The latest release of Ubuntu/Kubuntu is "Feisty Fawn", version 7.04. I chose Kubuntu since I prefer the KDE desktop environment over the Gnome environment. I also chose to install with the DVD media version rather than loading in up to 5 CDs.

Installation

Kubuntu starts off as a 'live" distro, meaning you will get a full desktop setup that you can explor prior to installation. To start the install, just click on the desktop icon. For my test system, the basic installation took 18 minutes. Below is a set of screenshots taken throughout the installation process. The "live" distro allowed me to attach my USB pendrive to save the screenshots, a nice feature.

The first thing you will notice is that the installation is very "lightweight". Even accounting for 700MB of space for the "live" version, there is probably close to 6GB worth of packages supplied on the DVD. The installation process allows for no additional package selections, so the intial install is very "bare bones".

Clicking on Kmenu->Add/Remove Programs activates a version of the Adept package manager that has packages ordered by categories. There is, however a slight problem here because you can only add packages from online repositories. If your network hardware isn't working or you don't have Internet access, too bad!

WART 0: Adept doesn't provide for selecting packages from the DVD!

There is a workaround. You must configure Apt to work with the DVD. Click on System->Konsole and type in "sudo apt-cdrom" and answer any questions such as umounting the DVD if it's already in the drive, etc.

I installed my favorite browser (Firefox) and my favorite Email client (Thunderbird) and then copied my user files off of the USB pendrive. If you do copy over your .mozilla/firefox files, be sure to delete the plugin files so you won't get duplicates of plugins when you install the real plugins later.

I have an Nvidia GeForce FX 5900XT video card in the test system. Standard procedure for Linux distros is to configure such cards for non-accelerated video. To get accelerated video, you need to install Nvidia's proprietary driver. Clicking on System->Adept, then searching for "nvidia-glx" results in 3 interesting packages:

Adept indicated that nvidia-glx was installed, but I didn't have accelerated video. This was verified by testing with the opengl screensavers and a look at the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf, which indicated the X server was "nv" (the non-accelerated driver) rather than the desired "nvidia" server. Further investigation revealed that there indeed was an accelerated driver installed at /lib/modules/2.6.20-15-generic/volatile/nvidia.ko. All the pieces, but no acceleration!

There is a workaround. Click on System->Konsole and type in "sudo aptitude remove nvidia-glx" and then type in "sudo aptitude install nvidia-glx-new". This will get you the latest Nvidia accelerated driver. Restart the X windows systems with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace and you now have accelerated video.

A Lack of Kontrol

If you click on Kmenu, the last item in the "All Applications" section is application "System Settings". Unfortunately, this application is a mere shadow of the "Kontrol" prograom supplied with the KDE desktop environment. Entire sections of Kontrol have been left out of System Settings, plus System Settings has sections that don't work such as the portion intended to select themes for KDM. Could it be that the KDE people know better how to setup their software than the Kubuntu people?

There is a workaround. Right click on Kmenu->System Settings and click "Edit Item". Copy the System Settings item and Paste it, creating a second version. Change the Name of the second version to "Kcontrol" and change the Command to "kcontrol". Click Save to update Kmenu. Now you have the real Kcontrol at your disposal, you can control the cursor launch feedback, add/change themes, etc. Real control!

We now move from the stupid to the sublime. Automatix is the package manager that saves Kubuntu from being a complete disaster in the Multimedia arena. Click on Kmenu->Mutimedia and what do you see? Not much! No DVD players, no video/audio editors, nothing. Install Automatix2 using this 6 step process. Why it's not installed as part of the initial installation is beyond me!

WART 3: Multimedia support stinks. Give us Automatix pre-installed!

Automatix does much more than just the multimedia and codecs. The proprietary video drivers are there. Useful tools for graphics such as The Gimp, Internet goodies such as Gaim and Skype, The Mozilla apps Firefox and Thunderbird, Bittorrent support, full NTFS read/write support, better fonts and Wine! It's everything you wished had been installed, but wasn't.

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Death to Mozilla?

I like to use the Mozilla HTML editor. A quick look with Adept through the repositories only showed Firefox. Opening a a console, I did a "which mozilla", this revealed a symbolic link to Firefox. No Mozilla HTML editor for me! I had to manually download Mozilla from their website and install it.

WART 4: Mozilla has been around forever! Why is it gone from
                    the repositories?

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Conclusion

I have to admit that I am rather disappointed with Kubuntu 7.04. It should have been named "Warty Fawn". Such a shame to download that 4.3GB DVD image file, only to wind up installing virtually nothing from it.

Still, my time with Kubuntu wasn't a total lose. I did discover Automatix and I now have an even greater appreciation for Ubuntu Ultimate Edition. Looks like a new version of Ultimate based on Feisty is in the works. Yay!