KDE or GNOME?

Just out of curiosity, how many people are using KDE vs GNOME (or other)?

Poll forthcoming.

Let the flame wars begin! *snicker*

I use GNOME with the ion3, it is pretty much the best window manager imho.

FVWM.

I started on Linux a while ago (1995), and never really got used to the huge overheads of loading and running KDE and Gnome. I also prefer that I run my programs from shell scripts, where I know what the configs are, than in the well hidden "registries" that the integrated desktops use.

However, for our 11 year old, KDE is a simple substitute for Windows. She uses that. And I use it occasionally, if I don't need the resources for my applications, and have LOADS of time to wait for it to load.

Gnome I used for a while on Sun Solaris, since it is 1000% better than CDE, and olwm is no longer supported by Sun (which I preferred, extended with olvwm).

KDE is my second choice, because KDE is well integrtaed into SUSE Linux, which I have been using almost exclusivley since 1995.


Gnome looks good, though. And seems to be less of a resource hog than KDE.

MWM ftw... yes I'm wierd...

Like gconf-editor is hard to figure out

The GNOME version of the windows registry is an abomination. A blight upon the surface of computer science if you will.

That being said, KDE seems to win all the polls, last I read put KDE at something like 65%, with GNOME on the decline.

Yeah, that does seem pretty consistent. I'm at work right now or I'd try and find it, but I read somewhere that allegedly Linus Torvalds recently stated that he thought KDE was the better product currently, or something in that nature. Probably got some collars hot at that one.

I've used both at one time or another. Back a few years ago when GNOME used the Enlightenment window manager I had a lot of fun with it. That was around KDE 1.x, and it was pretty raw and uninteresting at that point. I've been using KDE exclusively for a couple years now, not tried GNOME recently. Maybe I'll update my GNOME install and give it a whirl just for grins.

At one time I was using both simultaneously because I'm really weird. I had KDE loading up Enlightenment as it's WM and also loading the GNOME panel in addition to the KDE panel, because the GNOME panel rocked the pants off of KDE's panel. Still does, really. I've not tried GNOME in a while, as I said, but the KDE panel still can't do all the things the GNOME panel could a couple years ago. No telling what whizbang gizmos it's got now.

That being said, I also enjoy XFCE on occasion. It's functional and very light. I usually make it the WM that loads for VNC sessions, or if I start a nested root window in X.

As a side note, something I find interesting is that programs like FireFox and ThunderBird crave GNOME. They use GTK and always suggest GNOME applications to run downloaded files with, and things of that nature. I wish they would make it less geared in that fashion and make it more flexible across environments.

Ion3
Once your used to it, 'overlapping' window managers just feel like a waste of time.

Hmm I've used Window Maker for since 0.15 in sometime in 98, I like it cos its not hog unlike Gnome or KDE, the interface is uncluttered and it doent get in the way of my desktop backgrounds ^__^
That said I've only used KDE and Gnome for 2 weeks or so at a time

I cut my Linux teeth on KDE, but I have moved on to XFCE. Whenever I try to play a graphically intense game on KDE I get sluggish gameplay. The first time I loaded a game of Return to Castle Wolfenstein on XFCE I was sold. So much better.

The other thing I love about XFCE is it seems much more customizable than KDE. With that said, I will still take KDE over Gnome.

Heh, actually he got in a bit of hot water because what he said was 'GNOME is worse', rather than 'KDE is better' - basically he said that he disagreed strongly with the GNOME policy of removing features to make the UI simpler.

At work (a Sun shop) we used to use an old but versatile SunOS 4.x WM called sunview *hides* before olwm/olvwm (though most of us used whatever an NCD would present to us - today that's CDE).

I'm now using CDE on the Sun workstation next to me (Gnome is not installed on jumpstart'd servers by default, at least for Sol-. And if you saw the layout, you'd understand why (six desktops for myself, I know some co-workers who have eight to twelve, all starting up windows on them for specific jobs).

Anyway, Linux. I've left the default WM on my FC4 installs, I believe that's Gnome and if so its OK. I've not done anything solid yet on my Linux installs (graphics-wise anyway - SL will be the first), so have not been able to tell any major difference. I've had issues with KDE on a couple of my Linux boxen in the past, though it may be just a 'look and feel' thing when comparing it to Sun's CDE.

At college it was FVWM eventually, a nice step up from TWM in those days. I'm just too lazy/busy to go over to it nowadays, otherwise I'd look into it.

I'm happier in either one than Windows!

Personally, I find KDE to be cluttered, and GNOME to be very elegant, so I use GNOME. The command line picks up the slack where features are missing. <shrug> And the GNOME system-tools are excellent. They're no YAST, but they're getting there.

I still miss my Mac...

fluxbox FTW.

Nothing more, nothing less. Everything's fast for me ^_^

What does this have to do with gconf?

Back to the actual subject, you apparently don't actually know anything about GConf if you're comparing it to the Windows registry. GConf actually does what it's supposed to do. It keeps data on behalf of applications and provides an interface by which the application can be immediately notified when the information is changed. This is the reason it is not a "version of the Windows registry" as your troll friends have led you to believe.