Re: What is GNOME and Getting some real data on users

[Dave Neary <dneary free fr>]

Hi Claus,

Selon Claus Schwarm <c schwarm gmx net>:
> "A typical GNOME user seems to avoid KDE applications as the devil
> avoids holy water. Vice versa, a typical KDE user tends to avoid Gtk+ or
> Gnome-based applications. This creates unhealthy pressure to clone any
> good idea that shows up in one camp, which in turns creates lesser
> friendly feelings towards each other."
>
> I agree to this observation but what I'd be interested in: Why is this
> so?

I suspect the reason is partially technical - when you start a KDE or GNOME
application, you load big chunks of desktop infrastructure into memory. Running
a couple of GNOME apps on your KDE desktop is roughly equivalent to running KDE
and GNOME together, at the same time. So everything slows down, and the user
experience is not as nice.

Abstracting chunks of functionality to freedesktop, and sharing infrastructure
between KDE and GNOME is one way to reduce this issue.

> 1. Beauty: Changing a theme for one toolkit usually means to manually
> find a similar theme for the other toolkit and manually set it up. But
> themes don't change some things, for example the tree widgets.

There is that, as well. In general, KDE apps don't look well on a GNOME desktop,
and vice versa.

> 2. Confusion: If you are used to one buttom order, apps that use the
> other one, can be irritating.

This will be less of an issue over the coming months. In CVS, the GIMP already
respects the GTK+ "alternative button ordering" preference, which allows KDE
users to specify a preference in their gtkrc.

> 4. Low ressources: If you don't have a lot of memory on your system,
> running both QT and GTK can slow up your system.

This is the one which has most affected me.

> Questions, I'd be interested in: Is there any other possible answer not
> mentioned yet? Which of these answers is the most important? Is there a
> difference in jugdement about these reasons between "experienced" user
> and starters?

I think there's a part religion in it too. The Ks versus the Gs.

Cheers,
Dave.

--
Dave Neary
Lyon, France