[YLUG] compatibility of Gnome and KDE

[Nicholas Thomas]

On Thursday 06 November 2008 20:16:15 nigel white wrote:
> Hi
>
> I'm still going strong with Ubuntu, following the install weekend.
>
> Newbie question coming up....
>
> I have Ubuntu 8.04 and Gnome. In general, can I run KDE programs or
> should I stay away from them? What is the general advice on this?
>
> Specifically, I have installed Krusader which says it is a "file manager
> for KDE (and other desktops)". It seems to work OK. On opening, it
> wanted to install a KDE Wallet to manage my passwords. Will that work?
>
> Many thanks
> Nigel


Hi Nigel,

Generally, they'll just work, although something like a KDE file manager might 
depend on various services that you wouldn't necessarily have installed. e.g., 
I wouldn't be too surprised if any attempt to use it with bluetooth or to 
access other weird URIs failed (you might not have the necessary KIO slaves 
installed, for instance). For easy stuff, it'd just work, and no doubt the 
crazier stuff could be convinced to work if you had the time to work at it.

Both KDE and GNOME try their best to follow freedesktop.org and other 
standards (where they exist), so you won't find any major crippling 
incompatibilities (e.g., they both have the same conception of a clipboard). 

What the question really boils down to is how much overhead you're willing to 
have, in order to run that single KDE application (plus all the libraries its 
using and external services it needs running) active on your GNOME desktop - 
because it's all by itself, the overhead is relatively large. That said, 
computers run fast enough these days that you probably won't notice.

I do the exact opposite to what you do, btw - KDE4 with a couple of GNOME 
applications where needed. 

/Nick