here is my
why all the bashing between KDE and GNOME users

look I'm new to linux but part of the reason that I made the move was the options that linux provided I'm able to deside what desktop environment I like not have someone else (microsuck) desiding for me
I think you should all just be happy to have the large number of choices that you have
isn't that what linux is all about choice
I have use both and they are both good desktops depending on what you prefer
just a note to the GNOME guys
remember that somepeople are looking for a MS replacement but are comfortable in that type of environment and there is nothing wrong with that
now for the KDE guys remember just because you prefer all the bells and whistles doesn't mean that everyone wants them

just for the record I prefer GNOME
I have not tried some of the others listed here so if anyone wants to post links to them I'd be grateful
I'm always looking for something new to try with linux

KDE

There are a lot of things that I don't like about KDE. My choice was made mostly by eliminating the desktop and window managers that absolutely would not use. The only candidate remaining is KDE.

Tough call for me between them all. I went ultimately with XFCE, as xfce 4.4 is such light years ahead of 4.2, and deserves recognition for that. All that improvement in looks, plus keeping it lightweight, great job!

Gnome 2.16 and KDE 3.5.x are improvements also, but not nearly as dramatic as the work on XFCE.

KDE for it's configurability.... I just love how I can costumize the look of it.... and the translucancy and shadows working even on 256MB RAM machine fast without any issue!!!

I've been using *nix since the 80's and used many a DE, including KDE and Gnome since 1.x days. KDE has just become too cluttered w/excess eye candy and requires me to install too much stuff I don't want/need to get the few things that I do. Gnome has always been cleaner but in recent years suffered from HIG nazi's who're fervently castrating Gnome, packaging it up for low knowledge MS Winblows converts against the day when Linux supposed conquers the corporate desktop that they've thrown the baby out with the bathwater. If Linux is ever going to conquer the corporate desktop them emulating MS isn't the way to get there.

I've been using Xfce for the past year and it would get my vote were it not for my concerns that their small dev team may well lack sufficient critical mass to survive the long term. For example:

2006/04/17 After various alphas we finally get 4.4 beta 1 released

2006/07/10 - Xfce 4.4 beta 2 (4.3.90.2) released - only 3 months, not too bad...

2006/09/03 - Xfce 4.4 Release Candidate 1 (4.3.99.1) released - another two months to hit RC1....

2006/11/05 - Xfce 4.4 Release Candidate 2 (4.3.99.2) released - two more months to make it to RC2.....

2007/01/14 - Two months after RC2 we're STILL waiting for 4.4 to be released.

First beta released 9 months ago and still waiting on stable. I realize this is FOSS, but that's got to be some kind of record. If you follow the dev list you'll see that they are once again discussing tentative release date, this time 1/21.... Moreover, after all this time there are STILL outstanding bugs but Xfce is going to release anyways because they're not considered "blockers". I've seen it pushed back so many times now that I've pretty much stop paying any attention. I'll believe it when I see it and I have a friendly bet with a buddy that from beta -> _stable release_ will exceed 1 yr. This dev model is so reminiscent of Redmond that it's just plain scary!!

I really like what I'm hearing about KDE4 and will probably be switching back to KDE when it hits the streets... Ironically, I have a feeling that I'll still be waiting for Xfce-4.4 to go stable when it does...

P.S; Xfce DOES have the right idea with modularity and orthogonality though. The dev crew just needs more discipline and ditch the attitude.

All KDE needs to do is to get basic things right. There are still basic prblems of usability and programmability together. Personally speaking Gnome has got it right (I have't used Xfce before), and I would have just switched to it if gtk+ had a better Open/Save dialog. There is just no way you can see to it and think of it as intuitive.

I was really hoping for KDE 4, but I realized something very trivial. KDE 4 will be just new eyecandy with far more bugs to be resolved until it becomes 4.5.5. I wish they KDE people could work more on ironing out issues than adding features.

I think you should take a closer look at KDE4. Lots changing at foundation level, e.g. Oxygen, Plasma, Solid, Phonon, etc. Not to mention QT4, faster, lighter, etc. That's why it's a 4.x major and not another 3.x minor. I think the context sensitive layouts could be very interesting, if done correctly.

P.S.; Please note - this is from someone who does NOT currently use KDE, having ditched it a long time ago when it became so bloated that it slowed to a crawl on my old dual PII450 system that had a full gig or ram. That I'm eager to check out KDE4 is, I think, saying a lot.

Voted for KDE.
But I've used XFCE4 for quite some time and it's very lightweight and well-behaving I might say.
Who knows, maybe I'll go back to XFCE4 some day

I'd have to go with KDE, it's easy to configure and it doesn't have that antique look about it. It is also very easy to run multiple desktops and multiple taskbars are not required. And yes the toys are nice too

I am also Sincerely Hoping-that KDE/QT be eliminated from *NIX Scenario as the same way i want da elimination of Microsoft and Windos also!

Hail GNOME and XFCE and other LW DE/M )

KDE is for those whose mind is still defeated by Microsoft Windows.I bet GNOME's HIG Narzis are better than that KDE bloatware

I used gnome for a while, but switched to get Konqueror. Not for the browser, for the file manager. It's WAY faster than nautilus, the side pane actually works, you can shrink down the font so you can actually see everything, and it has features unheard of in Nautilus like splitting into panes. There's also my favorite feature: file size view: It shows files and folders as nested boxes, with the size of the box proportional to the size of the file. It's great for figuring out what is eating up all your disk space.

The other good thing about KDE is the file save dialog. KDE's dialog is a full file manager; you can make folders, shuffle stuff around, rename files, and so on. In gnome, you can't. Which is a pain in the behind, because you often want to do exactly that.

Finally, KDE is a little more mature, the configurators have evolved a little more, the widget set is a little more stable, and so on. For example, KDE actually has a menu editor, unlike GNOME.. In general, KDE apps are also more mature; for example, most people agree that Amarok kicks serious ass, as does K3B. In comparison, GnomeBaker barely works.

Also, there is pure aesthetics; KDE seems to waste less screen space than GNOME: the "small" setting for toolbar icons is much smaller than that for GNOME, and the "treebrowser" has less wasteful space between items. Also, KDE seems to draw the screen faster.

In these gnome vs KDE discussions, people often bring up configurability, or HIG, or whatever. To me, that isn't really the big issue. The big issue is usability. Usability, of course, does not refer to "how complicated does it look". Feature bloat, or even lack of certain features, does not matter if the application does what it was designed to do.

The problem appears when you get file managers like Nautilus that are simply too clunky to use for their intended purpose (slow drawing, large font, etc). In cases like that, it doesn't matter how simple and easy-to-use the UI is; if I can't use it effectively for managing files, it fails as a file manager.

Likewise, if GnomeBaker is buggy, that alone is reason to switch to KDE. Or, you could learn to use the commandline tools, but that sort of defeats the purpose of using a UI in the first place.

For light systems, I'd probably use fvwm.

Ok... so I voted Gnome... I love Gnome... but I might have voted for Looking Glass 3D if it was on there... it's pretty darn spiffy!

KDE rocks for me: Non-geek user
Thanks: Utah

i first tried out gnome for the heck of it with the dropline gnome for slackware and was pleased.
Now i'm completely converted from KDE now that i've seen suse's.