Any recent switchers? (GNOME>KDE)

[Katalog]

Are there any recent switchers around here? I've been an Ubuntu Netbook Remix user for about a year now, and a pretty strict GNOME user (with a couple of Openbox and Fluxbox flings in between) for way longer than that. Having said that, I've been trying out every UNR 9.10 Alpha and just finished installing and playing with UNR Alpha 5 tonight, and I must say that if they continue in the direction they're headed that I'm seriously thinking of going over to the blue side. Kubuntu Netbook Edition has caught my attention over the past couple of months, and I have to admit the couple of times I've played with it that it's looking pretty sweet (if they ever get the Network Manager fixed). So having never had any real experience with any version of KDE, if you have switched within the last year or so how steep was the learning curve? I'm so ingrained with doing things the GNOME way that I'm a little afraid that KDE could possibly end up frustrating me to death just trying to do the things I found so simple in GNOME, but may be far different in a new desktop environment.

So if there are any of you recent switchers out there, how was your experience? Any thoughts, tips, particular frustrations or significant pitfalls?

EDIT: I just got done trying out a live CD of Kubuntu Netbook Alpha 5, and all I have to say is Oh, My, God! Not only is the interface gorgeous, they have come a long, long way since Alpha 4 which I had multiple issues with. This time everything worked (including wireless), and it actually feels more like a beta, just needs a little more refinement. And where did Arora go? Anyway, whoever the team is that's working on this project is doing some fantastic work.

[Katalog]

Bump. Man, most people must really devoted to their particular desktop environments. Is there really no one out there who's made the transition from one to the other? :confused:

[wersdaluv]

I tried switching to KDE 4.3 but it didn't work for me. I try KDE every time there's an upgrade. The latest upgrades fixed my problem with kwin's speed. However, I still find it buggy and the polished GNOME of the Ubuntu desktop is too far. Plasma and KWin always crash on me.

As for the look, I believe that KDE is the most aesthetically pleasing open desktop environment. However, I don't use Qt-based apps extensively. I find it rather pointless to use the KDE desktop while all the apps I run are GNOME's or gtk-based.

Now, KDE feels more sophisticated than GNOME but the advantages it brings do not outweigh the stability I get from GNOME and the great apps that come with it. GNOME Do and other great gtk apps may run on KDE but not as finely as on GNOME.

[Ekeluo]

I've believe made this transition of which you speak :-k . I Think the difference is way less than one would encounter when coming from Windows to Linux. Mostly stuff just looks different (better :D) and is more configurable/customizable. Also the whole plasma widget thingy may be a bit confusing at first, but you'll get used to it. My advice it to play around with the latest one (loads of features added, fixed, etc in KDE 4.3) and get you own opinion. No better way really.
Would I recommend it to anyone? Definite yes.

About Arora, they dropped the idea for now:

"It has been decided that the default web browser to be shipped with Kubuntu 9.10 will continue to be Konqueror. It was decided that it's superior integration with KDE was worth more than the hassle of switching default web browsers a lot. However, Arora 0.8 will still be shipped on the DVD for those who want to Arora for it's superior performance with social web applications such as Facebook."

(From release notes page)

[ad_267]

I'm dual booting Kubuntu 9.10 alpha with Ubuntu 9.04. I've had issues with printing. I need to add my printer every time I start, and the margins are all messed up. I guess that's probably nothing to do with KDE though.

The main thing that puts me off is Amarok. I know everyone loves it but I just find it incredibly clumsy to use, and can't get used to it. I want to install Banshee but there's a huge amount of Gnome/Mono dependencies it requires, although if I did permanently switch I'd probably install it.

One of the recent improvments is the new Oxygen style for OpenOffice.org, that's great to see.

Mainly it's a bit of a hassle switching over to something new, and having to keep different things synchronised between two systems while I'm dual booting. I'm gonna have to wait and see once 9.10 is released whether I'll make the jump.

[ckonestroh]

I flip flop around back and forth from gnome to Kde....


Problems I have with such a switch is sound card issues... Luckily had both Gnome and KDE loaded on same laptop.... So what happened was it seemed like KDE used Gnome driver for the sound card to install.... Sounds weird I know had to log out of KDE and back into Gnome picked up the sound card then back to KDE and boom it found the sound card....



I've played with Xcfe, Fluxbox, Enlighment, Gnome, KDE, ICEWM and Windows Manager....

Be aware not only do I play with different desktop environments and windows managers... I also play with different OS's... Been jumping around since back in 1997 started with Red Hat, Suse and Mandrake.....


Out of the Top 20 Distro's ... The ones in red I have not used... When I usually try a new distro I go with Gnome/KDE...

Gnome I prefer and KDE if Gnome is not available...
1 Ubuntu
2 Fedora
3 Mint
4 openSUSE
5 Mandriva
6 Debian
7 PCLinuxOS
8 Puppy
9 Sabayon
10 Arch
11 CentOS
12 Slackware
13 MEPIS
14 FreeBSD
15 Tiny Core
16 Kubuntu
17 Zenwalk
18 Vector
19 PC-BSD
20 Damn Small


Back to playing with KDE never quite figured out the way to load packages in KDE... So I used apt-get to install all packages...

KDE uses themes and are really not that flexible on icons, color changes to windows border.... Reason is people tend to use none vector images so they look a bit like you painted them with a crayon....


Not to be mean ,but vectored images give it that clean and crisp look...
Also the backgrounds seem to come from a professional camera...And a professional camera man ... Because the contrast between dark and light is a high quality...


Conclusion--

If I had to say KDE = bling, bling were as Gnome is more functional.....

I do believe KDE is headed in the right direction .... But until they can replace some of the Gnome Apps with good quality and featured apps its going to be Gnome for me...

[Katalog]

Conclusion--

If I had to say KDE = bling, bling were as Gnome is more functional.....

I do believe KDE is headed in the right direction .... But until they can replace some of the Gnome Apps with good quality and featured apps its going to be Gnome for me...

I am dual booting Kubuntu Netbook 9.10 and UNR 9.04 now, and I think now that I've had some time to dig into it I can really start to see the simplicity vs bling concept you're referring to. I haven't gotten far enough to try printing or anything really serious yet. But that could be because some of the simple things that have me so preoccupied. I finally got so flummoxed with the package manager I said to heck with it and fired up Konsole and went at it in the terminal. It also took me a good bit of Googling just to track down where the mouse settings where, and when I did find them it I couldn't find any way to disable the "tap to click" function on my touchpad, which was causing me all kinds of fun. I mean this is my first real KDE install and I'm trying to navigate around and learn things, and I'm unintentionally dragging or activating things and then spending the next few minutes trying to figure out what I did and how to fix it.

So long story short, I'm seriously rethinking the pros and cons of making the jump now. Maybe I'll just dual boot them both when Karmic goes final, and whoever loses becomes a storage partition for the other. :P

Oh, and I've probably at least installed (but perhaps not used extensively) about 6 or 7 of those distros you listed at one time or another. I actually used Fedora for about a year and a half before jumping ship and going to Ubuntu (which I had played with on and off ever since I got curious enough to send off for a copy of 4.10). It was a pretty natural transition though, because before Fedora I mainly used Debian for years. And I actually liked Vector. Still can't remember exactly why I got rid of it. Probably due to a major hardware incompatibility, which happened way more often 4 or 5 years ago than it does now. But I do recall it being quite zippy.

[ad_267]

There's a lot of little things too that just start to get annoying in KDE. PrtScrn doesn't do anything by default, you have to manually bind it to the screenshot application. And USB drives aren't mounted automatically, I have to open them with dolphin first. I'm sure Gnome has annoyances like this too, but I probably don't notice any more. :)

I think it might be printing in Okular/KDE that's messed up, because OpenOffice managed to print fine.

Anyways, I don't want to turn this into a moan about KDE thread. Just saying that it would probably take a bit of getting used to.

[hockeytux]

I used to have both but switched back to a Gnome-only setup about a week ago. KDE is nice but I like the Gnome layout better, so I deleted it again.

I dont think its for good though, I'll go back to KDE in the medium-term future to have another look :KS Maybe I missed an interesting feature...

[Katalog]

I used to have both but switched back to a Gnome-only setup about a week ago. KDE is nice but I like the Gnome layout better, so I deleted it again.

I dont think its for good though, I'll go back to KDE in the medium-term future to have another look :KS Maybe I missed an interesting feature...

It is indeed a pretty tough decision - pretty vs practical. I't's not that I'm having a hard time with the UNR interface, I just don't like it - the appearance and the layout all turn me off, but it's still more familiar. Maybe if I find a theme I like enough (I really love the Balanzan theme) I can get around the layout thing in time, but I just don't see what's wrong with the current interface, as it seems very accessible to me, far more so than the one in 9.10 and yes, I've expressed that to the devs responsible for Netbook Remix but I guess I'm probably in the minority as there doesn't appear to be many others who feel the same way as far as I can see. I guess that's why I was looking at KNE as a viable alternative, because my chances of getting them to change back are probably somewhere between 0 and 0.1% . :P Once they start getting to the point where they start using the term "feature freeze" it's pretty much game over, I suppose. I do wonder what kind of feedback/impetus they had for making such a radical change, though. I like to think that I try and keep my ear to the ground and stay abreast of goings on as much as possible, but maybe I need to subscribe to a few more mailing lists to help keep from getting sucker punched with these kinds of huge changes at the last minute in the future. Either that or I could become independently wealthy and start rubbing elbows with Mr. Shuttleworth.

I think the mailing list strategy may be just be a teensy bit more realistic though.

[skintythe1andonly]

I played with kubuntu once or twice since kde4.0 but there was always some annoyances that kept me from using it, even though I though it looked better.

I am writing this using linux mint 7 Gloria and have to say that its very nice, looks superb and working great out of the box. The main problem im having is making myself type "kate" instead of "gedit" or something.

[wolfdale]

I tried KDE on various distros (Fedora, Mandriva, Kubuntu) and initially I liked the plasma layout but I couldn't get the colors and fonts that I wanted. Specifically, I used the Overglossed/Murrine themes with vibrocentric fonts in Gnome and I could not get the same layout (or somewhat close) in KDE 4.x. The preset themes/colors/fonts selections were minimal and rather drab looking and although KDE 4.2 has more controls for tweaking colors than Gnome, I didn't want to spend hours tweaking colors. In short, I think KDE needs more time to mature.

[Katalog]

In short, I think KDE needs more time to mature.

You know this last line really got me thinking. On the one hand it's ironic, because KDE actually pre-dates GNOME. But on the other hand, in it's current iteration it is almost like an entirely new desktop envrionment because it has had such an extensive overhaul. But I do think it is in the beginning stages of coming into it's own with the recent release of v4.3. Just as it initially took from version 0.x to version 3.x to really establish it's identity, but it now has the advantage of not having to start from scratch as it already has a very active developer base, so it should not take quite as long for KDE 4 to come into it's own, I believe.

It also makes me wonder about something else - a year from today will we be saying the same kinds of things about GNOME 3, which will be nearly (if not more) as radical a departure from GNOME 2.x as KDE 4 was from KDE 3? The world of desktop environments is certainly entering an evolutionary age, and it will be interesting to see what kind, if any, impact this has on the acceptance and adoption of GNU/Linux as a whole. At the same time, it would almost appear to an objective (or perhaps not so objective) observer that the Free Software community is yet again in the "me too" mode that it has always been accused of for seemingly following trends in Windows, as some skeptics could certainly point to the fact that Windows has coicidentally received a huge interface overhaul of it's own in the last few years to support their accusations, as it took place just prior to both of the major desktop environment camps beginning work on their own reinvention. There are several different aspects to all of this change from both a political and techincal standpoint. But with the entire landscape of usability and appearance moving ahead all at once, I think there is only one thing that is certain about it all - it will be extremely interesting to watch all of this activity both as a user and a spectator just to see where this ride eventually takes us all in the next 5-7 years. Exciting and interesting times we are currently living in, indeed, and I actually feel somewhat prvileged. It almost gives me a bit of a thrill in the pit of my stomach to be at an age where I will once again be able to bear witness to yet another major step in the growth and maturation sweeping across the entire industry, similar to the one which took place almost 15 years ago.

[Whiffle]

I'm using KDE 4.2.4 on Slackware64 right now, and I like it alot. Its much more stable than any version I ever had on ubuntu (it hasn't crashed at all). It feels more complete as well.

Its taking all the willpower I have to resist putting slack on my laptop instead of ubuntu, but I'm addicted to Ubuntu's acpi handlimg.

[dmgExP]

... a year from today will we be saying the same kinds of things about GNOME 3, which will be nearly (if not more) as radical a departure from GNOME 2.x as KDE 4 was from KDE 3? The world of desktop environments is certainly entering an evolutionary age, and it will be interesting to see what kind, if any, impact this has on the acceptance and adoption of GNU/Linux as a whole...Very good post!!

I'm still running a very stable Ubuntu 7.10 64 bit system, with both gnome and KDE desktops. I was undecided about which desktop to stick with and have been tinkering with both.

KDE has a lot of power under the hood that goes way beyond superior configurability: like DCOP that allows you to integrate applications, play with things like Kommander, or perform wondrous tricks with ordinary KDE apps like kmail. But many KDE apps were also crude -- too many have windows that extend way beyond my desktop area, with buttons off the bottom edge of the screen. And many things are just easier to do in gnome.

Now I have finally tested Kubuntu 9.04 (64 bit). It is amazing -- I am blown away by the total fabulousness of it! The only reason I'm not using it now is that it is REALLY too buggy to use out of the box -- both KDE bugs and deep system bugs -- the first buntu that has failed me...

I do appreciate that it represents a great leap forward in computing -- like the transition from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 (which was wonderful but long delayed by bugs and very unstable on release -- Bill Gates got a "blue screen of death" system crash the first day he presented it to the public). But we never looked back from Win95 -- we lived with the crashes and loved/hated the experience until it finally got better --- then we switched to Linux!

But now I'm a convert! Kubuntu is now my preferred desktop... as soon as it is simply buggy enough to use...

[blackfez]

I'm moving to KDE as soon as Karmic comes out. :)

[Ms_Angel_D]

I initially installed KDE on Ubuntu(Gnome) and I really enjoyed the experience but after a while I wanted the full kde/buntu experience so I wiped my installed and installed Kubuntu 9.04 there we're some bumps in the road, such as not realizing I had to install pulseaudio myself because flash, totem & Mplayer had no sound. But I believe in Karmic they are fixing all this.

Other than that I'm really enjoying kubuntu. I used this tutorial (http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-kubuntu-9.04) To help me get things where I wanted them.

I think in the end I had to approach it as being a different OS even though underneath they aren't this attitude seemed to work best.