[hllug] Sidux with KDE 4 looks great but...

The first time I installed Sidux, which is built on Debian unstable, there was a software application called 'Hermes Upgrade Sentinel' in the release which warned the user to avoid upgrading if there were problems with any of the current upgrades. That software wasn't in the release I installed on Lisa's computer (or maybe I just couldn't find it *shrug*) So, I hosed her system by running an upgrade. At first it had a very attractive desktop but no KDE panel. That was awkward, but she was able to run software apps by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting 'Run Command' from the menu and typing in the name of whatever software she wanted to run. That enabled her to surf the web and check her email while I tried to sort out what went wrong, but she was very annoyed that Konqueror was gone (no, I don't know why, but it was).
A few days later Sidux posted a list of instructions on how to safely make the KDE 4 upgrade. I printed them out and, knowing they might not work for me but having no better ideas, I carefully followed the steps they provided. On reboot, I had no GUI and, after logging in from the CLI and typing 'startx' I was informed that X couldn't be found. After two days with google, and reading several thousand words I used deborphan to identify all orphaned packages and removed them (apt-get remove **) one at a time. I then installed Kaboom (the KDE 3 to KDE 4 migration tool), KDM, Xorg and KDE4. After which it booted up just fine. KDE 4.2 looks terrific but we hate the menu. The graphics are really great, everything looks fantastic but a really terrific looking slow and awkward menu is still a step backwards from KDE 3. Icons look great on the KDE panel and it's easy to add them but they can't be moved by the user; they get added in the order you selected them and cannot be moved thereafter. Resizing the panel is far more user friendly than it was in KDE 3 but it no longer offers an option for transparency.
The latest version of Konqueror is a far more credible browser than its predecessors but still handles flash very poorly. Of course it remains a wonderful file browser and that's enough for me. Lisa, on the other hand, is annoyed that she can't use Konqueror in place of Iceweasel (she's also tried, and rejected, Epiphany and Opera). 
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Don Crowder
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A proud user of Debian Etch w/KDE.
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