[NBLUG/talk] Re: KDE vs. Gnome

[cecrops at herring.sandwich.net]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005, S. Saunders wrote:

>> KDE instead of Gnome
>
> So, this keeps coming up... KDE or Gnome, Gnome or KDE?

Oh, now that's a flamewar for the ages...

A long long time ago, QT (KDE's underlying library) wasn't GPLed yet,
so Gnome was started as a GPLed alternative. Since licensing ideology
doesn't matter anymore, it comes down to the technology and refinement.
And technically, both of them are very good. Gnome is more attractive to 
language purists for being written in C, whereas KDE is written in C++ and 
uses QT's moc system to compile. The two systems' internals are said to be 
too fundamentally different to integrate them, but either can run the 
other's apps (excepting perhaps toolbar widgets? Someone answer this)
and open the other's main menu.

Both also chew through memory like a hog through garbage, and both have 
their moments when you're looking for the functional equivalent of a 
Windows utility and can't find it. For many, it comes down to aesthetics 
and which one looks prettier, and on those grounds they're both about
the same. KDE's killer advantage for me is having the spell checker 
integrated into the text widget, so every app with a textbox is 
automagically spellchecked. Also, the fact that it came installed on my 
laptop and I seem to break my system every time I try to fiddle with X
and its window managers.

Here's some Arstech reviews of KDE and Gnome:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/kde-3-2.ars
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/gnome-2-6.ars

As for the other window managers, I use IceWM on my desktop because
it's the only one left that works and it's not bad looking. Enlightenment
was hot stuff in the late '90s and its development is kicking up again.
It'll be interesting to see what they're up to these days. For fancy
impress-the-pants-off-someone effects, I'd suggest you check them out:
http://www.enlightenment.org/


So... vi or emacs? ;)