Long-Term Review: openSUSE 12.2 KDE

I did this long-term review on my normal UROP desktop computer with the 64-bit edition of the OS. Follow the jump to see how it fared. Also do note that there are more days logged because I intend to use it for about 60-80 full hours of work, which is the equivalent of 7-10 full days in the summer, though now I am working on a part-time basis as classes have started. Finally, for some reason Blogger decided to delete the content of what I had here, so everything up until "Day 2" is very much paraphrased from memory.

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Review: KDE 4.4

Today, I am reviewing KDE 4.4.
Well, I couldn't. Before you tar and feather me (appropriate, no?), hear me out. (This is also why I have no screenshots for you, dear readers, today.)
I installed all of the KDE "standard" (not "full" or "minimal") packages in Synaptic. That said, I had installed some packages like KolourPaint and KPackageKit already. This may have contributed to the issue.
After all that was said and done, I closed all of my applications, logged out of GNOME, and logged into KDE. I saw the beautiful KDE splash screen followed by...a really messed up background and no Plasma Panel. The KDE Migration Assistant opened and froze. I tried to do something — anything — to no avail. Frustrated, I logged out, logged back in, and found the same problem. I restarted and tried again, finding myself again with the same problem.
I have come to the conclusion that maybe I should have installed all of the KDE packages at once instead of installing isolated ones first before installing the "standard" collection of packages. That said, I am very disappointed at what has happened today. Hopefully this does not occur on other computers.
On a related note, desktop effects work on my computer now! Yay!
UPDATE: I searched for my problem on the Internet and found out that I hadn't installed the "kubuntu-desktop" package. Sadly, fixing this didn't fix the problem. I tried installing all of the other related KDE packages as well, to no avail. KDE 4.4 seems to be (at the moment, on my computer) a lost cause.

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A Disappointing Review of Kubuntu 10.04

Before you continue reading, a word of warning: I am sick, so I am not quite in the clearest state of mind. All I am asking is for you to forgive me if my level of writing is not quite up to snuff (which is already at a pretty low level anyway).
I am a fan of DistroWatch and try to look for reviews of popular Linux and BSD (and, occasionally, Solaris) distributions. As Ubuntu 10.04 and its derivative distributions came out last week, I wanted to find out if any new reviews had been posted to DistroWatch, as Ubuntu 10.04 was being heralded as a landmark release (and of course, as always (but, sadly, never truly so), the distribution to make 2010 "the year of Linux on the desktop"). I had already seen a few reviews of Ubuntu 10.04 [GNOME] but not yet one of Kubuntu 10.04 [KDE]. I've read a few reviews on the site called Desktop Linux Reviews by Jim Lynch; they are all very well-written, giving nice screenshots, a comprehensive overview of features, a thorough review of how well it works, and a nice summary recommending it to certain audiences over others (and giving it a rating out of 5).
This review, however, has brought the standard down to a low never seen before. Follow the jump to find out why.

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