flamebait :) (KDE vs. Gnome)
ok, I know this question might easily degenerate into an unseemly flame war, but I am actually curious to hear about people's recent experiences with KDE vs. Gnome.
The reason I ask is b/c my sister's (not an experienced Linux user by any means) laptop should soon be fully operational, at which point I will need to install an OS for her (Ubuntu or Kubuntu, unless someone has good reasons for me to consider something else).
Personally, I have always used Gnome. I am used to it and I am aware of some of its weaknesses and how to bypass them. Unfortunately, some of those weaknesses involve the Network Manager, which my sister would be using a lot as she is hopping wireless networks.
On the other hand I have never used KDE. I am fully aware of KDE's technical awesomeness, but I lack any first hand usability/stability/performance info.
I am also not that accustomed to actually using the GUI tools, since I always do everything I need from the command line. Although this works very well for me, it does make me a poor judge of what desktop environment would be best for a person that has practically zero interest in learning how to troubleshoot her computer.
Besides, this is a PR issue after all :). She will be out and about with that laptop mingling with her non-technical compatriots. I don't want the impression that people get of her experience with Linux to be that of constant troubleshooting, things not working and being difficult to use.
So, have any of you, my esteemed denizens of the linux community, had any experience with KDE recently? How well does it handle hopping wifi networks and bouncing from connected to disconnected mode? (Gnome likes to freeze the desktop at this point under some circumstances). Is the memory footprint significantly larger due to Qt? How is the responsiveness? (btw, this is an IBM T60 Thinkpad that I will be installing on).
Any info and opinions would be greatly appreciated.
The reason I ask is b/c my sister's (not an experienced Linux user by any means) laptop should soon be fully operational, at which point I will need to install an OS for her (Ubuntu or Kubuntu, unless someone has good reasons for me to consider something else).
Personally, I have always used Gnome. I am used to it and I am aware of some of its weaknesses and how to bypass them. Unfortunately, some of those weaknesses involve the Network Manager, which my sister would be using a lot as she is hopping wireless networks.
On the other hand I have never used KDE. I am fully aware of KDE's technical awesomeness, but I lack any first hand usability/stability/performance info.
I am also not that accustomed to actually using the GUI tools, since I always do everything I need from the command line. Although this works very well for me, it does make me a poor judge of what desktop environment would be best for a person that has practically zero interest in learning how to troubleshoot her computer.
Besides, this is a PR issue after all :). She will be out and about with that laptop mingling with her non-technical compatriots. I don't want the impression that people get of her experience with Linux to be that of constant troubleshooting, things not working and being difficult to use.
So, have any of you, my esteemed denizens of the linux community, had any experience with KDE recently? How well does it handle hopping wifi networks and bouncing from connected to disconnected mode? (Gnome likes to freeze the desktop at this point under some circumstances). Is the memory footprint significantly larger due to Qt? How is the responsiveness? (btw, this is an IBM T60 Thinkpad that I will be installing on).
Any info and opinions would be greatly appreciated.
