Okay. So I got impatient and downloaded Kubuntu 8.10 beta to try it out. I've got to say...

HOLY KRAP! KDE 4.1.2 is rocking my world! Absolutely beautiful!

And, kde-look.org is integrated right in the desktop for theme management. I've been using gnome for a while. Just need to do a little more tinkering and then I think my mind is made up about which desktop I'll be using once Ubuntu 8.10 goes stable.

Huge thumbs up to the KDE graphics / design team! :thumbs_up: