F8 vs F9

[Nigel Henry]

On Tuesday 12 August 2008 19:54, Marcelo Magno T. Sales wrote:
> Em Ter 12 Ago 2008, Mike -- EMAIL IGNORED escreveu:
> > I need to install a few new systems in the next
> > few weeks.  My requirements are: apache; C++ code
> > development; netfilter; KDE; openvpn; and above
> > all, stability.  I have heard a rumor that I might
> > be better off with F8 than F9.  Is this true?
>
> I, for one, would stay with F8 and KDE 3.5.9 for a while. KDE 4.1 is now
> much better than KDE 4.0 released with F9, but it's still far from
> finished and much of the functionality of 3.5.9 is not available yet.
> Also, there are many really annoying bugs waiting for fixes.
> I'm currently using KDE 4.1 on F9, but if there was an easy way to go
> back to F8 and KDE 3.5.9, I certainly would.
>
> []'s
> Marcelo

I'd downloaded the 6 cd iso's on dialup for Fedora 9, but hadn't got around to 
installing it, as there were updates waiting for other distros. I updated my 
Archlinux install, which was going to upgrade KDE 3.5.9 to KDE 4.1. Stupidly, 
looking back on it, I let the upgrade go ahead, and ended up with a KDE4 
desktop that was virtually unuseable compared to my KDE 3.5.9 one.

I could give a huge list of problems with KDE4, but the first that I noticed 
is that the sound had stopped working. That is a real no no for me, as the 
first thing I check on a new install is that the sound works.

Going through the hoops a bit, I removed KDE4, and thankfully Archlinux has a 
kdemod repo, and I've been able to re-install KDE 3.5.9. I now have the 
desktop I'm used to, but still no sounds. I'm on the way to getting the 
sounds fixed though.

I somehow I believe that Kubuntu/Ubuntu have dealt with KDE4 in the best way. 
Kubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 has KDE 3.5.9 as default, but with the option of 
installing KDE4. That way you could install Hardy Heron with the default KDE 
3.5.9, and if you have sufficient harddrive space, also install another 
instance of Hardy Heron, and install KDE4, and see how you get on with it.

2¢ worth of observations, and comments.

Nigel.