[Scottish] Which distro

[Alistair J. Ross]

Out of my stinker of a flamebait I only get one retort? Poor show!

> I think you mean spatial vs browser.  Now that I am used to spatial I
> don't think I could give it up.  Browser mode is still supported, you
> can enable it in the preferences.

Yep, I mean spatial vs browser. I know you can switch it off. It's hidden in 
some horrid menu that I have to go to the Gnome website every time I wanna 
find out how to switch off. Spatial browsing makes no sense to a normal user 
either - ask my dad; he much preferred KDE's file manager.

> Not sure what you mean here, my Fedora Core 6 system has very nice
> integrated menus.

I mean that the System / Applications menu make no sense. I hate Red Hat / 
Fedora so I can't vouch for what they did with it, but I think it's fairly 
different from the Ubuntu/default Gnome way of doing it - doesn't the Fedora 
gnome menus etc look similar to the KDE setup?

> I would say the same thing about KDE and QT :-)

That's coz you are using Fedora. They uglified it there. Use Kubuntu, tis a 
much better distro all round. Yum is a pathetic hack of apt etc, etc. But 
thats a different argument.

> GNOME does the right thing for burning CDs, pop in a blank CD and it
> asks if you want to burn files to it.  From Nautilus (the file manager)
> I can right click on files or directories and burn them to CD, this also
> works for ISO images.

Maybe now it does, but it didn't do it very well for a long time - Last time I 
used Gnome, they had just integrated cd burning into nautilus which was 
pretty flaky and it didn't do audio cds or multi-session etc, etc. I haven't 
heard from the gnome world that this isn't the case so I think that's 
particularly guff in that department. 

> GNOME isn't perfect with iPods.

GNOME isn't perfect for a great many things. That's why I switched. It's too 
much of a hassle to get working. KDE mainly 'just works'.

> It sounds like you haven't used a recent GNOME desktop, perhaps you
> should give a recent Ubuntu or Fedora Core a try.

Admittedly no, I have given up on gnome for the forseeable. I last used it 
properly with Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary). I might have used it for a while on 5.10 
but it was around then when I switched. 

> > The end :)

> Never, from debating the merits of GNOME and KDE we can move onto Emacs
> vs VI, Bourne Shell vs C Shell, C vs C++, Mono/C# vs Java. etc etc :-)

That's easy:

* ViM rules. 
Emacs is a stinky pile of bloat reserved for hairy, sandle wearing hippies.

* Bourne Shell.
C shell is just a shell on crack.

* I don't code in Either C or C++, nor Mono/C# so I can't really say for 
those. 

Enjoy!

Ali


On Tuesday 05 December 2006 22:01, Keith Sharp wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-12-05 at 19:13 +0000, Alistair J. Ross wrote:
> > To answer all queries in one rather long rant-ish email:
> >
> > * ion is indeed a fantastic wm. I prefer it's predecessor, pwm however,
> > and when I need a very fast lightweight desktop, that's what I still use.
> > I have a website-shrine dedicated to pwm: http://pwm.aliross.co.uk
> >
> > * Enough of that twaddle - what you wanted to know was why do I think KDE
> > is better than Gnome?
> >
> > I've used both Gnome and KDE since their very early incarnations (KDE 1,
> > first version of Gnome etc). I used KDE first of all, because that came
> > first (if memory serves). I thought it was pretty slow and it wasn't too
> > usable in some areas. I felt that things got worse in KDE2 on the
> > slowness factor as well (however I was using a PII or the likes at the
> > time). I used multiple desktops (including ion!) inbetween for a while,
> > and then plonked for Gnome.
> >
> > Whilst on the whole, I have no severe disaffection for Gnome, and for the
> > people that use it, however, I find that I often end up asking myself two
> > questions when I use it:
> >
> > 	1) That makes NO sense! Why the hell did the developers do that? It's
> > not logical to do this? (eg: WTF is Behavioural browsing? Why do I want
> > it?)
>
> I think you mean spatial vs browser.  Now that I am used to spatial I
> don't think I could give it up.  Browser mode is still supported, you
> can enable it in the preferences.
>
> > 	2) Why is everything not integrated into easy to find/use menus, why is
> > it strewn between programs that have weird names.
>
> Not sure what you mean here, my Fedora Core 6 system has very nice
> integrated menus.
>
> > Oh - and why is it so ugly, despite all the things that Red Hat / Ubuntu
> > etc have tried to do to make it look nicer. GTK2 *is* nasty-looking.
>
> I would say the same thing about KDE and QT :-)
>
> > Let's take CD burning as example 1 of how KDE is better:
> >
> > If I use KDE, and I want to burn a CD, I pop a blank in, it pops up with
> > a cd burner. Good. Last time I did that with Gnome, it had no bloody idea
> > what to do with it. I spent hours tweaking the program 'Graveman???' to
> > get the cd burning working.
>
> GNOME does the right thing for burning CDs, pop in a blank CD and it
> asks if you want to burn files to it.  From Nautilus (the file manager)
> I can right click on files or directories and burn them to CD, this also
> works for ISO images.
>
> > And for example 2, My Ipod:
> >
> > plugging in the ipod in KDE remarks, "Open up ipod, or do nothing", click
> > on Open up Ipod and then you can see all your tunes in Amarok. simply
> > drag the music you want to the ipod from your collection and then click
> > transfer.
> >
> > In gnome - you use a selection of tools, gtkpod being the best I believe.
> > The last time I used that fugly piece of turdware I ended up installing
> > kubuntu in frustration, just to see what KDE was like in 3.5. Gtkpod
> > never mounted my ipod properly once and when i mounted via command line,
> > it would unmount it corrupt via the interface after transferring the
> > tunes. Bad, broken software that works on some pcs, but not others, is
> > not welcome on my pc. KDE stuff generally has more options, is more
> > mature than Gnome apps, and works faster.
>
> GNOME isn't perfect with iPods.  When I plug in my iPod it automatically
> appears on my desktop as a USB storage device, and I can browse and
> create files on it.  If I launch Rhythmbox (music library application
> like iTunes) my iPod appears and I can browse and play all of the music.
> Where I am let down, with Rhythmbox 0.9.5, is that I cannot drag and
> drop music from my computer to my iPod.  I believe this is supported in
> more recent versions.
>
> > Don't take my word for it, listen to the words of Linus Torvalds himself,
> > or the recent critique on KDE vs Gnome in Linux Format.
>
> I am not sure that being a low-level kernel hacker gives someones views
> of desktop usability any more credibility :-)  I don't read Linux Format
> so I cannot comment on their review.
>
> > Gnome sucks. Plain and simple. It's ugly and its never worked quite
> > right. KDE is almost there, although I don't understand why they use such
> > stupid names for all their software!
>
> It sounds like you haven't used a recent GNOME desktop, perhaps you
> should give a recent Ubuntu or Fedora Core a try.
>
> In fact if you take the above sentence and swap GNOME and KDE about and
> you would have a reasonable statement of my opinion :-)
>
> > The end :)
>
> Never, from debating the merits of GNOME and KDE we can move onto Emacs
> vs VI, Bourne Shell vs C Shell, C vs C++, Mono/C# vs Java. etc etc :-)
>
> Keith.
>
>
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