Ubuntu vs. Kubuntu ... just one!

[Rick]

Nils Kassube wrote:

> Rick wrote:
>   
>> Since several of my requests for information about applications to do
>> certain things either went unnoticed or there simply was no one who
>> knew the answers, 
>>     
>
> There was probably nobody who had an answer. It is unlikely that you would 
> be completely ignored by everybody.
>
>   
>> I began to explore in Kubuntu. I used the following 
>> advice:
>> You could do $ sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop to cleanly
>> install KDE and $ sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop to cleanly
>> remove GNOME
>>     
>
> Who's advice? "sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop" will not remove all of 
> Gnome. "ubuntu-desktop" is a meta package to invoke everything needed for 
> the Gnome desktop, but if you remove it, all the other packages it  
> depends on, will still be there.
>
>   
>> Well, I did find some suitable KDE applications and gained a little
>> insight into Kubuntu, BUT
>> the above command lines did NOT do what they were supposed to do. I
>> have repeated the above lines several times to uninstall and install
>> Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Right now I have both Ubuntu and Kubuntu  ...  and
>> KDE 4 as alternatives at login. I do not want all those alternatives.
>>     
>
> What is the problem of having alternatives? I don't know about GDM, but 
> with KDM I don't see the alternatives for the login, unless I invoke the 
> appropriate menu. It uses the last used desktop for the next login. 
> Therefore, I usually login to KDE without any extra selection unless I 
> really have a need to use Gnome. I think, the same should apply to GDM.
>
>   
>> There are some K-programs which are clearly superior to what I found in
>> GNOME, like Dolphin and NoteCase and the font installation system. What
>> confuses things to an incredible degree is that shortcut icons
>> (launchers) are not deleted together with the program, and often they
>> continue to work even after they have been deleted / uninstalled.
>>     
>
> If the shortcuts continue to work, the programs aren't really removed.
>
>   
>> How can I now (short of a clean installation) return the computer to
>> Ubuntu, with a few selected KDE programs to supplement the Ubuntu
>> arsenal?
>>     
>
> Sorry, can't help you there. I would start synaptic and select the 
> individual packages to remove. But that would take a long time, so I 
> usually just leave unused packages installed. I can't imagine why that 
> could be a problem unless you only have little disk space left.
>
>
> Nils
>
>   
It's all over. I'm writing this from Windows, because I can no longer 
get into Ubuntu. I removed the KDM and made sure GDM was still intact, 
but something still wanted a Kubuntu startup. Some data I saved; some is 
lost inside Ubuntu, but when I pass GRUB there's only chaos. Too bad. 
I'd just bought the Turbo driver for my printer, which Ubuntu doesn't 
support. Now I have to decide whether to dry my tears from the 8.04 
installation disk and try again, or wait six months for the next 
release. I do want to free myself from MS, but doesn't it seem just a 
little ridiculous to require so much fiddling just to achieve minimum 
functionality? Especially when I can already do everything on Windows. I 
do have things to do with the computer. I was hoping to do them (or some 
of them) in Linux, but when I look back on the hours, days and weeks 
spent just setting up the system, I feel foolish. TTFN!

Rick