Fight, fight!!!

Story: Three reasons NOT to use GnomeTotal Replies: 9
Author Content
jimf

Oct 20, 2006
3:59 PM EDT
While I kinda agree with the Hans' comments on the SuSE / Novell fiasco, the rest of this is simply opinion, and, I'm not about to get into a flame war over it. Let people use what they want, good or bad. It's their choice.
crusadingknight

Oct 20, 2006
5:39 PM EDT
I have to admit, this article is as much (or more) FUD than the article it is in reply to. I especially like the quoted figures of a stripped-down KDE env (done by a KDE developer) vs. what the same developer figures may be a minimal GNOME install - the whole thing is as one-sided as any other FUD, including "I've always had the idea that this whole KDE vs. Gnome thing has been kept alive by Gnome proponents ". (If so, the author must certainly be a GNOME proponent.)

All in all, I'd say the article is more like something I'd see on digg than lxer, that being an opinion piece for attention instead of an informative article.
jsusanka

Oct 20, 2006
6:14 PM EDT
I prefer both! - I am kind of tired of this argument - we have both lets move on -

kde has some things in it that gnome doesn't - i.e bluetooth integration is much better on kde than gnome. konqueror is just plain nice!

but I like the applets on gnome better. and please somebody please fix the weather applet on kde. I have installed four different distros lately and every distro the kde weather is broken - I have to got to some file in .kde and manually enter my location code. the weather applet rocks in gnome.

guess linux has come a long way if I am complaining about weather applets.
jimf

Oct 20, 2006
7:22 PM EDT
jsusanka,

I agree. personally I prefer the KDE GUI, but I really like, and use a lot of the GTK apps. We all benefit from having a choice.

Oh, and try gkrellm as a replacement for the weather app in kde and a bunch of other monitors and functions. Very cool, and skinable.
theBeez

Oct 20, 2006
10:11 PM EDT
I feel a need to clear up some things, especially here at LXer. The best way I can do that is to quote a reply on a comment to my blog:

Hi Jeff,

I'm writing to you, because your comment made most sense of all of them. I assume you're working for either Gnome or KDE. I know what you're saying and I fully agree with it. In numerous comments I've always promoted that KDE and Gnome should work with the same datastructures and hopefully a common API one day, so both projects could benefit, e.g. a Kimp or a Gonquerer.

Because a war amoungst the ranks in FOSS is silly. Why try to kill each other when there are dark forces on the outside to be defeated.

So why did I write this article. Well, when I started my blog, I defined a set of rules. One is not to lie, so when I do a statement it is usually based on information I collected (preferably two different sources) and I add them in the links.

I just can't stand morons that DON'T follow these rules, make statements without supporting them. It equals to FUD IMHO. Consequently, I consider the article I attack dangerous. Most people make the mistake that what is printed is true (hence two different sources). Authors of such articles should not be rewarded. The first article I killed this way was a series on GNU=communism. We never heard from the guy again.

I want this Gnome/KDE war to stop too and right now. You can rest assured that I'll be the first one to reconcilliate when an article on this matter appears, because to me the real enemy is not Gnome, but badly written articles triggering these wars.

Again, I appreciate your comment.

Hans Bezemer
dcparris

Oct 20, 2006
10:22 PM EDT
I've confessed previously to using GNOME _and_ KDE, as well as XFce and Enlightenment. I don't even mind Blackbox. I have to say, though, that I still prefer the old GNOME - 1.4 (namely in SUSE 8.0) over the current version. That said, I really don't care which desktop - I like most of the modern ones, sooo...
dinotrac

Oct 21, 2006
6:59 AM EDT
I must confess to being a highly biased KDE lover who also likes the Gimp and uses Gnumeric on those rare occasions when I need to spreadsheet.

What I know is this: KDE makes me happy and has moved steadily forward in the nearly nine years that I've been using it. I look forward to KDE 4.0 and the benefits it draws from QT 4.0.

Besides, with KDE I don't have to use that gawd-awful gtk file dialog unless I fire up a gtk app.

I've never been able to wrap myself around GNOME and I think that is a matter of genesis - the very thing that makes KDE advance so quickly and so well hinders GNOME. The KDE developers saw a great toolkit (and QT is a great toolkit) and choice to use it as the basis for their desktop. They made a politically incorrect but technically savvy choice.

GNOME was started up as a free alternative to KDE. The chose to use the gtk toolkit because, well, because it was there. Politically correct, technically questionable.

The GNOME folks have done an amazing job when you consider their starting point. They have buffed up that toolkit, created bindings, done many wonderful things.

But...there is a reason for the mono project and there is a reason Miguel envisioned mono as the basis for future GNOME development.

It's the old "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear thing". You might manage a really handsome pigskin bag, but better tools let good people do better and reach higher.







tuxchick2

Oct 21, 2006
11:31 AM EDT
Also the objection to using a non-libre toolkit disappeared years ago, when the libre version of Qt was released.

And I agree that keeping this particular flamewar going is silly and a waste of time. Hardly any of the proponents offer up good helpful reasons why they prefer whichever, it's 98% hot air.
dinotrac

Oct 21, 2006
1:21 PM EDT
tc -

Yes. No good can come of it.

People who love GNOME should use GNOME.

People who want to work on GNOME should work on GNOME. I can understand that, too. After all, with GNOME, you can futz around with the underlying toolkit. QT comes from Trolltech, end of discussion. It's great, but it's theirs. Technically, you could mess with it, add to it, etc, but that rather defeats the purpose of building on a good toolkit.

The big win comes from standardizing the "gotta be there" elements. Drag 'n drop, consisitent theming, etc. If you run GNOME and pretty much can't tell you're running a KDE app instead of a GNOME app, life is good. Same thing the other way.
1c3d0g

Oct 22, 2006
6:56 AM EDT
Openbox FTW. No bullshit, bloated libs or the like, just pure speed and simplicity. Gotta love it. ;-)

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