🚀 go-pugleaf

Joel Michael <jmichael@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message news:<yTws8.12705$vc3.42308@news-server.bigpond.net.au>...
> Alex Samad <asamad@bigpond.net.au_NOSPAM>
> previously enlightened bigpond.broadband.tech.linux with:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > As a new user to Linux Desktops, can some body give some comments on going
> > with either KDE or Gnome, is one better than the other or are they about the
> > same?
> > 
> Gnome tends to run faster on lower-end hardware than KDE.  I personally
> like it better, but then again the last time I used KDE was about '98...

Well, I have 7.2 Professional (which included GNOME 1.4 and KDE 2.1.1
if I remember correctly, which I probably don't), and, in my opinion,
GNOME is definitely more resource-hungry on my 300MHz Celeron with
160MB RAM. Shoot, I installed KDE 3 yesterday, and told it to use
every last bell and whistle when it asks you the first time you start
it, and it's still hands down faster than GNOME. Somewhere that I
particularly noticed the difference was when playing Tuxracer. In KDE
2, where I started playing it, it was as smooth as it could possibly
be, quite literally. You never, ever missed a frame. And I played it
so much that it soon became the top program in the K menu. Then I
started using GNOME exclusively a few weeks ago, and every single time
I have tried playing it with GNOME running the frame skippage/sound
screwups/overall slowness and crapiness was pretty ridiculous, to the
point that I don't bother playing it any more when I'm in GNOME. Of
course, this is far from objective, but it's what I've got. Also, the
fact that Nautilus is used by default doesn't help one bit when you
want to look at your home directory. That fricking thing takes three
eternities to load. It's fortunate that I know command-line commands,
because I would have pulled all my hair out by now waiting for
Nautilus to load every time I would otherwise need it. Konqueror from
KDE, on the other hand, loaded quite fast in KDE 2, and loads just
about as fast, although maybe a tad little bit slower (which is
understandable, considering all the other things it does now that it
didn't do in KDE 2), in KDE 3. Especially after the first load. If you
want to become proficient with the command-line though (good in any
case), use Nautilus in GNOME. But then again, Konsole also loads
faster in KDE than the equivalent in GNOME. And something else: if you
have a slow computer, don't waste your time trying the themes in
GNOME. I did, and that was just plain ridiculous. If you thought it
was slow before, try that. Besides, the default doesn't look half bad
once you make the top and bottom bars use the 'Default' background
instead of 'Color' (it's possible that I have those backwards; in any
case, I'm referring to making the bars whitish instead of that ugly
gray). To be fair though, I didn't try the themes in KDE (yet), so
they may be just as slow there or even slower, who knows. If it seems
I have some kind of agenda against GNOME or for KDE, rest assured that
I don't, I'm just trying to expound my experiences (I hope "expound"
fits there). In any case, it's not like you can't try both and use
what you like yourself. One good thing about GNOME though, is the
selection of applets. I constantly have the fire one running (don't
remember what it's called), and tried to find a permanent place for
the weather one but it was taking literally almost all of the CPU just
to sit there, so I got rid of that after a day or two. But there's a
lot more to choose from in GNOME than KDE (at least by default), so
you're bound to find some cool stuff there that you like. I would have
said (until yesterday) that GNOME gives you more power and flexibility
over how the desktop works in general, but after having looked through
KDE 3 for a few hours last night I don't think that's anywhere near
true any more. Oh well, try everything you want and use whatever you
dang well please. I just wanted to mention how claims of KDE's
resource-hungriness or GNOME's lightweightness don't seem to hold
true, at least in my case, where everything is magnified because my
computer is so fricking slow compared to what a lot of people have out
there. But if I had to recommend something, it would be KDE 3, and
that's kind of bold (perhaps foolish) considering that I've only tried
it for a few hours. Of course, then there's that issue about GNOME 2
coming out any day now...

                                                     Tommy McDaniel