Re: KDE vs. Gnome
On Thursday 13 March 2003 09:54 am, GBV wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I prefer KDE, Gnome seens obsolete, and using gtk lib i´m able to use Gnome
> appz on KDE with no problems at all,
>
> My objective with this message is to gather advantages and disvantages of
> this two great softwares..
>
> Post your user and developer experience...
First: I'd like to say I'm glad to see that the responses here are careful
and thought-out, instead of a flame war. I've seen many forums where even
the hint of such a question would result in few (if any facts) and a HUGE
flame war. Since I started on this list, I've been impressed that most of
the time EVERY question is given full and polite consideration and even
newbies with simple or "obvious" questions are helped and well treated.
On to my comments:
I strongly suggest installing both GNOME and KDE. I originally started w/
GNOME, but switched to KDE. I still prefere some GNOME apps. For example, I
prefer Galeon for web browsing, but Konqueror for file management. I prefer
AbiWord to KWord. If you have both GNOME and KDE installed, there is no
problem using apps from one DE on the other -- with a few exceptions. For
example, I wish KNotes would work under GNOME and give me a panel icon!
(It's been a LONG time since I tried that, so it may work now.)
I feel like I have a rare view of almost any computer system. I am, first and
foremost, a script writer (script as in for video/film). When I'm writing, I
don't want to futz with settings or anything else -- I'm so focused on
writing I don't want to even see a console window at all -- all I want to do
is run my word processor (currently Open Office) and WRITE. On the other
hand, right now I'm starting a business that will soon pay all the costs of
creating and running my digital video production company. I'm doing this by
providing a service that involves a heck of a lot of programming. While I
don't consider myself a professional programmer, right now I'm making a
living at it. I've seen that users and programmers/developers see computers
and desktop environments completely diffferently. End users see what works
for them and what does the job they want (or makes a job easier).
Programmers see all the features in the API, and all the features available
to them to create the apps they want. If you look at a site like Slashdot,
you'll see a lot of hostility between programmers and users. (I haven't seen
that so much on this list -- that's a Good Thing.)
When I work as a programmer, see one thing, when I work as a writer/end user,
I see another. It seems to me GNOME is more of a "programmer's DE," and KDE
is more of an "end user's DE." In my eyes that does not make one better or
worse than the other. Just look at the default widget sets for Gtk and Qt --
KDE has a "smoother" and more polished look than GNOME. It's a small thing,
but I think it shows where the focus and effort is behind the scenes. While
GNOME apps are solid and work well, they tend to have little frustrations in
them, such as the file requestor (I know there's reasons it hasn't been
upgraded, but that's part of the point -- KDE feels designed for the user,
GNOME seems designed for the programmer -- the fact that it is so easy to
"hack" the GNOME file requestor is an example -- the emphasis was more on
APIs than on ease-of-use for the end user).
Anyway, that's just my 2 cents. I don't think one is worse or better, but I
do think they are designed with a different focus and a different type of
user in mind.
Hal
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