[sf-lug] Fwd: KDE, Gnome3 and Unity (yes, all Ubuntu)

Tue Oct 18 19:50:01 PDT 2011

Yes, KDE is heavyweight, and perpetually released in a still-unready
state. Personally if I were to install KDE on Ubuntu, I would use a
fork of KDE 3 such as Trinity:

http://www.trinitydesktop.org/

I am going to rant about the state of the major Linux desktop
environments so please tune out if you're easily offended. I was a
happy KDE 3 user for years until the fateful KDE 4 release, which was
pretty much an abortion (apologies to ob/gyn's for comparing what you
do to KDE). I gradually warmed to GNOME 2 and figured out how to
customize it to my liking. Then GNOME 3 came along (nuf said) and this
summer I decided to give KDE (now at 4.7) another chance. Sadly after
3+ years to smooth out the rough edges, it still sucked ugly turkey
eggs.

What is going on in the Free Desktop Environment world? Everybody
wants to be the new "visionary", the Steve Jobs of Free Software, by
creating something so slick and eye-catching that it finally converts
the masses onto Linux. Only problem is when it's at the expense of
creating robust efficient software that actually works for its users.
There are two paradigms for desktop design which are just about
mutually exclusive:

A) Attract new users to your desktop Foobar, and expect them to use
their computer The Foobar Way. Rejoice when users accept your way of
doing things and hail you as a design genius.

B) Appeal to users who already know how to use a computer, and provide
a lightweight set of pieces (panels, menus, etc) which the user can
set up according to his/her own particular preferences.

Now you might think, "Alternative desktops which appeal to hackers are
fine, but I don't want to be left out of the mainstream of desktop
developments and end up not being able to use kewl new features". The
good news is, you don't need to use one of the Big Two, because all
the window managers are tied to STANDARDS (X11, Portland/xdg-utils and
the other freedesktop.org stuff). This means you can use Joe's Funky
(But Conformant) Window Manager, and mix in components from other
desktops (like Avant Window Navigator for a dock bar). I think this is
the key: if you use Awesome, you don't have to only use components
written for Awesome -- you can use mix 'n' match components from ANY
X11 window manager. You don't need full KDE to use Nepomuk any more
than you need a GNOME desktop to run Gimp.

So the bottom line is: Unity, GNOME, and KDE are not the pinnacle of
the Linux desktop experience; they're a point of entry for new users,
and an adequate default for people who don't want to spend their lives
customizing their desktop. If you are really looking for thrills from
your window manager, don't be afraid to immerse yourself in XMonad,
XFCE, LXDE, Fluxbox, or whatever else appeals to your sense of fun.

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 3:51 PM, Ehud Kaldor <ehud.kaldor at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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> forwarding to SF-LUG, as no response on SV-LUG.
> Thank you, Ehud
>
>
> - -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:     KDE, Gnome3 and Unity (yes, all Ubuntu)
> Date:     Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:23:57 -0700
> From:     Ehud Kaldor <ehud.kaldor at gmail.com>
> To:     SVLUG <svlug at lists.svlug.org>
>
>
>
> Hi all,
> [[to avoid long description, please jump to problem description below]]
>
> as I am not a religious person, after spending some time with Ubuntu's
> (11.04) Unity, I decided to give Gnome3 a chance. the process is not so
> straightforward, and removes Unity on the way, but is possible and
> documented, and not too complicated (well, after all, we are running
> Linux...).
>
> in Gnome3, aside from personal taste issues, i found a strange effect - it
> seemed like the UI stalls on the synaptics touchpad of my laptop, which
> Unity (and KDE - read on) did not do. put differently - i would need to
> 'jiggle' the touchpad for a good second or two before the cursor actually
> started moving. pretty annoying.
>
> a few days ago i decided to give KDE a chance. again, the transition is not
> as slick as i would like it to be, and i had to
> install/remove/install/remove/install a few times until i got desktop
> effects, window decorations and so.
>
> [[problem description]]
> but despite very much enjoying the graphic level and slick design, the
> problem is that KDE will freeze on me, to the point i need to hard-reset
> (holding the power button long), more often than i would assume a stable
> desktop would. indeed, i run a pretty heavy environment (VirtualBox running
> Windows7, Firefox with more than 10 tabs opened, Thunderbird and some more)
> but both Unity and Gnome3 did not give me such issues as freezing completely
> and forever (see Alan Turing and 'halting problem'). so much that i reverted
> back to Unity.
>
> did anyone experience this in similar conditions? is this some configuration
> thing i missed, or is KDE __that__ heavy by itself, that it leave
> significantly less resources for userland programs?
> - --
> Thank you, Ehud
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