Questions about Kubuntu 12.04 and its updates

[joe at actionline.com]

As a long-time Linux user, I have tried dozens of different Linux distros
and been repeatedly frustrated by the endless changes that often seem to
have made things worse (for me) rather than better.

Of course, there have also been many improvements along the way, but I've
been burned so many times by doing an update that created a horrific mess
that I finally came to the point that I have kept one or more older
systems running an older version of some distro that I got to a reliable
state as a fall-back position when updates on newer distros created yet
another nightmare for me.

The best (for me) system I ever had was PCLinuxOS with KDE 3.5 and I still
have it on a couple of my systems which I *never* "updated" and which have
remained rock solid.  Simultaneously, I suffered through endless ongoing
nightmares with KDE 4 until I finally got a system that sort-of worked,
marginally, but with a lot of goofy, needless widgets and garbage that I
did not and do not want.

Meanwhile, I tried numerous other distros and environments, none of which
were as stable, practical, versatile, and functional (to my liking) as PCL
KDE 3.5.

Just as I started to get a PCL-KDE 4.6 to work reasonably well, PCL forced
some new so-called "updates" on me that wrecked the whole system and
caused it to completely quit working.  So, I am finally fed up with PCL's
"rolling release" fiasco and trying, once again, to find a Linux distro
that I can "lock-in" without being subjected to yet more "updates" that
screw up my whole world and cause me endless wasted hours trying to fix
what wasn't broken before another nuisance "update."

Since I have always preferred a Redhat based derivative, I've generally
tried to avoid anything *buntu based.  Among the many dozens of distros
I've tried, older versions of Mandriva and PCLinux have been the
best/most-stable I've used. I also tried CentOS and Mageia but ran into
numerous problems with them.  Also tried Mint, Suse, Arch, Puppy, Sabayon,
Slackware, Vector, Knoppix, Backtrack, Salix, among many more. I know that
I want nothing to do with gnome or unity.

Recently I tried Kubuntu (12.04) and it seemed potentially pretty good
(with a few annoying problems), but then right after I installed it, I got
an "update" notice listing a huge number of changes it wants to do and I
thought "Oh, no, not again."

So, please forgive the rant, but why can't we have stable Linux distro
that doesn't try to force endless "updates" on us?   I hate updates.  They
almost always mess up my systems.

I just want a stable system that does not keep pushing changes.

Are any of you Kubuntu users who have done all these hundreds of changes
to 12.04 without experiencing problems as a result?