For three years, I’ve been a happy Gnome user. I’m still a happy Gnome user, but I’ve heard some buzz about KDE 4 lately and figured I’d give it a try.
When I made the jump to the Linux world by installing Mandriva 2006 a few years ago, KDE 3 was the desktop environment in which I took my first steps. After moving to Fedora a few months later, however, I began using Gnome, mostly because it was the default environment and at that time I didn’t know how to install anything else.
Since switching to Ubuntu beginning with the 7.04 release, I’ve stuck with Gnome and haven’t looked back–until yesterday, when I installed KDE 4 on my Ubuntu 8.10 system using the kubuntu-desktop package.
Now that I’ve spent a day using KDE, I thought I’d make a list of what I like and dislike so far.
The Good
Maybe it’s only because of its novelty, but KDE 4 looks nice to me–and it’s definitely better than KDE 3, which seemed aesthetically dated even in 2006. I wouldn’t call it gorgeous, but it’s not bad. The splash screen, with its fade-in effects, is especially impressive.
I am also impressed by the search feature in the main menu. In order to find an application, I can type its name or a description and it will automatically appear:
This is a pretty cool feature, and one that Gnome would do well to emulate.
Another nice move on the part of KDE developers was the creation of system-configuration utilities that don’t exist in Gnome, at least by default. For instance, KDE comes with a graphical editor for the grub menu, something lacking in regular Ubuntu for quite a while. Stuff like this is simple, but can be a real help to users who are afraid of hand-editing configuration files.
Finally, although it sort of reminds me of Microsoft’s efforts to make Windows revolve around Internet Explorer, I think I like how KDE’s web browser, Konqueror, can be used not only to browse Web pages, but to launch applications and manage files as well. It’s nice to have everything in one place.
The Bad
I’ve spent the day using KMail, KDE’s default mail client, and have been less than impressed. My chief grievances include:
- it only works with Gmail if I set it to remember my password, which I would prefer not to do
- no support for HTML messages (at least, I haven’t yet discovered how to enable it)
- no calendar integration
Maybe I’ll learn to like KMail more if I use it a bit longer, but right now, I’m struggling to keep myself from going back to Evolution.
While Konqueror’s ability to manage files and launch applications is nice, it’s only barely cutting it as a web browser. Sites that use a lot of JavaScript are very slow, and the WordPress composer is badly broken. These might be problems that I could fix with a little work, but for the time being, I’m using Firefox for browsing the Internet.
KDE 4 also seems to have bastardized the concept of a desktop as it has existed in every major GUI-equipped operating system since the 1980s. Desktop icons can be placed only on part of the screen, in a sort of folder through which I have to scroll in order to see all the contents . Although this might be a nice way of encouraging users to keep their desktops clean, it’s a pretty silly idea. What were the developers really hoping to achieve by taking away the desktop?
Conclusions
At this point, I’ve yet to reach a verdict on whether or not I like KDE 4. It has some nice features, but I’m having a hard time getting over KMail’s lackluster performance and the absence of a normal desktop. I’ve made a commitment to continue using KDE until the end of the week, however, at which time I’ll write an update containing a more thorough outline of my experience.
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I’m testing KDE 4.2 on Jaunty but I really don’t like it. I try to like it but, I don’t know if it’s me but I really don’t like KDE 4.
It might look beautiful when compositing is on (especially Glassified Plasma Theme) but when it comes to performance, I just don’t like it.
It has a ton of great features but the “folder view” thing is awful. The first thing I did was to remove it. Another thing I don’t like, is that KDE doesn’t play nice with Compiz or any Gnome app, you got to download and tweak in order to view FF or any other GTK app decent.
I’m trying to give KDE a shot for a few minutes every day for testing purposes ( I hope I end up liking it, but I’m not leaving Gnome for KDE 4.2)
I’m a Kubuntu user since last February. I’ve been using Gnome for a year and its nice especially Ubuntu.
A few itch made me cross to KDE because of the beauty of KDE 4.2 and I really found a new home with Kubuntu.
I tried to go back to gnome but it feels there is something missing now with my laptop and its KDE.
@Mel, I never use compiz in KDE. Use Kwin and its much nicer. I also use QT based programs now on Kubuntu. I’m still waiting for FF to get ported on QT. I believe Konqueror is a great Web Browser that doubles as a File Manager. You can always use Opera which is written in QT.
You can disable the new Desktop and set it to a “normal” one with just a few clicks.
Personnally I prefer Gnome because KDE somehow runs crappy on my system (Core2Duo, 4gb ram, Ubuntu64) and somehow it feels more smooth to me.
But nice to see some new ideas. And one that I really like is that splitted folder view in dolphin. This has been in OSX for ages and I really want it to be in nautilus!
you can have html messages, just enable them in the options (something like prefer html messages, i’m at college on a windows pc at the moment)
oh and you can set it to a traditional desktop, but if you think about it, have the desktop containment is a much better idea because you can have multiple ones and so show multiple folders
But there is still the option of it if you old people won’t try new things 
About KMail. It has support for HTML messages, there arent showed by default because of security reasons, but on top of HTML mail you have box with button to show HTML.
There is also calendar integration: check Kontact.
But you are right, Kmail is worst part of KDE desktop, it is extremly buggy and often causes data losses. There are alternatives to KMail on KDE4.x but there arent integrated with Kontact.
We must wait for Kmail to planned complete rewrite, when we will have something which can compete with Gnome Evolution.
KDE’s search in the menu is nothing compared to what Gnome-Do can do. Also, there is a nice graphical grub editor in the repositories (though it may be in multiverse, not sure). I hate what they did to Amarok.
– no pun intended
I have never really even considered KDE before, but after testing out Ubuntu 9.10 and KDE 4.2, I have to say its pretty good. I haven’t gotten deep into it, but appearance wise its much nicer looking than GNOME in my opinion, but I still find GNOME to be much more functional, and to me that’s the most important part.
After seeing stagnation in GNOME, I decided to try KDE 4.2. Like Mel said, I tried to like it but I couldn’t. It is clunky, cluttered, and confusing. It reminds me of Vista: it looks pretty, but once you start using it, it gets in the way of your workflow. It’s a shame because I really wanted to like it.
Didn’t really live with it either. Gnome DO does the job for quickly launching apps, and Gnome already does everything I need really – it’s just welcome improvements for me here.
If you are using KDE 4.2, there are solutions for almost all of your problems:
1. Don’t have an answer for that as I don’t like programs to remember my passwords.
2. There is HTML support in Kmail, look for it in settings.
3. If you want a calendar use the suite Kontact, everything is integrated in there.
4. Konqueror is still quite clunky, let’s wait to see what happens when Webkit substitutes KHTML. Or let’s see Firefox with Qt, because FF doesn’t really work very well in KDE (I’d say in Linux at all).
5. Desktop icons can be used normally as always, just look in desktop settings. I don’t like the folder view concept either.
I was a GNOME user from ubuntu warty until 7.04, in 7.10 I changed to KDE and I’m glad I did, never looked back again to GNOME. And with KDE 4 things are just getting better and better.
>KDE 4 also seems to have bastardized the concept of a >desktop as it has existed in every major GUI-equipped >operating system since the 1980s.
I think any concept that has been on the desktop since the 80s needs to go. The fear of change is a powerful thing. Touchscreen, voice activation like Asus wants to do and other input methods might not work but we cant always cry ‘Wah, its different.”
>Desktop icons can be placed only on part of the >screen, in a sort of folder through which I have to >scroll in order to see all the contents .
No idea what you are talking about. I have a desktop folder where I keep all the files I DL AND I have icons. You know what you do with the Folder View in the settings? Dont use it. Its a choice.
Kmail? Have used Thunderbird since Windows days and I see no reason to change (especially since webmail is what we use most). I never even tried it.
Just like VLC. Who cares what the ‘native’ video app is, nothing is as effective and as simple as VLC.
Konqueror IS NOT the default file manager of KDE anymore.
For v4.x it is now Dolphin which is much better in some respects but still a file manager, so how much can you really change it?
I have Kubuntu8.10 on the Dell Mini 9 with full effects on and its awesome, as well as Mandriva2009 on the desktop and both use 4.2 and I cant say that the Mini is any slower.
I tested PCLinuxOS2009 this week because the 2007 version was the first Linux distro I installed for someone else and the one I still think is the best distro for newbies and since it still uses KDE3.5.1 I got a chance to remember how much more settings options there needs to be added for KDE4 to regain its renowned customization and while I cant wait for 4.3 this June, I also know that I cant go back to 3.5. (which is still a great DE that was updated twice last year)
I can live with not being able to resize the taskbar clock to the exact jumbo size I want or have different wallpapers for the 4 desktops, theyre not dealbreakers but KDE4 is here to stay.
Also, my girlfriend said that if I put that old OS that the Dell Mini came with she is walking out the door and buying a Mac.
Who knew she would be so passionate about free software?
Best of all in KDE? No Mono (for now at least).
There are so many different languages to use that do the same, why in god’s name would you want to make Mono an integral part of programs like Evolution and others? You want to scratch your Silverlight itch fine? But making it so much a part of the DE makes no sense considering the risk. Again, if you told me that there was no choice, Id still say its a risky proposition, but since there is plenty, I fail to see the attraction.
Ohh, and you are so right…. what the heck is it with Bubuntu and the ugly Grub menu?
My friends see the dual boot menu on the Kubuntu laptop we have with the terminal style black and white look and their first impression is….’Wow! This looks like crap.”
Seriously, this is not hard. Some distros have absolutely gorgeous menus (and many allow you to make your own) and the first impression people have is very important.
Finally, the difference between distros is ridiculously small and I much prefer trying out DE’s like XCFE and E17 than trying to play spot the difference. Im running Mandriva and Kubuntu side by side and I think the only person who could notice would be that chick from the Princess and The Pea.
And workflow is like a DE, its not a question of good or bad, its a question of taste and choice.
I use about 5-6 different desktops during a work week and I still think that OS10 workflow sucks while some others like it. (Of course those are the same people that tried to convince me that dragging a cd to the trash to eject it was very intuitive and that Mac 8,9 and 10 were great OS. 10 is a usable OS, but Mac 8 and 9 were absolute dogs).
Those that talk about Gnome DO, ever tried Alt+F2 on a KDE 4 desktop ? It makes me smile when I see people trying to show that the GNOME desktop brings innovation…
Gnome is a nice desktop, really. But it seems that it won’t move any further. I was using GNOME around 2001 and came back to it recently to see what’s going on, and the answer was : nothing. Package managers get lighter and smarter (especially the research thing), the compiz thing is growing up very quickly, but gnome almost didn’t change. What did the latest release bring ? Tabbed browsing… No comment.
In contrast, I’ve seen KDE 2, 3, and 4 in this 2001-2009 period. The latest, especially, is really impressive, even though it still has heavy stability and usability issues and should’nt be pushed forward in distros as it is today. KDE 3.5 is a wonderful product in terms of GUI power, its major drawback is performance, and the KDE 4 series really improves that. I’m looking forward to see the latest KDE 4 releases, once they have matured, whereas I just don’t care anymore about the countless and useless new GNOME releases…
The choice between GNOME and KDE is a matter of taste, but one just can’t say that GNOME brings innovation.