I liked KDE3 when it was released, though I thought it was a little clunky, I liked it even more when it reached the later stages like 3.6 and beyond. KDE 4.x has some nice features, and some of the loved features from 3.x are not there yet. I don't know if they will ever be, but as an engineering example, with KDE4.2 still really in the development phase, albeit the later phase, it is fabulous when compared to some of the other proprietary offerings out there. Kudos to the devs and to the testers.

I might get some flak here because I personally have not used it full time because I have been watching the opinions roll out and trying to read through the lines to filter out the emotive content and focus on the engineering aspect, i.e., where it sits as far as a fully operational DE is concerned. In every situation where opinions are expressed, such as that from Linus, I treat them all the same and I reserve the right to make my own decision as to what I really think about any given subject until I have personally had a full experience through personal interaction or use.

I am not fond of Gnome, but I think it is a very nice DE, it's got some really nice features, but it's just not for me because I like to have more power at my fingertips, esp the right click. The smaller DE's do not provide that level of control, so I opt for KDE. I am still using KDE3.10 because I like it and I know without a shadow of a doubt that there will come a day when I will have to switch. That may be at 4.3, or even later.

My only hope is the devs will make it possible to very easily turn off some of the features that are not desired. KDE3 has a first run wizard. Please excuse my ignorance, but does KDE4.x have such a thing?

Mike P