KDE Vs GNOME - Just Use What Works For You!
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Bruce Byfield does a fine job at explaining his position regarding a recent switch from GNOME to KDE. Unfortunately I feel that his case for using KDE over GNOME is generally going to hit home mostly with advanced users. I myself, despite being an ex-KDE user, find that GNOME is simply less crap to deal with.
Bruce made it clear in his piece that we wanted to explore what KDE had to offer. Yet for most users, I cannot help but feel that KDE offers more ways to screw things up than the average user really wants. KDE, while powerful and “pretty”, is basically just another desktop alternative.
For myself personally, I am just more comfortable using GMOME as I know the application shortcuts without having to really think about it. Gedit vs Kate, Evolution vs Kontact, you get the general idea. At the end of the day though, it does seem like most ex-Windows users flock to KDE as it has a more polished feel to them despite also being a contributor to being overwhelmed with more options than they might really be ready for. But that is just my take on the two desktops, to each their own.
4 Comments
Glenn Roberson
May 15th, 2009
at 9:27pm
I agree with you totally.
I am a regular on the Ubuntu Help Forums, and as such I have three Ubuntu installations on my laptop; Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu. I also use the Gnome desktop environment as my main installation, as that is what I started with (in Linux) and what I am used to. As a matter of fact, if I had used it first, I think I might have liked Xfce better yet.
The main thing that I agree with you about is having to deal with a bunch of crap with KDE. Oh, it’s pretty and all, and wasn’t too bad with KDE 3.5, but with the new 4.2 I almost get lost, and I’ve been dealing with computers and various OSes since the early ’80s, from DOS 2.X on and including quite a few different ones.
While they have made KDE real pretty and configurable, it’s just too much to put up with. I personally am not into nor impressed by a bunch of gee gaws and eye candy. All the desktop GUI is to me is a platform from which I launch my applications, which is what I’m really interested in.
The desktop GUI could look like Windows 3.1, and as long as it had the functionality I need and launched my applications, it would be fine with me. But then, that’s me.
I know others like all the eye candy and all. They’re welcome to struggle with it all and regularly screw things up until they figure it all out. I’d much rather just launch my applications and concentrate on them.
leftystrat
May 15th, 2009
at 9:56pm
Don’t forget XFCE, the X in xubuntu. It’s smaller and faster than Gnome and KDE. Great for older systems and newer ones too.
I won’t use Gnome because of its insistence on keeping the taskbar up top. It’s just *wrong* :) KDE is too pretty for me and sucks up too many resources. If you really need KDE, just use Vista. Even more bling for the buck.
molecule-eye
June 1st, 2009
at 2:52pm
@leftystrat: Gnome panels can be placed *anywhere*, not just as the top. Also (and generally) just what the hell are you talking about?
Kristian
August 18th, 2009
at 11:33pm
KDE 4 is the best!
I used to switch between the GNOME & KDE, but since KDE 4 was released I’ve exclusively used KDE.
GNOME doesn’t even come close to KDE4. Looking at gnome now, it’s like looking at Amiga Workbench 1.0 from 1985.. Seems to follow the same philosophy, except the GTK common dialogs are hideous compared the Amiga’s usable dialogs.
KDE4 is the future! GNOME is yesteryear.