rodgerdean.org

For those who know me in the community; I’m not one to change once I found something I like and am also comfortable with. For me this was KDE 3.5 from .5 to .9 release updates. With the decision from my distribution of choice to switch over to the latest implementation of KDE4 4.1.2 I decided that it was now time to switch desktops. The main reason is, I don’t see KDE 4 is currently at a place where I can say that I would be able to comfortably use on a daily basis, as well as the KDE4 extras are still being finished like Amarok, Konversation, Kaffeine. Now overall my distro has done a great job out of all distros, but KDE4 is still not for me at the moment.

So now over to Gnome 2.24, which since I last used it for a while has greatly improved and now has very similar features to what KDE 3.5.5 use to have. The gnome team have done an excellent job as well.

For browsers I still use Firefox 3.0.3, but Ephiphany seems to me more feature rich than Konqueror on KDE4. I can use Java and Flash plugins with much more ease. Ephiphany displays the online list on facebook which would not show on Konqueror.  Maybe I was missing a plugin for Konqueror. It just didn’t work for me.

Nautilus I have adapted to quite easily. I don’t find it much different to the old Konqueror on KDE 3.5.9 except opening network samba shares was slightly different as it didnt always open the domain or host to view the shares. I had to type the url in manually. But most features are almost identical. It didnt take me long to get used the interface and navigate through different settings and menu’s.

Instead of installing Amarok for KDE 3.5.10 I decided to go with Banshee 1.2.1 ( I decided this over Rhythmbox as I consider it to be quite lame). Banshee features are nice and not to different to that of Amarok. It also has an Itunes like feel to it. I was able to add my media and listen in no time. I didn’t miss Amarok at all.

For instant messenging I am now using pdigin over Kopete and for IRC, X chat over Konversation. My wife did miss Kopete though. But we all must adapt.

Now for the Desktop. It took a bit of getting use too.  The menues and windows in a seemed to spread more across the desktop in a flat 2 Dimensional way. I found this even if I removed one of the panels. I did miss a little how KDE used Kdesktop to set things up. It just felt more smoother to me. I also found the desktop look to me more flatter than on KDE 3.5.9. The Ia Ora theme did improve this over the default Gnome theme.  I suppose with a bit more playing around with themes I can get more bling.

So for now I will stick with my new Gnome 2.24 desktop. After 4 days I have adapted nicely. I can now do everything I did in KDE. I also opted to not even install any KDE 3.5.10 applications. Gnome will now be my desktop at least for the next six months.

TIme to celebrate.