GNOME and KDE: Seven Attractions in Each (Datamation) [LWN.net]

Bruce Byfield takes a look at innovations in GNOME and KDE. "Of course, GNOME and KDE have long had features that Windows lacked, such as multiple desktops and finer controls for customizing the user experience. However, in the last few years, both major free desktops have added features that show not only an interest in usability, but, at times, an effort to anticipate what users might actually want. The focus is by no means consistent, yet scattered here and there are features that can make any user glad that they're using a open source desktop."

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GNOME and KDE: Seven Attractions in Each (Datamation)

Posted Mar 10, 2010 3:11 UTC (Wed) by DOT (subscriber, #58786) [Link]

Also, I fail to see how most of these "attractions" are unique to either desktop. Most of these things are also possible on Windows. The real attractions are much more subtle, like the GNOME HIG, or whatever makes KDE great. Maybe that's why Linux hasn't conquered the desktop yet: it's not clearly better.

GNOME and KDE: Seven Attractions in Each (Datamation)

Posted Mar 10, 2010 8:48 UTC (Wed) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183) [Link]

I had a rather interesting experience recently when my work laptop went out of action just
before Christmas, and I ended up using a Mac for two months. It may just be my personal
workload as a *nix software developer of course, but even after two months I found that
many things were so much clumbsier on the Mac that it was a pleasure to switch back to
Ubuntu. Particularly the dock on the Mac is rather painful, the lack of package
management (even to Windows standard), and little things, such as the inability to
minimise a window by clicking on its dock/taskbar entry. Maybe the menu at the top is
better (although for windows at the bottom of the screen I found that slightly irritating too -
I have been told one comes to appreciate it more with time though), but overall I found
Ubuntu to be a cleaner and more rounded off user experience.

For me, the main point in favour of the Mac was that the important desktop applications
(Safari, Mail) had much less rough edges than their gnome equivalents, and the Mac didn't
go wrong in all the little ways that Ubuntu and other GNU/Linuxes do. (It didn't go right in a
lot of the little ways that they do either though.) I can also see that someone needing third
party commercial tools would be better with a Mac, although I'm not sure how much better.

To sum it up, what I think GNU/Linuxes would really need to become viable on the desktop
is just lots of polishing and cleaning up work. The big things are there on the whole.

GNOME and KDE: Seven Attractions in Each (Datamation)

Posted Mar 10, 2010 16:22 UTC (Wed) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link]

You have to "unlock widgets" first -- not an initially obvious thing to do.

I appreciate the purpose of locking, but perhaps locking the panel widgets
should be de-linked from locking the desktop widgets.