Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 14:01:27 -0800 From: Brian Raynes <brian_raynes@dnr.state.ak.us> To: Tim Erlin <tperlin@yahoo.com>, freebsd newbies <freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Gnome vs. KDE Message-ID: <3B1C0537.7D6AAFC@dnr.state.ak.us> References: <20010604210604.5772.qmail@web11707.mail.yahoo.com>
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Tim Erlin wrote: > > Alright, so let me turn it into an etiquette question > (seems appropriate for -newbies). As a newbie, my > resources for 'which is better' answers are pretty > limited. I suppose the 'try both' method is good, but > I'd like to draw on the experiences of those on this > list. I can understand avoiding asking this on > -questions, but it seems to me that this kind of > discussion is just right for -newbies. Or is it? > > --Tim Like many people on virtually any mailing list, when I see a subject line "x" vs. "y", I instantly think "flame-war commencing". Ideally, the more experienced people on -questions would be good sources for information on noticeable differences between two sets of software such as KDE and GNOME. However, as has been noted so far, the noticeable differences are not really possible to rate in an "objective" manner. Look and Feel - Both have different looks in their default configuration. Both are so customizable that this is a negligible difference to any experienced user. Check out the screenshots at both websites if the default look and feel are important to you. Speed - If you have a newer, faster machine, they will probably both make you happy. I have never seen any type of benchmark or speed comparison between KDE and GNOME. There used to be a lot of arguments about their respective CORBA implementations - I've never heard about a conclusive "winner". I also don't really care, unless one was really slower than the other. I _can_ say that I use neither because both are piggy with resources and space so that my machines are _less_ useful with them installed. Note: they are not that much worse than Windows (98 and 2K), and I'll probably give one or both a try when I setup my Windows box as a dual-boot machine (not a high priority for me yet). Applications - They both have "Office" type apps and many, many useful utilities. My only conclusion was that if I had the drive space of a newer computer (I don't), I would try to have both installed. My impression was that each had an app or two that was better than the equivalent on the other system. I haven't seen too much of Nautilus (GNOME filemanager), but Konqueror (KDE) looks really nice. I believe it will be a toss up before a couple more years go by. My personal advice, take it or leave it, would be to look at the different apps that are built especially for KDE and GNOME and decide which system has the most useful ones for you. What do you want to do on your machine? Would GNumeric be a killer app for you? What about Konqueror or KWord? Abiword looks nice and appears to be strongly associated with GNOME. Then there are the dozens of music playing/recording apps for both systems. If you're into programming, then look at the main languages used for development - I believe KDE is mostly C++, but there are Python and probably other wrappers for KDE. GNOME, last I checked, had a broader selection of languages - by design from the beginning of the project. I know this because I lurked in both websites shortly after GNOME started, when I first became interested in free software. When I'm having such a hard time figuring out which would be best for me - it's pretty hard to give definitive advice. Disclaimer: This stuff changes constantly, I'm not a project member or even a big user of either system, stuff mentioned here could be out of date, incorrect, or unfair. I like several things about both KDE and GNOME. Like others, I like the compromise choices of Windowmaker or XFCE better - they seem to have most of the features that I want/need as user and take up fewer resources. Brian Raynes To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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