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robofish114
July 18th, 2011, 05:03 AM
i've been reading the other threads and posts on this site, and i've learned that i can run kde apps in gnome, and vice versa. So, it got me wondering, why does there need to be kde applications and gnome applications? if they both will run on the other, then whats the difference? does it have to do with how they're written? is one better than the other?

XubuRoxMySox
July 18th, 2011, 01:55 PM
i've been reading the other threads and posts on this site, and i've learned that i can run kde apps in gnome, and vice versa. So, it got me wondering, why does there need to be kde applications and gnome applications? if they both will run on the other, then whats the difference? does it have to do with how they're written? is one better than the other?

Applications run best in their "native environments," even though they can run in any environment.

Sometimes it's a matter of storage space on your hard drive. If I'm running Gnome but want a favorite KDE application, it will "pull in" abuncha KDE dependencies when I install it. Libraries and other stuff are needed from KDE to run K3B, for example, the awesome CD burning application that works - on my hardware - better than Brasero.

You can mix and match applications in any desktop environment, but because they depend on other stuff from the other environment, they "pull in" those other things that they need. It's not a problem if you have plenty of space for all that on your hard drive.

For a pretty good overview of the different desktop environments and their native applications and descriptions, click on the "What's the Difference in the 'Buntus?" link in my signature below. It was good enough for the mods to make "sticky," so hopefully you'll find it useful.

-Robin

gdonwallace
July 18th, 2011, 03:30 PM
Like Dixiedancer said, its a matter of libraries and dependencies. When you install a KDE package in Gnome, it downloads all these in order for it to run properly.

It makes little sense that you would need to do something like that, but until they step up and unify the desktop across all distros that is an unfortunate side effect.

I know that right now they are talking about some way to unify updates / upgrades across distros, so that they can get the main players on the same release schedule and make the update process easier. Whether or not that actually happens is still the question.

If they try something like that with desktop, it would help and make the process of running KDE and Gnome apps in each other easier.....but truthfully that probably will not happen.