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KDE vs GNOME

KDE vs GNOME

Posted Nov 4, 2003 19:48 UTC (Tue) by proski (subscriber, #104)
In reply to: KDE vs GNOME by dwalters
Parent article: On Novell's acquisition of SUSE

Or it can be the beginning of a merge between GNOME and KDE. The most likely scenario for the merge is creation of libraries that can be used in both GNOME and KDE and moving more and more functionality there. Both Ximian and SuSE employ hackers with strong influence in both GNOME and KDE communities.


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KDE vs GNOME

Posted Nov 4, 2003 19:57 UTC (Tue) by bradh (subscriber, #2274) [Link]

A lot of base libraries are already used by both KDE and Gnome (and other
systems) - for example most of the XML stuff.
Doing the higher level libraries is much harder. Glib/GTK is
fundamentally different to Qt as an object set. The only way I can see
this is one team or the other abandoning their technology, and while a
few people might switch, a whole-sale swapout is almost inconcievable.

KDE vs GNOME

Posted Nov 5, 2003 7:53 UTC (Wed) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]

Also, isn't Gnome written in standard C, while KDE is C++? That's a whole
language/programming culture difference, there!

One other difference of interest.. While I use KDE on my desktop, I'm involved in
PAN, the GTK based news client (not as a developer, yet.. but certainly as a
regular on the PAN lists). PAN recently made use of the MSWormOS GTK
libraries port to extend itself to the MSWormOS platform. That's something a
KDE app could never do without serious costs involved, due to the license for Qt
that's only free on the Linux/Unix side, but NOT on the MSWormOS side. I left
MSWormOS behind when I switched, but there are potentially a lot of folks that
could start their switch with apps such as Mozilla, OOo, and PAN, available on both
platforms. That's a potentially large mind-share that gives Gnome a boost, over the
apparently more popular in the *ix desktop world KDE. That too will provide an
interesting catalyst if thrown into the mix with Novell perhaps helping to encourage
a bit more liberalization of the Trolltech Qt license. As well, one can see where
Novell would be wise to encourage it, as it could be a rather unpleasant pain in the
side for them otherwise, given their MSWormOS platform mix at least presently. It
could certainly prevent or discourage a lot of platform agnostic porting they might
otherwise sponsor or at least encourage, if it weren't for the license issues.

Duncan

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