Hi,
I know internet is full of such debate. But I’m trying to get an idea only from the openSUSE users. What they like to use GNOME or KDE4. What works better on GNOME compare to KDE4. I’m asking all these because I’m going to install openSUSE on my office desktop and I know SLED has GNOME default.
Use the forum’s search function to find out. There are numerous threads and polls on the subject:
Which Linux Desktop Do you Like? - openSUSE Forums
Kde or Gnome? - openSUSE Forums
What Desktop Environment do You Use? - openSUSE Forums
GNOME or KDE or Other? - openSUSE Forums
BTW, I suggest you install both desktop environments on your computer. Then you can evaluate for yourself.
Once installed, is there any way to remove KDE or GNOME?
Hi
Install both and create two users and try it out?
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.45-0.1-default
up 1 day 5:34, 3 users, load average: 0.57, 0.49, 0.42
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 195.36.15
In Yast use the filter & go to Patterns; select the KDE or GNOME patterns & uncheck them
in the right window delete the rpms if they remain
If you keep GNOME loaded, but use KDE, programs intended for GNOME are more likely to work properly under KDE without much trouble. I assume the same is true under GNOME to use KDE apps, which are more likely to work if KDE is loaded. For instance Banshee is intended for GNOME, though it can be loaded separately into KDE, but getting it to work properly in KDE is very likely if you also loaded GNOME. GNOME does not waste all that much space unless you are about to run out of disk space. Consider having an extra desktop to run should you update KDE to death, which can happen with either desktop. Keep them both and have more options in using openSUSE.
Thank You,
malcolmlewis wrote:
> Hi
> Install both and create two users and try it out?
That is the best advice.
What works and what not is so individual that no one can answer for someone
else.
–
Regards Rajko,
anantg wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I know internet is full of such debate. But I’m trying to get an idea
> only from the openSUSE users. What they like to use GNOME or KDE4. What
> works better on GNOME compare to KDE4. I’m asking all these because I’m
> going to install openSUSE on my office desktop and I know SLED has GNOME
> default.
No one except you knows what is your use case, so no one can give answer,
but you and thanks to openSUSE it is very easy. Install any, or both. In any
case you will have access to any application you want to try.
The question of support is only about chances to find right person. Because
more openSUSE users use KDE, chances are bigger for KDE then for GNOME, but
it is only chance. You can use GNOME, be lucky, get answer from expert, and
be better off then someone using KDE, just because KDE guy is not there at
the moment.
–
Regards Rajko,
I have both installed, (under one user account) although I am really a KDE die hard. And they both work together very nicely.
I would not recommend the attempted removal of one at a later date though!
Gnome in 11.2 is absolutely brilliant. And 11.3 is looking the same.
KDE4 in 11.2 still has some rough edges if I’m honest, but there is still much about it that I prefer over Gnome (The file manager Dolphin and photo manager Digikam to name a couple).
Rajko M. wrote:
> No one except you knows what is your use case, so no one can give answer,
> but you and thanks to openSUSE it is very easy. Install any, or both. In
> any case you will have access to any application you want to try.
It seems another case of unclear sentence. Let me try again 
No one, except you, knows what is your use case, so no one, but you, can
give the answer.
With openSUSE is very easy to use one desktop and any Linux application, not
only those designed for particular desktop. When you want to install any
application package management will install all needed libraries and
application will just work. The caveat is that it will load more libraries
in the memory if you use mix, but with current computers that should be no
problem.
–
Regards Rajko,
Like Caf4926 I have both installed (+XFCE + LXDE, on some machines even more). I strongly suggest not to uninstall a desktop; it’s very likely half of it will be reinstalled as a dependency for some program you want to install and try.
There’s a big advantage I’d like to point to in having a second desktop environment installed: if one environment “breaks”, you’d still have the other to run the GUI apps to repair the first one :).
For the rest: you have the choice. Follow Malcolm’s advice, install both, run as the same or as a different user (my systems don’t care what desktop I use, all runs like it should). If you like both, use both. In the end it’s a matter of personal taste. That’s why the debates you refer to IMHO are 99% useless. Liking something is not of any scientific value.
caf4926,
I’m a big time fan of KDE, I’m using Suse since 10.3 and many times tried to switch to ubuntu/fedora but after couple of day I reinstalled opensuse. I think KDE3 was ultimate and in KDE4 look is GREAT but sometime you get exceptions, for an example when I connect to SSH using Konsole and working for few mins (randomly) all of the sudden I get logged-out and some apps suddenly crash sometime. Well despite all I like KDE because its more configurable than GNOME but there have been instances where GNOME performed better. As you guys mentioned, install both the DE and test it, well I already did and it made me more confused and that is why I put this question in this forum, I know KDE is having very frequent releases and I dont know how solid will it be in 11.3 and that is why I need your opinion.
I’m confident that in 11.3 kde will be very solid. Ultimately though everything in kde comes down to the upstream development and not so much down to openSUSE’s packaging of it. Many of us are using kde4.4.3 now from Factory repos and it’s pretty much perfect except for ssh speed and usb flash drive transfer speeds, IMO.
I can trial both on the same machine with kde and gnome, same user, and the speed of gnome has to be 3 times quicker in file transfers.
What about the overall speed? I mean if you have some documents, Excel sheet and mail client opened and also any dev tool (eclipse/netbeans) or any vmware/virtualbox open. Just want to know because these are the things that I use very frequently.
anantg wrote:
> I know KDE is having
> very frequent releases and I dont know how solid will it be in 11.3 and
> that is why I need your opinion.
It will be current 4.4.x that already serves my use case without problems;
that is, communication applications work fine.
Integration of few GTK applications that I use is OK, specially that I don’t
nitpick what service window I see. (I guess that Save, Load etc, pop up
windows are called service windows.)
I guess that complains on difference between GTK (GNOME) and KDE comes from
people not willing to learn new stuff, which is (btw) natural state of
energy preservation.
–
Regards Rajko,
Overall performance is excellent, even with a VM running I can multi-task no problem and even run ssh -X as well, gimp and office too all at the same time. 3GB RAM in this instance.
Gnome or KDE? Apart from personal preferences, it may/will depend on your hardware. For example on a single processor (say <2GHz), integrated graphics chip (shared RAM), with 1-2 GB RAM, for an 11.2 default install, Gnome will perform better than KDE4. So would KDE3, but don’t let’s go there. Better here means a much snappier response and feel, and the apps seem quicker to load. Of course you could spend the hours to minimize a KDE4 install, to improve performance and to have the arguably better KDE4 multimedia apps. Why bother, once one gets used to the somewhat different gtk apps they are now good enough (IMO).
Now I think I will be running them both on different but appropriate machine specs, each with a different mix of suitable applications. Then if Gnome3 outgrows its hardware, there is LXDE for example. Yeah, use openSUSE it can protect your hardware investment. 
Do you have any url where I can get tips to optimize KDE4 and also one thing that annoy me is closing session randomly. As I said, I dont know the exact reason but sometime it runs fine whole day but another day it restarts the session multiple times and this happens most of the time when I’m on vpn. Any idea?