Note: I strongly take the view that "A man's desktop is his castle." No-one has to the right to dictate how another sets up and uses the desktop. The only time I have told anyone they needed to alter their desktop on principle was the case of a co-worker running Windows 7 and the desktop picture was a truly awful image of a k-Pop star. That had to change on health and safety grounds due to staff vomiting.
Co-worker accepted my case.I have been on Linux for just over a year now. I am not a distro hopper and have settled on Mint – though I tested alternatives but I found Mint was the one version I could run offline the easiest. I tried Cinnamon and Mate but KDE remains the only GUI I can handle. Now why?
1) It is fast. Contrary to popular opinion, KDE is not a resource hog. To prove the point I am running Mint 16 with KDE on a single core Atom n455 netbook (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-MSI ... 913.0.html) with 1GB of RAM as well as on a 2GB celeron netbook. Both run KDE fine. I have even worked in KDEnlive on the atom – just to show I can! Very pleased with response and KDE clocks in 75% faster than Windows XP on like for like tech. Note: I have had to turn off video effects which do make the machines crawl but that is easily done and I always did the same in Windows. I understand that KDE 4 was released way too early years ago and was a dog. That may have given KDE 4 a shadow it struggles to come out from. KDE 4 does take a little longer to start up than Cinnamon and Mate but it runs fine after that.
2) KDE is dead easy to use. People seem to think the GUI is complex because it is so configurable but you can just settle for defaults and it is quite usable. I change the menu to classic mode, turn off video effects and alter screen colours and that is about it. After that using KDE is child's play. I find Mate and Cinnamon's menu system confusing with features scattered and functions KDE supplied as standard had to be installed as apps. (Disclaimer: Man's desktop is his castle! Just sharing my preference.)
Proof of ease of use:
I have people here in Indonesia keep telling me that Linux is harder to use than Windows.
"Sit down." I tell them moving out of my seat.
"What?"
"Sit down." I order.
[They do so nervously.]
"Start the wordprocessor." I order.
"Wha? How do I...?"
"No. No help from me. Work it out."
Half panicked they tap on the touch pad. They instinctively move to the 'start' button. The menu list comes up. Half the time the Libreoffice writer app is there on the top of the menu anyway marked "Wordprocessor." They click it. Writer starts. Occasionally they have to go to "office" and then select writer but they always find it FIRST TIME! The fact the program is marked 'Wordprocessor' helps!
"That was soooo hard wasn't it?" I tell them.
"Fair point." They always admit.
BTW, I am a teacher and teacher's are one of the most technophobic species on the planet. Having demoed Mint KDE to total technophobes Linux it has been admitted that the OS is faster and easier than Windows – any version – and these are Indonesian teachers we are talking about!
3) KDE has user defined shortcuts! I cannot convey how beautiful this is! I press 'Windows'+W and Libreoffice Writer starts up. I press Windows+K and Kdenlive starts up. I can even start up Windows 3.0 in dosbox by pressing Windows+3. Multiple instances of Dolphin can started up by pressed CTRL-D. The amount of time it saves! When I demo that feature to my (poor) Windows locked compatriots they are stunned. This is ease of use! I can even save the shortcuts and export them to another KDE machine – and have done.
4) Dolphin is a joy to use. Note: Some of the more powerful features are not always enabled by default making Dolphin seem weaker than it really is but when you set it nicely it runs like a dream. Again, I am able to demo how much easier Dolphin is to use than Explorer.
5) Almost a repeat of point 2 but I like having all my configuration options in one place. I want to change something? I just fire up 'system settings' which I have a keyboard shortcut to. Other GUI's including Mac OS have config settings scattered all over the place. This feature aided my transition from Windows to Linux no end. Attempts to use other UI's led to the same confusion I always had with the MacOS.
6) KDE allows me to change screen colours out of the box without loading in other utilities. Most users do not care about screen colours but I find changing my apps Window colour to a secondary colour eases eye strain immensely.
7) KDE aids my productivity. It's similarity to Windows 9x onwards makes the transition between the ancient P4's we are stuck with at work and my netbooks fast and easy. I can shortcut my most commonly used apps and KDE actually flies for me! It is so intuitive – for me – that I forget about the OS and can concentrate on my work. I do not use all the bells and whistles of KDE but everything is there should I want to use it.
Now a couple of notes. While I have never been a fan of Microsoft as a company, I have recognised when they have got things right. I have always held that Microsoft got the UI right in Windows 95 and produced something that was usable and intuitive. (I also hold they went off track the minute they went 98 onwards and confused web with a GUI and now we have the delight of Windows Hate.) Some seem to avoid KDE because they just have an aversion to anything similar to Microsoft. I have read many comments on KDE along the lines of "I got into Linux to get away from Microsoft! I do not want to go back to a Windows style interface." I never had that sentiment.
Now I could go on about how may times Mint and KDE have saved me under white hot pressure (worse than when I was in commercial software management) but this post is long enough as it is. But I have never been disappointed with KDE.
So, as I say, to each their own and Linux is about choice. But I wanted to say that KDE works for me. I figured it was time to give credit. But long live Cinnamon, Mate and KDE. Choice is good.
