I recently installed a number of different Linux distributions (current 64 bit) including Ubuntu and Kubuntu while deciding which to use. What I didn't find in Ubuntu or Kubuntu in the brief period I had them installed was a handy dandy configuration tool to allow me to easily make hardware and software changes.
Admittedly I did not spend a lot of time with these distributions, as I also tried Sabayon (which I rather liked), and Fedora which didn't work at all for me. Ultimately I went back to the old reliable.... or rather the new version of the "old reliable" SUSE which is easy to use and has treated me very well. Every other distrib had some issues for me.

What tools are used for hardware and software configuration in these distributions and how are they accessed???????? I might have taken a bit more time with them had I found the tools easily.

I'm too lazy to drop back to text based tools and learn to manually configure everything. SUSE has drivers for everything, and easy tools to use.

Howard

What didn't work or needed to be configured manually? Personally, I've found more config GUIs than I need in the Applications->System Tools, System->Preferences, and System->Administration menus. And there are tons more in the repos that can be installed via Synaptic Package Manager.

Cheers

I use Kubuntu (installed Ubuntu and added KDE, on AMD X2 4000 64 bit) and hence kcontrol for general desktop setup.

I prefer synaptic for package (application / program) management - installing and removing progs.

HTH

pbhj

In additions to the System-> tools I've added http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php/Ubuntu_Tweak. New releases of Tweak come frequently and each one adds more to what it can do.