Comments on: KDE vs GNOME

By: Dready92

Dready92 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:41:42 +0000

Joe is in love with kubuntu, Jack do prefer Fedora, William stick on Debian/xfce… The real important thing about FOSS is that the USER, me, you, have the choice.

By: robert

robert — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:21:33 +0000

I just dropped KDE like a rock because I wasn’t able to copy folders to the desktop in 4.x — and don’t tell me that all I must do is learn what a ‘plasmoid’ is. I don’t need another layer of abstraction between me and the file system, thank you very much. Imagine explaining what a plasmoid is to 100 or 1000 or 10,000 end users. If I’m to accept ‘innovation,’ it will be in the place that matters for communicating with other humans, which is a handly little invention by Mr. Berners Lee called http.
Other than this, I fully agree with the thrust of this post: open source development is a superior model because it: 1. Turns competition into an asset by making interoperability possibility, 2. leverages the scale of the internet, 3. makes diversity possible, 4. makes peer review of software possible. I use lots of KDE apps, increasingly (and happily!) on many platforms, as I do Gnome apps. Open source has produced an embarrassment or riches, and arguing that it would somehow benefit by emulating the walled gardens of the proprietary world seems oxymoronic.
And, hey, I’ll probably revisit KDE when they’ve relented, and let me copy folders to the desktop, or somebody has written a little hack to do so, or the project is forked.

By: suoko

suoko — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:55:54 +0000

gnome lets devs choose between mono (.NET) and python languages.
that’s the way gnome wins

By: zeke

zeke — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:43:59 +0000

i prefer KDE and XFCE but you are right, that is not the point.
Mono is the point.
Miguel is the point.
Too many things said which make people leary of Gnome.
And you know, it doesnt have to do often with Gnome itself but people hear how OOXML is a wonderful format and they think “Hey, isnt that the Gnome guy?”
As for Mono, I avoid Beagle, F-Spot, and Tomboy
like well, mono…. and this can help a bit:
http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2008/11/16/how-to-remove-mono-from-ubuntu-intrepid-ibex/
free software and open standards and cooperation is what should bring us together.
Egos, personalities and politics will keep us apart.
i managed to stay away from KDE for quite some time. im willing to wait for Gnome as well.

By: Carl van Tonder

Carl van Tonder — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:51:23 +0000

bkor: Infatuation with MS technologies? Oh please, can’t you come up with something better?
I am an incredibly happy GNOME user and this is the only area that worries me.
I think one of the major DEs will die off eventually, but I have no idea which, because it will probably be because of a catastrophic event (e.g. if GNOME 3.0 was absolutely pants, but all the distros switched instantly) rather than a gradual shift; both environments will continue to have investment from companies and applications in a range of devices until one of them succeeds or fails unambiguously. I hope GNOME prevails (prely on aesthetic and usability bases) but in any case, until that point then co-operation and consistency are the way forwards.

By: Simon

Simon — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:11:12 +0000

Nicu said “Are you sure the two projects do not compete? But I am not thinking here about end-users, but abut developers mindshare…”
Yes, the projects do compete in that regard – but that’s entirely by choice of the developers in question. Open source developers aren’t some massed pool of resources to be assigned where needed – they’re a bunch of individuals who work on whatever pleases them. Yes, having two similar projects competes for developer attention. But that’s the choice those developers are making.

By: Ane

Ane — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:06:03 +0000

@Markus:
Why would KDE adopt GIO? KIO has several advantages:
1) stable and mature (it was introduced in KDE 2 and still rocks)
2) lots of protocols available
3) separation between ioslave and application by local socket
Cooperation between GNOME and KDE works well, as long as it is about standards. As soon as code is involved, GNOME world adopts ‘my way or highway’ stance.

By: LinuxCanuck

LinuxCanuck — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:07:56 +0000

I use both KDE (3.5 and 4.1) and Gnome. I change both to suit my working style (single-click, with menu bar at the top) and like things about each one. I switch from one to another and often stay in one or the other for a week at a time. Change is good and variety is the spice of life, as they say.
Needless to say I have both KDE and Gnome favourite applications and use them on the other’s desktop.
BTW, I also use XFCE.
I am conflicted about which is best. The fact that I can’t make up my mind shows that each is strong or that I am indecisive (which I am not). I love QT4 and look forward to Gnome getting a similar facelift.

By: Markus

Markus — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:37:07 +0000

I hope that KDE and GNOME cooperate even more in the future. There are lots of backend technologies where it makes no sense that work is duplicated. DBUS is proof that it benefits both, as is WebKit. There is ongoing process to unify the storage backend for GNOME Keyring and KDE Wallet
Hopefully Akonadi will be adopted by GNOME (and Mozilla) and GIO by KDE.

By: bkor

bkor — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:50:49 +0000

Whoops, last ushimitsudoki was me, error with pasting.