Finally got round and had another bash at the KDE GUI (discussed here before as an OT ), now 4.6.1 after reactivating the Synaptic repository http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu and finding/selecting "kubuntu-desktop", install, log out, log in selecting the kde instead of the gdm desktop and was wowed. Gloss all over and this time working smooth... needs to get used too as there are many different default apps, but it carried Cairo-Doc k across correctly, so mostly had all things around that were already in regular use. The Menu system is much much nicer and Synapse launch bar now comes up with a single Ctrl-Space instead of hitting the space bar twice... it's so much quicker to do ctrl-space and then type a few letters of an application or file or a webaddress and then launch it.

--//--

If you're power consumption "aware", don't jump on the Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal bandwagon yet. Seems your laptop in particular will start to use lots more:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article...ux_mobile_uffda&num=1

And for those that, here's many tweaks:

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/things-to-tweak-fix-after-installing.html

Seems the new Unity interface is far from development-complete yet. Could not get to like it when I test rided it some time ago.

--//--

edit: Narwhal

Yup, your tip is actually in the tweak list. Been using it to alternate between the Ubuntu and Kubuntu/KDE interfaces under 10.10

More tweaks for 11.04 Natty Narwhal, which btw finally fixed a 802.11N driver bug. Coupled with a power management - off switch

sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off

it gives full speed web browsing which previously had multiple seconds delay with each new page load.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/04/10-things-...-installing-ubuntu-11-04/

and

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/01/the-omg-gu...t-have-indicator-applets/

Latter discusses 10 indicator applets to replace those lost with the removal of the old GNOME panel. The best to me is Caffeine, which allows the temporary suspension of ScreenSaver kick-In for when watching a Video or reading a longer text (WMP on Windows could be set to do that too). Many other goodies too, such as one to show CPU/Mem utilization.

Enjoy

--//--

Hello, SekeRob,
I recently acquired a HD-less HP Pavilion 4core 2.8Ghz. Even though a replacement HD is ~$60usd, I decided to RETRY a bootable Ubuntu/WCG flash drive (original attempt was 2-3 incredibly intense days of frustration b4 I gave up).
I must have become wiser (or luckier!!) since the 1st attempt (1+yrs ago), because the laptop was up & running WCG on an Ubuntu (v9.10+updates:Karmic-Koala 10/2009) flash boot after 9hrs.

However.... my TOTAL lack of Ubun knowledge has left a plethora of questions.
FIRSTLY:
This is a 4cpu machine and should absolutely be the fastest of all 9 XP machines currently running.... but it isn't?!?!?!

First wu's run were CMD's which were "scorchingly" completed 66% faster than other machines. However with Clean Water, it's barely equal in completion time. I intend to test Proteome Folding/HCC/FAA next to compare times.

Major point:
My 1 core XP machines run ONE wu at a time... the dual core XP machines run TWO...
How come the 4cpu machine runs ONLY ONE at a time AND (at least with c4cw) only as fast as 1 & 2 core machines????

I have scowered all the Ubun pull down menus for a clue or "magic switch/check box", but to no avail.
The BOINC mgr is set to 100%cpu(s), 100% run time, 100% swap files(239Mb) and remaining (600+Mb) free space on the flash drive (4Gig Total less area for Ubun/swap leaves ~652Free).
My work que is set to 2days work (to snag any passing ddd2 wu's if they fly by...lol)

Any clues/suggestions to either find out:
(a) if all 4 processors are running (Ubun's system monitor says 100%),
(b) why only 1wu processing vs (my logic) 4wu's.
(c) Am I constrained because there is only 239Mb swap area and ~650Mb "free disk"
( 10gig Flashs are cheap enuf...can upgrade if necessary)

I'll tag this thread to check on your reply. I appreciate your time. Regards Ol43

(P.S. I read ALL the blogs on this thread & can honestly say I didn't understand 95% of what was said!I guess that's ok as long as -->YOU GUYS<-- know what it means, right!!! lol)
(P.P.S.- Can I mail this flash stick to someone & have it tweaked 2 the max? I've kinda proven to myself that a bootable flash/WCG is possible ....I guess the rest is to prove that a lean Ubun/NoHD is faster than a fat-arsed XP w/HD spinning 24/7!. [I'm an ex-Pro auto road racer--annnnnnd it's ALL about speed, you know!]
(P.P.P.S. I'm thoroughly convinced that Ubun/Flash will conserve electricity by eliminating HD's, but I'm NOT willing to convert the other machines to flash boot until I see that I can max all available cores.)

Haven't been in Linux since May 17, when discovering that W7 was more efficient with Clean Water and Energy [on my setups], but certainly the interest has not waned and all the Natty upgraders having kernel 2.6.38.8 or up will be interested in the latest NVidia driver, if they've got a card of that brand. Version 270.41.19 with release notes:

    * Fixed a bug in the VDPAU presentation queue that could cause 1 second hangs when transitioning from
       blit-based display to overlay- based display. This would most commonly happen when disabling a compositing manager.
    * Fixed a bug that could cause crashes when capturing SDI video.
    * Fixed a corner-case in which the OpenGL driver could leak resources in applications utilizing fork().
    * Addressed a Linux kernel interface compatibility problem that could lead to ioremap() errors and, potentially,
       functional and/or stability problems.
    * Fixed a bug that caused SLI initialization to fail on some Intel based systems.
    * Fixed a bug that caused SLI initialization to fail when using recent Linux kernels, such as 2.6.38.