Since everyone else has been throwing out Jaunty (Kubuntu) guides, Jaunty (Kubuntu) screenshot tours and Jaunty (Kubuntu) gossip columns, I figured one more screenshot couldn’t hurt.

And of course, that is not the default desktop. Everybody hates the default desktop no matter what distro, release or version it is, so just get over it, change it to what you like, and move forward in life. 👿

I’ll reiterate the same points I made with the Gnome Ubuntu version: It sets up easily, with no hardware difficulties on a 1Ghz Pentium III with a few upgrades. I anticipated no less; this machine has been a gold standard for hardware since 2000 or so.

I feel odd saying this, but it seems like Kubuntu’s performance is a tiny, tiny bit slower than Gnome Ubuntu’s. I don’t really have any way of qualifying that or being more specific, in which case I probably oughtn’t mention it at all. But I’d be lying if I said the two seemed on par. It’s a tiny difference, but I can feel it.

On the other hand, I have to reiterate something I mentioned about three or four months ago, that for as many complaints as there are about Gnome Ubuntu’s brown appearance, or it’s lack of desktop gizmos, or its rather bland arrangement, you’d think more people would install Kubuntu. After all, the default KDE desktop is head-and-shoulders beyond anything Gnome offers out of the box.

All this being said, it’s time to move along. I always enjoy my little stopovers in KDE — never more so than with KDEmod — but it’s just too taxing, both on the machine and on me. As you can see in that screenshot, the processor spikes like crazy, the fans pulse on and off, and minor desktop effects seem to drag it down.

And from my own standpoint of usability, I much prefer a quick right-click to trigger a program, than the four or five nested clicks it takes to find a particular application. If I took the time to arrange KDE the way I liked, it would probably be just as fast and just as appealing, but I have too many other things awaiting my attention.

So I move on again. Jaunty looks good from all my perspectives. I give both K- and U- my blanket endorsement, which again is to say, “Use it if you prefer it.” But that should be the rule no matter what. 😀