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Red Hat 6.0
GnuGrendel
sent us a News.com Story about
Red Hat 6.0. Scheduled to be on shelves on May 10, it
ought to be announced on Monday. Supposedly more expensive
for the box, but still free for download (of course). Oh,
and both KDE & GNOME.
Exactly what is so Win95ish about Kde? There are some
similarities but also with OS/2 (templates) and Amiga (kdelnk
files like info) and Mac. Even all windows like this and evenif
they use different toolkits. Neat ! I use Kde with Windowmaker
- you get all the features of Kde with nicer looking windows
and Wmaker menus, etc. You don't have to use the kwm window
manager with the kde filemanager and panel, etc. Windowmaker
and Blackbox have complete support for Kde, and you can use
most but all Kde features with any wm, even E.
Look, I installed a recent snapshot of Gnome last week. No,
I did not find Gnome buggy. It did not crash. However, it is
awkward (to use). E is a disaster from usabliity standpoint.
Gnome itself says, in its docs, that E is the only fully compliant
Window manager. Gnome places dictatorial demands on Window
Managers for compliance. Even icewm is not really compliant.
Gnome's arrogance is entirely undeserved, and developers
are foolish in rewarding it.
If you are using a modern wm like ice or wmaker, what does the
Gnome panel add but get in the way? There is just no reason for
anyone to use Gnome except to be politically correct, as it
duplicates what is already in most window managers and adds
little desktop functionality. However, some Gnome apps are
excellent, so I keep the libraries so I can run Gnome apps when
I want to.
Using E with themes and Gtk with themes (except the plainest)
ones eats all your cpu and brings your system to a crawl unless
you have dual P3's and 16 megs of video ram. Even then, I don't
believe you will get much smooth functionality. The whole theme
concept is flawed and is not what a desktop system should be
built around (though themes in and of themselves are not bad
and can add some personality).
People who post here do not represent "average" users who actually
prefer kde and find it fun and useful, and do not want to buy new,
expensive hardware just so they can get response from a
sluggish E/Gnome desktop when they click on a button.
Geeks trying to outdo each other to have the geekiest looking
desktops, with the obligatory transparent eterms and text-based
irc's and the gimp panel that is never used) don't have productive
desktops - but they can be politically correct and submit screenshots
to "Themes. Most computer users that Linux is trying to attract
don't care about that little cult, but this does not mean they lack artistic
taste or style. They just don't have anything to prove about
who they are in that way and have better things to do with their
lives.
Kde also has some excellent apps. So far most Gnome apps,
as opposed to panel applets, work without the gnome session with
any wm, with the libraries installed. Let's hope it stays that way
and that compatible Gnome apps which are "nice" to other
destops keep coming along with Kde apps, but far too many
apps already *only* work with the gnome libraries installed and
some go further and *only* work with the Gnome session in
progress. They could work just as will without Gnome in 90% of
cases using plain Gtk without Gnome "extras".
As a desktop system Gnome is definitely not cool. It's core
concept that a Window manager must be under a gnome
session and that apps must incorporate gnome hooks
is fundamentally flawed and dictatorial. This stifles innovation and
ultimately will cause rebellion even among developers trying
to "comply" with Gnome standards just like they were forced
to comply to get the Microsoft seal of approval. Can you say
bend over ? It will forever be the preferred desktop of people
who want to be perceived as cool among an elitist community,
but that's it. Corporations and distro packagers know this, and
some begrudgingly include Gnome to placate a small but vocal
minority of elitists. Of course RedHat will favor Gnome because
RedHat is the primary party responsible for hyping Gnome to
force the rest of the Linux community to adopt its standards,. though
they are now wisely moderating that stance some. Kde is in effect
the standard for almost all distros, though, and that has been
well-earned.
I'm not saying that Kde is the best desktop system, although in
practice it is for users who need a productive, modern Linux
desktop. Actually you don't really need either Gnome or Kde
with all their panels, dodads, and "features" - just a good
window manager and a commonly accepted Drag and
Drop protocol for all apps, something Linux lacks. However,
or the two Kde is useful and Gnome is an impediment to
productivity.
I hope that the Linux desktop continues to evolve but Gnome is definitely not it.
(Unless you are a 20 year old geek trying to impress his college buddies.)
I know RH is good too. I can't wait for cheapbytes to have it so that I can install it on a spare system and play with it.
But if you want to have a computing future where upgrades are no longer a headache, you must switch to Debian. Apt/dpkg are a combination in computing bliss. Most people switch to Debian once they learn about this feature. Linux is easy as pie once you know that your system is under control.
I'm not knocking other distros. The recent Caldera and now RH announcements are very encouraging. I think both of those markets are corporate. Debian's install can take getting used to, but once you learn it, the mailing list support at debian-user@lists.debian.org are excellent. IRC at irc.openprojects.net #debian can be a good resource as well if you catch a developer in a generous mood.
I know RH is the most popular, but if you are looking for a practical reason to pick a particular distro, then debian is a choice where you can learn a lot, there's a lot of help, future upgrades will not be any problem at all. Finally, debian's stability and speed can only be matched by the *BSDs. KDE and GNOME both run in debian quite well. Try it.... If you choose to run RH 6.0, email me and tell me about your experiences. C-ya...