[ale] Dominating the Linux Desktop

[aaron]

On Friday 01 August 2003 20:42, Jonathan Rickman wrote:
> I recently made the switch to KDE. I have always toyed with all the desktop 
> environments, but had always preferred the lightweight stuff like blackbox.  
> When running a full desktop environment in the past, I had always steered 
> towards Gnome for some reason. I had always avoided KDE because of 
> performance issues, but KDE 3.x is so much faster than previous versions 
> that this is no longer an issue. Honestly, I get the impression that KDE is 
> the future of desktop linux. Thoughts?

I'll be re-examining KDE and its latest updates with a pending Mandrake 9.1 
install (maybe as soon as this weekend), but my previous comparisons to 
several Gnome based environments found KDE lacking in many of the operational 
and "look and feel" control features I expect from an intelligent computer 
interface.

I'm currently settled on the Gnome / Sawfish environment. Of the Linux WM 
choices I've explored (which is most of them now), this combo best delivers 
the options, control, functionality and style that I'm accustomed to. Gnome / 
Enlightenment would be my next choice, with Gnome / Anything following those.  
Gnome offers several strong window manager choices, and choice is why I'm on 
Linux in the first place. 

It may just be that I've been spoiled by the speed, functionality, 
extensibility and intuitive operation I found using Amiga's Intuition GUI 
tools for over a decade and a half. For reference you can look at Gnome / 
Enlightenment, since it was created by an Amiga developer and much of its 
design follows the spirit of that environment. One example of a handy Amiga 
Intuition GUI feature that I find missing with all the Linux WM choices is 
the ability to perform all mouse actions via keyboard; an extremely useful 
function for precise positioning working with graphics, DTP, etc. The Gnome / 
Sawfish combo comes close and, like Intuition, lets me move the mouse cursor 
via keyboard hot keys, but unfortunately it still lacks keyboard equivalents 
for the mouse buttons.

<grin>
Besides all that, any WM with default style settings that make it look and 
behave like yet another lame clone of the clumsy, cliche, cluttered and 
constrictive Micro$haft interfaces is of no interest to a creative and 
flexible computer user.
</grin> 

peace
aaron
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