KDE and/or Gnome

[dkaddict]

Just have a quick Q about the Kubuntu or Ubuntu conundrum. I have recently bought a new notebook from Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled. It works perfectly, I have been an Ubuntu user for years now and this makes my old machine with it's useless Via integrated graphics look pretty lame. I just upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04 and wouldn't mind a look at the KDE4 version that is on the repos. The last time, however, that I tried doing that, Gnome got really confused and I ended up having to remove Gnome completely and reinstall Ubuntu when I got bored with KDE. Are those sort of bugs still common when you run both KDE and Gnome? I also want to ask how Compiz and AWN etc perform in the KDE environment? I want to try it out but I don't want to lose my Gnome settings. Any hints or experiences will be of help.

Cheers

[justsomedude]

If you safely want to test KDE, create a new user account.

This way, your Gnome settings on your original account will remain untouched.

[Simian Man]

To install KDE from Gnome, do:

apt-get install kde

To install Gnome from KDE, do:

apt-get install gnome

Most people, for some bizarre reason, suggest installing [k]ubuntu-desktop instead which installs some extra branding and settings which, in my experience, tend to break things.

Keep in mind Ubuntu and Kubuntu are the exact same system, just different starting points.

[mjheagle8]

i would reccomend making a separate user account for use with kde to keep settings the same. then you can also remove gnome items from the kde menu and vice versa in each account.

[dkaddict]

I hadn't thought of creating a new user account. I reckon that will solve it. Thanks for the ideas. I will have a go at it tonight. I'll create the account, log in to it in Gnome and download the KDE4 meta-package (I agree that the entire Kubuntu package is not worth it for someone, like myself, who prefers Gnome but just wants to see what KDE4, plasma, etc, are all about)

Thanks again!

[123Mike]

Personally I like the XFCE window manager best. Try Xubuntu !
It's light, fast, and I find it much better configurable than Gnome. Gnome used to be very configurable in the late 90's. It's since been bastardized and stripped from everything useful IMO.

[dkaddict]

Personally I like the XFCE window manager best. Try Xubuntu !
It's light, fast, and I find it much better configurable than Gnome. Gnome used to be very configurable in the late 90's. It's since been bastardized and stripped from everything useful IMO.


Well said. I tried the xfce desktop on my old laptop towards the end because it struggled so much with Ubuntu. Luckily I don't have those issues now, the new notebook that a friend gave me (Inspiron 1525 with Ubuntu pre-installed) can handle desktop effects etc pretty well. My old notebook had Via integrated graphics and couldn't draw the large pixmaps that compiz uses. It couldn't even handle utube vids without screaming like a banshee and ultimately crashing(it used to completely shut down).

Anyway, back on topic. I tried KDE4. I wasn't impressed at all. Compared to Gnome, it is, imo, rubbish. Gnome is much more intuitive and can be made to look just as glitzy as KDE. Nope, I didn't get on with it at all. I tried the new account trick but I ended up installing so much crap when setting KDE4 up, I had to partition my HD (why oh why don't Dell set these up with a seperate /home partition?), move the content I wanted to keep from my old /home folder into the new partition, and do a clean install. What a pain in the backside that was.

From what I experienced, KDE4 is worse than the old KDE3.? that I first tried when I ditched MS a few years ago. Take Dolphin, for instance! What is that supposed to be? I have never used a file browser which is a bad as that! It seemed to me like it was trying to emulate Nautilus? Why? Why not integrate Nautilus into KDE? They were better off with just having Konqueror. Dolphin needs to be ditched, imo. I can't see myself trying KDE again. It's a shame really.

Thanks for all the help and ideas!