diffrence between GNOME and KDE

[vandit]

I am new to linux( currently using suse ) can anyone explain me the diffrence between GNOME and KDE ??

[vignesh]

KDE-K desktop emviroment. is a bit heavy onresources.
Gnome is a bit light and its very userfriendly with no annoying warning messages like "are you sure" etc.But its left to u which you like...

[tuxfan]

www.kde.org
www.gnome.org

These sites will give detailed information about the pros of KDE and GNOME
KDE = K Desktop Environment
GNOME = GNU Network Object Model Environment.

As you can see, both are "environments" in a GNU/Linux installtion. They both defer on the looks of your Linux. Additionally, there are many more differences internally as well.

You can have a look here. There will be plenty more such articles if you search google
http://linuxreviews.org/software/desktops/

[vandit]

there seems to be a cold war between GNOME AND KDE....linux programmers shouldn't be fighting....

[ujjwal]

KDE and Gnome are software which can run on Linux/X Windows and many other OS's. KDE or Gnome developers need not be linux developers

But yes, many people feel that KDE and Gnome and other desktop environments should unite to create a single desktop environment. I differ, I feel that each of these have their own strengths and weaknesses, and working on seperate goals keep them focussed. Of course, these software are also helping each other, if not by direct code sharing, then by sharing of ideas. In the end the user gets a wide choice. But what is important is that users respect each other's choice and don't flame others for prefering something else

[tuxfan]

If there is a healthy competition, there is a motivation to innovate and increase features. I am glad that there are a few Desktop Environments existing who compete with each other

[//siddhartha//]

Well, yes but GNOME does not look attractive at all. Wher e as KDE can be modified by a large scale and suit any body's needs. GNOME on the other hand is a li'l light on system resources though not very light as compared to KDE.
And many LINUX distros (I mean on CDs and not Professional/DVD versions) give KDE as the desktop (like SuSE) and very few prefer GNOME (UBUNTU).
However Pro versions of mostly all LINUXes have both KDE and Gnome..

[gauravnawani]

Originally Posted by //siddhartha//

Well, yes but GNOME does not look attractive at all. Wher e as KDE can be modified by a large scale and suit any body's needs. GNOME on the other hand is a li'l light on system resources though not very light as compared to KDE.
And many LINUX distros (I mean on CDs and not Professional/DVD versions) give KDE as the desktop (like SuSE) and very few prefer GNOME (UBUNTU).
However Pro versions of mostly all LINUXes have both KDE and Gnome..

See its a matter of choice, whats good liking to you might not be to others, I feel completely differently with the looks and quality department of KDE. GNOME have the best UI, if you can observe KDE have confused way of dealing with button and other widget positioning, irregular at best. May be you are referring to the KDE control center which gives you more power to configure specially the features like transparency and animation in widgets. Fair enough.

GNOME can be as flashy as you want it to be less the animations and transparency , its just that mostly GNOME using guys don't bother with flashy icons, instead they are looking for a productive environment, with less obtrusive interface. But that doesn't means that it should not be there for those who like it.

The only reason most distros (or so called user-friendly) provide KDE because KDE have more GUI softwares working in coordination. That keeps the windows users pacified a bit who are trying to look at Linux. KDE have a very starking similarity with windows looks and behavior(widget styles and all). This is probably the largest contributing factor. For that matter those distro almost always look for people coming from windows.

But then it can also be due to habit rather than choice. KDE was started much earlier(about 1996-97) than GNOME, they are bound to be ahead. Even then GNOME was not a DE until the establishment of Gnome foundation just about in 2002 and the work on Gnome 2 with a completely new widget GTK2.

But thats just one side of the story, the incredible success of UBUNTU proves other wise the likeness of GNOME as a user-friendly DE. In fact UBUNTU is a complete GNOME experience. GNOME 2.10 is the best ever GNOME DE, earlier versions were understandingly quite a disappointment for most people including me, because there was just not enough compatibility between its apps and there were infact fewer apps for that matter.

For GNOME its just a beginning. The kind of development GNOME is getting will make it easily surpass KDE in just a short ammount of time, possibly within a year, in terms of a complete desktop experience, for now KDE is still ahead.

BTW SUSE also have GNOME. And it is now going to give it quite much more importance, it now have best of the GNOME developers with it acqusition of Ximian(the people who made Evolution). On an ending note GNOME have been used in the real world much more than at the desktop even when it was just a baby in 1999, just to quote the recent Madagascar(animated film) have used Fedora and Gnome DE. And this is just one of many.

[//siddhartha//]

Hey @gauravnawami, perhaps you are right.. But, we must not forget that mostly LINUX users migrate from WINDOWS to LINUX.. Or use both. So, it should be easy for them to understand the ways and methods of working in LINUX and for them KDE is the best choice. But after getting acquainted any LINUX desktop environment is good for them. My personal reason is the looks and also the long list of KDE supported applications as compared to that of GNOME. However, Gnome has its pros and cons as is with KDE..

So, its a matter of CHOICE...
But I have a question.. Do, Gnome appications not run in KDE and vice-versa?? If so, WHY??

[ujjwal]

They will run, as long as the gnome libraries have been installed. However, they will take a longer time to load up, than they would have in gnome, as the shared libraries used by them have not been loaded into memory.

[vandit]

yes I also recently read somewhere else that Gnome applications can be run on KDE if the liberaries are installed...now what are libraries?

[ujjwal]

Just install both Gnome and KDE, the libraries for both will be installed. If you are bothered about disk usage, just install the kdelibs or gnome-libs package from your distro's CD's.

[sba]

Originally Posted by gauravnawani

The kind of development GNOME is getting will make it easily surpass KDE in just a short ammount of time, possibly within a year

Would you be kind enough to please elaborate about those developements you are talking about. I am more of a KDE guy so would like to know

[gauravnawani]

Originally Posted by sba

Would you be kind enough to please elaborate about those developements you are talking about. I am more of a KDE guy so would like to know

KDE guy hmm..., sure why not!
1. First is Beagle the incredible search tool, it uses higher level of search facilities, likes searching inside documents, searching based on the contents. Searching inside file of various formats like pdf,
documents
emails
web history
IM/IRC conversations
source code
images
music files
applications

It ranks the results based on the accuracy and it even indexes the data on the fly. that means what you did just a while back will be already available in search. It also provides the results with visual clues like screen shots and all.

2. Evolution with higher level of integration with rest of the GNOME.

3. Cairo- The best thing is Cairo will be also used for printing, so it will be exactly what you see is what you get. No CUPS or other things to mess around with. This also make it the best in the world, not even OSX supports such feature.

Using vectors to draw widgets provides visibly crystal clear graphics and it obviously superior in comparison to bit-mapped graphics on widgets. This also provides an advantage for making dynamic themes (programed themes rather hand drawn themes) for a nicer Human Interface. Cairo Ho!

4. Ability to instantaneously change/apply mouse cursor themes (gtk2.8).

6. Luminosity, the fully 3d OpenGL based back-end to the Metacity. I know KDE will have plasma, but that will make GNOME not lag in this area if not ahead.

It will also have some of the visually incredible effects, not available any where like physics based window dragging, and the Window behaves like an elastic form (I am sure many of you already have seen the Luminosity videos). That all without reducing the speed or increasing significant requirements for the hardware.

7. F-Spot: Complete photo-management for GNOME. I know there are few exiting tools, but none of them aims for Personal photo-management like keeping tab of pics, printing them from within F-Spot and for tagging renaming, sorting and communicating with Digicams. etc etc.

8. Tomboy: The advance note management, it will also have integration with Evolution calender, complete desktop experience. These notes will also be search able in Beagle btw.

9.Evince Document viewer: It replace every bunch of softwares for all PDF, GS files, with features like auto thumbnails, etc I am aware KDE have some of these too.

10. Gstreamer architecture: Handling various audio, video media. Its can be fully realized only if the Distro supports it like the Mp3 which few Distro's just give a beat. The architecture in in fancy but it will be more important for the upcoming tools for Non-linear Video editing like DIVA.

11. GIMP and Inkscape needs no introduction.

12. Various projects on CD/DVD burning, for example the Gnome-baker. There are already plenty of burners for GNOME but none which is just ready yet for complete optical burning solution.

In addition to all the smaller tidbits, like communication tools for gadgets will be refined and added. If I have skipped some thing of importance then its could my fault.

It that interesting enough?

[vandit]

I have Suse linux ( the one that came with digit) running ,I think, KDE.....
how can I install Gnome?

[vignesh]

I have been using Gnome for more than 2 years.I simply love its simplicity

[Satissh S]

Yeh! and i feel that it consumes less amount of resources than KDE.
I read in a book that Gnome was developed in US and is widely used there. Whereas KDE has European roots.
But I also read that apps run faster when executed thro' level 3 ie the cmd line.
For Example: untarring takes less time when executed thro' cmd line. I donot know how far this is true.

[sba]

Originally Posted by gauravnawani

KDE guy hmm..., sure why not!

thanks

[praka123]

Originally Posted by vignesh

I have been using Gnome for more than 2 years.I simply love its simplicity

-same as above-
gnome is technically superior and better.kde mocks a lot from win.prsnle i hate it.even what will be the future of kde when QT makes it NON-GPL ?

[gauravnawani]

Originally Posted by prakash kerala

gnome is technically superior and better.kde mocks a lot from win.prsnle i hate it.even what will be the future of kde when QT makes it NON-GPL ?

They were already non-GPL in the begining, but for very harsh reaction from the OSS they finally opened up around when GNOME1 was launched.

I am sure they do not want to commit harakiri.

The similarity to windows also gives it usability advantage for the windows uses comming to linux, and dont want to tread much further in the cooler waters.

[cryptid]

Basically KDE is the pretty looking one and Gnome isnt but both work equally well on P3 933 Mhz box,, i personally like KDE,,, i used Suse 9.1(KDE) and now i am using Ubuntu(Gnome) i got the original cd for free and no shipping charges also cool na