Only really ever used the GMail plasmaoid, really (gotta say, I do miss that, as well)

KAMiKAZOW wrote:

Dante Ashton wrote:Sorry chaps, I've left KDE for GNOME.

Then go.
Nobody cares.

Hi

The answers prove that there are some that DO care.
Dante, I think, does not want to leave KDE. He likes KDE, but he faces KDE's issues as us all.
You care too, otherwise you wouldn't bother to write an answer

Peace.

Well,

KDE4 is a revolution. As any radical change, it has its costs.
If I was in KDE's devs team, I would look first for performance and stability issues.
Any DE has its target. I have used MacOSX and I was very happy with its interface. Nothing gets in the way, all comes naturally, there is not much to setup, it learns. It is good for users not related to IT. It is built for productivity.
Gnome is also simple and stable. It gives the solid rock feeling.
KDE is for geeks. For people loving customization. They need know-how. It's like Linux itself. Pluggable and dynamic. To me it is like Microsoft's products. If the developers of gadgets, for example, follow 'the rules', anything goes fine. Otherwise... A quality audit process should be done first.
I would take the good features from others and implement them. I would set polls for knowing the needs.
Sometime, IMHO, KDE4 goes too far.
To have shortcuts and applets implementing shortcuts, for example, looks crazy to me. Better to have it than missing it, yet...

Dante,

I think you don't want to give up KDE. You are just dissatisfied for what it is at a quality level nowadays. Any software has its bugs and issues. Be involved. Report bugs on KDE's site, comment on what you want and how you need implemented in KDE. They will listen. Be happy, you can be involved in the project and contribute. You can help improving and you could even get from KDE what you need more or less.
I have been using MS stuff for years, and they never give a damn on my opinion. They ever better know what do I want to do. That's frustrating.

I am happy to use such open environments as KDE, Gnome, XFCE.

BTW, are you 100% sure that your PCs are alright? Maybe they have some hardware malfunction. RAM issues give the strangest behaviors. I've seen once on Windows one sign only - the time setting dialog was half-sized. Nothing else. It depends on how the programs are loaded in the memory and if they reach the damaged zone often.

I don't, and to say I'm completely ignoring KDE is a lie

I still read KDE.News and Planet KDE, I still prefer KDE's featureset, but I just prefer GNOME's stabilty. I haven't had to reinstall my laptop for months.

Still, I look towards the future, and I hope to embrace KDE again with open arms

Dante Ashton wrote:I haven't had to reinstall my laptop for months.

Neither have I; I did chose to reinstall it when openSUSE 11.3 came out but I didn't have to. Everything was running fine as it always had with 11.2.

@Dante Ashton
Regarding your comments about possible hardware conflicts. I would tend to agree that certain hardware combinations do indeed affect certain versions of software.

This may be why KDE and GNOME implementations differ in terms of stability. It would be interesting to know the hardware combinations lineup of those writing and testing the software. Very expensive and fast hardware may be the best for writing and compiling software but testing of that same software needs to be done on less sophisticated machinery where all the warts have a chance of showing up.

There are Hardware Compatibility Lists for Linux but these lists only relate to individual hardware items and not combinations of hardware. Most new users dont bother reading them anyway and when Linux falls over they blame Linux.

For me. I too prefer Gnome but only because it allows for an Appliance user mentality and I can get stuff done without worrying about crashing.

KDE is very attractive as a DE but I have tried switching to KDE on occasion and each time, things don't work after a while and I revert to Gnome. It may well be down to my hardware combination but I don't have the time to find out. My hardware items conform to the HCL.

While there has been bugs in KDE4. Many which have been annoying to less annoying. Every software that is developed will suffer from bugs. KDE4 took a big chance and did everything pretty much from scratch with a major overhaul. If KDE4 didn't do it, it would still be as stabled as GNOME. But, in my option that is where GNOME and KDE4 are set apart. GNOME doesn't take risks to give users it's wants and needs. GNOME users are happy with all the lack luster stuff and minimalistic results and features as long as it is stabled. KDE4 wants to give users more innovated needs like Solid, Plasma, Phonon etc. Sure things may break here and there. But, take a look at what KDE4 has become now through it's many releases of it. It has gotten a major stability and feature full list. I rather deal with a few bugs here and there than have nothing to really change on there and having missing features. But, then again that is my opinion.

GNOME is far from 100%, though you'll have to work hard to try and break it.

KDE (I haven't tried 4.5 stable yet) does seem to have accidents even if you just leave it alone.

I will come back, at one point; but right now I just can't see that happening when I need a computer I can rely on.

I was quite happy with the stable-ness of 4.4.x (almost no crashes at all), but 4.5 seems to have become slightly less stable. Sometimes KWin crashes and if I leave it overnight once it froze when I came back in the morning. However I'm personally very excited with the Activities manager and the ability to assign windows to activities and now can't wait for more things to work with activities. However for me KDE is something I can rely on.

Gz Dante,

Comparing GNOME to KDE by the way is like
comparing German to French Car

You have chosen wisely.
No disrespect to KDE users, I too was kde long time ago, now proud Gnome user

Do you have specific suggestions about how to improve KDE, or specific areas where KDE is deficient, or specific things you prefer about Gnome?

After the 4.5.3 version i have again the feeling that i control my computeur. I think if you realy like this enviroment wait a little more. I am sure you will not regret it.

Dante Ashton wrote:
Seriously, if I didn't have so many problems with KNetworkManager, and so many crashes, I seriously wouldnt of left.

Anyway, toodles!

Good lord, just use nm-applet under KDE.

Damnshock wrote:

Dante Ashton wrote:
Seriously, if I didn't have so many problems with KNetworkManager, and so many crashes, I seriously wouldnt of left.

Anyway, toodles!

Good lord, just use nm-applet under KDE.

Yes, indeed..... seems like a banal reason to abandon any DE