kjpetrie, Thanks for the reply. I'm still playing 'catch up'. More and more, I'm also thinking it has more to do with KDE than anything else since PCL/Gnome is still as solid as a rock for us here. The 3 desktops and one laptop running PCL/Gnome have NEVER given me a problem. They 'just work'. :-)
I haven't switched over all my computers in the hope that if/when I get some time, Most of the computers were installed with 2010 and upgraded through synaptic along the way.
I installed 2011/KDE, without updating, on one computer, and it's been working flawlessly for 2 days. No crashed or freezes.
I hated to switch because of how long it takes to get the computers back up to where they are useful and customized the way I want them.
Just an FYI, I was surprised how many 'normal' programs were missing and had to install to Kubuntu. Took forever. e.g. Samba, Cups, Gimp, etc. etc. etc. I'm really considering installing PCL 2011/KDE on my other computers here or going with PCL/Gnome. It just takes too long to setup Kubuntu as opposed to PCL, that had everything already installed right out of the box.
I was really, really happy with PCL for the last 7 years. Converted many users. I hope this gets straightened out so I can use it once again.
I'm also very curious why no one else is running into this. I expected to see a ton of people with the same problem. Like I said, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. I kept looking at what I'm doing different than anyone else, but the numbers kept getting in the way. All 9 computers had the same symptoms, which started about the same time.

? I say 'about' because I don't update all at the same time. I was even thinnking 'virus', but the fresh install ruled that out.
Thanks for everyone's help in trying to solve this. If I do make progress, I'll update this post.