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KDE And Gnome Together At Last?

Posted by timothy on from the all-in-the-same-gang dept.

HangingChad writes "eWeek is reporting about Novell's plan to combine elements of both into a unified desktop. Apparently the work has already started. Chris Schlager, vice president of research and development for SUSE, thinks the differences between KDE and Gnome developers have been overstated. Apparently he's not a regular /. reader."

22 of 466 comments (clear)

  1. Gnome and KDE? by nick-less · · Score: 5, Funny

    Whats next? Cats sleeping with dogs?

    1. Re:Gnome and KDE? by Alan+Cox · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I seem to remember that being done for Red Hat 8, making them fit together isnt that hard now days, and all the joint work KDE and GNOME people have been doing at freedesktop.org on common specifications helps even more.

      Its the peanut gallery who seem wedded to the 'gnome v kde war'

    2. Re:Gnome and KDE? by gorre · · Score: 5, Insightful

      RH just used themes to make them look similar. The integration was no more than skin deep.

      --
      "Madness is something rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, peoples, ages it is the rule." -- Nietzsche
  2. Apparently he's not a regular /. reader. by GMFTatsujin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe he browses at +5. :)

  3. Wow! by Bishop,+Martin · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't wait for KGplayer, twice the features, double the resource usage!

    --
    Setec Astronomy
  4. Do they call it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Knome or GDE?

  5. KDE Compromise by TwistedSquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe if KDE gets compromised too it could bring them closer together? *ducks*

  6. Gnome/KDE by Melvin+Daniels · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You have to admit both have strong qualities that the other does not. For instance, the Gnome stuff has a tendency to run a little better for me while the KDE stuff looks a bit cleaner. Aesthetics, yes, but it sells it to me. Maybe they just want to offer that whole 'choice' thing Open Source keeps talking about.

  7. Gno way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Kant happen.

    1. Re:Gno way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You must be GNU here...

  8. Better yet, bring Blackbox to the mix... by AvantLegion · · Score: 5, Funny
    ... and unveil the next generation of X desktop environments: KGB

    1. Re:Better yet, bring Blackbox to the mix... by druhol · · Score: 5, Funny

      Now all we need is to add an "all your base" joke, and this thread would reach critical meme-mass.

      --
      WWD4D?
  9. Not a good idea by dealsites · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Different desktops exist for different people. It's easy to change back and forth to figure out the one you like best. I think that merging the two would stiffle features in the long run. It's best to have 2 competing platforms. Ultimately each group will incorporate the ideas from the other platform, but competition is what drives innovation.

    --
    Tons of electronics deals updated in real-time. The most powerful listing known to man.

    1. Re:Not a good idea by Goaway · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, the lack of desktop alternatives is one of the main reasons Windows has been so unsuccessful.

  10. Re:Gnome v kde by gilesjuk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    KDE is a bit easier for users who have spent a lot of time on Windows. The first logon to a KDE desktop presents the Desktop wizard where you can choose if you want Windows or MAC style key and mouse shortcuts. This is a big plus for KDE.

  11. not that different by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's like GPL vs. BSD or other similar arguments. To a "normal" person, they are nearly identical. Or Emacs vs. vi .. to my boss, they are both cryptic editors for geeks to confuse people with.

    The average Joe just wants the computer to work. He thinks in terms of tasks and software to accomplish the tasks, not the underlying nuts and bolts which are just different ways of accomplishing the same boring things.

    So the more we (the free software community) can unify these desktop environments and smooth out these incompatibilites, the better. It's not like we don't all run desktop environment A but still use apps from environment B under it.

    Personally, I think they both stink. I can't wait to see the unpronouncable app names. :-)

  12. Bluecurve? by PineHall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How is this different from Red Hat's Bluecurve?
    And will there be a big outcry as there was when Red Hat combined looks and features?

  13. Server Desktop integration by bangular · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One of the most interesting coming out of brainshare is Novell's strong commitment to having linux on the server AND desktop. They see the reason as MS having any success on the server side is because companies wanted to use the same thing on server and desktop. Linux is definatly taking over the server side and if companies have a good linux desktop I think the opposite can happen (use linux on desktop because they can integrate it with their servers). It's funny this comes up because I just read an article stating Windows isn't an enterprise OS and the only reason it got on the server is because it had desktop dominence. Which makes sense because when compared with almost any other OS on the planet Win2k3 comes up short in almost every category.

  14. Which idea is that? by fm6 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Why do you suppose KDE and GNOME exist? It isn't as if there were no Linux or Unix desktops before these projects appeared, and most of them have a much higher hackability factor. Problem is, we want non-hackers (which is most computer users, believe it or not) to use Linux too, and that means standardizing the user experience. It might be uncool and anti-creative, but it's what it takes to appeal to people for whom software is something they use to get their work done, not a way of making a personal statement.

    Every Slashdot user should say to himself at least once a day, "I am not a typical computer user."

  15. Finally, we're getting somewhere on the desktop by tentimestwenty · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As long as I never have to hear the names of 2 desktop environments when talking about Linux, I'm happy. Choice is great but having two pretty good environments instead of one great environment is not going to win any market share. Only in open source could the two top competitors work together. For this we should be thankful. I don't think there's much to stop Linux from taking down Windows if this is even remotely successful.

  16. Integration, Man. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I imagine this isn't about so much look and feel but more about desktop integration. Imagine using Evolution to open an attachment using the default app settings confiured in KControl. Or saving the image you just edited in the GIMP directly to a remote server using the FTP KIO slave in the KDE file dialog. Or scripting office procedures using the desktop agnostic D-BUS (KDE's admitted DCOP successor).

    There's so much more that just theming. Look at freedesktop.org to get a feel of the potential.

  17. Nat Friedman's Comments by Kur · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was in a session at Brainshare on the "Novell Linux Desktop", lead by Nat Friedman. Someone asked him about Gnome vs. KDE and his reply was that the only people who bring up this topic seem to be Slashdot posters.

    Seriously, he called attention to the fact that Novell is committed to both KDE and GNOME. According to his slide, Novell is now the #1 contributer to both KDE and GNOME. From what I've seen, though, Novell will certainly leverage its purchase of Ximian in every way it can. All of the desktops and kiosks run SUSE with Ximian. All of the demos and new applications have been written on SUSE and Ximian. Finally, projects like iFolder are being built with Mono. Nat also talked a little about freedesktop.org and the worry that KDE and GNOME will become incompatible, something Novell does not want to see occur.