Gnome vs KDE

[_Bob_]

I find myself doing 90% of linux stuff in a terminal anyway so i've not really bothered with with either in the past but with all the talk of Linux on the desktop i thought i'd have a play about with both KDE and Gnome. Does anyone have any preferences and why? It seems a pretty contentious issue and i know i've only touched the surface of both but i can't really find any reasons to opt for one over the other.

:?

[penguinpowered]

KDE is a very robust, feature-packed GUI that comes with a lot of cool apps and was my favourite GUI for about 4 years.
Gnome is a very robust, feature-packed GUI that comes with a lot of cool apps and has been my favourite GUI for the the last 18 months.
The terminal is a very robust, feature-packed interface with a lot of cool apps and will always be my weapon of choice for 'serious' work.

But seriously, I use both and I find that they both have their good points (and bad). KDE is VERY customisable and has lots of cool effects and window-decorations. It doesn't get too bogged down when you are doing CPU, memory and graphically challenging things, and it comes with (and has available) a vast amount of software (it can also use Gnome software).
Gnome is very simple but elegant (IMHO) gui that works extremely well (it kinda reminds me of the Mac OS X gui. It has some nicely thought out features and has a wide range of software available that makes use of the nice Gnome-look (it can also use KDE software.
I would try both and see which you prefer because at the end of the day that is all that matters.

If you decide you don't like KDE or Gnome (or you just fancy a change), then you should also look at fluxbox, xfce, tvwm, enlightenment, etc. There are loads so you should do a google for them and have a look.

Happy GUI-fiddling.

[Ric_]

@_Bob_: This is a real can of worms within Linux circles - everybody has their favourite window manager and theme, etc.

Maybe a wiki on the pros and cons of each that people use?

[Geoff]

KDE and (to a lesser extent) Gnome are too bloated and slow for my Linux desktop (Dual P3-600, 768mb ram, Matrox G450 32mb gfx). I use XFCE instead.

http://www.xfce.org/

But because this is linux I do 'mix and match' somewhat. I have both the KDE Libraries and GTK installed so I can run kde and gnome apps if I wish. I also use KDM setup as my graphical login manager.

[kingswood]

I really like Gnome, but I also like KDE. I like eye candy OK? I admit it....

[SmartArt]

KDE is my usual flavour because I run SuSE. Gnome, however, is the prettiest GUI I've ever come across but it gobbles memory; alas!

If you want a thin resource-friendly GUI-feel then try Blackbox. very quick and thin on rsources and you'll love the tear away menus! Be warned though, it can become very addictive just playing with the look-n-feel of Blackbox. You'll spend hours getting it just right for you. Oh, and get used to using all "3" mouse buttons, each has a very diiferent job in Blackbox; but, hey, you can easily chane the config of the buttons too.

Enjoy!

[_Bob_]

Aah the wonders of free software. The choices are just endless. I like the idea of the lightweight WMs and i'm sure one of these days i'll get around to playing with xfce of blackbox. I have an old laptop which end up with one of them on i think.
Going the other way i had a play about with the looking glass live cd off Linux fomat the other day. Very pretty!
For the moment i'm mostly using KDE and i have to say i've quite warmed to Konqueror as a browser. In fact i think i may have a go at upgrading to 3.5 today.
Thanks for the input guys.

[linuxgirlie]

KDE for me here, though I can work with anything, KDE I think is nicer for people moving away from Windows.