[clug] Kubuntu 8.10 first impressions

[Paul C. Leopardi]

Hi all,
Along with many others, I feel that it was too early for the Kubuntu packagers 
to remove KDE 3.5 and leave users to cope with 4.1.2 in Kubuntu 8.10 
Intrepid.

I do have some specific issues which have to do with the way I work:

1. I simultaneously use multiple machines all the time, usually my home PC and 
my office PC, or my laptop and my office PC, and sometime other *nix boxes as 
well. My methods for using other machines with KDE 3.5 are to use kssh, 
kio-fish and Konqueror. With KDE 4 on my office PC this gets wrecked or at 
least slowed down for a few reasons:

1.1 Compiz on my office PC kills X performance when I use ssh -Y from my home 
PC. At least I think it is Compiz that's doing it. All I really know is that 
the interface is really sluggish.
1.2 Konqueror as a file manager has been de-emphahsised in favour of Dolphin. 
This makes it harder for me to side-by side use file: and fish: which is what 
I do with Konqueror in KDE 3.5.
1.3 Bug? Konqueror in 4.1.2 forgets its toolbar settings. Fixed in 4.1.3?
1.4 Bug? Quanta in 4.1.2 can no longer open a file using kio-fish.

2. Plasma has so far been harder to use than Kicker. Are thease bugs 
or "features"? 

2.1 If I right click on a widget in Plasma, nothing happens unless it is 
unlocked. 
2.2 Widgets such as the digital clock take up too much horizontal space and 
cannot be resized. 
2.3 The news ticker overflows its boundaries and flows its text over other 
widgets. 

All this has led me to take up too much time trying to get my panels to 
work "right" - i.e. the way they work in KDE 3.5.

Maybe I'm just an old fogey? Maybe not. I see that people are already using a 
repository which tries to put KDE 3.5 back into Intrepid.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=963695

So, do you think I should nuke my installation and go back to Kubuntu 8.04, 
try to shove KDE 3.5.10 into 8.10 or just tough it out? Especially 
considering that somethings that I consider bugs will probably be closed 
marked INVALID, WORKSFORME, WONTFIX, etc.
Best, Paul