[SC.LUG] GUIs

[Giacomo Lacava]

On 11/09/2007, Matthew Tolley <matthew at matthewtolley.com> wrote:

> 1)      Are all these GUIs equally 'open'?

can't say for Symphony, but certainly KDE and GNOME these days are
equally open. It used to be that KDE was based on non-free libraries,
but QT has since been relicensed as GPL so that doesn't stand anymore.

> 2)      Are they all equally stable?

They are both mature projects, stable as projects of that size can be.
Please people don't flame.

> 3)      Is XFCE really the fastest of the three?

XFCE can feel faster because it only offers a subset of what GNOME and
KDE make available. If that subset is good enough for you... You'll
see that "fast" is often a very subjective topic. You'd better choose
on other parameters (like preferred behaviour, shortcuts, etc)

> 4)      If I move to XFCE, does it restrict my software options in any way?
> Or can I still use Gnome- and K- based applications?

chances are you'll probably have to install gnome libraries (usually
for firefox) and kde libraries (for amarok etc) anyway, so no, it
won't restrict your choice. It won't free space on your hd though: you
can certainly live without xfce, but without gnome and/or kde libs is
really tough these days.

> 5)      Can I move between GUIs without doing an OS reinstall?

yes. just edit your startx or your login manager (gdm, kdm....)
configuration. In linux, window manager and OS are two separate
entities.

cheers
-- 
Giacomo Lacava