OpenSUSE defaults to KDE

OpenSUSE is defaulting to the KDE desktop in the installation process beginning with the next release and onwards. An announcement of the switch was made Thursday via a mailing list posting by product manager Michael Löffler. Although SUSE Linux has historically been a major backer of KDE, the desktop environment was given …

[steogede]

In the old days of SuSE

In the old days of SuSE, I could never decide which amazed me more; the amount of effort the put into making the KDE experience nice (latest version, well integrated) or the amount effort they put in to making the GNOME experience painful (old versions with no integration).

I for one hope that OpenSUSE put as much effort into making the KDE experience pleasant, as they did in old SuSE days.

[Charles King]

Let's see, shall we

The article announcing that Win7 would ship in Europe without IE got 129 comments - and that's for a change in the browser alone.

OTOH, a major Linux distro changing it's entire default UI? I guess this will get 5 or 6, perhaps 10 if you're lucky...

[Goat Jam]

Lucky dip!

Why don't they just randomise it . . .

[PReDiToR]

As you say ...

SUSE was always a KDE focused distro. One of the reasons for it being a great way to get "into Linux" was the familiarity for converts from the proprietary OS world.

I started out on SUSE, and still recommend openSUSE to people as a first distro even though I'm a Gentoo guy these days.

Better than *buntu IMHO.

.RPM > .DEB.

[J 3]

Equal citizens?

Yeah, right. The default seems to always be less buggy and better polished. Take (K)Ubuntu, for example. I run the latest of Kubuntu (KDE) at home, and the latest of Ubuntu (Gnome) at work. Even in the days of KDE 3.x, Kubuntu was always a little rougher around the edges than the standard, Gnome-running version. It is still the same with KDE 4.x.

[Neoc]

Question:

I know I'm probably going to regret asking this, but...

...what's the difference between KDE and Gnome?

[Loki 1]

Good news

I'm a big fan of Gnome and KDE i have never particularly liked, but i think it is great news (even if just the switch of a default).

By switching the default many users will select and ensures that Suse do indeed keep it as a well maintained as Gnome. And, of course, it does mean there is another major distro with KDE as default which can only be good news as its important that in the linux world there is plenty of choice. I think recently too many distros were focusing on Gnome.

[Steve Button]

Shocking news!

I cannot believe this. This is going to change the world, and I'm surprised it's not hit the national newspapers yet. I think Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer will be quaking in their boots about this coming tsunami and will inevitably have to join forces to conquer this new threat.

[Tim Parker]

Eh ?

Hasn't OpenSuSE always defaulted to KDE ? I stopped actively using SuSE and OpenSuSE after the 10.1 fiasco but i've done a few installs for people since then and don't remember picking anything other than the defaults for the desktop environment, which comes up as KDE... or so I thought...

[vegister]

good for KDE

given the choice i always prefer .deb based distros but credit to opensuse for this. Somebody needs to champion KDE (especially when kubuntu has the feel of a half baked afterthought) and opensuse seem to do it the slickest. lets hope some more KDE4 papercuts get fixed in the process

[The BigYin]

Man, I wish I had more time...

...to learn about Linux. I discovered yesterday that my problems with multi-display is down to a "feature" of Gnome (it always puts the menu bars on Screen 0 - this is not configurable). Of course, it is X that is telling which screen is "Screen 0" - this is also not configurable (as far as I know). Why does Linux make it so hard some times? Surely being able to state what screen you want the menu bars on is *basic* functionality? And the whole X "virtual desktop" thing is utter shit. Unless you are *very* careful, you'll wind up with one screent hat either has poor resolution or wants to pan around constantly.

Anyway, I looked at OpenSUSE once (I usually stay in the Ubuntu paddling pool) and it looked really slick, but KDE gives me hives. Every time I've tried to use it, it hangs or crashes. Maybe it's my cack-handed fiddling, but it just doens't seem as stable or easy to use as Gnome, which is a bit of a shame as those "plasmoids" can do some pretty neat stuff. Oh yeah, and I can't get compiz to work on KDE at all.

It's nice to read about a distro moving forward, maybe one day they'll become usuable by a mere mortal like me.

[Grease Monkey]

About time too

Gnome is looking pretty outdated and clunky against the lastest versions of KDE, OSX and Windoze and as a result using it as the default UI is making Linux look old hat too. Now to those of us who live in the real world a UI like Gnome is all you need, but in consumer land bells and whistles are everything. So if Linux wants to compete in consumer land it needs the bells and whistles and KDE4 can provide them.

I'm not saying that this means Gnome should be dumped, it's solid and reliable and does the job. But maybe if a few more distros default to KDE it will give the Gnome developers the impetus they need to add the bells and whistles. Hopefully without breaking the good bits.

I know there are fanbois out there who will argue that you can add the bells and whistles to Gnome, but the average consumer isn't going to be capable or willing to jump through those hoops.

[alien anthropologist]

Gnome sucks..

.. and that's all there is to it. Even Linus have had a spat with the Gnome team over the idiotic user interface concepts of Gnome.

(typing this on a KDE desktop using Compiz as window manager)

[Anonymous Coward]

meh

I hate KDE, but I hate SuSe too. Sadly, I have to use both, working on a project which is dependant on both. It's a bit annoying to have the young 'uns swearing at "Linux" when actually what's sucking like an industrial vacuum cleaner is SuSe (YaST takes longer to do nothing on an 8 core Xeon machine than anything that I've ever seen).

Ah well, I will grumpily stroke my (virtual) beard, and go play with my rack full of Debian boxes from my Umbongo desktop...

[Christopher Rogers]

SUSE does Gnome?

Of all of the SUSE installs i have done, i have never once used gnome - usually because it defaults to kde....

I honestly think SUSE with KDE will be the closest thing to Windows 7 for the Linux world. It will be the nearest point where a user could jump from Windows 7 to linux.

[Anonymous Coward]

For those who doubt El Reg's copyright

You seem to think the two situations are comparable and would show up just how few people care about linux, but you'd be wrong. For a start, there is only one Windows, but several equally popular linux distros, the differences between them are largely in the presentation and emphasis on different features, targetting different audiences. OpenSuse is just one distro and lets say for the sake of argument that it's the choice of just 1 in 10 linux users which is a more than fair figure.

Then you are equating a decision to switch the default desktop, while still offering a choice, to the decision by Microsoft to not install IE by default. The latter is monumental since it has been the subject of anti-trust cases for years in multiple countries and continents, it's been an epic battle which has finally achieved one of it's ultimate goals. Do you not think it normal for people to discuss a moment which has been the subject of regular debate and news coverage for over ten years?

You sir, are a troll.

[stizzleswick]

*shrug*

So they've changed the pre-set for a radio button. SuSE has, long as I can remember, had the best KDE integration of all distributions (and definitely the slickest admin tools - I'm a huge YAST2 fan). Personally, after the stability and maybe somewhat old-fashioned functionality of KDE 3.5, I am still somewhat underwhelmed by the playground feeling of KDE 4 (and I really, really miss a whole bunch of desktop configuration options that used to be there in earlier versions...), but back to the topic at hand: this is hardly world-shaking news. One radio button preset changed, that's all. Buy the other option with one click. I think Amazon has a patent on that, though.

It's friday, I'm thirsty. Cheers!

[KeGoMacK]

Just make it work

I don't care about whether Gnome or KDE is the default: I'd change it to KDE anyway. I just want a version that works. OpenSUSE 11.1 was a complete disaster from my perspective.

BTW @Charles King: I suggest we've already exceeded your estimates by some way!

[Chika]

KDE for me

I'll admit it. I've been using SuSE since around V6 (I switched from Red Hat V5.2), and have been using KDE for nearly as long. I did try Gnome, but I wasn't that impressed with it.

Having said that, some of what has been filtering through from openSUSE lately (see their website for details), for example the decision to change the support period for prior versions and the continued lack of long term support, I am less happy with the onset of 11.2 than I was with 11.1, just as I still have my concerns about KDE4 over KDE3.

But if it is a matter of a radio button during installation, what's the problem? Just change it!

@KeGoMacK - In what way is 11.1 a complete disaster? I've installed it on more than one machine and also use the LiveCD as a rescue disc for other machines and, aside from the continued problem with KDE3 and NTFS mounting which has been there since 10.3 AFAICR, I've not noticed any disaster.

[Anonymous Coward]

@For those who doubt El Reg's copyright

Sorry, the title of that comment should have been "@Charles King", the browser auto-complete changed it to that of an earlier post I made.

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the difference

Neoc,

To answer your question...

They are two slightly different version of the UI/desktop to ensure that once you have sussed one then you have to remember the differences for the other one. It's because Linux has to have more than one version of everything so that everyone can argue about which is best (see comments above for examples).

It's the kind of thing that Microsoft love as it prevents the Linux world getting on with the real job of providing one good alternative to Windows rather than two almost good versions.

Posting anonymously to prevent weirdos finding where I live.....

http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/jobs_horns_32.png

[mike panero]

i wish i could...

digg up the AC who said Linux needs more than one of everything so it can argue

I wish GNOME would just fuck off and die

[Nuno Silva]

Good for OpenSuSE

This is good for OpenSuSE. Nowadays it's easier to have a nice Gnome desktop (lots of distros work in that area), so I think that Gnome support wont suffer. OpenSuSE's KDE support has been great and now it may just become better.

KDE4 is leaving beta status, so the timing is perfect too :-)

For me DEB > RPM && Qt > GTK && KDE > Gnome, so it's a hard choice. We'll see.

[Rex Alfie Lee]

Gnomorons

Gnome is fine & isn't the problem, KDE also isn't the problem, rather the morons who support one team over the other. Until we decide to get behind anyone who will promote Linux & that includes Gnome as well as KDE, various other desktops also, then the rest of the user world will look upon us as zealots, just like the Shi'ite Muslims. Not all Shi'ites are murderers but the ones most of us hear about are. Those zealots who discriminate between versions of Linux & versions of the desktop are major buttheads.

Ubuntu is great as is OpenSuSE, as is Fedora, Mandriva, Debian, Xandros, Slackware, so on & so forth. All of these differing versions, yes I know some are based on another, have given something towards the movement. Are you by debunking the capability of one or other of the selections built? Perhaps what they're offering isn't perfect or even suitable for home or office use right now but later on, like much of the Open-Source movement even the not-so-hot stuff developed for Linux has become a rich piece of software or become a part of something different to what it is now. Does that make it bad? I think NOT!

If OpenSuSE gets one of the others to Linux then it's a major win, if it's Fedora or Ubuntu, it's a major win. If KDE or Gnome get you in, that's great, if it's XFCE, Compiz's UI settings or Enlightenment, then wonderful. Get off your wanker-high-horse & do something for Linux rather than be part of the problem.

Criticising whichever distro or desktop someone else uses is as childish as the old my car's better than yours, even though each car does a different job. We all want Linux to prevail over Windoze & MAC but it won't whilst there's an argument over which parts we think are crap. All those others see is Linux is crap. Whose to blame? You's to blame. Be part of the solution rather than the problem.

[Matthew 17]

Good news

Suse was always my preferred distro and I really liked their KDE tweaks, when they switched to Gnome as the default the whole thing seemed less polished. The latest version of KDE4 isn't bad (still a little clunky in places) so hopefully given that they decided to wait a bit longer before releasing Suse 11.2 I'm hoping that when it does ship it'll restore my faith in that particular distro.

Incidentally never met a Suse-hater that actually knew how to use the management tools that come with it so they usually just start banging on about how crap YaST is.