KDE 4.6 vs GNOME 3.0
KDE 4.6 and GNOME 3.0 are competing desktops for GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems. Both are free software.
Contents |
[edit] Usage History
For several years, GNOME has been the most popular free software desktop, while KDE has been the second. GNOME has been the default desktop for the three most popular GNU/Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora) as well as many of their derivatives.
[edit] Shift in GNOME Support from Major Distributions
Despite their longstanding use of GNOME 2.x, Ubuntu has not committed to using GNOME shell (the most visible change coming out in GNOME 3); Ubuntu has chosen to create an alternative to the GNOME shell called Unity. Linux Mint 11 (Katya) will ship GNOME 3 (but without GNOME shell) as its default desktop environment - so its appearance will continue to be like previous versions of Linux Mint. Fedora includes GNOME 3 with GNOME shell.
[edit] KDE Support
KDE 4.6, meanwhile, has added features and polish to what was already a successful KDE 4.5 desktop. Community-supported editions of Fedora, Mint, and Ubuntu already provide a polished KDE4 experience. Prominent distributions that focus primarily on KDE as their interface include OpenSuSE.
[edit] Popular Applications
Many of the free software world's most popular applications are neither designed for GNOME nor KDE, and work equally well on either. Software that is often used with KDE, GNOME, and other free software desktops includes OpenOffice/LibreOffice, Firefox, and Chromium.
