"Unfortunately, while what I wrote so far sounds really
good, this release is not perfect. One let-down (though a more
minor one) is the lack of any real polish, as there are no custom
themes in this release whatsoever. Everything is vanilla KDE,
looking exactly the same as if you compiled everything yourself
from source. The Kubuntu team used to include some very beautiful
custom artwork in each release, but what happened? Ever since KDE4
came into the picture, these custom themes have completely
disappeared. Granted, the default theme is usually the first thing
people change; However first impressions matter quite a bit, and
the first impression generated here is that Canonical just
doesn’t care to go the extra mile with Kubuntu anymore.
Ubuntu got new community themes, a new wallpaper, AND a new GDM
theme. Xubuntu received some visual attention as well. Why
couldn’t Kubuntu get some love too?
"It gets worse. Kubuntu 9.04 received a new network manager
plasmoid that is added to your panel by default, which replaces
knetworkmanager of past releases. The problem is, this new utility
won't connect to pretty much any wireless network. I have tried
several routers, and several computers, and the new network manager
just doesn't work. In fact, on the laptop that I'm typing this
article on right now, I can't connect to my wireless router under
Kubuntu; Yet Ubuntu has no problem with it, on the same system!
Many have complained about knetworkmanager, however I would gladly
take that over this new one any day. The new network manager is
quite possibly the worst piece of technology I've ever seen in a
Linux distribution in the decade I've been a Linux user!"