KDE free and happy
I wrote in a previous post from October 20008 that I was very unhappy with the direction of KDE. The Kubuntu Intrepid was about to be released with KDE 4 as the default desktop. I got a lot of responses saying that I could still continue using KDE 3.x or I should switch to another distro like OpenSuse. Neither of those were really feasible options as I didn’t want to be stuck on KDE 3.x and switching distro was even more a radical change.
When Kubuntu Intrepid released, I downloaded it and gave it a try. I knew immediately that I could no longer use it as my desktop. It was sluggish and not very user friendly. I promptly switched to Ubuntu Intrepid with Gnome desktop. I must admit that Gnome implementation in Ubuntu feels a lot more tightly integrated than KDE was in Kubuntu.
I did have to adjust myself to Gnome initially. As an example, I was very fond of Superkaramba on KDE. Gnome does have comparable desklet and screenlet implememtations. But they just do not seem as seemless as Superkaramba. So, I decided to stick with regular panel applets and I must admit that I somehow like them better than full fledged Superkaramba widgets. This could be true with Gnome in general as everything seems intuitive and simple. Gnome doesn’t try to emulate Windoze like KDE. I got the native drivers for the Nvidia card installed and now have Compiz enabled. So, now I have the simplicity of Gnome with added 3D effects. It’s not a scientific observation, but the memory management also seems better on Gnome than KDE.
The moral of the story is that I am KDE free and happy.
