Going Gnome cold turkey :)

[Raven-sb]

Hi All,

Recently I read an article in Linux Format about a long time KDE user who decided to solely use Gnome for 30 days in order to determine why users prefer one desktop over another. It was an interesting experiment to read about and as a long time gnome user I decided to do the same experiment but in reverse, i.e solely using KDE for 30 days. So I've installed Kubuntu and here I am. I hope to record how I am coping in a blog, as soon as I figure out how to set one up. After the 30 days are up I'll decided which desktop I prefer and stick with it.

[nixternal]

That is pretty cool man. Let me be the first to welcome you to yet another great desktop environment.

I have been using KDE now for about 10 years, mostly on but some off. I have tried out GNOME and used it back when Ximian was just starting out. Besides KDE I became addicted to AfterStep, LiteStep, Blackbox, Enlightenment, and others back in the mid 90's.

This has inspired me to possibly do the same. I know GNOME is a great desktop environment as KDE is as well. There are things I have just gotten so accustomed to that when I have tried GNOME here recently I just became frustrated. Right now in Ubuntu there are a lot of great apps that I wish had Qt counterparts. Tomboy for one flat out rocks, however I have no icon in my taskbar, which is no big deal, as I now know what that empty space is ;)

It will be interesting to see your pros and cons. It would rock to see an explanation in some detail between what you didn't like in KDE that was in GNOME and vice-versa. I wish you fun times for the next 30 days, and I will definitely be watching this as you go!

[Raven-sb]

Thanks for the welcome :) nixternal. So far I'm pretty impressed with KDE. I started using Gnome way back before the version one release in Red Hat 5, and like yourself I've tried a variety of window managers over that time including KDE. But for some reason I kept going back to Gnome. It wasn't that KDE was bad, in so much as I was comfortable in working with Gnome.

Anyway enough rambling from me, I'll be sure to give updates as to how I am going. Thanks once again for your welcome.

[askrieger]

Of course, the best way to work is not to restrict yourself to programs that come from a particular desktop. If you really like tomboy, use it under KDE! It will work as long as you have the right GTK libs installed. (but, take a look at "basket", too). There are no KDE police to take away your computer.

If you find KDE apps that you like, even though you find Gnome more congenial, after your experiment is over, go ahead and use them under Gnome. The beauty of Debian based distros like (K)Ubuntu is that you never (well, hardly ever) get wrapped up in Dependency Hell. Just crank up Synaptic, (which I use under KDE because I like it much better than Adept), it will automagically install evrything you need to run Amarok or K3b (to name 2 examples where I think the KDE app is much better then the competition) under Gnome.

Meanwhile, welcome to Kubuntu, and please don't hesitate to ask us about any problems you might have.

[Raven-sb]

Of course, the best way to work is not to restrict yourself to programs that come from a particular desktop.* If you really like tomboy, use it under KDE!* It will work as long as you have the right GTK libs installed. (but, take a look at "basket", too). There are no KDE police to take away your computer.

If you find KDE apps that you like, even though you find Gnome more congenial, after your experiment is over, go ahead and use them under Gnome.* The beauty of Debian based distros like (K)Ubuntu is that you never (well, hardly ever) get wrapped up in Dependency Hell.* Just crank up Synaptic, (which I use under KDE because I like it much better than Adept), it will automagically install evrything you need to run Amarok or K3b (to name 2 examples where I think the KDE app is much better then the competition) under Gnome.

Meanwhile, welcome to Kubuntu, and please don't hesitate to ask us about any problems you might have.


Thanks for the suggestion :) and the welcome. The reason why I am trying to only use KDE programs is that I want to see if it is possible to have a complete package of software (i.e KDE software) that I can use in my everyday computer activities.

I agree with you about Synaptic and Adept :) Personally I think that Adept needs some work on it to make it more user friendly. Interestingly enough my first impression of Guarddog was similar, until I RTFM (Read the friendly manual) and actually used the program. My initial impressions is that KDE seems almost overwhelming in the amount of settings that the user can tweak. This isn't a bad thing, but it does take some getting used to.

Personally I love Kubuntu and I think I'm going to be sticking with it for quite a while.

[Amoeba]

This is funny because I just ran that same 30 day test, with Ubuntu.

I am and always will be a KDE user. But I like to dink with Gnome every so often.

Fed up with Gentoo on the desktop, I decided it was time to try Ubuntu. At first, I loved the new Gnome version as it had been version 2.02 (or whatever) that I really tried Gnome. So, I installed Ubuntu and stuck with Gnome for 30 days. It was just yesterday that I decided that Gnome just sucks. Just plain sucks. The main reason for me?? No tabbed window browsing with the default window manager Nautilus. This totally sucks.

I hate the gconf database. Not only do I have to wipe out a directory (to start over) but I have to unset the respective gconf variables in order to try a fresh install of whatever application.

KDE is more intuitive for me. It just works and I'm glad I have the choice to choose which one I prefer. And it seems.. It's KDE.. I'm on my 5th year of using KDE... I love it.

[lowey23]

If you have any questions after 30 days, feel free to ask. I'm sure you will still be here. ;D

[jbaerbock]

I know what you're going through. I am using Kubuntu for the first time in awhile. I used to use Ubuntu and then Linux Mint. Mint had too many things pre-installed that I didn't want but used it anyway cause I was used to Gnome. I decided to do a similar thing and am using KDE for a good long while. If I don't like it I can always go back to Gnome. I used GParted like mad and found QTPArted just does not match so as they previously said I installed GParted in KDE! :-D