“The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.3.2, a maintenance release for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes.” Read the full announcement here, or download it here.”
KDE 3.3.2 Released
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Adam Scheinberg
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I recently upgraded to KDE after installing Fedora Core 3. A lot of my GTK applications had serious lag in the UI. I switched to Gnome and the lag went away. I then tried XFce4.2 and all the GTK applications soared. KDE tries too hard to do everything instead of doing just a couple of things really well, IMHO. The UI bloat in Konquror alone is enough to give me a headache. Having switched to XFce4.2 I can never go back to heavy weight windowing environments.
i wonder why every time kde mention all we here is about gnome/gtk , don’t you get tired of this ?
I recently upgraded to KDE after installing Fedora Core 3. A lot of my GTK applications had serious lag in the UI.
Why were you using KDE then?
KDE tries too hard to do everything instead of doing just a couple of things really well, IMHO.
It’s called being a desktop environment – something you may want to think about some time. Being a desktop environment that people are going to use is about applications, infrastructure and being able to develop for it. You also may want to think about that some time as well. A proper desktop environment cannot just do a couple of things really well.
The problem with KDE is that if people think it falls short it doesn’t have the applications, or something like that. If KDE has the applications and the infrastructure, and people cannot fault it on that, then it’s bloat.
i wonder why every time kde mention all we here is about gnome/gtk , don’t you get tired of this ?
Yes. Unfortunately there are some people who cannot accept that GTK and it’s surrounding libraries don’t cut the mustard.
“The problem with KDE is that if people think it falls short it doesn’t have the applications, or something like that. If KDE has the applications and the infrastructure, and people cannot fault it on that, then it’s bloat. ”
Amen. People want to rag on KDE just because it might have a feature they don’t need, might not be specified to their tastes or designed with them exclusively in mind.
I do not think Gnome is better than KDE or viceversa. It is a matter of taste. Just like Linux is, with all its different distributions. However, if someone comes saying that KDE is the best, I dont see why somebody else cannot argue the contrary. If we dont want our distribution, application, preference to be trashed we better watch out our comments, or at least have enough facts to back up our assumptions.
It’s true there will always be those faithful to their desktop environment but the real issue here should be on product releases that keep your desktop stable and secure. After all I’m sure those in the KDE and Gnome camps will agree their respective developer get patches out faster than Microsoft does for IE users. You won’t hear KDE and Gnome developers saying things like “Either upgrade your OS or pay us for the security update”. Sound familiar? Well it should because that’s what MS informed their customers who are not running Windows XP. The majority of businesses they shocked seem to be still running Windows 2000, not Windows XP. $99.00/machine doesn’t seem like much for a home user but imagine if you’re responsible for maintaining an enterprise with several hundred machines. Oh for those that say well the non-Windows XP user can simply use an alternate browser such as Firefox remember that the “Windows Update” utility requires IE be up to date to install patches. Suddenly Microsoft’s TCO seems not as low as Gates and Ballmer would like consumers to believe
>>As DEs there are GNOME, GNUstep and perhaps future releases of Enlightenment.
Are you sure?
>>the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes.
No comments.
KDE _is_ the most advanced and powerfull free desktop for Linux and most Unix’s. What it is big surprise?
It is also the mostly widely used desktop on these platforms, as all studies and polls shows.
Why are you living in denial. GNOME is great and has lots of cool stuff. It doesnt need to be KDE, and it doesn’t need to beat KDE to do that. It can be really great on its own even if it has less features and is less developed.
>>GNOME is great and has lots of cool stuff. It doesnt need to be KDE, and it doesn’t need to beat KDE to do that. It can be really great on its own even if it has less features and is less developed.
Your comments are absolutely correct. But like I said before do not say it is the best. You want to try something. You put reasons here why KDE is superior and you will see 50+ comments telling you bad stuff about it. Same thing with Gnome. So, if somebody loves KDE that is good. If you like Gnome good too. If you used both even better. But if you trash one, you will get slap in the face.
>>Why are you living in denial.
Isnt denial a river in Egypt. 🙂
I first used KDE on SuSE Linux 5.2 in 1998 and thought it was quite nice, very similar to windows 95 i thought at the time.
Round about KDE 2 i developed a dislike for KDE, can’t remember why, i just didn’t like it. I used GNOME and/or XFCE4 with ROX-Filer for a LONG time afterwars, but recently bought SuSE 9.1 and really like KDE and found GNOME awkward and lacking something.
I have just installed Gentoo on my Athlon64 3200+, and both KDE 3.3 and GNOME 2.8 are extremely fast (both start up in seconds, and apps for both are too), though GNOME seems a bit “naked” and KDE “overdressed”.
I don’t like the default KDE theme, so I set the style to be Plastik and use the Korilla icon set borrowed from GNOME’s Gorilla Icons. It looks beautiful nearly! 😉
I urge everyone to try this combination look, it’s very pleasant on the eye and doesn’t distract from your work at all.
Oh, perhaps XFCE should be included in the list of desktos.
Are there “better” desktops than that in the list?
> if someone comes saying that KDE is the best
I don’t see that written in the announcement. And even if there would be nothing bad about, that’s marketing. So let KDE be “most advanced and powerful” and GNOME the “most accessible” desktop which “just works”. That has nothing to do with trashing the alternatives.
>>And even if there would be nothing bad about, that’s marketing
Hmmm, the other day I said the same thing about the get the facts campaign of Microsoft, and you said that it was wrong because it was a lie.
So, I dont understand now.
Of course you can marketing what you like. That is nothing wrong about it. But like I said, do not expect that somebody wont tell you the contrary.
On another note… New users of SuSE may not know that SuSE posts such updates – compiled and ready for install – and quick – sometimes before the announcement. SuSE’s web site has changed, the update page was hard to find but is here
http://www.suse.com/en/private/download/linuks/index.html
I just installed the bunch, they work (as usual) but I don’t see or feel any changes this time. I haven’t looked at the change log.
Do like the speed increases in KDE recently – file management via Konqueror with preloading is impressive – very fast/snappy.
AFAIK, XFCE is not a desktop environment. It’s a window manager. Correct me, if I’m wrong.
I use it in all my machines at work – Pentium 2’s with 128 or 256mb ram- and it is perfectly usable.
Konqueror gets most of the credit, as it is way faster and uses less memory and cpu cycles than firefox. I know that this is because firefox needs more complex code in order to handle all architectures, while konqueror’s use of QT addresses that.
Also, kde can be extremely tweaked. I disable all of the eye candy but anti aliasing and it still looks nice while being fast.
Gnome tries to be a little simpler, but i think they shouldn’t. XFCE has come around and much people are switching to it in order to have a fast gnome-like desktop.
Gnome does have some nice features, like HAL integration with kernel 2.6, which allows for nice things like automatic cd and usb key mounting. Also, it comes with a very nice network configuration tool that works on some distros. I would love for kde to have that.
“I know that this is because firefox needs more complex code in order to handle all architectures, while konqueror’s use of QT addresses that.”
You’re kidding right? Have you ever done some benchmarks or otherwise have any scientifical proof?
Every time I mouse over a link on Konqueror, it takes about 0.25 seconds before the underline is drawn. This makes it feel sluggy. The CPU usage also temporarily rises to 100% when that happens.
“You’re kidding right? Have you ever done some benchmarks or otherwise have any scientifical proof?”
Or perhaps he’s used KDE a lot more than you.. I’ve never seen the symptopms you discribe. Never. And I have used kde (on and of admittedly) since the 1.x something days. Why do always people with broken installs automatically assume that if it doesn’t work for them, it doesn’t work for anyone else..? Do you think you or you packager is in infallible?