KDE vs. Gnome

[fos]

OK, first topic: Which is better and why?

Someone else can get political. :roll:

[Harold]

Xfce -- I like the configure-it-yourself panel. And it's a good compromise between size and features. At the moment, System Load Monitor says only 74MB of 504MB in use. :-)

[danieldk]

GNOME any day: pretty and uncluttered.

[krp]

I like ICE. Simple and clean and fast.

krp

[xmixahlx]

i use kde without all the eye candy

[RedAlpha3]

Much prefer KDE. I find it more user-friendly somehow, I like the Super User Mode of the file manager particularly.

[bhobjj]

I use normally use Xfce.
It has a new file manager: Thunar (http://thunar.xfce.org/screenshots.html)
The newest version of Xfce (http://zenwalk.org/images/shots/Zenwalk-desktop.jpg) has desktop icons. Configuration is well organized and easy to use.

But if the choice was only between the big 2, I would pick Gnome. My wife uses Kde. When I try to do something on her desktop, I find myself digging through menus to find what I want to do and I have problems with mounting and unmounting CDs and USB devices. I have an easier time in Gnome.

-BoB

[ammo]

I like gnome. KDE doesn't look right to me and I don't like feel or placement of most of the controls. k3b is the only kde app I really like.

I sometimes use xfce or iceWM but usually fall back to gnome after a bit.

[benjaminq]

It's no secret that I prefer KDE. You can make it look slick, you can add bells and whistles if you like Kubuntu can dumb it down, you can make it look like Windows or Mac or Unix, you have wonderful kio slaves, and a ton of really good software (amaroK, k3B, konqueror, Krita, digiKam, Kooka, kontact, Kmail, kpdf, kaffeine, kplayer, Krusader, ...).

Still I don't ever want to miss these fine apps: GIMP, Grip, inkscape, synaptics, gftp, gparted.

Funny nobody mentions elive. I tested the E17 a while back and it did not behave totally well, but nevertheless it was quite impressive, slick, nice and fast. Really a DE-beauty. Unfortunately there is no lazy-mans-way to get it installed on a sarge machine ...

BEnjamin

[sammil]

Gnome here, not because I dislike KDE or others. I've been comfortable with it from the beginning. But I would change if it didn't do what I ask. Plus I am a bit envious of the diversity of KDE applications.

As an aside, I was recently reinforced in my opinion by the change in editors at Linux Journal. The new editor, whose name rhymes with putrid, began by comparing Gnome users to rat dumpings. Whereupon I cancelled the last five years of a ten year subscription. His latest column said that everyone who disagreed was wrong. Libranet users are so much more knowledgeable.