After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

[cantab]

For four years I've been using Linux. For four years I've been using KDE. And during those four years, every time I've looked at Gnome, it's seemed inferior. Until the latest time.

I've just installed Ubuntu Hardy (not even Intrepid) on my mum's computer, and have been being seriously impressed by Gnome. It looks good (which it didn't used to). Wireless works very nicely. I like the username displayed, clickable to quickly switch user. Nautilus, while lacking the power of Konqueror, is certainly a match for Dolphin. I'm no fan of the menu split (Applications, Places, System) but I'll tolerate it. Rythmbox isn't Amarok, but it's pretty good. Sound Juicer, after making it extract to mp3, works a treat and is simple.

Meanwhile, KDE4 is, to be quite honest, a train wreck. My desktop is running a horrible hodgepodge of KDE 3 and 4 apps - which unless I'm missing something can't be good for RAM usage. Indeed the whole thing seems slower. Amarok, arguably KDE's flagship application, isn't even KDE4 yet.

In short, Gnome is looking better than ever, while KDE is looking worse than ever. Despite being very much a 'power user', I'm finding myself attracted towards Gnome's simplicity, and ease of Getting Things Done.

At the moment my only real reservation is I've previously strongly disliked Pidgin compared to Kopete.

That's why, when I get back home on Monday, I'm making a disc image, then doing a clean install of Ubuntu Intrepid.

[askrieger]

Re: After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

May I make two suggestions:
First, if there are specific Gnome or KDE applications that you prefer over the standards in your chosen desktop environment, such as KDE or Gnome, just use them. For example, I like Synaptic (a Gnome app) MUCH better than Adept. So I install Synaptic on my Kubuntu box. It adds a few libraries that I otherwise might not need, but most computers (even laptops) have enough disk space to hold them. So, if you still want to use Kopete, Amarok, or even Konqueror, after switching to Gnome, go for it.

Second, I absolutely agree that KDE4 is a train wreck. But I find that KDE3 is still easier to use than Gnome. I recently reinstalled Kubuntu Hardy with KDE3 after trying Intrepid for about 10 days.

[Qqmike]

Re: After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

I've not spent much time (yet) on this KDE4 thing, but I read that KDE3 will soon not be an option for Kubuntu, that it will not be maintained?

I wonder how many people Kubuntu will lose or fail to gain over this. I've gotten emails from pals switching to Ubuntu and/or letting 8.10 be installed but just sitting idle until they can get into it. I recently succeeded at getting the spousal unit (the married woman I live with) to use 8.04 and not keep re-booting into XP/SP3. She's not a tech type, likes her Desktop (you know, photos, downloads to Desktop, wallpaper and all that), likes 8.04 that way, so I'll soon have to deal with this issue there (for the one or two hr a day or so she uses the PC; or, in my spare time build a second PC ...). It's all about marketing, as most things in life are (whether you like it or not, and whether money is involved or not): Gotta always sell benefits. Thus, if there are clearly perceivable benefits to the user, KDE4 will be accepted in due time. I think we can safely forget about Aunt Minnie, not that she was ever a justifiable, correct target market for Kubuntu. As a general rule, you never want to produce a product for which you find yourself having to educate your intended consumer.

[dibl]

Re: After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

Gnome is a fine user interface, and more popular than KDE. But, with four years of KDE experience and what -- 20 minutes of Gnome, I wonder if you really know Gnome.

But, I ran Ubuntu for a few months and was very productive with it, so what the heck?

Regarding KDE4, it's just another learning curve, IMHO. I had to learn my Commodore 64, I had to learn DOS on my PC/AT-compatible, I had to learn Windows 2.0 or whatever it was. My favorite learning curve was OS/2 -- that one was actually fun to learn, although it was hardly a "Desktop Environment" as we know them today. You can learn anything if you don't mind putting some time and effort into it. I'm getting fairly efficient with KDE4, after about two months now -- it was pretty buggy in the earlier stages, but I'm having fewer and fewer "unplanned events" every day now.

Anyway, good luck with Gnome and don't forget to keep an eye on developments with KDE4.

[Qqmike]

Re: After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

yeah, it's a point of view ...
just having to learn a new formal system is all
(without much documentation);
just a matter of time, effort, and the why: the benefits of such;
promise of benefits = motivation

[cantab]

Re: After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

May I make two suggestions:
First, if there are specific Gnome or KDE applications that you prefer over the standards in your chosen desktop environment, such as KDE or Gnome, just use them. For example, I like Synaptic (a Gnome app) MUCH better than Adept. So I install Synaptic on my Kubuntu box. It adds a few libraries that I otherwise might not need, but most computers (even laptops) have enough disk space to hold them. So, if you still want to use Kopete, Amarok, or even Konqueror, after switching to Gnome, go for it.

I don't care about disk space. I DO care about RAM usage. Running KDE and Gnome apps together means loading two sets of libraries. I haven't done any formal testing, but I can be pretty confident that it's not going to make my machine run any faster.

I've not spent much time (yet) on this KDE4 thing, but I read that KDE3 will soon not be an option for Kubuntu, that it will not be maintained?

If you stick with Hardy Heron then it's supported until April 2011. However, the upgrade path is to KDE4. You won't get many new features in KDE3.

Gnome is a fine user interface, and more popular than KDE. But, with four years of KDE experience and what -- 20 minutes of Gnome, I wonder if you really know Gnome.

True, I don't. But I've seen enough to decide to give it a serious try - as in, main system for a few months.
The computer clusters at my college and department run Gnome too, so I'm not wholly unfamiliar with it, but somehow Ubuntu's seems a bit slicker than SuSE or Fedora (maybe because newer version; institutional systems tend to be a bit stoic though I forgot the actual versions)

Regarding KDE4, it's just another learning curve, IMHO.

True. But it feels like a learning curve when the track's not even finished.

Anyway, good luck with Gnome and don't forget to keep an eye on developments with KDE4.

I'll likely check out Kubuntu again with Jumping Jackrabbit Jaunty Jackalope according to Wikipedia. Whatever a Jackalope is.

[Snowhog]

Re: After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

Whatever a Jackalope is.

Jackalope

[aged hippy]

Re: After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

^^ roflmao

The jackalope — also called an antelabbit, aunt benny, Wyoming thistled hare or stagbunny — is a fictional animal and a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope, goat, or deer, and is usually portrayed as a rabbit with antlers. The word jackalope and anelabbit are portmanteaus.

Unfortunately, that in your picture, Snowhog.... is a hare.


.... an easy mistake to make.

[sithlord48]

Re: After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

have you tryed ne other window mannagers ?
such as Xfce or windowmaker ?

[askrieger]

Re: After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

@cantab: RAM usage doesn't become a problem unless you're running KDE and GTK programs simultaneously. Moreover, the Linux kernel tends to be fairly aggressive at swapping out idle programs and can be directed to make it even more so. As I write this, I've got 6 KDE3 desktops loaded with Konsole (KDE), Konq (KDE), Ff(neither), Synaptic (Gnome), OOspreadsheet (neither), and Kpatience(KDE) using little more than half a gig. It might be a little slow, but so am I.

[Detonate]

Re: After four years of KDE, I'm switching to Gnome

^^ roflmao

Unfortunately, that in your picture, Snowhog.... is a hare.


.... an easy mistake to make.

Not only that, but those are not the correct antlers. Antelope have only prongs, and are therefore called "Pronghorns". I see them every almost every day.

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/may/papr/pronghorn.html