Any discussion about GNOME vs. KDE is sure to end in tears. It's basically impossible to discuss which of these two Free desktop environments is better than the other, mostly because they cater to different types of people, with different needs and expectatotions. As such, Bruce Byfield decided to look at the two platforms from a different perspective: if we consider their developmental processes, which of the two is most likely to be more successful in the coming years?
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Member since:2007-03-01
slackware is technically "no desktop by default" though it leans more KDE. there aren't even any GNOME packages in the default slackware distribution.
Also to the previous post, you say "most distributions" ship GNOME by default, and then only make mention of Ubuntu. Also you can't use Ubuntu/Kubuntu as a basis of comparison as previously mentioned. The reason there is sucha disparity between the two is because Canonical is very biased towards GNOME and invests much more time and resources in that direction. As an OpenSUSE user, I can tell you that a well integrated KDE4 desktop is just every bit as clean and shiny as a GNOME one, someone just has to take the time and effort to make it that way.
Member since:2007-10-26
Member since:2005-06-30
Don't forget that PC-BSD has had KDE as its default desktop for over three years now, and it has quite possibly the easiest entry barrier for new users of any UNIX distribution so long as you aren't trying to run it on a laptop. 7.1 is shaping up to be a fine release, and will run KDE 4.2 on top of FreeBSD 7.2.
Member since:2005-07-07
Dont forget the unknown-but-millions-of-users distro's like Red Flag Linux, Pardux Linux, Alt Linux - besides Red Hat "the desktop is not important" and Ubuntu "We do marketing before anything else", KDE is still going strong. Asia, Russia, South America, Turkey and East Europe - 90% of the linux desktops you'll find there are KDE based. How about 50 million Brazil users in one deployment? The Russian school system will move to KDE desktops, the turkish government doesn't sponsor a KDE-only distro for nothing etc etc...
Just focussing on the few well-known-in-europe&US-distro's means leaving out lots of good stuff...
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2007-02-17
We have had this claim before on OSNews. Of the top distributions, here is the actual story:
GNOME by default: Ubuntu, Mint, Slackware?
No particular desktop by default: openSUSE, Fedora, Debian, Arch, CentOS.
KDE by default: Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, MEPIS, Sabayon
Other desktop by default: Puppy