Am I the only one disappointed in V5?

I use it daily, and for all the anecdotal worth it is to you - I haven't experienced anything but stability.

What operating system do you use?

As a general rule, for major version changes you should wait until the X.0.1 or X.0.2 release for them to chase out bugs.

But as far as it being a major version change, I think it deserves it. It has at least a few major features (SPICE integration, and direct Eagle import) as well as tons of quality-of-life improvements.

http://kicad-pcb.org/blog/2018/07/KiCad-5--a-new-generation/

Is your distribution's wxgtk compiled with gtk3? Because that's the case with fedora, and it breaks kicad. E.g. eeschema becomes very laggy

I use KiCad daily in a professional manner and am now in the process of upgrading from KiCad 4 to 5 (which is not that easy for a company with a lot of legacy libraries and tools).

Especially when using MacOS things improved a lot thanks to wider use of the OpenGL canvas and polishing of the UI. I did notice KiCad 5 is a little less stable than 4.0.7, but I think this should improve after adoption becomes more widespread. Also, upgrading projects from KiCad 4 to 5 is indeed a pain.

Here is a list of things we considered nice upgrades in my company, pretty hard to count on one hand unless your hands are very big:

Project-wide

• New 3D model plugin architecture: this makes exporting STEP models of the PCBA a lot simpler since it can be done in KiCad itself and we no longer need the WRL files (though they are still used for photo-realistic rendering).
• Custom color picker dialog: Can now be triggered without a middle mouse button (important for people who use a trackpad)
• The template folder paths now finally make sense

Eeschema

• SPICE simulation support via ngspice: This allows to simulate and test parts of a schematic before the hardware is available, increasing chances of having a working board from the first time
• Partial clipboard support that allows moving symbols and nets between hierarchical sheets
• Net highlighting with same net highlighting in board editor (modern canvas only)
• Table view for editing symbol fields
• Symbol library management with library table to eliminate symbol name clashes
• Copy/cut/paste between schematic library symbols

PcbNew

• Flip board option: This makes layout work and assembly on the bottom layer a lot easier
• Spread out when loading netlist with new parts (Modern canvas only)
• Clipboard support that allows copying selections between boards or as text
• Rounded rectangle pad support: this is super useful for square, small pitched components. Before this had to be done by overlapping multiple pads.
• Custom pad shapes: Again, super useful for tiny pitch components where pad shape is important
• Vias can now be placed freely (for stitching, etc): Makes via stitching a lot easier
• Improvements to drag selection
• Local ratsnest feature now available
• Microwave tools now available: This makes designing custom antennas and antenna traces a lot easier
• Change layer with via feature now available in modern canvas
• Change Footprint feature now available
• Improvements to the array tool
• Improvements to the arc drawing tool
• Improvements to the zone drawing and editing tools
• Many enhancements to the modern (formerly OpenGL and Cairo) canvases, including:
  • Net highlight mode highlights net in schematic editor (Modern canvas only)
  • Update changes from schematic editor without intermediate netlist file
• Improved Python console: We can now finally copy-paste in the console

GerbView

• Support for modern (OpenGL and Cairo) canvases: Especially for MacOS, this is a godsend since the legacy canvas is super slow on this platform
• Transparency support in modern canvases
• New measurement tool
• Ability to pan using a drag of the right mouse button
• Support for loading gerber X2 extensions
• Support for loading gerber job files

You might want to create detailed bug reports regarding your problems. (If you have more than one problem then make one report for each of them.) Don't forget to include the detailed version information and most importantly the operating system you run. (Also include which canvas you use).

Version 5 will get a major update soon. Some of your disapointments might be eased with the release of 5.1. The good news is that this update will come out soon: https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg38004.html

Works fine for me in debian testing, I always test nighties and the stable releases, no problems.

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My hardware is nothing fancy, a thinkpad x230 with ssd and 16GB ram.

I've noticed some improvements (I no longer have to zoom in and back out to cause component moves to draw correctly), but it definitely crashes on me a lot now, a few times and hour, I'd say. I'm on Mac, I've noticed it on both Mojave and High Sierra. All in all I'd say v4 worked better, but not massively

Huh, I've had the opposite experience. Running on Linux here and it's had one crash since upgrading, which is the same ballpark as V4. No noticeable performance drop either.

And I've found the general UI cleanup and improvement to the hand routing to be worth the price of admission alone. The ability to push traces around is a huge gamechanger. In V4, I'd realize I had to add a new trace to a dense area and basically would have to spend a couple hours deleting everything and redoing the entire area. Now I just drag a new trace in and boom, it just works. Hours of work turned into a couple seconds.

I do have a gripe about the new hand router wanting to have traces come in at 45 degree angles no matter how much I try to coax them into coming at 90 - what's up with that?

But otherwise, I feel this is a great upgrade. Nothing earth shattering but a good overall usability improvement.