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KDE versus Gnome

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As mentioned before, I use PCLinuxOS (PCLOS for short) as my home Linux distribution. There are two very broad desktop environments for Linux: KDE and Gnome. KDE is more Windows-like in look, and is very configurable. Gnome is a little more Mac-like, focusing on sane defaults.

I prefer Gnome.

However, a recent upgrade to PCLOS has Gnome turning on my HP computer's internal fan, somewhat unpredictably. But when it comes on, it doesn't go off. That's a bug of some kind, and I have no idea how to fix it. It's annoying.

But PCLOS isn't really a Gnome distro. It was designed for, and uses by preference, the KDE environment. This uncommon noise (Linux is usually very quiet) so irritated me I was considering installing Ubuntu, or Fedora, or Mint, over PCLOS. But for today, I just spent a little time customizing KDE, and it looks pretty good. I'd post a picture of it here, but KDE bristles with so many options, I can't lay my hands on the screenshot utility (it has one, though).

The truth is, I use an ever smaller number of applications all the time:

  • Thunderbird for email
  • Firefox for browsing
  • Pidgin or Kopete for IM
  • Jpilot for my Palm synching and Personal Information Management
  • Gedit for text editing
  • Openoffice for full fledged office work
  • Notecase Pro for textbases, journals, etc.
  • Freemind and Vym for Mindmapping


and a few other utilities for keeping my system current (Synaptic) and managing my website (Nvu, gftp).

So ultimately, the desktop environment doesn't make that much difference. Eventually, the bug will get ironed out. And this way, I can keep my mind limber.

Comments

halcyonCorsair said…
Hi,

For reference, KDE's screenshot application is called ksnapshot.

Cheers,

Elliot
July 25, 2008 at 5:09 AM
halcyonCorsair said…
Oh, you might also find basket note pads (http://basket.kde.org/) to be interesting.krclr
July 25, 2008 at 5:11 AM
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