I've been running Kubuntu on my desktop for a while now.  Since the upgrade to 9.04 it has worked really well.  Today the update program said the kernel had to be updated for security reasons, so I updated.  Now the @#$% computer won't finish booting.  This has happened before -- frequently.  Until now I have been lucky and some old kernel known to GRUB would boot.  Not this time.  I have a perfectly good /home directory that I cant get to.  When this has happened before I've tried burning an Ubuntu install DVD.  That won't work.  The install DVD naturally has the latest kernel so it won't boot my Dell desktop either.

I am annoyed with Kubuntu.  I used SuSE before Ubuntu.  Who wants to recommend a good desktop distro for someone who thinks WIMP interfaces are a great advance over the command line?  I prefer KDE to Gnome, but it's not a big deal either way.