KDE vs Gnome ?

[Slimy]

Hello everyone,
I like KDE but have been using long time Ubuntu because Kubuntu had horrible quality if compare with ubuntu. What's about mint? I suppose it's the same or KDE here have quality like in opensuse or may be better? That you suggest for first install? My hardware is laptop with i7 and 8gb ram.

[cwwgateway]

Hello everyone,
I like KDE but have been using long time Ubuntu because Kubuntu had horrible quality if compare with ubuntu. What's about mint? I suppose it's the same or KDE here have quality like in opensuse or may be better? That you suggest for first install? My hardware is laptop with i7 and 8gb ram.

Mint KDE hasn't been the focus of the Mint team traditionally, but Linux Mint 12 KDE was extremely good in my opinion. Also, Mint hired a dedicated KDE dev for all of 2012, so you can expect Mint 13 KDE to be pretty good. So here's a list of some very good KDE distros:

• Mint KDE (or at least Mint 12 KDE) - version 13 will come out most likely between the July and August time frame (but it could be earlier or later)
• Netrunner, which is a very good Kubuntu based KDE distro (very polished, and it has awesome integration with Gnome apps) - Version 4.2 (based on Kubuntu 12.04) should be out fairly soon, the second RC is already out
• openSUSE KDE is also very good, although I personally find that it doesn't have quite as good hardware support - the next version will be released around July 2012
• Chakra is a good distro, although it isn't as new-user friendly and the installer is still in alpha (meaning it can be very unstable) - this distro is rolling
• Mageia is a fairly new distro, but it is very good - version 2 is planned for the 22nd of May (2 days)
• Mandrake was the most popular linux distro back before Ubuntu, but it has fallen on hard times and it may lose funding

[Slimy]

Hello everyone,
I like KDE but have been using long time Ubuntu because Kubuntu had horrible quality if compare with ubuntu. What's about mint? I suppose it's the same or KDE here have quality like in opensuse or may be better? That you suggest for first install? My hardware is laptop with i7 and 8gb ram.

Mint KDE hasn't been the focus of the Mint team traditionally, but Linux Mint 12 KDE was extremely good in my opinion. Also, Mint hired a dedicated KDE dev for all of 2012, so you can expect Mint 13 KDE to be pretty good. So here's a list of some very good KDE distros:

• Mint KDE (or at least Mint 12 KDE) - version 13 will come out most likely between the July and August time frame (but it could be earlier or later)
• Netrunner, which is a very good Kubuntu based KDE distro (very polished, and it has awesome integration with Gnome apps) - Version 4.2 (based on Kubuntu 12.04) should be out fairly soon, the second RC is already out
• openSUSE KDE is also very good, although I personally find that it doesn't have quite as good hardware support - the next version will be released around July 2012
• Chakra is a good distro, although it isn't as new-user friendly and the installer is still in alpha (meaning it can be very unstable) - this distro is rolling
• Mageia is a fairly new distro, but it is very good - version 2 is planned for the 22nd of May (2 days)
• Mandrake was the most popular linux distro back before Ubuntu, but it has fallen on hard times and it may lose funding

Thanks for answer. I know about openSUSE I had used it long time before ubuntu. But I have a lot strange and very old problems. One of them bad package quality( often broken dependency, lazy maintainers that put all mozilla languages in one package and it have size like FF itself, or forgot put default config for program) . But KDE quality in there very good. And now I looking then ubuntu 12 is out but my gnome configs not working with new one any more, I`m looking something new I thought may be mint can provide best part from ubuntu and opensuse without their problems. What about packages for mint? Can I use ubuntu deb?

[cwwgateway]

Thanks for answer. I know about openSUSE I had used it long time before ubuntu. But I have a lot strange and very old problems. One of them bad package quality( often broken dependency, lazy maintainers that put all mozilla languages in one package and it have size like FF itself, or forgot put default config for program) . But KDE quality in there very good. And now I looking then ubuntu 12 is out but my gnome configs not working with new one any more, I`m looking something new I thought may be mint can provide best part from ubuntu and opensuse without their problems. What about packages for mint? Can I use ubuntu deb?

I'm glad I could help . Unfortunately, I don't have enough experience with openSUSE to be knowledgeable about package problems with it. Ubuntu 12.04 doesn't use the Gnome interface anymore, it uses Unity. And yes, Mint KDE is 100% compatible with Ubuntu and Ubuntu debs (it uses the Ubuntu repos).

[Slimy]

I'm glad I could help . Unfortunately, I don't have enough experience with openSUSE to be knowledgeable about package problems with it. Ubuntu 12.04 doesn't use the Gnome interface anymore, it uses Unity. And yes, Mint KDE is 100% compatible with Ubuntu and Ubuntu debs (it uses the Ubuntu repos).

Does it mean that Ubuntu equal Mint? I mean Main environment is GTK. And about quality I've heard that last man who support KDE in kubuntu leave canonical it mean that everything became worse. Or mint team are doing official support for KDE?

[cwwgateway]

I'm glad I could help . Unfortunately, I don't have enough experience with openSUSE to be knowledgeable about package problems with it. Ubuntu 12.04 doesn't use the Gnome interface anymore, it uses Unity. And yes, Mint KDE is 100% compatible with Ubuntu and Ubuntu debs (it uses the Ubuntu repos).

Does it mean that Ubuntu equal Mint? I mean Main environment is GTK. And about quality I've heard that last man who support KDE in kubuntu leave canonical it mean that everything became worse. Or mint team are doing official support for KDE?

Mint equals Ubuntu with Mint additions (Mint=Ubuntu+Mint additions). As of the 12.10 release cycle, Canonical won't provide financial backing and developers for Kubuntu, but Kubuntu is now funded by Blue Systems, which coincidentally is also the main sponsor of Mint. Regardless, Mint KDE has nothing to do with Kubuntu, it's based directly off of Ubuntu. And I'm not sure what you mean with your last question.

[wenchkin]

I'd certainly pick KDE over Gnome these days. I don't think there's a KDE distro that I'd rate below Gnome in its current state, Gnome 3 needs to mature and I really hope the Gnome Foundation look at things like MATE and Cinnamon and understand that a lot of users want something more like an evolution of Gnome 2 rather than the monster that is vanilla Gnome 3. Gnome 3 strikes me very much like the foundation's idea of what they think we should be using.

KDE is a more mature desktop than the Gnome 3 series, it has a lot of customisation options and I feel KDE have an understanding that users want choice in the layout of their desktop and a good underlying usability. I don't feel the latest KDE desktops are quite as greedy on system resources either, which was an issue I noticed with older distros.

The thing I find with Kubuntu is it does look a bit generic, it's not as pretty as other KDE distros so it does feel a bit more vanilla. I didn't really take to the Oneiric base even when it came through with Mint. It just didn't play as nicely as I'd hoped with my system. But I've been using the 12.04 Kubuntu alongside other more minimal distros like Bodhi (E17) and Xubuntu (XFCE) and it compares very well. Kubuntu still doesn't have the eye candy that others have, but it's been stable and performed well for me. I'm expecting the new Mint KDE is going to be fantastic, because I'm really happy with both Xubuntu and Kubuntu 12.04, my partner uses the main Ubuntu 12.04 and he's getting on fine with it too. So the base Ubuntu seems to be a good one. I've got the partition all sitting ready for the new Mint, the minute that testing ISO pops up it'll be in there lol.

OpenSuse is very polished looking, however I found it rather over-complicated compared to other KDE distros. There was certainly a learning curve I wasn't expecting as a seasoned KDE addict. I don't usually have to read the instructions y'know? It was rock solid and reliable, I just didn't warm to it as I hoped to.

The new Netrunner is due to release very soon. I tried the RC and it's very impressive. The default software choices were good, it certainly looks good and I didn't find any glitches or problems with it even as a RC. I was kinda wondering if Mint might opt to base the next KDE on top of Netrunner given the new relationship they have with Blue Systems, but we'll have to wait and see how things go. Ubuntu 12.04 seems solid though.

There are also some newer distros you might not have tried. ROSA have a new KDE distro released recently. It's based on Mandriva, and I found it very user friendly, professional and nicely put together. ROSA have added some useful modifications of their own. I think it's a real "one to watch" as it develops.

And if you want to compare Gnome and KDE on a Ubuntu base, you might want to play around with a French distro called Hybryde. It only seems to have a 32 bit version just now, but basically you can switch between a whole range of desktops without logging out. Literally you click on an icon, open the menu to choose your desktop and it switches over. So you can be using KDE one second then flip into Unity the next. I'd certainly recommend it while you wait for the new Mint KDE because it's Ubuntu 12.04 based. It just struck me as a fun distro for those of us who like to change desktops all the time heh. But as you mentioned choosing from Gnome/Unity to KDE I thought hey, you could have them all It does load up in French at first though, so you need to get the English language packs in there. But it's a fun distro even if you just play with the live disc.