At the moment I'm running Kubuntu 10.10 on my desktop.
I use the PC for both "office productivity" and for software development (C, C++, PostgreSQL). Seldom I use it as a multimedia station.
The hardware.
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo T9500
RAM: 4GB
HDD: 320GB SATA @7200 rpm
VGA: nVidia Corporation G84 [GeForce 8600M GT]

While I'm pretty happy and comfortable with KDE4, I'm not really satisfied with (K)Ubuntu. Mainly for two reasons.

First, the kernel they ship is labelled as "generic" but it's actually "server". So responsiveness to the UIs is penalized against "performances". I personally don't mind whether my mega-huge task will require 30 or 45 seconds.
But I do mind when, for example, copying large files (both locally or to USB attached devices) makes the desktop unusable because of lagging (low responsiveness).
I could re-compile the kernel with my choice of scheduler, but why doind this in the 21st century?

Second, the KDE is customized and packed in a very strange way. One example for all: KDE NetworkManager widget. There you have an "auto eth0" which you cannot disable or modify without hand editing system files. Or you have no way to attach to an hidden (un-broadcasted) SSID.

I've tried also Fedora 14 but I've found a few bugs in their KDE spin which really annoyed me.

What would be your suggestions?
Many thanks in advance.

Look personally i preffer Fedora 14 with KDE because i am a fun of KDE DE. If you don't like this distro there is a gentoo based Sabayon. It is not so friendly as (k)ubuntu but it's a very attractive distro! The other choise is to use OpenSUse 11.3 whice has KDE as default DE and is easy to use and green!!

Thanks gasdim for the quick answer.
What about the desktop responsiveness and the real life usability of KDE?
I use Linux for every day job and need something effective.

Look i didn't use any of this distro's i told you what i have read in this forum. You must try it yourself. OpenSuse is more effective than sabayon. Go to opensuseand download 11.3 live image. Reboot your pc and check it without making any changes to your hard disk! Don't forget to tell us your decision!

You could hold on for a few weeks and then try Mepis 11. It's currently nearing beta stage...

Any info about all these distribution kernel settings?
The responsiveness is important to me, more than other things like eyecandy.

The best way to find information about these 3 KDE distro's is to check their official site! Download and a live cd from every distro and decide you want to install!

I seem to remember reading a review of Pardus that was very favourable, especially with respect to speed (not always KDE's strong point!)

For any GUI, I think you're better picking a distro that uses it as the default, rather than one that offers it as an alternative. So, Fedora and Ubuntu for Gnome, but for KDE Mandriva, OpenSuse, Pardus, PCLinuxOS, and so on.

The only distros I'm aware of that use the BFS scheduler by default are PCLinuxOS and Zenwalk. Of the two, I would lean towards PCLinuxOS.

Otherwise, I think pretty much all of them use CFQ by default.

I wouldn't do this. No single distro says "Well, our distro sucks at <your favourite computing task here>".
All of them usually say "Ours is the very best distro you can find on the net, whatever you need to do".
I prefer to rely on real users feedback.

Hi,

Slackware is known for it's excellent responsiveness. I'm using Slackware (dualboot with Gentoo) on all my (3) computers with KDE. My experience is that once KDE is started it is as fast as any lightwight windowmanager.

Slackware is easy to install, very! stable and has a very helpful and knowledgeable community here in the forums http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/

The only disadvantage of Slackware is that if you once used it, you'll never use any other distribution without the feeling that you want to go back to Slackware.

Further reading: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ations-852376/ and http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ckware-852890/I'm using Slackware since the year of 1994.

Markus

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