Kubuntu 7.10

The fracas over the partition bungle notwithstanding, Kubuntu has a few attractive features.
Dolphin the new file manager brings a lot of additions to the usual file manager seen in KDE. For one it can easily switch to a dual panel mode allowing two folders to be opened side by side. Then there is the option to switch to super user mode with the press of a button. Viewer preferences can be easily saved, permanently. By far this was the best file manager so far tested. If I recall correctly, it also had an option to mount a partition without having to resort to the command line, as in FC8.
The lack of Firefox was surprising. Why would Kubuntu do it? Konqueror is fine, but if it could keep its tendency to launch the password manager everytime a password is entered, and use a smaller utility, it would be less annoying. Rendering wise, it does a good job, and I suspect it has some Gecko genes.

Kubuntu while booting also allows modifying the display resolution, something that is sorely missed in FC8, since Opensuse also has this facility. An unexpected, but pleasant surprise was the use of higher resolution by FC8. Since I did not set a resolution while booting, the desktop was set a 1600 X **** resolution (or atleast something higher than the 1280 X 1024 that the monitor officially supports). This reduced the size of everything, and was quite welcome since I always felt that interface wise Linux was too "padded" compared to Windows ( I always stick to the classic theme in Windows).

As far as installation to hard disk is concerned, Kubuntu did not mind when the user password was just one letter long, but it would not allow the system name to be so small. Also, I could not find an option to select the location for the bootloader. The sole option related to bootloading is an advanced options button in the final step of configuration before the files are copied to disk. Since I was keen not to screw up the Opensuse installation, the absence of a choice was disturbing. A cryptic "location of help for bootloader" was the only place where a hard disk was mentioned. And since this field was populated with "(hd0)", I was not sure what was being refered to by it, since the nomenclature till then was "hda" or "sda". I had opted not to install a bootloader, hoping to create an entry in GRUB that was being used by Opensuse. The failed install though put paid to all the plans.

By the way, FC8 was removed (after one day of use) to make space for Kubuntu.