VENT - Ticked with Kubuntu

[p.daniels]

On Saturday 19 April 2008 10:05:50 Billie Walsh wrote:
> I guess what ticked me off more than anything was the changes in the
> repositories. Up till just a couple weeks ago [ last time I noticed ]
> both KDE3 and KDE4 were listed, and identified, in adept. This no longer
> seems to be the case with the push towards KDE4 [ which IMHO is not
> really ready - everyday on the list you read someones post about
> something not working in KDE4 ] and 8.04. If the KDE3 files had been
> there, as they had been in the past, she would have been up and running
> in just a couple hours. Trying to install the available files kept
> "breaking" things. In most cases it would warn me in adept that
> something would break if I tried to install a particular something. It
> was mostly KDE "parts" that I needed to install. Anything else just
> installed with no problems.

I have noticed some of this myself. I can only imagine what a nightmare the 
move to KDE4 must be for the package maintainers. /Most/ of the 4 stuff is 
marked as such in the repositories, but not some of the stuff that was simply 
repacked from Debian. Debian is handling the issue very differently, by 
keeping all the 4 stuff in the "experimental" repository, which is probably 
simpler from a packaging perspective, but seems like a PITA for end users.

All of which means, honestly, that if I was setting up a system for someone 
else who absolutely must have stability, Kubuntu is probably not the way to 
go, at least for the 8.04 cycle. The situation will improve, but it's 
difficult stuff we're dealing with here with the 3.5->4 migration. It's going 
to be a bumpy road for the next couple months.

As for my own system, I'm sticking with KDE4. This is the future of the free 
desktop happening before our eyes. IMHO, worth the hassle. One thing that has 
helped me tremendously in keeping a stable system is using Aptitude rather 
than Adept, so I can actually see what I'm upgrading before I do it, and 
remove stuff that I don't want or need. For instance, I'm still using k3b 
because it's the best CD burning application available right now. k3b 
recommends kicker, kconfig, and a pile of other legacy stuff that, if I was 
using Adept, would have come along for the ride whether I liked it or not, 
but using Aptitude, I've got a lot more control over dependency handling.

-p.