Although I like to use the CLI all the time, and when I do use X I'm in a plain ole window manager.

But, I have to say KDE is put together way better than Gnome.
When 4.0 comes out it'll be reasonably fast, and also crossplatform.

KDE generally wins by a two-to-one margin on this poll... and for good reason. Its got 5x the functionality, 10x the flexability, and twice the eye candy. The case for Gnome is generally "cause it is not so fancy as KDE", and the way the get this "feature" is by removing functionality... sounds like a good way to keep people off of Linux.

Here is a hint to the Gnome (less is more) crowd.

1) Spend some time adjusting the KDE shared toolbar setup (what a unusual thought... shared functionality... go figure?!?) and remove all those pesky extra buttons.

2) Change the button size too Large for all applications.

3) Use a Gnome icon theme, wallpaper, widow style, button style, and color theme (yes... some desktops actually allow you to change the color of the system without changing the window themes... go figure?!?)

3) Add a toolbar to the top of your KDE desktop and move any necessary buttons to it. Remove peasky buttons from the main toolbar...

and you have a desktop I have actually tricked people into believing is a Gnome desktop... WITHOUT loosing functionality. See, you don't have to remove functionality to improve usability; use just have to spend more time making your feature usable. Oh, and you guys are NOT OSX. OSX has MORE functionality than OS9. They didn't get the usability by removing features... they got it by better design.

Bobby

but when you remove those rose tinted specs, you soon realise that 99% of theat kde functionality and configurability is unecessary afterall. the functionality in kde is only tweaked because the options are there, not because its necessary. no matter how much more tweakability is added to kde, you will always believe that you have missed out somehow beforehand...yet the previous version seemed to "offer all the tweakability one could could want". you can keep on going forever in finding things in kde to tweak, and then when the options to tweak those aspects of it are added, you wonder how you ever lived without it beforehand. when you wake up, you realise that it means that you are tweaking ONLY because its on offer, not because its necessary.
i sooner have the cleanness and simplicity of gnome and the benefit of an attractive looking toolkit(gtk) than a cluttered, unstable, and bloated desktop with a toolkit that badly needs its beauty sleep(qt).
"good design" in the eyes of the kde crowd is how much useless configurability it can bombard the user with. its almost like a disease. these days, i use gnome because i value productivity.

XFCE Rules!!

Icefw is for me the better desktop enviroment

My vote goes to KDE. It is the best desktop for getting things done and looks great. Gnome is just ugly and awkward and would be dead in the water if it were not for corporate handouts. KDE 4 is the future for the Linux desktop.

That is not entirely true. I have tried WindowMaker to replace my general need, and then Gnome, and then enlightenemnt. You will agree all of the three are *different*. But I always revert back to KDE - for only one reason: usability.
Sure there are options for configrations, but one doesn't _need_ to do them! KDE beats Gnome any time just because it is more mature. One or two years ago, this statement would have been different, but nowdays the development of KDE is fast. Plus the integration!
Sometimes I think I should give Gnome another try, but it's 'open/save' dialog box frustrates me no matter how much I try to learn it.

I like KDE but find it unstable and harder to configure than Gnome. There are definite advantages to both. However, I require stability and therefore use Gnome. I have used Xfce and do like it however my wife needs to use my computer from time to time and she dosen't like it.

I want to thank every one who contributed to the dev. of Xfce..for making a : Excellent Desktop Env. with a great pretty looking and also at the same time managed the speed problem.

For me , the speed was a great problem for both gnome and KDE ..so now it is Xfce..thank u guys...cant wait for the xfce 4 and the transparency issues ).

I've been using JWM, thanks to Joe Wingbermuehle

My environment is Rox on JWM, find me something faster or more intuitive.

no, thats just what you make yourself believe. as you said, you don't need to do them.



not true. it always amazes me (and makes me laugh) when people say that "KDE is more mature", but when you go into detail, you find that the reverse is true. what aspects are most mature on the respective desktops: multmedia is better on gnome by far (arts is ancient! audio is dire on KDE compared to gnome), drag'n'drop is better on gnome, search facilities are far betetr on gnome(Kat is a joke and version 0.6.4 is always crashing and as buggy as heck), svg support is far more mature on gnome (it doesn't exist on kde yet except as a typical kde hack), automounting is far superior on gnome (does it even exist on kde?? hehe one would hardly think so because its so temperemental), interface is far more mature on gnome (kde still have a long long long way to go to reduce the clutter), dbus (kde are going to be switching from dcop to gnome's dbus), etc etc etc. there's isn't anything that matters that is more mature on kde.


kparts is totally and utterly overated. have you ever noticed that kparts 'integration' is read-only. its quicker to open up a seperate application in practice. it doesn't stop kde users jumping up and shouting (inanely) "yay!! we've got integration!"....little knwoing that its useless anyway. its almost like the only purpose it serves is to be used as a buzzword only. i prefer practicalities, so thats why integration is useless at best and detrimental at worst.
kde devlopers have such a narrow minded vision that they believe that good design is tying everything in with everything else and throwing features at it until it bursts is going to make it better and better. how naive is that? we all know the pitifalls of tying things together cause...or should i say, microsoft knows the pitifalls because when internet explorer crashes, the whole system is affected. its the same on kde. when konqueror goes down, it brings the whole system down with it requiring a reboot.



its always good to have hope because thats all it could ever be. and i hope pigs will fly.

There can be only one... XFCE!

I use KDE on my laptops as I find Gnome runs too slow to be of any use.

Enlightenment the only gui to use eveyrthing else is pure bloat.