On 12/21/2013 09:45 PM, Bruce Byfield wrote:
As you may have heard, KDE recently topped the Linux Journal's Readers' Choice
Awards.
That got me thinking. Why do people prefer KDE? What advantages do you think
it has over other desktop environments?
Warning: If I get enough replies, I may use them in a blog entry for Linux Pro
Magazine.
My thanks in advance for any replies.
I'm using KDE on PCLinuxOS. I'm not sure what "comes" with it, and what
is added on, but one thing that definitely comes with it
is Konqueror-Super User, which is really helpful in copying files
between operating systems, particularly between Linux and Windows.
K3b is surely a KDE app, and it works very nicely, even allowing you to
check the mdsum of the text you are going to burn, and then
verifying the result. (On the other hand, I would never again trust
KMail. I used it on SuSE back around 2009/10, when it started
printing incoming messages in some Asian font, and they could not be
recovered!) KSnapshot has a nice array of output possibilities,
and I use it when the devs have not broken it--which has happened more
than once. KPatience Solitare, especially Klondike, is a
really nice rendition of the game. I assume the Kate editor is a KDE
creation, and it has features I haven't seen elsewhere. The capability
of joining lines is wonderful for removing strange formatting. The Find
Files/Folders app is indispensable, not only on Linux, but on the
Windows version of KDE. Windows has nothing like it--Windows assumes
when you find a file, you want to run it, never thinking that you
might want to burn a copy, or email it.
Finally, KDE has a great deal of visual similarity to Windows, on which
virtually all of us learned graphical user interfacing. It has one
"panel" or systray, and it's at the bottom, out of the way, where it
belongs. It allows the placement of icons or widgets on the desktop.
For those who like the Windows "Start" menu type of operation, KDE has a
similar menu. At the same time, the KDE desktop is more
versatile, allowing various icons to be placed in the "panel", left or
right, at the user's preference, as well as on the desktop surface
itself, and has a lot more options for these user spaces. If your
desktop uses widgets, rather than icons, they can be modified in size,
one at a time, so as to be more pleasing to the eye as well as more
easily found. (Note that I make Windows comparisons to versions
prior to Windows 8, an unmitigated disaster!)
In addition to the items above, the system administration apps provided
by KDE all work pretty well, with only a few exceptions.
(The printer apps really need serious work, and have been in this state
for the entire time I've used KDE. Also the display
configuration when an NVidia card is used does not work right, without
(undocumented) user modifications to Xorg.conf.)
It is to KDE's credit that certain "eyecandy" type things can be turned
off. Especially those that make windows do strange things
when they hit up against a screen edge. And I can do without them ever
becoming translucent!
I don't know if Synaptic is a creation of the KDE people or not, but I
think it is a more user-friendly file loader than the other programs
used on distros other than PCLOS.
I think I hear faint rumors that the PCLOS people are thinking of
leaving KDE for some other system. When or if they do, I will be looking
for another distro that continues to use KDE.
If you print any of this review in a magazine or elsewhere, you have my
permission to use my name. Doug McGarrett
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