To start with, Kubuntu didn’t even get to a live session: the graphical interface just sat there flashing. After a lot of testing and searching, I discovered that I needed to press F6 and add ‘xforcevesa’ to the boot instructions. The release notes (yes, I should have read them) mention problems with various video chips but they suggest far more complicated solutions, involving using the alternative CD and creating an xorg.conf file! Once that was sorted, both the live session and installer launched successfully.

The software provided was Rekonq (why not Firefox?), Kmail, LibreOffice, Krita graphics, Amarok music player, and Dragon video player. Running from the CLI, all left serious warnings except Dragon and Krita, but Dragon played videos slowly and jerkily. Rekonq frequently crashed with an illegal instruction, just as it had done last time. I tried installing VLC, but that didn’t play anything and could only be shutdown with a kill signal.

Although most people would not have experienced the video-driver problem, it’s symptomatic of the general lack of quality in Ubuntu and its respins, confirmed by the problems with the applications. If you like KDE, get PCLinuxOS, Mepis, or OpenSUSE.