Ordinarily, I'm a tolerably contented desktop user, spending about three-quarters of my time in KDE and the rest in GNOME, with occasional forays into other desktops. But in the last two weeks, I've been noticing irritations in every interface I've used.

Your Linux computer may have hundreds of applications installed. How can any system menu be organized sanely? How can anyone find anything? Bruce Byfield examines the different approaches taken by the Gnome and KDE teams to deal with this.

I used to think that Gnome 1.4 was the Last Good Gnome. Because when Gnome 2.0 came along, everything I liked was gone. It was dumbed-down to the point of unusability, and the roadmap called for yet more dumbing-down. So I switched to KDE for my main workstation, and IceWM, XFCE, and Blackbox for lower-powered PCs. For all these years I haven't seen much to like in Gnome.

Bruce Byfield has an interesting list of rebuttals for GNU-Linux myths. So here's a few thoughts to add to the points raised...

GNOME 2.28 was supposed to preview GNOME 3.0. But it hasn't quite turned out that way, and whether what is visible will leave users eagerly anticipating or uneasy and rebellious is still anybody's guess.

An important article has just been published by Bruce Byfield. It highlights conflicting roles and views in the ODF/OOXML debate, which divide Novell and GNOME, respectively. BoycottNovell.com is actually cited by Linux.com (not for the first time), the context being its views on OOXML, Mono, GNOME, Novell and whatever entwines them. Familiarisation with these issues is probably required.

Linux offers a wealth of graphical environments to choose from, from lean barebones window managers to massive colorful desktops full of applications and special effects. Which one is for you? Bruce Byfield compares XFCE, KDE, and Gnome.

Thanks for trying KDE 4.0.x and then writing about it. It's always great when people try something for a while and then give their honest opinion on things. I'd like to address some of the issues you raise, so let's start where you started:

Keep in mind: much of what I mention the below is done on purpose by design by the Gnome project, and aren’t necessarily bugs per se.