I might be switching to KDE.

[newfie]

I started using Linux on Gnome, and later tried KDE (3.5) and enjoyed it somewhat. But Kubuntu with 3.5 was a bit... bloated. I abandoned Kubuntu after maybe 3 months of use. I've used Gnome for almost 2 years (KDE 4 was a massive disaster at first) since then, shunning KDE during that time. Over the last few days I decided to take a look into KDE 4.3.. I was blown away by the changes made since 4.1! I think I may actually be switching to KDE again ! It's so much more polished and has a great feel to it as opposed to 3.5. 3.5 always felt a bit too cartoony and lacking for me, not to mention bloated. KDE 4.3 seems to have brought simplicity and style, especially with KWin. I'm loving it so far. I have only encountered one problem that bothers me greatly; I get very low FPS and a lot of lag in games even when compositing etc is blocked off. I could get 100 FPS in Gnome, while I get 20-30 max in KDE... maybe it's just a lot heavier? I may play games on Gnome but use KDE for "Everything else".

What does everyone else think?

If you haven't tried KDE 4 in its current form yet, I recommend the following..

- Mandriva 2010 Live CD
- sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop (bloated yes, but gives the general idea)
- Avoid Fedora 12 KDE. Nothing but crashing and instability for me at least.

[MaddogF16]

KDE4 uses their own 3d engine, and you're probably running Compiz on Gnome. In time they may get their FPS up a little in KDE.