KDE vs. GNOME: Is One Better?: Page 2

Probably the one thing that distinguishes GNOME today at version 2.18 is its attention to usability, which is continually resulting in a refinement of its desktop – to the extent that some, like Torvalds, have become frustrated by the increasing difficulty of using it for advanced purposes. Another trend is a growing tendency to make its utilities – specifically its panel applets – dependent on Mono, the C# clone that is another project championed by Miguel de Icaza, one of GNOME's founders.

Just now, KDE is at version 3.5.6, but is becoming increasingly focused on its 4.0 release, scheduled for release by the end of 2007. This release promises to be a major revision of the desktop, with a default scalable vector graphics theme, a new file manager, a rewriting of the API for its core libraries, and new interface guidelines.

Figures vary with different studies, but today, KDE is probably used by about 65% of GNU/Linux desktop users, GNOME by roughly 26% (the rest of the market is represented by alternatives like Xfce and several advanced window managers).

However, GNOME has a larger presence than its popularity suggests because it is the default of several major distributions, including Fedora and Ubuntu, and because of the GNOME Foundation, which includes strong corporate representation, tending to make it more acceptable in business.

By contrast, the corresponding KDE League never developed the same influence or penetration into business, and is now defunct. Instead, KDE appears to maintain its importance through popularity alone.

Basic Desktop Features

With common roots in UNIX as well as imitations of Windows, OS X and each other, the modern GNOME and KDE have more similarities than differences.

Despite their different toolkits, it is not difficult to mockup either to look like Windows – or like each other, as Red Hat did a couple of years ago. In fact, what would probably strike most Windows users are a number of shared features with which they are unfamiliar. While new users of GNOME and KDE can quickly acclimatize to the desktop of icons, as well as the panel for notifications and docking minimized windows and the main menu, some of the details may take longer to become familiar with.

One of the most obvious features of KDE and GNOME are the virtual desktops – or workspaces, as GNOME call them. Under any name, these desktops are a way of increasing the area in which you can organize the programs you’re working with. You could, for instance, keep a web browser open in one desktop, a command shell in another, and a word processor in a third. To move between them, you can click on a thumbnail on the panel, or configure them so that sliding the mouse to the edge of one seamlessly moves you into another. The only limit is that each virtual desktop adds to the memory overhead.

Another major difference from other desktops is that both KDE and GNOME make extensive use of panels. In addition to basic features such as the main menu, a clock, a windows list, and system notification area, both desktops include dozens of applets for system and hardware monitoring, as well as easy access to basic utilities such as search tools.