A look at GNOME 2.14, comparison to KDE

[Janne Ojaniemi]

On Monday 20 February 2006 20:28, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Monday 20 February 2006 10:54, Janne Ojaniemi wrote:
> > http://kde.org/screenshots/images/3.4/snapshot06.png
>
> use a newer kde.

I'm on 3.5.1, but KDE.org doesn't have screenshots of that, only 3.4. And I'm 
looking at Konqueror in 3.5.1 right now. And I don't really see any major 
difference between it and 3.4, as far as those UI-elements are concerned.

> some fixes are harder than others since we happen to have a more dynamic
> set of technologies that actually do more. and yes, this has impacts on the
> UI. they are not unfixable, but some require quite a bit of effort to do
> right.

I know that KDE "does more" than GNOME does. But the UI-elements I mentioned 
aren't really related to functionality as such.

> as a counterballance point, i've heard gnome's "simplicity" described as
> "hollow feeling" and "constructed" by IT managers in Very Large Companies.
> it's not the One True Approach.

Yes, we have heard the critique directed towards GNOME (*cough*Linus*cough*). 
But the things I mentioned ("smoothness" of the UI) aren't really about 
features and functionality as such (well, the menu's might be). I fail to see 
ow frames around content-area in Konqueror is an example of "advanced 
features" that KDE has while GNOME lacks it.

> just remember that the goal is not to make an uncluttered UI. it's to make
> a usable UI that doesn't scream at the user, so to speak. it is widely
> agreed that konqueror is a far better file manager than pretty much
> anything out there, nautilus especially.

True, Konqueror is superior to Nautilus, I'm not disputing that. But I feel 
that you are having a logical fallacy here. Just because Konqueror is a 
better filemanager than Nautilus is, does not mean that the sidebar-buttons 
are a better idea than Nautilus's implementation is. Just because Konqueror 
is overall better, does not mean that all the things in it are better ;). 
That said, it would be IMO even better, if the UI was less busy, and 
smoother.

> > A lot. I'm really looking forward to
> > KDE4, and I really, really hope that it delivers on this front. I would
> > guess that UI-changes like this are relatively easy to do, but for some
> > reason I feel that changes like these are the ones that would face the
> > most opposition...
>
> why?

Bikeshed.