Sorry to hear your upgrade didn't go well, Michael. I've had a few
things break over the years during upgrades, but nothing so completely
trashed as what it seems you experienced. I'm currently using the
latest Kubuntu 12.04, and I have to say I'm quite spoiled by KDE. Among
other things, I'm loving:
* Complete control over window management. For example, I told KDE to
make the Rosegarden transport 85% transparent and to not show it in
the taskbar. Every time I open Dolphin or Kate, they open to the
same size, regardless of whatever size I might have left them at
previously. Multiple Gimp pictures automatically open within the
same tabbed window. Firefox & Chrome always open centered. Etc.,
etc. I also have "keep above" among my window buttons, keyboard
shortcuts for tiling the windows to each side, and much more. Some
people might not like all the options, but once configured to do
/everything/ you want (or could imagine wanting), you feel like a god!
* Activities + Multiple desktops are nice. If I want to do a
screencast, I simply switch to my screencast activity which has a
different wallpaper and does away with the desktop widgets.
* If I want to edit my applications menu, I simply right-click on it
and select "Edit Applications...". Try doing that on Unity.
* KDE applications such as Dolphin (awesome dual-pane file manager),
Klipper (multiple-entry clipboard tray icon), K3B & more. It's also
easy to make custom Dolphin right-click menu actions such as "Copy
Path", "MD5Sum", "Convert Audio File", etc.
* I feel like KDE gives me the tools to deal with other application's
shortcomings. For example, I can have the system suspend
compositing for a specific program (although I've never needed to
use this), or generally for all fullscreen games to maximize
performance (this is the default). Flash and VLC don't properly
suspend the screen saver during a long movie? No problem, I can
click the battery icon, and temporarily suspend the power management
whenever I want.
I could go on and on, but the point is that despite its bugs and the
occasional battles, I have found computing heaven in KDE + Linux. Once
it is set up properly, I feel like I am in total control of my system,
and whenever I use a different OS or desktop environment, there are a
lot of things I miss.
Every OS has its battles. For me it comes down to: which battles are
you willing to fight? Like Michael, I also tire at times of the issues
with Linux, and the time it takes to get them resolved. In the end,
though, I still prefer it to the types of issues I have to deal with in
Windows and the entire ecosystem that surrounds that platform. I don't
have a lot of experience with Mac OS to really comment on that
platform. Being so well-integrated between software and hardware, there
are battles that simply don't need to be fought on that platform. That
being said, my Mac-using friends have been complaining to me about the
bloat/slowness of recent Mac OS upgrades, applications that no longer
work correctly, and I have to think to myself: at least us Linux users
have alternatives. System is bloated? Switch desktop environment (or
distribution). Don't like the direction your favorite DE is headed?
There are alternatives. (I will resist the urge to take a swipe at
GNOME 3 here... oh wait, I guess I just did.)
Alright, this is long-winded enough. I hope you're able to get your
system back to a satisfactory state, Michael.
God Bless,
-~Chris
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