Today was a day full of meetings so I have been on this machine pretty much non-stop. It is even nearing one AM and I’m still here.. what a day.
During my full day on the computer things just didn’t feel right. I kept feeling restless, like I needed to tweak something or configure something but didn’t even know where to start. After the whirlwind of suggestions everyone had I just had so many options.. and it was all a little overwhelming. In any event I have decided that I am going to return to gnome when my term is done this week. Below I have some of the key reasons:
- No sound. I could not figure out why, and perhaps it is a limitation of Feisty + Kubuntu but I never could get more than the system speaker to come through. Trying a side-by-side installation of Feisty + Ubuntu and the sound works just fine. Also works in Xubuntu Feisty. Same machine. Same version. No sound.
- Garbage. Can someone tell me where in the world the trash is stored on KDE? I swear I looked all over the place and never could find it. I’d have deleted a few things, realize I need them again and have no idea where to go. The small trash icon in the gnome menu makes that pretty simple.
- Too Much. Everyone was quite right. You can tweak *everything* in KDE and for me that became a distraction. Do I want this little (read: insignificant) style / tweak / theme here? Maybe there? Maybe rotating. So many choices. I guess I’m just a simple guy. I like my desktop environment the way I like everything else. Not a lot of frills. Just effecient.
I know some of you will be disappointed that I didn’t stay. You all tried very hard to keep me there and I do appreciate all of the help that you offered. Without the help and suggestions I would have had a much more difficult week. Thank you.
Here are a few of the lessons that I learned over the past week:
- Integration. KDE has a very mature integration system in place for apps to communicate with each other. I think this is very nice and helps make for a good overall experience one app to the next.
- Development. KDE apps really opened my eyes to some cool features and options that I hadn’t ever dreamed of. Things like katapult, klipper, yakuake (say it with me, Yet Another Kuake–that’s the only way I could ever remember!) were all very cool and I hadn’t used anything like them before. Thanks to your suggestions I have found the gnome counterparts with glipper and tilda.
- Simplicity. In seeing how the other half live for a while I have realized what it is that I like. I like simplicity. I don’t like a lot of frills or a long list of options. I like to have choice, but not feel like I have to choose.. if that makes sense.
- Kmail vs Evolution. I did realize that I really like the way Evolution handles my email vs Kmail. Kontact did make a very good effort but it just wasn’t everything I wanted.
I am going to put myself to bed now but I wanted to get this out first. Day 6 with KDE was the day I realized what I really like, and I didn’t truly appreciate it until I saw how the other half live for a week. The best part of this whole experiment? I’m reminded again why open source is so amazing. It offers you choice. It gives you the freedom to do things the way you want, whatever that might be. With that I hope we all remember that we use what we do by choice and so does the next guy, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to tear down one vs another if you remember that. G’night.
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