PDA

View Full Version : [kde] Just a question to do with appearence.



TyrantWave
January 9th, 2010, 05:01 PM
Ok, I'll probably get flamed by at least one person for this, but I'm curious.

I use Gnome by default, and have done for a few years now.

But on occasion, with each new release of KDE, I've tried to give it a go, but I just can't physically use it for a few reasons.

The first one, as you'll probably guess from the topic title, is appearance. WHY does every KDE distro look like it's been put in shrink-wrap plastic, and has to have huge everything? It's hideous to look at, IMO. I know it can be customised, but that I'll come to in a bit.

Secondly, the feel. KDE defaults to a one-click method, and combined with its default mouse icons, makes the whole OS feel "floaty" - it's hard to explain this point, but it's like I'm not actually doing anything, and for some reason it makes the computer feel laggy (I know the computer isn't lagging, it's just a feeling I get from the default setup).

This is why I find it hard to customise the appearance of KDE - with the whole thing being in shrink-wrap, so to speak, it makes it a severe pain to navigate, and customising it just becomes a chore =/.

Now, I'm not bashing KDE or anything like that - it's got great customisation from what I've gathered (Although, I haven't personally seen it to be any more customisable than Gnome), and obviously it has to be doing something right if it's such a popular WM.

So I'm just asking: Does anyone have any advice for someone who's used to Gnome, but would like to at least try KDE (Sadly, with the way Gnome's going for the Shell, I'll probably end up being forced into KDE here).
Also, does anyone else experience the same thing I do with KDE, that it's "floaty" and shrink-wrapped? Something just feels weird when I'm using it.

As for my opinion on Gnome - sure it's also plain to begin with, but like KDE it's customisable. However, I've never felt the "floaty" experience at all with it.


Also: Any way to set up KDE's taskbars to behave like Gnome's application? I find it far more intuitive than KDE myself, and would like to be able to keep this should I end up having to use KDE.
Having the taskbars be smaller would be nice too, they are absolutely HUGE in a default install.


So yeah, I have nothing against KDE personally, but I'd like some advice or pointers for someone who may have to end up using it.

cascade9
January 9th, 2010, 05:07 PM
I havent played with KDE 4 much, but with KDE 3 is was pretty easy to change to double click, change icons, etc.

I'd poke around at kdelook.org and try to find a theme that you actually like, change to double click, and then it might be more usable to you.


(Sadly, with the way Gnome's going for the Shell, I'll probably end up being forced into KDE here).

Xfce. If you dont want gnome shell, that is the solution.

mk1w86
January 9th, 2010, 05:23 PM
Out of interest what distro have you tried KDE on? If it is Kubuntu they apparently make a lot of changes to it compared to stock KDE (you might want to try it with Fedora or OpenSuse etc.)

I have used Kubuntu 6.06 (I think) with KDE 3.5 in the past and have briefly tried various versions of KDE 4. I have always gone back to Gnome though, probably because it is what I am used to and it seems much simpler to me to use. I do however think KDE 4 looks very nice with its default theme and transparency.

Also regarding Gnome Shell I have tried it as it is at the moment albeit briefly and quite like it. It is worth bearing in mind that there are still changes being made to Gnome Shell before its final release.

TyrantWave
January 9th, 2010, 05:25 PM
Kubuntu and OpenSUSE mainly, although I've also installed it as a package afterwards.

I like the Gnome-Shell too, but I just vastly prefer Gnome how it is now personally.


And I forgot about XFCE >_<. Haven't touched that in ages.

Zorael
January 9th, 2010, 05:48 PM
Well, every environment isn't for everyone. I get unreasonably irked by GNOME's inability to change toolbar sizes in apps, for instance.

My advice would be to open up System Settings and go through each section. Changing clicks is intuitively enough placed under Keyboard & Mouse -> Mouse, for instance, cursor theme likewise.

There is a classic application menu plasma widget which behaves like the KDE3 Kicker or GNOME's application menu. Unlock widgets, click the panel cashew (the little nut), hit Add Widgets, find Application Launcher Menu and add it.

I think default panel (taskbar) size depends on which panel theme you're using. Regardless, you just click the same panel cashew, click and hold Height and then resize it as you wish.