Happy birthday Gnome!

[Fintan]

To be absolutely biased: I like this guy:

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/14244/1090/1/1/

Happy birthday Gnome!

[Fenyx]

Re: Happy birthday Gnome!

As much as I love KDE, I don't think this article is a bit fair, and probably a bit inaccurate as well. But since the flood gates have been opened, let me share some of my thoughts as well...

1. Does it matter that one was European and the other was American? How does being European become a disadvantage? I can't imagine how this can be relevant to the argument.

2. KDE never meant to clone Windows 95 (the version at that time). What they intended to do right from the beginning was to create a free alternative to CDE. That they ended up deciding on an appearance that resembles Windows proves that they tried to adapt an interface that would be familiar to former Windows users.

http://www.kde.org/announcements/announcement.php

GNOME did get some things right:

1. KDE lacked, until recently, a "human" face, a "people-oriented" aspect to development. KDE had good technology. But GNOME knew how to show it to people. GNOME had interface/usability guidelines that their developers adhered to. KDE is just catching up in KDE 4. GNOME knows how to involve people. KDE knows how to involve developers. GNOME is good at the people-aspect.

2. GNOME got involved with cross-desktop cooperation before KDE did. It is no wonder why most specs that have reached FreeDesktop.org come from GNOME. KDE is just on the receiving side of standards this time around.

Did we need GNOME? Of course, we did! Without the birth of GNOME, there wouldn't have been enough pressure on Trolltech (then Troll Tech) to release Qt under a GPL license as well. Without GNOME, KDE would not have been driven to constant innovate and improve.

You also have to hand it to GNOME, and GTK as well, to admire how far they've come, without the same corporate backing as KDE and Qt, specially Qt.

It's quite sad to see that some users are more interested in seeing GNOME vs. KDE things, when the developers themselves are more or less friendly to the other side. Perhaps it creates better drama, better headlines, more feedback (flames?), and more readership.

In the end, I still love KDE. Not because GNOME plainly sucks, but because KDE feels and works so much better for me. But I keep an eye on GNOME too, because in some things they have done good in my opinion.

So belated Happy Birthday GNOME! :P