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Torvalds Says 'Use KDE'

An anonymous reader writes "Without tip-toeing around the matter, Linus Torvalds made his preference in the GNOME vs. KDE matter quite clear on the GNOME-usability list: "I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE. This 'users are idiots, and are confused by functionality' mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do. Please, just tell people to use KDE." Also, "Gnome seems to be developed by interface nazis, where consistently the excuse for not doing something is not 'it's too complicated to do', but 'it would confuse users'.""

48 of 1,469 comments (clear)

  1. KDE vs. Gnome. Ready...FIGHT! by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let me get the ball rolling here...

    All the Gnome users I've ever known fall into one of three distinct classifictions:
    1. They don't know about KDE as an alternative.
    2. They hold up their Gnome use as a macho Linux status symbol (when asked why they don't use KDE, they shrug and say, "Bah....I do all my work from the shell anyway...).
    3. They suffer from a deep-seated need to punish themselvs for some reason.

    Discuss.
    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  2. Well at least he didn't say... by YodaToo · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..."Use Windows."

    1. Re:Well at least he didn't say... by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Funny

      ..."Use Windows."

      No, but it's more important what he didn't say then what he did. I for one, can't help but notice how he left out the GNU in "GNU/KDE". Oh wait....

      *duck*

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    2. Re:Well at least he didn't say... by Ryan+Amos · · Score: 3, Funny

      The only reason it's actually funny is because there are people who are serious about it.

    3. Re:Well at least he didn't say... by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Funny

      I suppose that clever satire is more work than just making some stupid unthinking GNU/joke. Hahahahahaha! I put "GNU/" in front of a word! I'm so funny and cool!

      Did you get up on the wrong side of bed this morning or something?

      I was trying to create a light moment at the expense of people who are actually serious about the "GNU/Whatever" naming scheme. It seemed more productive then the GNOME v. KDE flamefest that was about to kick off.

      But, congrats, I got a flamebait mod. I guess you got what you were looking for. One can only onder if the mod was using a GNU system. Would that mean I got GNU/Flamebait'ed?

      (Ok, I'll stop now ;)

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    4. Re:Well at least he didn't say... by hzs202 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dude, do you ever listen to RMS?

      Listen to him! Dude have you seen him lately, he looks like he could be the offspring of Chewbacca & Bilbo Baggins.

      Kidding RMS... I love ya!

    5. Re:Well at least he didn't say... by vslashg · · Score: 3, Funny
      I suppose that clever satire is more work than just making some stupid unthinking GNU/joke. Hahahahahaha! I put "GNU/" in front of a word! I'm so funny and cool!
      Christ, someone's on the GNU/rag.
  3. Re:KDE vs. Gnome. Ready...FIGHT! by Geopoliticus · · Score: 5, Funny

    I must be number 3... and I do all of my work from the shell anyway. :)

  4. Torvalds farts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    slashdot reports.

    1. Re:Torvalds farts by Fortress · · Score: 2, Funny

      Torvalds farts...Slashdot reports.

      You forgot: Slashdotters flame each other as to the interpretation of the fart, whether Linus is qualified to fart, if he has farted this way in the past, and if the fart is indeed truthful.

  5. Great but.... by Rotten · · Score: 5, Funny

    I do all my stuff in the console anyway....wich shell does linus recommend?

    1. Re:Great but.... by Scoria · · Score: 2, Funny

      Emacs.

      With an ASCII desktop background.

      --
      Do you like German cars?
    2. Re:Great but.... by adamjaskie · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Emacs"

      He said shell, not operating system... Besides, Emacs would be a far better OS if it shipped with a halfway-decent text editor.

      --
      /usr/games/fortune
    3. Re:Great but.... by mekkab · · Score: 4, Funny

      Besides, Emacs would be a far better OS if it shipped with a halfway-decent text editor.

      Like vi?

      --
      In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
    4. Re:Great but.... by stinky+wizzleteats · · Score: 3, Funny

      Emacs.

      Flamewar trifecta is now in play.

  6. Re:I Prefer Aqua! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It is, but its called Enlightenment on linux.

  7. From TFA... by The+Amazing+Fish+Boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Please, just tell people to use KDE.

    "Use vi, too. And vote Democrat. Oh, and cats are better than dogs. You know what else? Abortion should be legal. So should euthenasia. And as for toast? Butter side up!"

  8. Re:Dude, FVWM by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 5, Funny

    They really ought to know enough Perl to read and write files and manipulate numbers, and know a little programming. Having to figure out text configuration files would be a good exercise, as whiny as it may make them....

    Linux on The Desktop: Death by Evangelism.

  9. Thank goodness by omeg · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thank goodness. Maybe now the Gnome devs will figure out that they need to stop assuming that every user is an idiot; maybe they'll actually put good and inituitive features in their file manager now that Linus has said this. I personally don't like KDE's interface too much, but Gnome is what makes me want to bomb the Gnome dev mailing list with reports on its shortcomings. Too bad I don't have the time or will to actually do this.

  10. The other alternative by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well this could be the other argument: "Gnome is for idiots, KDE is too, for that matter any windowing system is designed with idiots in mind. They are just dumbed down. My choice is CLI, there are so many programs written for it and it is not intuitive at all, just like a system interface should be."

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    1. Re:The other alternative by burwaco · · Score: 3, Funny

      GNU/CLI ? *dive*

    2. Re:The other alternative by cloudmaster · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm sorry, did you just *complain* about people focusing on text editing in Emacs - which is a text editor whose main "problem" is bloat / feature creep? That's awesome.

      On a similar note, people aways talk about whether they should be driving a car or riding a bike to work, but they never stop to think about what a great aluminum can crusher a car is. I mean, have you ever tried to crush a bunch of aluminum cans with a bicycle? It doesn't work. A car not only crushes a can flatter, but the wider tires can crush even a sideways can. Who cares about getting to work in the rain or saving gas - what about crushing all those soda/beer cans? :)

  11. Re:Heh by lpangelrob · · Score: 4, Funny
    Sweet. Karma, carte blanche.

    -Linus Torvalds
    (Honestly. Ignore the sig.)

  12. Adequacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Actually, Gnome works "well enough" these days.

    Adequacy, that's what I strive for. Excellence is truly overrated.

  13. Re:Well then by psykocrime · · Score: 1, Funny

    Fine, so just use Kubuntu instead.

    --
    // TODO: Insert Cool Sig
  14. Corporate use of KDE versus GNOME. by CyricZ · · Score: 5, Funny

    With regards to KDE versus GNOME, the best thing to do is let nature take its course. What I mean by that is let people use which one they prefer. From past experience, those who use KDE end up being more productive. And increased productivity often times leads to increased financial success.

    I recently did some consulting for a firm which allowed their developers and administrative staff to use GNOME or KDE. It was each employee's choice which to use. When review time came around, a study was done into which desktop was used by the most productive users.

    By far the most productive users, both developers and secretaries/financial officers/etc., were those who used KDE and related software, such as KOffice. The developers who used KDE were the ones who wrote the code with the fewest number of bugs, and the secretaries who used KDE were the ones who were able to produce letters and documents with the fewest drafts.

    There was one notable exception, however. One developer who reported using GNOME was amongst the top three (I believe it was) developers. Further investigation revealed that while he was using GNOME, it was only as a program launcher. He was using KDevelop, Konqueror and other KDE software while working.

    Overall, they weren't sure if it was a matter of productive people choosing KDE, or KDE allowing people to be more productive. I instinctively feel it was some of both.

    The best thing to do is let people use what they want. In the end, their choice will either help or hinder their productivity. Those who are no productive will lose their jobs, and slide into irrelevancy, leaving only the productive. From my past experiences, it would appear that GNOME has become the least productive of the two desktops.

    --
    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
  15. Re:Heh by dr_dank · · Score: 1, Funny

    How come you got modded straight up to +4 inspite of posting anonymously linus?

    You must be new here. Anonymous Coward is Linus' logon. I'm glad he finally kicked his goatse trolling habit.

    --
    Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
  16. Re:Sod Gnome & KDE by CortoMaltese · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does this E-thing (Slashdotted) gSave KMe of KThese gStupid KNaming Konventions KGnome and gKDE are using or have inspired for apps? It's gSimply KNOT gAmusing or Klever. Or eWill eThis eBring eMe eJust enother ennoying eConvention?

  17. My Opinion by Tighe_L · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can sum it up quickly: While KDE has much better applications, and has a nice Kontrol Panel, QT is bloated and slow. Gnome's applications are underdeveloped and lack the features that KDE's applications have, GTK2 is quite fast. Personally I use Gentoo and set my use flags to comple GTK2 support and remove QT support, and for user interface I use fluxbox and aterm. This is quite fast and works well for me. I assume that Linus is refering to newbee's to and kind of _nix. I personally will not be using KDE, I don't care what Linus says, who made him Jesus? I am sure that Jesus would use a command prompt. Hello? 10 Commandments??

  18. Re:KDE vs. Gnome. Ready...FIGHT! by bonius_rex · · Score: 2, Funny

    I started using gnome back in Redhat 6.0 (I think). It always did everything I wanted it to, so I still use it.
    My brother uses KDE, and every year, we have a flameware about it around the dinner table for the holidays. (Much to the joy of the relatives)

    I will cary on with Gnome because otherwise, it would spoil Christmas!

  19. Re:Linus, Thank You for Sharing by T-Ranger · · Score: 5, Funny

    My girlfriend is absolutely computer illiterate: she thinks (well, thought) that Office is the OS that runs on his laptop.

    Talk about usability issues!

  20. And so it began... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...the last great war of the third age of mankind...

  21. He's not your average person by briaman · · Score: 4, Funny
    [Linus Torvalds is] not your average person.

    I heard he's 8 foot tall and that he farts thunder and pisses lightning.

    --

    ==========
    Error in module creativity.dll : Unable to create witty comment.
    Abort / Retry / Ignore ?

  22. Self-righteous KDE fanboys rejoice! by yeremein · · Score: 2, Funny

    We got Linus on our side! Pbbbttthhh!!!

  23. Re:Linus, Thank You for Sharing by justins · · Score: 2, Funny
    You are an expert in operating system kernels. Please keep to what you do best. Users will vote with their own desktop.

    The problem is that they keep voting Windows...
    --
    Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
  24. Re:Heh by MatD · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually, that's a bad analogy. Stephen's use of ramps at his house to frame the positive and negative space, as well as the bold lines imposed by his use of lower counter tops really makes a statements along the lines of L.I. Kahn.

    --
    Since when did operating systems become a religion?
  25. Re:Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny


    I could be acting really silly here, but I thought to myself, how do we know that actually was the real Linus? (This is a genuine question, not flame...) What's not to stop someone mailling into the list as Linus?


    [self walking down the hall hearing everyone shout "I'm Tovaldicus!"]

  26. Re:KDE vs. Gnome. Ready...FIGHT! by soren42 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't know... for my money, it just doesn't get any better than the flamewar on the mailing list. Nothing like Linus calling Gnomers "interface nazis" and Nat calling KDE'ers "feature sluts (who never saw a checkbox they didn't love)".

    Hilarious... I love these guys - that was a great laugh for the day.

    --

    "Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things."
  27. Re:Heh by timeOday · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sheesh, next thing you know we'll have Hollywood celebrities weighing in on politics!

  28. Re:KDE vs. Gnome. Ready...FIGHT! by BitwizeGHC · · Score: 2, Funny

    You are Emmanuel Goldstein, and I want my five pounds.

    --
    N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
  29. Re:Heh by daeley · · Score: 2, Funny

    I really don't know why people try to cannonize Linus.

    Bastard kept dodging the trebuchet bolts -- we had no choice but to cannonize him. ;)

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  30. Re:Of course... by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 5, Funny

    The only thing a window manager is good for is managine more than one terminl windows at one time.

    --

    Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

  31. Re:Think of the poor students! by rknop · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm saying that Perl is not an appropriate choice of language for a physics student.

    As a physics professor, I would guess that I'm WAY better qualified to judge that than you are. Sorry about ruining your religion and all.

    -Rob

  32. Re:KDE vs. Gnome. Ready...FIGHT! by John+Hurliman · · Score: 3, Funny

    I have a BA in Hunting/Gathering you insensitive clod!

  33. Re:KDE vs. Gnome. Ready...FIGHT! by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Funny

    Bill? Is that you?

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  34. Re:KDE vs. Gnome. Ready...FIGHT! by AndyL · · Score: 3, Funny

    I do most everything from terminal windows. However, I usualy keep Gnome Terminal's "translucent" backgrounds on so I can see my desktop wallpaper and pretend I'm actualy getting my money's worth out of my expensive monitors.

    In college I had the following conversation with some guy on the same floor as me :

    Dude: Hey man, what's that game I always see you playing?
    Me: Grand Theft Auto?
    Dude: No man, on the computer.
    Me: Actualy, ... Nevermind. Grand Theft is pretty much all I've been playing recently.
    Dude: No, that other game. Every time I walk past your room you're always playing it.
    Me: ...
    Dude: That game with all the words and shit.

  35. Re:KDE vs. Gnome. Ready...FIGHT! by tater86 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can drive a car but I don't have a black belt. Does that mean my driver's ed course sucked, or that I chould have kept practicing left turns until I can do a proper high kick?

  36. Re:KDE vs. Gnome. Ready...FIGHT! by sumdumass · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, you never did tell me what game it was.