Kubuntu 12.04 comes with a new logo, somewhat thinner than it’s more classic gearbox KDE thingie. Then, it boots into a desktop with a rather bland wallpaper, feeling rejected like an orphan just told a piece of really bad news. Like that scene in The Meaning of Life, where John Cleese tells a choir boy: Oh, Jenkins, apparently your mother died this morning. That sort of thing.
And then, the very first thing that happened, KMix decided to misbehave. Blimey. Why? Could you not sort this in your very last and supposedly most dignified LTS? Why does my session have to begin with a stupid segfault?
Look & feel – archaic and modern
I’m beginning to realize that after some stellar improvements in version 4.6, KDE is starting to show signs of regressions again. It’s not the technology, it’s the presentation layer. For example, the menu, while clear and functional, could feature a bit more color, a little easier navigation. The bad part is, you can have those, AFTER you do some manual tweaking, but why?
Another few examples would be the Wireless setup or the arrangement of icons in the system area. Notifications are notoriously unneeded, not in the way they are presented. Do you really need the Klipboard? Now, it’s nothing bad, but knowing how delightful KDE can be, I really wonder why the developers and the marketing team, so to speak, chose this specific choice of color and items to display.
