Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron was released a few days ago, and came out, as always, in many flavours. We tried Kubuntu, the Ubuntu variant with a KDE4 desktop.

The KDE4 desktop contains many true improvements over KDE3.5, making the KDE experience pleasant and modern. In the upper right corner you can add widget, many of whom can be interesting additions to the eee pc’s desktop, like the precize battery widget for example.

Booting Kubuntu from a USB pendrive took me quite some time, it can last for two minutes sometimes. I made a little video to show the booting process.

Software

The K menu is divided into 5 parts: Favourites, Applications, Computer, Recently used and Leave.

For picture viewing and editing you will find Gwenview and Okular, OpenOffice Draw completing them.

Konqueror is the main internet browser, firefox isn’t installed (nor is Thunderbird). Akregator, an RSS feed reader is present, as well as remote desktop connection and sharing tools.

Dragon player is the default videoplayer , and Juk will manage your music collection and play audio files.

Kubuntu has a good quantity of office software. Besides the standard OpenOffice suite, you will find KArm (a personal time tracker), KNotes, address books.

I really enjoy working in the Dolphin file manager. You can split the windows in halves, assign notes and Ratings to files or folders, and, the must for a blogger: you can assign tags, and organize your files your way.

I had wifi issues, Kubuntu was running restricted drivers. I didn’t manage to get the adapter to work yet. The hotkey for enabling/disabling wifi seems to be working. Fn+PrintScreen will start Ksnapshot.

KDE4 is a very pleasant experience with the eee pc. Every window is resizable, flexible, the eee pc’s tiny screen will never be much of an issue.