Posted on Thursday 18th of January 2007 at 13:46 in Linux

KDE or Gnome? Some useful advice for new users

In a continued effort to help the GNU/Linux movement I've taken it upon myself to write some guidelines on a topic that is rather confusing for someone new the Linux. I aim to help answer the second question that most people ask.

The first question
The first question people ask when nudged in the direction of Linux (besides "what is it?") is "what distribution should I use?". This question cannot be answered by anyone other than themselves because that decision is based primarily on your individual needs and there is plenty of distro advice available on the internet.

KDE or Gnome?
This is the killer question that can be quite difficult to answer and there appears to be very little information available on the first couple of pages of search engine results for the new Linux user. Which is best for someone moving from Windows? What about someone moving from a Mac? I aim to help answer these questions.

What "people" say

It's a common belief that Gnome is the most natural environment for the newly converted, with a lot of time and developed focused on a more intuitive user experience. The success of distros such as Ubuntu are evidence of this but there's still an awful lot that relies on the user - what you prefer, what you use your machine for, what your requirements are, what your specifications are... The list goes on.

A quoted comparison
Alan Cox (a Red Hat exec) commented in The Register that "Everything else in the free software world gives you a package and the best (distro) is used. The fact KDE and Gnome exists suggest they serve different groups of users, KDE provides more configuration and control, and Gnome more ease of use while giving up that control." An ambiguous quote true enough but this almost summarises what you'll find when comparing the two environments - which is surprisingly un-useful for the end user - what you actually want is a summary of what you could expect from each given your requirements.

KDE

As a matter of personal preference, I find KDE the most intuitive for a native Windows user because the layout seems the most obvious. However, personal preference aside, here are the characteristics associated with KDE:

- Graphical tools to make life easier (such as the 'browse as root' option seen in Knoppix)
- Most Linux programs written for the X-display are designed for KDE (this was true in the past, maybe less so now)
- Plenty of eye candy available (distros such as PCLinuxOS come with full Vista-esq window transparencies)
- Typically very customisable

Overall KDE is noted as being more 'flashy' and customisable, some may call it bloated, others may call it 'fully formed'. It has been slated as being slow when compared to Gnome but it's probably more like what you would expect from an operating system having come from Windows.

KDE of Choice
I have two very clear KDE recommendations:

Gnome

Gnome has been made mainstream through distros such as Ubuntu, broadcasted as the most intuitive interface possible - in an attempt to make Linux more approachable for Windows convertees. Here are some of the characteristics associated with Gnome:

- Quoted to be faster on older hardware (450mhz for example) than KDE due to focusing more on function over form.
- Easy visual customisability (installing themes is 'easier' than in KDE)
- Gnome is less 'cluttered' and more simple than KDE
- Nautilus is quoted as being more stable than Konqueror


Gnome of choice
One word, Ubuntu.

A basic rule of thumb

If you're running an old machine and just require stability and an uncluttered approach then you're best looking into Gnome. However, if you love eye-candy and pretty window managers then KDE is your best bet.

Conclusion
To be fair, the barriers between the two are decreasing as time goes by, saying KDE is for eye-candy is almost a redundant statement seeing as the Beryl/Compiz stuff can be added to Gnome environments... Conversely saying Gnome is faster than KDE is also a slightly odd statement, as certain precompiled KDE releases are notably faster than their Gnome equivalents... Not that I'm saying the content in this article isn't of any use, but I feel that it should be down to personal preference.

KDE - the GUI child of OSX and XP?
I read somewhere that they felt KDE environments look a lot like the OSX GUI and I suppose there's an element of truth in that - but my experience of KDE (especially PCLinuxOS) is that it's far more "Windows-y" than Gnome - despite Gnome being popularised as "the environment to convert windows users".

As always, time well tell, I just hope this information was useful to someone trying to work out which is right for them, KDE or Gnome.

Please, I WILL have missed things out because I'm not an expert so if you see a glaring omission - place it in the comments.

 

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