i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

Sometimes I find progress puzzling.  My two newer computers are running just fine with OpenSUSE 11.2 and KDE 4.4.  I think.

...

OTOH, my two 10 year old computers are not faring so well.  As reported somewhat previously, I had to roll back my Toshiba A15 laptop to OpenSUSE 11.1 because 11.2 was non-functional on that computer.  The upgrade of my HP ZD7000 has more-or-less worked, but leaning toward the "less" side.

Despite several efforts, the Nvidia drivers simply won't work.  This is not totally unusual, as they did not work for quite a period of time and then in openSUSE 11.1, they did work.  But, I'm uncertain whether a rollback will solve the problem -- the driver list somewhat mysteriously skips right over my card, which is the GeoForce4 480 G0 and is identified as 0x0186.  For some reason, the 184, 185 and 187 are in the list, but mysteriously, not 186.

So, I'm uncertain whether that particular driver has been deprecated, or whether something in OpSu 11.2 makes the 4 series driver non-functional.  It may also have something to do with that particular card -- there was a flaw in some HP zd7000s relating to the video card that resulted in a class action lawsuit and a bunch of repairs.  (My serial number did not qualify, however.)  This computer will not function at all in the original windows.  Or, not necessarily the original windows, but the updated with current drivers windows XP Professional THAT I PAID A LOT OF EXTRA MONEY FOR.  (So much for commercial software.  I usually by the cheapest computer on the shelf, but I bought this particular one with custom upgrades, yada yada and won't be doing that again.)

As a result, it's difficult to say whether I'm bitching about a problem that is somewhat unique to my computer(s) or whether there is some sort of bug.  It's also possible openSUSE and/or the Linux kernel team have started to remove legacy stuff to make a leaner package. Don't know and don't know how to find out.

In any event, the "upgrades" to the zd7000 have not gone well.  The broadcom wireless card won't work -- even with the legacy drivers I've documented here before; and the Nvidia card is rolled back to generic "nv" support.

Lastly, the whole setup is running quite a bit hotter and the cpu is cranking more in the area of 10% at idle instead of 2%.  This is all rather annoying on the zd7000, which is a multi-threading Pentium IV (and yes, I paid extra for THAT, too) -- but if you are familiar with this model, you know that it runs very hot and has twin fans that have proven sturdy, but are rather noisy when the temperature cranks up.

On the other hand, I rather like the Plasma Desktop Activities (which may be adding to the resource overhead) and I can get compositing via x-render, albeit rather sluggishly.  So, it remains to be seen whether I will run this computer with Plasma widgets, or run it on LXDE.

And then again, since it's a computer I use with a clock screensaver, LXDE has the disadvantage of running xscreensaver, which uses a fair amount of cpu.  Meaning, noisier fans.

At least the hp has good fans.  The Toshiba A15 has a piece'o'crap fan which I have replaced once and is now again sounding like it is preparing for takeoff (since the "bearings" are failing).

I was going to experiment with the nepomuk indexer and the Akonadi server, but the first is too processor intensive at startup and the other isn't running correctly.  So, my learning curve on these items will have to wait for another day.

Later:

I switched the x-render compositing back on and it did not seem to increase the cpu overhead.  In fact, it may have reduced it.

And some more items to complain about:  The plasma clock widget won't start at boot anymore unless I open it, check the "second hand" box and close it again.  Otherwise, it comes up showing midnight and no second hand.  That's weird.

Plus, the "localization settings" aren't sticking, at least with respect to the date format that ends up displaying with the digital clock in the panel.