The Two Solitudes of GNOME and KDE

FOSS Force ^ | 20 May 2019 | Bruce Byfield

[ShadowAce]

[Pearls Before Swine]

XFCE over Gnome for me.

[usconservative]

Plasma all the way.

[ShadowAce]

I’ve been a XFCE guy for years now. I’m not real fond of Gnome, but I may give KDE a shot again.

[Pearls Before Swine]

When you use XFCE, the underpinning involves a lot of Gnome programs. The Gnome desktop seems awkward to me.

[ThunderSleeps]

I'm a KDE guy, though I use it in a minimalist way like Gnome. (zero desktop clutter/icons, none, nada)

I used to be a Gnome guy, years ago when I was running ubuntu - then they switched to their "unity" interface and lost me.

That led to kubuntu, and dalliances with Mepis, PCLinuxOS, a fairly long run with Mint/KDE, and most recently KDE Neon as my primary home use distro. Work is RHEL through and through - currently with KDE, but rumor is sometime soon IT will only support Gnome...

[The Free Engineer]

I also use XFCE (on Debian).

Gnome is sluggish even with plenty of RAM and a quick processor. And it’s “minimal” interface really is not intuitive.

KBE might be good, or not, but I really don’t care. I just want to use my computer. I don’t want a “desktop”.

With the libraries installed you can still use any application you need. I use FreeCAD a lot and it uses KBE for it’s UI and it is fine. I also use some Gnome based apps.

[usconservative]

Work is RHEL through and through - currently with KDE, but rumor is sometime soon IT will only support Gnome...

Is there a reason they're going to drop KDE? Is that the preference of other admin's or something? Just curious.

[Pollard]

XCFE is the nicest lightweight desktop imho but since my new(no quite so old) thinkpad has more processor/ram, I run plasma now. I like my Plasmoids aka desktop widgets.

The theme is called Card and comes from here, https://www.pling.com/u/phob1an/. Seems to be one of the few people that does the complete package. GTK2, GTK3, Plasma Look & Feel, SSDM login, desktop background pic, Plasma Color Scheme, aurora theme etc etc.

[Pollard]

Are you aware that Ubuntu made the swap back to gnome and dropped Unity?

[ShadowAce]

RHEL has dropped support of KDE and has gone 100% Gnome.

That's not to say you can't run other desktops. It's just that RH will no longer support KDE.

Since RH won't support KDE IT depts will not either, because they cannot guarantee that they could solve *every* issue that crops up. If a KDE issue occurs, then the IT depts are on their own.

Most corporations don't like that idea. :)

[FXRP]

Gnome Mahjong is essential. No KDE for me.

[zeugma]

I prefer KDE to Gnome, but haven't actually figured out a use for the 'activity' concept in the decade or more that it's been available. I like the customization options available.

I'm disappointed that Mint is abandoning KDE, but I'll switch to XFCE which is pretty much always my second choice, and my first choice when in a VM, because it's a bit less of a heavyweight environment than KDE.

One of the things I really like about KDE is Dolphin, the GUI file manager. On those rare occasions that I find the GUI file manager to be desired, I like the way it does split screens, and the fact that it understands the 'fish://' nomenclature to browse remote filesystems.

I understand that you can get into flame wars when talking about a desktop environment, but I'm frankly happy that there are many alternatives available. Each person can use exactly what appeals most to them, without having any one perspective to force it's ideas of layout, and workflow upon everyone, (cough, Windows).

Now, if you want to get religious, lets talk about vi, and emacs!

[ShadowAce]

Yup—gotta be vi, or vim, all the way.

[Varmint Al]

I gave up on KDE when Linux Mint quit offering it in Linux Mint Cinnamon 19 and 19.1. Cinnimon is GREAT and STABLE. For older machines Linux Mint Xfce works good.

Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

[usconservative]

Thanks for the info. We have over 15,000 RHEL Servers and I’m sure this isn’t making our Admin’s very happy.

[usconservative]

Now, if you want to get religious, lets talk about vi, and emacs!

OMG, that's a holy war you do NOT want to start, ROFL!!!

[ThunderSleeps]

Yeah, but I’ve got plenty of inertia.. :-)

[zeugma]

OMG, that's a holy war you do NOT want to start, ROFL!!!

I've always thought it was funny. I'm a VI guy, but also go with the Linux philosophy that "There's more than one way to do it", so I'm just appreciative that there ARE other tools.