this might be overkill but did a uni paper on it so here it is
“There are two principal graphical front-ends used on Linux desktop machines, namely Gnome and KDE. Write an essay entitled "Gnome and KDE" in which you compare and contrast the two technologies.”
Gnome and KDE are two free desktop environments for the Linux family developed by a collective of people/companies, and this is one of the few similarities between the two. The first difference I will look at is the different approaches to how they are developed and supported because I feel that these different approaches are the cause of most the other difference.
KDE is developed by a organised group of users each contributing pieces which are then put together to create the whole desktop environment. They have only recently incorporated companies into the “KDE community” in the form of the KDE League. (which includes Borland, HP and IBM) This exists only to provided funding for advertising and promotion, and are not included in development decisions. Gnome however is run by a group of influential companies including IBM, Redhat and Sun Microsystems and many more, these form the Gnome Foundation that oversee the entire development process.
This give Gnome a far more corporate edge and there have been suggestions in the past that the companies have tried to use Gnome for economic gain. This I feel is the core cause for their many similarities and differences, the different approaches and view points of the users and the large companies. Both have their advantages, having users develop it means that they have a far better grasp of what the average person requires, and do not need to use methods like focus groups etc. However the companies are some of the leaders in the field so they will have some of the brightest and best minds in the field and have far more money available.
The first major difference is that KDE has specially made programs created expressly for KDE at the heart of the desktop, while gnome uses existing programs that have been ported or slightly adapted for most of the major functions including the window manager and the desktop. Gnome supporters would say you are using tried and tested software while KDE supporters would say it is better to have something costume made as it suits the system better.
This is just one of the many points that caused a threat of fractioning that was set to tear the Linux community into two and become the new Windows/Mac of the computer community. This however was avoided by careful co-operation between the core groups to stop this happening. Many people say that they have nearly merged and the differences lessoned greatly in the past couple of year. However I feel that there are still many difference even if they are more in the look and feel than in the core programming as it used to be.
This is what this essay is going to look at, trying to find the differences that still exist today.
Window mangers is one of the big differences as I have already discussed they both take different approaches, KDE specially designed and created windows mangers while traditional Gnome has used pre existing window mangers. Users can choose from a number of Gnome compatible software, including Sawfish, IceWin and FVWM to name but a few, the default window manger changes regular with the different versions. This makes it hard to compare Gnome’s window manger to anything because it can be any one of many. This could be seen as an advantage as most users like to have a choice however there is benefit to the one windows manger.
These include:
- extremely efficient in coding (no need for compatibility with more then one environment)
- designed by the same group of people who made the system so know exactly what it can do and how to do it best.
- Has had time to evolve and with most problems being easily ironed out and found easier (more people using it that can do something about it)