Because larger harddrives and ram are so cheap, I no longer have second thoughts about having both KDE and Gnome on my system. So, as a consequence I run apps from both to create my perfect desktop environment. I run KDE, but I use gdesklets instead of karamba. And my girlfriend who runs Gnome, uses Kopete for all her instant messenging needs. How many other people are using this as a solution to their own personal KDE vs Gnome battle? Are there any foreseeable problems with this besides having a generally bloated install (which I can live with on a 160 gig hdd)?

It's all personal preference. I like to run a very tight shop, only the bare minimum installed here to get through my work. I have oodles of disk space (df -h claims 648G free) but I don't have Gnome or KDE installed, all my GUI apps which totals around 5 are GTK so I don't need Qt and if something depends on more of Gnome than just GTK I find an alternative.

I tend to use mostly KDE, because I prefer the look. Also, KDE tends to be most customisable. However, some Gnome apps are better than their KDE equivalents, so I use those.

These days, there is very little difference between KDE and Gnome in terms of performance.

I think you will find that many people use a mix of both KDE and Gnome.

--Ian

I run mostly gnome, because I got addicted to compiz and it doesn't run as well for KDE.
I must admit I prefer KDE, but I don't care that much. I also like alot of things about fluxbox, but with 1.8 Ghz and 1 gig of ram, I feel no need for a light desktop.
So many people say they hate this and that about the different enviroments. I don't get that kind of mindset. What is there to "hate" about a desktop.

i have both because i use mostly gnome apps in xfce4 and some in fluxbox, but i'm also addicted to K3B (and a couple of the cheesy KDE games ). i think i've only ever booted into KDE a couple times since starting to use linux a couple years ago (not including knoppix).

Old lappy - 700 MHz - slow FSB - slow IDE drive - slow video - slow 384 MB ram (max).
Loaded all of kde and gnome from this old distro, and use window maker over kdm to access the apps.
Runs quick enough for my purposes, and I like the versatility.

Typical Arch user

I too prefer not to either KDE or GNOME; rather, I use Ratpoison. Also, I don't use many GUI apps (not because they're GUI, because I think I'm more efficient on the alternative console-based applications I use). In fact, the GUI app I use is Firefox.

I think for most people its never been a battle between KDE and GNOME. Most just use whatever they prefer regardless of desktop environment or window manager. For example I prefer KDE but still use some GTK/GNOME apps (mainly Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape). When I use GNOME on FC (which is rare), I still use amarok and k3b because they are simply the best for me.

I prefer GNOME, because KDE has too many images and options.

I never could understand why they don't just combine both. Take the best bits of both and merge them.

Anyone for Knome?

One of the great things about open source is choice. Why restrict people's choices - let them choose KDE or Gnome or whatever according to their own personal preferences.

Also, as long as the necessary libraries are installed, there is nothing to stop you runnning KDE apps under Gnome and vis-versa.

Since it is open source, if you have the necessary skills there is nothing to stop you creating Knome, as long as it is GPL'ed.

--Ian

Maybe it's not such a bad idea... Creating Knome and having it GPLed. Too bad I don't have the expertise to do it (yet )!