Gnome vs KDE

Story: Taking a Linus-like Attitude Towards GnomeTotal Replies: 8
Author Content
salparadise

May 17, 2006
4:06 AM EDT
I don’t use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn’t do what I need it to do.

He said, neatly avoiding any reference to what it is he wants to do and can't.

I'm not going to pretend I understand the technical side of this debate. As one who installs Linux into situations where it's never been seen before I can only say this. From my experience, Gnome does not a happy user make.

KDE on the other hand seems to produce a response from people. They customise it, they respond to it, they own it. The Gnome users, by and large, are still slugging away with default desktops and give the impression that work is now a grind. When work is a grind you stop learning, stop listening, stop responding and retreat into yourself. When problems occur you over react to them and it further adds to the sense that "work is not fun anymore". If you spend 90% of the day on a computer and it's no fun at all then the desktop has failed.

Sad really, because a well configured Gnome is a joy to use. Sleek, stylish and elegant in a way that KDE only dreams of. But Gnome goes too far one way and makes it seem like there's little you can change and KDE goes too far the other way and there's bazillions of options every where you look. The idea that people are inherently lazy and stupid is negative and destructive and a terrible motive for design.
dinotrac

May 17, 2006
4:49 AM EDT
And I'm the lazy other guy.

I rarely do anything to my desktop.

I've used KDE since it was in betas back in 1998. I still use it. It makes my happy. If I want to mess with it, I can. Mostly, though, I just go about doing the things I need to do.

Sometimes, I come up in a lightweight Window Manager so that I can do a heavy Cinelerra session, but, with my 64-bit gigabyte ram computer, I don't do that very often any more.

Both of my youngest daughters have gone through a "Potato Guy" stage.

What could be better than that?

devnet

May 17, 2006
9:20 AM EDT
I look at it this way...place a bunch of kids in a room. Give them 2 leggo squares to play with.

Chances are they'll become bored quickly.

Give them a whole bunch of leggos and chances are they'll build something interesting and not be bored anytime soon.

I look at Gnome and find it lacking quite a bit of what I want to do. With KDE, maybe it has a ton of stuff but I can trim it down within 10 seconds. I'd rather have to trim the fat off my meat than to have someone trim it for me.
jimf

May 17, 2006
10:12 AM EDT
I recently told a friend of mine, a huge Gnome fan, that I would seriously try out the latest gnome. So, I did a new install of Debian on a spare volume with the latest Gnome. Now, I can configure 'anything', and, by the time I was finished, the interface looked and worked exactly the way I wanted. But, the experience was no fun at all, a lot of 'work' and time, and, certainly nothing that the Gnome designers intended it to be.

I don't know that “interface Nazis” isn't a little harsh, but, 'control freaks' would be quite appropriate. If you can live with 'someone's' idea of what "Sleek, stylish and elegant" is, then Gnome might work for you. But, In my experience, two 'control freaks' simply don't coexist well under one GUI.
grouch

May 17, 2006
11:51 AM EDT
You long-haired smellies are all alike. You think Joe Sixpack is some kind of real, thinking, breathing person. He's a consumer, constructed from the finest commercial implants money can buy! Quit trying to pretend that real people exist. Linux will never take over the desktop until it makes the One True GUI (mine) mandatory!
devnet

May 18, 2006
5:54 AM EDT
grouch desktop?

You should change the name to oscar desktop...

codename: the grouch
jimf

May 18, 2006
9:15 AM EDT
Nothing 'warm and fuzzy' about oscar's desktop, nor is it gnome or kde :D
grouch

May 18, 2006
9:21 AM EDT
jimf: >"But, In my experience, two 'control freaks' simply don't coexist well under one GUI."

'Fess up -- is there any pixel on your desktop that you haven't manipulated, maneuvered and hand-painted?
jimf

May 18, 2006
9:35 AM EDT
LOL grouch, I'd have to think hard on that one.

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