[ale] Slackware to drop Gnome?

[Michael D. Hirsch]

On Mon, 2004-10-11 at 11:11, Geoffrey wrote:
> Michael D. Hirsch wrote:
> 
> > I don't tend to like GTK widgets.  I find them to be ugly.  GNOME has
> > started pulling out customization options, so I can't make things work
> > the way I want.  KDE has a much better customization engine, and all
> > kinds of things are in it.  For instance, I can set up my desktop to
> > have a menu at the top like in MacOS with KDE and all my KDE apps change
> > on the fly,  Now that is some cool technology.
> 
> I'm not sure what the menu on MacOS looks like, but you can place a menu 
> bar at the top of your window with gnome.  Actually, I have 4 menubars, 
> standard one at the bottom, one on each side another on the top.

That isn't the menu I mean.  That is what KDE calls a panel.  It holds
the main menu (footprint in GNOME, K in KDE), the vitual desktop pager,
icons, window list, etc).  KDE lets me put panels on any edge just like
GNOME.  

The menu I mean is the application menu.  Every KDE app has "File, Edit,
.... Help" menues.  In the unix and windows world these are
traditionally at the top of the main application window (just under the
title bar).  In MacOS it is always at the top of the screen.  When you
change active applications, the menu bar at the top of the screen
changes accordingly.

I used to hate this until I read some time and motion studies explaining
why this is way more efficient.  (Google for "Fitt's law" to read why.) 
Now I have my KDE setup to do this, too.  It doesn't work for non-KDE
apps like OOo, but mostly I use KDE apps and it is very nice.

> 
> > 
> > GNOME doesn't have a real office suite and KDE does.  Abiword/gnumeric
> > do not work well together.  OOo is not a GNOME app.  Koffice is a
> > completely integrated set of applications with a much better UI than
> > OOo.  If only it didn't crash so much...:-(
> 
> I'll take stability over better UI... :)

Yeah, me too.  But koffice matures I expect to use it for more and
more.  At the ALE Central meetings I've been using KPresenter to provide
the agenda for a couple years, now, without trouble.
> 
> > GNOME doesn't really have a browser, either, and KDE does.  Mozilla
> > isn't GNOME and the GNOME one isn't complete.  Konqueror is fast and
> > lightweight, and lets me browse filesystems, http, ftp, sftp, smb, etc
> > all in one place.  It does a nice job handling all kinds of plugins and
> > embedded viewers.
> 
> Who cares if it comes with a browser?  What does that really matter. 
> What does Konqueror give you in kde that you don't get with, say 
> mozilla?  Other than desktop icons?

Integration with my other apps.  Drag 'n' drop works a lot better. 
Dialog boxes with the same way in konq as they do in any other app. 
I've reached the point where I'm really annoyed at the pathetic file
browser I need to use in mozilla, say when I want to find a file to
upload, or god forbid in OOo--that one is really weak.  With konq I can
go seamlessly from browsing my files to my HTML, to remote HTML without
changing the UI.

Also, I'm often on underpowered systems.  One of the major attractions
of both KDE and GNOME is that the applications all share libraries. 
This is supposed to lead to a smaller memory footprint.  So if I'm in
KDE I try to use KDE apps; if I'm in GNOME I try to use GNOME apps.  I
use a browser a lot, so I care if it comes with a browser.  With KDE the
only tool I need to use which has no adequate KDE implementation is the
GIMP, and that's only a couple times a month.  Oh yes, and EMACS.  I'm
still waiting for KEMACS.  :-)

> I'm not saying gnome is better, I use it because I can use pieces of it. 
>   I don't like the look of kde personally.

That's the best reason.  For all I know, GNOME has all the things KDE
has, but everytime I use it I find it so ugly that I switch back to
KDE.  If you don't like the look of a desktop, then you won't be happy
using it.  There are lots of interesting themes available now, so you
(and I) might be happier, now.  In fact, can't KDE and GNOME almost
share themes, nowadays?  I used to use a cool kung fu theme that
impressed everyon at work. 

Michael