[lug] Re: Beginner question: what are the differences between KDE and Gnome?

On 12/17/05, timtim <tim.post@netkinetics.net> wrote:
>
> If I were to lay out an all penguin office :
>
> Standard users / terminals -> Gnome (Ubuntu)

I recently (past 12 hrs.) tried to use Gnome (on a live CD) to
repartition my hard drive. I can now say with no regret that Gnome
suffers from unuseability. I went to mount a drive and... oohh... it
wasn't pretty. Gnome really stinks. I can see why Linus called it so
many names (though by no strech of the imagination would I repeat
those - calling someone an Interface Nazi is really, really strong,
even when talking about Gnome people.)

> Power Users / Admins -> KDE (Kubuntu)
>
> KDE can put sometimes too much to do in front of an average user. Gnome
> is the opposite and (at least I feel) over-simplifies things.

I can see that happening with KDE, however, Gnome, on the other hand,
"simplifies" things? No, it just plain removes them. Gnome will
force you to become a BASH-Pro though... since there's no GUIs for
anything other than um... havn't found something Gnome can really do
yet, but I'm positive I'll find something someday.

> Both have the advantage of openoffice and manage good document
> compatability from MS to Open Office to KOffice (and the other possible
> combinations).
>
> With the size of most HD's going past 60 gigs on average, I'd say you
> have enough room to install both + the devel packages. Some utilities
> you get for either will require you to first compile them, you'll need
> to make sure you select all the packages needed to compile applications
> written for either when you install it.

Yeah, I find that about 5 gigs is plenty. I'm also one of those nut
case developers that does both web and apps, so I have darn near
everything installed (Apache2, KDevelop, GCC4.0, and all the docs,
KOffice, OpenOffice2, KDE3.4... everything except Gnome).

I sacrifice Gnome for all the other things, but take out all the API
Docs and Apache2, KDevelop, Quanta Plus, &c. and 5 gigs will let you
stick both Gnome and KDE on your computer with little or no problems.
Of course, if you're also going to use Cedega and start gaming away,
you're going to start running into some major disk space problems, but
excepting that exception, that should be just fine.

Also, when resizing an NTFS partition, I find the version of ntfsprogs
in Knoppix 4.x to be a little bit outdated. Download the Kubuntu 5.10
install DVD (should you side with the *buntu crowd like me for my
laptop) or some other live CD that's not Knoppix and apt-get install
qtparted. The later version of ntfsprogs was the resize difference
for me. Actually, that's what I was doing with Gnome. I had an old
Ubuntu disk set, so I stuck the live-CD in and used qt-parted. I then
tried to back up my ext3 partition and couldn't find how to mount the
drive w/o the command line (u don't want to know where I looked. It
wasn't just a quick peek around). Then I went to reinstall Kubuntu
and found my older Kubuntu disk scratched to kingdom come, so I
downloaded the Kubuntu install DVD (which also works as a live CD -
very nifty!) and 3 hrs. later I reinstalled (slow i-net connexion).

> Give both a try and you'll see it doesn't have to be just one or the
> other :)
>
> I personally use Ubuntu as my desktop OS.. but I'm listening to a CD
> via KSCD that I installed as an additional package. Experement with
> your own "hodge podge".. that's the beauty of Linux :)

Don't think that "I've installed and it's got to stay that way!"
There are people who reinstall (or install a different distro) every
other week. It's not a binding thing - feel free to kick the tires in
and return it (it's software: no one cares!)