Living in KDE . . .

After my recent experiences with KDE 4.1 (followup here), I decided to finally give Kubuntu its due, and I have to say: I really like it. I went ahead and changed my Gnome Ubuntu installation to Kubuntu (using sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop) and choosing kdm as my default desktop manager. I've been very pleased, and I may have even made the leap to KDE as my preferred environment. So what's changed for me? I wasn't having any problems with Gnome, per se, but, as I posted recently, I was just getting a little bored with it. Here's a shot of my current desktop:


I've found that KDE is just as stable as Gnome, and the buggy-ness that I have complained about has not really been an issue now that I've committed to it. On a side note, I'm also just getting better at fixing problems as they occur. Linux settings are much more doable than I thought, and I'm having less of that "Oh-my-god-I-wish-I-could-just-call-tech-support" feeling about problems I encounter. Her are my favorite things about Kubuntu's brand of KDE:

• a "right-out-of-the-box" attractive interface - even the default background photos are attractive, which is not true for Gnome Ubuntu (note: the image in my screenshot is one I found through StumbleUpon)
• Amarok - it's now my favorite music player and comes (in Kubuntu, anyway) with a link to Magnatune - great music, free to listen - it's usable and configurable
• Konsole - it makes the terminal feel like a web browser: I can run concurrent sessions in multiple tabs - very useful since I'm often logged into several computers at once

"Regular" Ubuntu has been my home desktop, but now that I often work from home, KDE is a better fit overall. I'll report back as I continue to explore.