What's good about KDE?

[blithen]

What is good about KDE. No negative stuff, nothing about any other DE. I just want to know the good stuff about KDE, and go into detail please. Thanks in advance!

[init1]

What is good about KDE. No negative stuff, nothing about any other DE. I just want to know the good stuff about KDE, and go into detail please. Thanks in advance!
It's easy to work with. There's a front end for everything. You can go into lots of detail when setting themes. And of course, Kolf :D

[plb]

It's very configurable and for the most part has superior apps when compared to that of gnome. The devs also care what the community thinks unlike the gnome nazis

[ComplexNumber]

it's very configurable and gives you lots of options for everything, lots of integration(eg between koffice and various apps etc). for developers, everything is focused almost entirely on C++. (for those that specialise in programming in C++).




The devs also care what the community thinks unlike the gnome nazis
false. don't start a flame war.

[Lord Illidan]

It's also good if you use many KDE apps (like Amarok, Kmail)

[kebes]

As others have mentioned, KDE has lots of options, and is highly configurable.

KDE is also very keyboard-shortcut oriented, which I like. This ties in with the configurability: you can set shortcuts for just about anything. There are also lots of mouse shortcuts (like titlebar-wheel-events). Overall these things make working in KDE very fast and efficient.

The default KDE apps are well-designed (Amarok, Kwrite, Konqueror, etc.). They are fairly intuitive, and have loads of advanced features. I like the fact that I can always learn a new trick to become more productive.

[p_quarles]

I started with Gnome, and was skeptical about KDE for a long time (the default desktop is, I think, kind of ugly). Tried it again recently, and it really is amazingly customizable, and some of the major apps (Konqueror-as-file-manager, Krusader, Akregator, Amarok, KTorrent) are the best of their kind.

[justin whitaker]

What is good about KDE. No negative stuff, nothing about any other DE. I just want to know the good stuff about KDE, and go into detail please. Thanks in advance!

What isn't good about KDE?

1. You can tinker to your heart's delight. The entire look, feel, control scheme is easily changed via the control panel.
2. Lots of great applications: Amarok, Kopete, Konqueror, Dolpin, etc. that all work well together and do just about everything with a consistent look and feel.
3. It's very easy for a new user to use because it is similar to the whole start>menu paradigm that they came over from.
4. It has a useful set of development tools, and the code base is not as byzantine as GNOME. Almost, but not quite. :)
5. Superkaramba (not as important with KDE 4.0 around the corner).

[adamklempner]

KDE feels to me to be the most complete DE. Everything fits together and the applications tend to feel more mature than some other DE's. Also, the layout is similar to that of Windows which may ease the transition for the "average" windows user.

[Ebuntor]

Everyone is mentioning the standard KDE apps as a reason to use KDE. But you can run just about every Gnome app in KDE, right? And the other way around.

So aren't the standard apps basically a different subject? Apart from the DE's? Correct me if I'm though.

EDIT: Of course there's essential/integrated apps like Konqueror but that's not what I was referring to. :)

[p_quarles]

Everyone is mentioning the standard KDE apps as a reason to use KDE. But you can run just about every Gnome app in KDE, right? And the other way around.

So aren't the standard apps basically a different subject? Apart from the DE's? Correct me if I'm though.

EDIT: Of course there's essential/integrated apps like Konqueror but that's not what I was referring to. :)
In my experience, KDE apps load more quickly in the native DE. I presume this is because Qt is already loaded. I don't use Amarok in Gnome, for instance, because it loads/unminimizes slowly. With lighter apps like akregator, it's not as much of a problem.

[plb]

false. don't start a flame war.

cmon, you can't deny that gnome devs want everything _their_ way. Pity, I liked gnome back in the 1.x days but I dunno what happened to it. Compare filled user requests of KDE to GNOME.

[karellen]

It's very configurable and for the most part has superior apps when compared to that of gnome. The devs also care what the community thinks unlike the gnome nazis

seems it's impossible to follow this:

No negative stuff, nothing about any other DE. I just want to know the good stuff about KDE, and go into detail please.
and don't bash...

[karellen]

about the topic: what I find good about KDE. well...customization, very good apps (k3b, ktorrent, amarok - they're the best in the linux world for their purpose). and especially, it's good that it exist and thus gives us choice besides gnome. the same with gnome, from KDE point of view.
somehow oddly, I find the best KDE implementation to be that of Linux Mint, KDE edition...I just love the overall feel

[adamklempner]

Everyone is mentioning the standard KDE apps as a reason to use KDE. But you can run just about every Gnome app in KDE, right? And the other way around.

So aren't the standard apps basically a different subject? Apart from the DE's? Correct me if I'm though.

EDIT: Of course there's essential/integrated apps like Konqueror but that's not what I was referring to. :)

Aside from a slight performance difference, they do function fine (generally). But having gnome looking apps in KDE and vice-versa messes up the flow and appearance of the whole DE experience (eg., file -> open, looks different and works different). Consistency throughout the whole OS greatly improves the user experience, IMO.

[olieviya]

I think this is a good read: http://hopachai.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/we-need-to-kill-gnome/

[ukripper]

another good read......
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=550590

[ukripper]

I think this is a good read: http://hopachai.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/we-need-to-kill-gnome/

Do you really think GNOME will be killed this easily?

[blithen]

What isn't good about KDE?


3. It's very easy for a new user to use because it is similar to the whole start>menu paradigm that they came over from.

See...I don't want that though.

[ukripper]

See...I don't want that though.

Then you have made your choice already which is GNOME,

[blithen]

Then you have made your choice already which is GNOME,
:/ Don't presume so much. I'm willing to give up that one thing to try KDE.
There should be a way to make it not so...start bar-ish.

[ThinkBuntu]

KDE is the fastest standard non-"*box" DE. It uses more resources, but to see what I mean, run Vector 5.8 SOHO (KDE) against plain ol' Xfce Vector or Zenwalk. Menus load quicker, and everything is snappier. I highly recommend Vector SOHO, although you'll need to tweak the KDE them settings so it doesn't look ugly. It also makes noises for every event, but that's easy to turn off.

[p_quarles]

:/ Don't presume so much. I'm willing to give up that one thing to try KDE.
There should be a way to make it not so...start bar-ish.
There is. You can configure the panel(s) any way you want, just as you can with gnome. This is what I was referring to, btw, when I said I didn't like the look of the default install.

[sqlpython]

As others have mentioned, KDE has lots of options, and is highly configurable.
and can't be repeated enough..
I find many more KDE apps then Gnome..
I first used KDE at 1.0 in 1996-1997 and have never looked back. I find it intuitive and comfortable interface. This is especially true for Windows converts.
Also developing with the QT Designer it is great for KDE apps..

Lastly, :) it is Linus Torvalds favorite interface , Hands Down!

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8745257437.html

[ThinkBuntu]

Also, someone called the KMenu a "Start Menu." By default, it's basically GNOME's Applications menu with a few extra options which can easily be turned off. It takes a minute to make the KMenu identical to GNOME's application menu, but you can also have a "Recent Items" section, or a "Most Frequently Used Items" section. You can also have your Home folder, Search function, "Quit" functions, etc. come from this menu. I find it to be a very efficient use of space when used correctly, although in general I do agree with you, and make the menu very minimal: My apps, 5 "most recent", the Quit menu, and a Search function.

[blithen]

Anyone have the sudo apt-get install KDE command handy?

[ThinkBuntu]

I recommend burning and dual-booting PCLinuxOS for the real desktop experience.

[p_quarles]

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
This will bring up the dm configuration dialogue, and you can choose either GDM or KDM.

To run the dialogue again, type

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm

[Lord Illidan]

Anyone have the sudo apt-get install KDE command handy?

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

[blithen]

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
This will bring up the dm configuration dialogue, and you can choose either GDM or KDM.

To run the dialogue again, type

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm
Thanks!

[fdhdghdg]

It's fast and responsive! It makes (ex)Windows users feel at home, KDE have always tried to resemble windows in many ways (since 1.0 release although they've always claimed otherwise) and you can run your mouse all over the place (ask not what your computer can do for you, ask what you can do for your computer) because there's so many cool GUI settings. From a coders perspective you feel more l33t because it's superior to everything, even your guru Linus the coder says so. In other words, you can't go wrong with KDE. Well from a visual perspective there's this thing that rhymes with BOAT that makes it's apps look like ---- but who knows they might fix this in KDE4. In other words, it's all good.

[Andrewie]

It's fast and responsive! It makes (ex)Windows users feel at home, KDE have always tried to resemble windows in many ways (since 1.0 release although they've always claimed otherwise) and you can run your mouse all over the place (ask not what your computer can do for you, ask what you can do for your computer) because there's so many cool GUI settings. From a coders perspective you feel more l33t because it's superior to everything, even your guru Linus the coder says so. In other words, you can't go wrong with KDE. Well from a visual perspective there's this thing that rhymes with BOAT that makes it's apps look like ---- but who knows they might fix this in KDE4. In other words, it's all good.

fixing bloat was one of their main goals

[blithen]

What to say about KDE..I tried it. I'm still a little bit against it, but I'm going to give it a good try, and really push to customize it the way I want. Any tips for customization?

[lzfy]

Well I was a big Gnome fanboy for a long time and didn't even want to try KDE because I hated everything about it. But then I decided to try it because I wanted to learn more about linux desktops. Since then I haven't used Gnome anymore. KDE gives you so many options and in my opinion KDE themes are more polished then GTK themes. Recently I tried the second beta of KDE 4 and it even looks more polished. Oh the font rendering in KDE 4 is amazing, webpages never looked so good on Linux.

[tbroderick]

What to say about KDE..I tried it.

No you didn't. Try using KDE for at least a week or longer.

[chameleonkid]

I like making the panel transparent/invisible. Most recent apps. Customized panel minibuttons. I make it double click too (find it easier to manipulate with double click). Basically I would just go through the whole system settings and change what I would see fit.

[blithen]

No you didn't. Try using KDE for at least a week or longer.
Sorry, should've said 'trying'

[RAV TUX]

What is good about KDE. No negative stuff, nothing about any other DE. I just want to know the good stuff about KDE, and go into detail please. Thanks in advance!
My favorite thing about KDE is it's extreme user friendliness and how it is the most customizable of Linux DE's, the best thing about KDE is that you can make it the most minimalistic desktop and have complete functionality.

I like making it so minimal that there is no panels, no icons, simply right-click to get to your applications.


What to say about KDE..I tried it. I'm still a little bit against it, but I'm going to give it a good try, and really push to customize it the way I want. Any tips for customization?

When I first tried KDE it was in PC-BSD and I thought Wow! but I also thought it was not for me, but I could see why it could be the most popular DE, it is knock your socks off Wow!......but still I felt it wasn't for me.

It wasn't until I used it for a month or two did I realize how wonderful it truly is, and how I could make it exactly what I wanted it to be.

With that said you have to realize my primary DE/WM is e17 in Elive Gem 1.0, I am hooked on e17, I find KDE, GNOME and XFCE pretty much about the same overall and a bit boring but of the three KDE is the easiest to use and customize.

[blithen]

My favorite thing about KDE is it's extreme user friendliness and how it is the most customizable of Linux DE's, the best thing about KDE is that you can make it the most minimalistic desktop and have complete functionality.

I like making it so minimal that there is no panels, no icons, simply right-click to get to your applications.
O.o Why not just switch over to FluxBox then.

[Anonii]

I'm using KDE, mainly because I hate Rhythmbox/Listen/Exaile, and I love Amarok. I also can't even describe the awesomeness that KDE 4 contains.

[RAV TUX]

O.o Why not just switch over to FluxBox then.

....because while I like the Fluxbox look you lose some very powerful uses and functionality in Fluxbox that are in KDE.

[ThinkBuntu]

Using my old hardware (before I sold it and went pure Mac) which was a ThinkPad T41 1.6GHz Pentium M with 1.5GB RAM, KDE when installed over Ubuntu was not a very good experience. It seemed fairly slow, about as fast as MEPIS (which should be much leaner and faster now that it's built over Debian). GNOME is the superior experience for Ubuntu, in my opinion. However, I had great KDE performance with PCLinuxOS and OpenSuSE, amongst other KDE-centric distros.

None of these were as perfectly snappy as Vector SOHO, which unfortunately is a little tough to work with hardware-wise at first. It uses Slapt-Get for package management which I found to be pretty reliable, although you get the occasional missing dependency which is easily retrieved thanks to the Slackware roots which lend a good compiling environment.

[Jessehk]

From my experience building a Qt app and seeing how KDE wraps everything up, KDE has just a fantastic technical base. Everything is built on existing frameworks and components. This allows, for example, for two completely unrelated programs to integrate the same spell checking, the same interface for text editing, etc.

Also, Qt is just awesome from a programming prospective.

[Incense]

I like how integrated everything feels in KDE. The native apps just play together so nicely. Kontact and Koffice are great examples of this. I also really dig the KDE apps. Amarok, K3b, K9Copy, Basket, Quanta, Kdenlive, DigiKam, Konqueror, Katapult.... amazing programs! As already mentioned, I would try out a good KDE distro like openSUSE, or PCLinusOS to really get the KDE experience. Kubuntu (IMO) just is not the best example of what a great KDE distro can be out of the box. It is getting better with each release though.

I would just spend a week in KDE, try out the native apps, and if you don't like it, Gnome will be waiting for you to come back. Maybe give XFCE a shot as well! Many people would argue that Xubuntu is one of the best buntu's.

[smartboyathome]

What to say about KDE..I tried it. I'm still a little bit against it, but I'm going to give it a good try, and really push to customize it the way I want. Any tips for customization?

I tried Kubuntu on the same partition as Ubuntu: hated it because it was too cluttered. Tried it on a separate partition: I could see how it could be easily extended, but still didn't like it. Now that I tried it on PCLOS, it is right up there with GNOME as my favorite DE. The only beef I have with it is that it is harder to create themes. Other than that, it is great! Plus, the PCLOS menu is LEAGUES ahead of Gnome's.

[plb]

Kubuntu has been described as KDE at it's worst while Ubuntu GNOME at its best.

[GSF1200S]

I might suggest KDE core on the ubuntu kernel.. its SO much better than Kubuntu in terms of lean-ness and speed.


sudo aptitude install kde-core

I would suggest aptitude because if at one point you decide you dont like it, aptitude will remove ALL the dependencies it d/l'd to get KDE core up. apt-get will only remove the packages installed directly as part of kde-core, while all dependencies will remain the same.

When I did this install, I didnt even install a GUI at first. I just threw a command line install on with the Ubuntu alt iso, connected to wireless through the command prompt, and installed KDE core using the following:


sudo aptitude install kde-core xorg kdm

It shows KDE in its leanest and fastest state- using 73MB of RAM at boot (booting in under 20 seconds), things open instantly and all the features everyone has been talking about are still there. Just a thought- I had problems with KDE when i used Kubuntu, but not anymore (its getting better from what I hear).

good luck! :)

[miggols99]

Nearly all apps are integrated such as KWallet is used for passwords for almost everything (Kopete, Konqueror, KFTPGrabber etc.), very easy to customise, IMO has better apps and supports restoring from the trash (!!)

[nrs]

KDE is a C++ developers wet dream. Qt and the KDElibs themselves are awesome.

[kvonb]

These are the (trivial maybe) most useful things about KDE:

1. You can save the size/position of each individual window.

2. Icons don't remain selected once you've clicked on them (ie an applications icon on the desktop, when you open it, unlike gnome which leaves it selected!).

3. Drop shadows: Simple, easy, and looks great. No need to mess around with Beryl et al.

4. Icon themes: there are some really nice ones.

5. KBFX: A menu replacement that looks really nice.

6. Exploding icons: When you open an icon, it "explodes", nice touch.

Of course all this is simply eye candy and theme stuff. But that can make a difference to a lot of people.

Don't forget that you can simply run KDE instead of Gnome on a standard Ubuntu install. That way you can use all the apps you are used to but get the good stuff that KDE offers.

I attached lots of screenshots showing the customisability of KDE, the last one shows the icon de-selection problem I have with gnome!

[ahaslam]

What's good about KDE?
Good question :-k

[sp0onman]

yea i installed kubuntu the other day on another computer see if i wanted to use it instead of ubuntu only because i love amarok. but it just didnt feel right. might give it another go when KDE 4 is out. i know this sounds noobish(i am one anyway) but i couldn't find the restricted drivers program in the menu.

[marco123]

I might suggest KDE core on the ubuntu kernel.. its SO much better than Kubuntu in terms of lean-ness and speed.


sudo aptitude install kde-core

I would suggest aptitude because if at one point you decide you dont like it, aptitude will remove ALL the dependencies it d/l'd to get KDE core up. apt-get will only remove the packages installed directly as part of kde-core, while all dependencies will remain the same.

When I did this install, I didnt even install a GUI at first. I just threw a command line install on with the Ubuntu alt iso, connected to wireless through the command prompt, and installed KDE core using the following:


sudo aptitude install kde-core xorg kdm

It shows KDE in its leanest and fastest state- using 73MB of RAM at boot (booting in under 20 seconds), things open instantly and all the features everyone has been talking about are still there. Just a thought- I had problems with KDE when i used Kubuntu, but not anymore (its getting better from what I hear).

good luck! :)

Do you have to restart when you install kde-core? Also can you update or are the Gnome-Ubuntu updates enough?

Edit: I'm itching to try something new; I've learned just about everything I can about Gnome.:)

[happy-and-lost]

AmaroK

[ukripper]

K3b, amarok, WLASSISTANT(my fav), ktorrent, Konquerer.

[wersdaluv]

http://jucato.org/blog/why-kde/

[Erunno]

http://jucato.org/blog/why-kde/

That's one hell of an article. Hugs and kisses to Jucato, it'll come in handy in future flame-w...,err, discussions.

[happysmileman]

From my experience building a Qt app and seeing how KDE wraps everything up, KDE has just a fantastic technical base. Everything is built on existing frameworks and components. This allows, for example, for two completely unrelated programs to integrate the same spell checking, the same interface for text editing, etc.

Also, Qt is just awesome from a programming prospective.

Agreed, adn even if you're not a programmer, it works out better for end users because of the integration and speed of apps. And because of the speed of development, and code is usually much easier to maintain

[zenwhen]

Lets make sure we keep it civil in here.

[Dimitriid]

Its funny that some of the things people talk about here are exactly the opposite for me. When I tried Kubuntu I searched a lot both by myself and on this and other forums and I was not able to set up a simple tasks: Keyboard layout option to set up my Compose Key ( Spanish being my first language I need to have a quick way to do accents and other special characters, but I am used to the english keyboard layout so I just wanted the compose key, not to change layouts ).

I had more experience with KDE and almost everything was easier to find, change and customize on Gnome. I keep hearing this comments, and all the others are fine and even true ( the native apps are usually good, you have many of them available, uses more memory but feels a tad more responsive, etc. ) except it is not more user friendly than Gnome, in fact is not that user friendly at all.

[stimpack]

It's a power-users desktop, KDE gives you options coming out of your ears. If you can make use of these options using KDE will provide more power and speed, if you can't make head-nor-tail of it, then stay with what you know.

oh and KIOslaves..

[uputer]

It's not Gnome.

There was an article about the initial startup of Gnome and it wasn't too flattering. It's just another misstep by Ubuntu as they also use 'sudo' and there are articles of how Ubuntu are making questionable choices in the Linux world.

[suziequzie]

It's easy to work with. There's a front end for everything. You can go into lots of detail when setting themes. And of course, Kolf :D

OMG! KOLF! I played that for hours when I first installed Kubuntu years ago. I should load it up again. :KS

I love how the desktop is very customizable. I change my preferences and tweak the eye candy whenever the mood strikes me. I LOOOVE transparency effects and transparent superkaramba apps looking like they're all tightly integrated on my desktop, but knowing that *I* made it all look good together. I know, the PC is just a tool, some say, but for me it's a toy. I like to play around with it, and if it looks ugly, I don't like using it. Pleasing to my eyes IS a large part of usability, as far as I'm concerned.

[RAV TUX]

What is good about KDE. No negative stuff, nothing about any other DE. I just want to know the good stuff about KDE, and go into detail please. Thanks in advance!KDE applications:

Konversation
Kopete
Konqueror
KTorrent
Ksnapshot
Ksudoku
Konsole
K3B
KColorChooser
KWorldClock
Patience
AmaroK
Kiten
Klatin
Koffice
Kword
Kate
KCalc

...the list goes on

[davtaine]

Everything

[maestrobwh1]

I just naturally preferred KDE to Gnome and probably because it had familiarity when I defected from Microsoft. Stuff just works very much the same on the surface. Underneath, it is of course very different; however, when anyone considers moving to Linux, I suggest Kubuntu.

Also, my first exposure to Linux was way back on Knoppix 3.4 and that uses KDE. Yes, that was a long time ago. I still think it is a great distro/live cd. I use it as a backup in case (and this has happened) I can't access my OS and need the data before restoring an image. Seems like if an intuitive window manager is needed, KDE is used. Knoppix 5.1.1 still uses it.

I've used Gnome and Xfce... they are good, but I consider them "Lite" versions of window managers for computers that can't run quickly enough with KDE.

[Linuxratty]

Everything

Agreed..having now used Gnome and KDE,I like all the extra options in KDE.

[odiseo77]

I guess this has been said before, but, besides amaroK which I love, I have to say yakuake, I love it; it's fast, cool.. just a simple press on F12 and you have a terminal, then F12 again and you're back in your desktop, no need to type 'exit' every time you use the terminal... it's simply unique... too bad I can't use it on Gnome (yes, I know about tilda, but it isn't by far near yakuake...(Gnome user here)) :-)