Since I converted to Ubuntu a few months ago, I have wrestled with the decision of KDE vs. Gnome. KDE has infinite configurability, while Gnome tries to be much more simplistic. I like many of the KDE applications, like Amarok, Krdc, and Kaffiene, so I thought I would try to switch from Gnome to KDE.
This lasted about 3 hours. I spent all 3 hours trying to configure KDE to my liking, to basically mimic Gnome. After frustation set in, I quickly uninstalled and still use Gnome with a few of the KDE apps as well.
Today I started reading Joel Spolsky’s User Interface Design for Programmers and the first 3 chapters explained exactly why switching was so hard.
- Choices - KDE has so many it becomes daunting to try and configure
- Expectations - I expect KDE to behave like Gnome, because that is what I am used to. This isn’t the case though.
I’m sorry Linus, but I don’t foresee converting to KDE anytime soon. Not because I dislike it, but because its not what I know.