The Perfect Desktop - Kubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron)

[Sharktooth]

This tutorial shows how you can set up a Kubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge. Kubuntu 8.04 LTS is derived from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and uses the KDE desktop instead of the GNOME desktop.
Read more... (http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-kubuntu-8.04-lts)

[Henrikx]

I had a lot of trouble with Kubuntu 8.04.
Hardware Abstraction Layer ,Network Card and Sound .
All works fine with 7.04/7.10.

At the time, I installed Debian 4.0 KDE (3.5.9) lenny (testing).
The installation is like Ubuntu Alternate....
It is an advantage to have some basic knowledge, or more.
Sound, graphics, DVB-T (Kaffeine), everything works fine.
Lenny is always up-to-date.
At the moment I have no reason to change back to Kubuntu.

[freebird73717]

I think with any variant of ubuntu it would be a wise idea to wait a couple of months before installing 8.04. By then most bugs, and yes right now there are issues and bugs (check out the ubuntu forums to see), will then be found and dealt with.

For me 7.10 is working great so I'm not going to upgrade until most of the kinks are worked out.

[WalterK]

The fixed the HAL error in 8.04 before launch for the latest kernel update.
Once the HAL error was fixed network again worked as for audio because of my sound card still no Spdif or digital audio out but it was not like i was using them anyhow.

[smok3]

that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops.
random thoughts;
a. I can't seem to stand the thought, that first thing will be to install wine...
b. and Kino is similar to what win app?
c. where is 'my' avisynth? :)
d. shiny desktop wont help anyone really

[WalterK]

I tried kino back in the 5.04/5.10 days of ubuntu and it has a clean interface etc but not your cup of tea if you are not using dv video input. It takes too long to decompress/convert regular video for use , video you might just wish to pass through a NLE for a quick edit like adding an intro or something maybe by now thats changed but that is the way it was.
Then i moved on to cinelerra loved that app although the default interface it uses is a tad ugly , you may have to change the skin (easily done in options) then when ubuntu updated for a bit cinelerra got broken and when the cinelerra team updated to fix that and a few bugs you had to do a workaround to get cinelerra to launch without using root and x264 encoded files could no longer be displayed or edited in it.
Finally i stumbled upon Kdenlive think of this NLE as Ulead's premium NLE which means its newbie friendly, easy to install and can handle most video types to edit as well as render out to several formats since its backbone for decoding/encoding is ffmpeg but lacking the in depth editing capablities of say Premiere and Sony Vegas Pro.
The team that develops the opensource version of cinelerra is poised to launch a new NLE called lumiera built from the ground up.

[Irakli]

My experience with new Ubuntu 8.04 is quite positive so far (just upgraded from 7.10 few days ago).

However, I don't really think Ububtu is the best distribution available, but for some reason from all distributions I tried only Ubuntu allows me to adjust brightness of my notebook screen.

As for audio/video thing, I agree that Windows is still much better due to greater availability of programs (e.g. better GUIs, existence of secure Audio CD ripping tools, etc.) For that reason I still use Windows for audio/video encoding & editing, and Linux for anything else.

[Major_Kong]

c. where is 'my' avisynth?

In development, or so we hope...

My experience with new Ubuntu 8.04 is quite positive so far (just upgraded from 7.10 few days ago).

However, I don't really think Ububtu is the best distribution available, but for some reason from all distributions I tried only Ubuntu allows me to adjust brightness of my notebook screen.

As for audio/video thing, I agree that Windows is still much better due to greater availability of programs (e.g. better GUIs, existence of secure Audio CD ripping tools, etc.) For that reason I still use Windows for audio/video encoding & editing, and Linux for anything else.

Ubuntu tries to give the "Just Works experience", which doesn't imply it will be the "best experience".

As for apps... well, it's the old chicken and egg problem. In order to get greater avaliability of programs, the user base must increase, in order to get more users, the avaliability of programs must also increase...

PS: Try using RubyRipper for secure audio rips, (http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Rubyripper), it's inspired by EAC.
Ubuntu packages are avaliable in getdeb.net

[Irakli]

As for apps... well, it's the old chicken and egg problem. In order to get greater avaliability of programs, the user base must increase, in order to get more users, the avaliability of programs must also increase...

100% agree.

PS: Try using RubyRipper for secure audio rips, (http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index....tle=Rubyripper), it's inspired by EAC.
Ubuntu packages are avaliable in getdeb.net

Thanks for the tip about RubyRipper! I'll definitely try it ASAP. It will be interesting to see how it compares to EAC.

And thanks for the link as well. Very nice small page indeed!

But getting packages is usuallt not a serious problem for me since I am familiar with basic compiling (I do this quite frequently on Ubuntu with multimedia apps since apps included in Ubuntu package manager are quite old sometimes).

best wishes,
irakli

[nfm]

I used Ubuntu for a while but It's bloated and heavy on ram. I don't like the Ubuntu's kernel, there are always little problems so you end up compiling vanilla one. I moved to Arch Linux because of simplicity, slackware like design, one config file, only necessary modules, vanilla kernel, always up-to-date, perfect for program complications, faster than anything. It kicks Gentoo's unstable a$$. I also moved away from GNOME, it's too much I/O dependent. I tried over 20 Windows Managers, Fluxbox seems perfect for me. With Arch it's easy to recompile kernel or xorg-server using gcc-4.3.0 with -march=core2 -mtune=core2 -O3 -pipe optimizations for great speed. Now I will never say that that Windows XP is faster in GUI mode.

[Inventive Software]

Kubuntu seems like my perfect Linux distro at the moment. Now I gotta see if it'll actually install...

[shevegen]

I moved to Arch Linux because of simplicity, slackware like design, one config file, only necessary modules, vanilla kernel, always up-to-date, perfect for program complications, faster than anything. It kicks Gentoo's unstable a$$. I also moved away from GNOME, it's too much I/O dependent. I tried over 20 Windows Managers, Fluxbox seems perfect for me.

Wow, seems like an advanced user already ;)

I agree about Archlinux. I however slightly disagree about the Gentoo aspect. It is sad that people fight "Archlinux vs Gentoo". Gentoo provides a user with the idea of configuring and tweaking. That requires extra knowledge but can at times be great (provided that you always pick the best option)

However I would also say, for most people Archlinux will be better than Gentoo. And it is what I personally recommend over Gentoo.
(Also, Gentoo's devs seem to be a bit confused sometimes ... but this is just my opinion, there are also GREAT knowledgable guys in Gentoo. Look here for what I mean http://planet.gentoo.org/developers/ and btw i think every distribution should have blogs like these)

But Gobolinux still ass-kicks Archlinux AND Gentoo. Though not convincingly right now, because there arent enough people to keep the binaries uptodate like Archlinux has.... Having many users can be a huge advantage, but lets see in one or two years again. ;-)

[smok3]

I also moved away from GNOME, it's too much I/O dependent. I tried over 20 Windows Managers, Fluxbox seems perfect for me. With Arch it's easy to recompile kernel or xorg-server using gcc-4.3.0 with -march=core2 -mtune=core2 -O3 -pipe optimizations for great speed. Now I will never say that that Windows XP is faster in GUI mode.

i did run bblean for some time on xp, that's probably the only really 'original' desktop out there, snap;
http://blog.somestuff.org/images/bblean_smok3.jpg