faster and more stable, even though no one from Canonical has officially confirmed that, as far as I know. Focusing on speed and stability certainly isn’t a bad thing, and is actually very welcome. That is not to say that there are no new features in this release, however. Rather, almost all of the new features included were those that were automatically inherited due to the inclusion of KDE 4.2, which in itself, includes a ton of improvements. In fact, if you’re a KDE4 user, KDE 4.2 is something of a “required” upgrade, and further bridges the gap between the KDE3 days of old, and the KDE4 days of today and beyond. In my opinion, KDE 4.2 is the best desktop software ever created for Linux, but don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself and see if it fits your needs.

Some other improvements you can expect to find in this release are the inclusion of QT4.5 (which eliminates the system tray bug from previous releases) Amarok 2.02 (which many people hate, but I adore) and a new network manager (which I found to be the biggest letdown of this release). Another improvement is the inclusion of Kpackagekit, which is a very nice software manager. (And likely one of the best ones I’ve ever used).

Unfortunately, while what I wrote so far sounds really good, this release is not perfect. One let-down (though a more minor one) is the lack of any real polish, as there are no custom themes in this release whatsoever. Everything is vanilla KDE, looking exactly the same as if you compiled everything yourself from source. The Kubuntu team used to include some very beautiful custom artwork in each release, but what happened? Ever since KDE4 came into the picture, these custom themes have completely disappeared. Granted, the default theme is usually the first thing people change; However first impressions matter quite a bit, and the first impression generated here is that Canonical just doesn’t care to go the extra mile with Kubuntu anymore. Ubuntu got new community themes, a new wallpaper, AND a new GDM theme. Xubuntu received some visual attention as well. Why couldn’t Kubuntu get some love too?

It gets worse. Kubuntu 9.04 received a new network manager plasmoid that is added to your panel by default, which replaces knetworkmanager of past releases. The problem is, this new utility won’t connect to pretty much any wireless network. I have tried several routers, and several computers, and the new network manager just doesn’t work. In fact, on the laptop that I’m typing this article on right now, I can’t connect to my wireless router under Kubuntu; Yet Ubuntu has no problem with it, on the same system! Many have complained about knetworkmanager, however I would gladly take that over this new one any day. The new network manager is quite possibly the worst piece of technology I’ve ever seen in a Linux distribution in the decade I’ve been a Linux user! I’m sure after it’s tested further it will improve and become awesome, but for now, the Kubuntu developers should be ashamed of themselves for even including it. You may get lucky and have it work for you, but you probably won’t. Luckily there is a replacement called “wicd” in the repositories that you can install, which seems to do a much better job.

The worst part of the network manager ordeal is that the developers were aware of it’s inability to function. In the official release notes, underneath “known issues” I quote: “Network Manager does not connect to some networks”. And another: “Connection to non-broadcasting (hidden SSID) wireless networks with the network-manager widget isn’t possible”. You can view the bug reports regarding this issue here and here. I would understand if this was an old issue that developers were still looking to resolve, however these types of networks worked just fine in Kubuntu 8.10, so there is absolutely no excuse for Canonical to have released Kubuntu 9.04 with such a huge bug.

To be fair, not everyone uses wireless networks, so those issues won’t affect everyone. Those of you that upgrade to Kubuntu 9.04 will appreciate the speed and stability improvements, as well as the features acquired with KDE 4.2. However, if you use any wireless networks at all, you should skip out on this release altogether until the issues are fixed. If you still insist, you should still test your network with the Live CD first.

Compared to Ubuntu 9.04, the new release of Kubuntu just can’t compare in almost any regard except for the areas that were influenced by Ubuntu itself. There was no polish put into the release, and problems with wireless networking exist that are exclusive to this release. Remember folks – I am a Kubuntu user, I have been for years, and I prefer the KDE4 desktop, so my disappointment with this release is saying a lot.

Report Card

Installation (5/5)
- The same tried and true approach to installation that we’re all used to, and it still works well.

New Features (2/5)
- The only new features here are what was inherited from Ubuntu (the EXT4 file system, for example) and the new features that KDE 4.2 brought to the table. Little to no Kubuntu-specific modifications exist here.

Look & Feel (1/5)
- Canonical completely dropped the ball here. There were little to no improvements made to the look and feel, beyond what KDE 4.2 includes by default. KDE 4.2 itself looks great, but Kubuntu didn’t contribute to that at all.

Stability (5/5)
- This is by far one of the most stable Kubuntu releases yet.

Connectivity (1/5)
- The included network manager is horrible and has problems connecting to both WEP and WPA2, and probably other encryption types.

Speed (5/5)
- Kubuntu 9.04 is one of the speediest releases yet, although desktop effects can still take a toll, as always.

Overall: 3/5 (Average)
Kubuntu 9.04 is a very mixed release. On one hand, it’s extremely stable and extremely fast. On the other hand, there was little to no polish put into it, and the included network manager is far from user friendly or even usable.

The good:
EXT4 support
KDE 4.2
Very fast and stable

The bad:
No polish at all
Problems with wireless connections
Worst Network Manager in distribution history