For the VLC problem I guess it's your repositories that you need to add vlc.
I have this line in my /etc/apt/sources.list
Code:
deb http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/dapper-i386 /
You can add it but remember it's unstable. Maybe someone else has the stable repo.
For installing deb files use dpkg
Code:
sudo dpkg -i <filename>
I guess gdebi should work on Kubuntu too if you install gnomelib.
And yeah many of these WYSIWYG editors don't work well on Konqueror and Opera. That's the price you pay for following the standards.