I am very new to Linux. I have only used it on my university’s computers for my Computer Science classes. Recently I purchased a barebones computer and I am planning on using openSUSE as an operating system. It will be primarily used for hosting a minecraft server, as a storage medium, printing, and running academic software such as R, SAS, LateX and Asymptote.
I have read an outline of the GUI’s KDE and GNOME and the supposed benefits of each.
I would like to know if KDE’s supposed advantage in customization is a purely interface based one(ie. you can change most things directly using graphical methods), or in the actual ability to access the customizable features entirely.
Further, I would like to know what some users prefer and why. This will be useful to me in deciding which GUI to use.
They both have their fans and detractors. If you ask for reasons, it all boils down to the style of GUI that people prefer. The best thing is for yourself to try them both out and openSUSE is one of the easiest distros to do this. You can have both environments installed and you can switch between them on a session by session basis.
You have the opportunity to try a different liveCD for each one. You can then choose the one that appeals to you the most, or even the one that better supports your machine especially if it’s a laptop/notebook. You can then install to the HD, using the chosen liveCD.
On 12/07/2010 01:06 PM, r b tessier wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I am very new to Linux. I have only used it on my university’s
> computers for my Computer Science classes. Recently I purchased a
> barebones computer and I am planning on using openSUSE as an operating
> system. It will be primarily used for hosting a minecraft server, as a
> storage medium, printing, and running academic software such as R, SAS,
> LateX and Asymptote.
>
> I have read an outline of the GUI’s KDE and GNOME and the supposed
> benefits of each.
>
> I would like to know if KDE’s supposed advantage in customization is a
> purely interface based one(ie. you can change most things directly using
> graphical methods), or in the actual ability to access the customizable
> features entirely.
Generally, customization is done through the GUI. I’m not sure what you
mean by “actual ability to access the customizable features entirely”.
If you mean via the command line, yes, you can tweak things there too,
in the conf files. Don’t think I ever have though.
> Further, I would like to know what some users prefer and why. This will
> be useful to me in deciding which GUI to use.
I use KDE. Mostly because it’s what I started out using, and am
comfortable with it. I’ve use gnome some (on Ubuntu), and it’s fine.
You can install both, and test them out. You can specify which
environment to use when you log in. Then use the one that you like best.
It’ll just take a bit more disk space, but given the size of drives
these days that’s a non-issue…
…Kevin
Kevin Miller
Juneau, Alaska http://www.alaska.net/~atftb
In a recent poll, seven out of ten hard drives preferred Linux.
On 12/07/2010 06:36 PM, yasar11732 wrote:
>
> after reading this thread, I installed a kde on my xfce openSUSE, how do
> I get to kde now?
>
>
At the bottom of the login screen is a menu called Session Type. Open it…
Have another try but don’t bother looking for it until the password box pops up. I think you’ve just been misled by the generalisation “at the login screen”.
My contribution to the main discussion:
I started off with KDE at openSUSE 10.1 and years of experience have persuaded me to install both KDE and Gnome on all of my linux computers (as in caf4926’s Lap #1 configuration). My reasons have very little to do with looks or style but are more to do with practicality. Gnome development seems slower and more conservative (and possibly boring) but its functionality is more reliable. One thing I hate about Gnome is the sloth-like delay between clicking on the “More Applications” button and the Application Browser window appearing.
In favour of Gnome is the way that you can browse bluetooth devices (impossible with Kbluetooth) and the way you can easily switch off a network interface with Network Manager (impossible within KDE). In favour of KDE are the brilliant applications digiKam and Krusader and being free of Gnome’s “More Applications”.
It is the bluetooth issue which tips the balance for me and I mostly (but not exclusively) have Gnome as my default desktop. As already stated by ken_yap in this discussion, you can run KDE applications from within Gnome and vice versa.
Greg, your testimony compelled me to investigate why we seem to be in disagreement.
My own experience fits this quote from Bugzilla report 619934 which is about Knetwork Manager under openSUSE 11.3
knetworkmanager lacks a control to disable or enable networking completely.
Thus if networking happens to get disabled somehow (happened to me in a failed
attempt to suspend/resume my laptop, might come to pass otherwise easily),
there is no way to re-enable networking under KDE. Under GNOME it’s as easy as
clicking on “enable networking” in nm-applet.
However I am not saying that my testimony proves that your testimony is invalid. The situation appears more complex than that. When I search Bugzilla with “network manager” or “knetwork manager” as search string I get back a list of 108 bugs and greater than 200 bugs respectively. On inspection it is quite clear that there are a lot of different configurations with a lot of different issues so I suggest that since we have different hardware we could well have different experiences and see things differently. Draw your own conclusions about the number of bugs reported for Knetwork manager.
To everybody: I admit that in hindsight my unqualified assertion that “you can easily switch off a network interface with Network Manager (impossible within KDE)” may not apply universally and therefore it was unjustifiable. I therefore unreservedly apologise for propagating this misinformation.
This is a final humble apology and post. It has finally dawned on me that you were probably talking about configuring network interfaces within Network Manager configuration. In that context I cannot argue with what you have said. I was entirely focused on the direct control available via the Network manager icon on the taskbar and that is inexcusable!
