> Hi all! > I'm a new linux user and wondering at the moment whether to use the > GNOME or KDE desktop. Can anybody give me a hint what the differences/ > pros and cons are? > Thanks! > Conrad
Gnome 2 is abit faster and uses less memory than KDE 3.x however it offers less options to the end user prefering to keep things simply and uncluttered. It's abit less tightly linked togeather than KDE with many apps being produced by different groups and not part of the gnome core unlike KDE where there's a Kapp for just about every thing as part of the KDE core (eg konqueror is KDE's file manager and webbrowser). Gnome has it's own Gnome apps still, jjust not as many, however It also has some of the better apps with Mozilla and varients, The Gimp, GNUCash, Evolution and others (OO.org?) being based off gtk the library gnome uses (KDE uses QT). Which means gnome tends to load them abit quicker and it's themes will effect how they look. For a Fully featured HIGHLY configurable desktop with all the basic apps built into it I'd suggest KDE. However if you prefer a few less configurable options and tend to use the more powerfull gtk apps alot (The Gimp, Mozilla etc) I'd suggest Gnome. Both are very Nice Gnome2 is the default for Red Hat while Kde is the default for Mandrake both include both but RH stuffs with KDE which can cause some problems. Both can be easily configured to look VERY VERY nice both haveing good theme and widget engines. themes can be found at. http://art.gnome.org for gnome & http://www.kde-look.org for kde and some gnome stuff Licence wise Gnome is based on gtk+ which is GPL or LGPL while KDE's based on QT which has a more limiting licence that is only free when used on an X windows system (linux, unix etc). I personally use Gome on Mandrake 9.0 as kde seems abit to slow on my computer. And gtk apps run abit to slow in kde for me. Chad Non-Determinism is not meant to be reasonable. -- M.J. 0'Donnell
