I'll make some comments about KDE simply because it has become my desktop of choice. This probably for the wrong reason though. I use SuSE and SuSE is much more KDE focused than GNOME focuesed. (Both are available.) Also when I started using KDE 1 it further along than GNOME at the point and I've gotten used to it. To answer the question about changes. Yes there has been truely significant work done with the revisions. I'm currently running 2.1.0 and I like it a lot. I use one of 3 web browsers depending on what I'm doing, Opera 5, Netscape 4.7, or Konqueror. If I'm downloading stuff from web sites I'll use Opera. For general surfing I'll use Opera or Konqueror. For finicky websites I'll use Netscape. Konqueror still hickups occassionly but it is much more stable than the KDE 2.0 version of the program. I have KOffice installed but haven't had time to play with it yet. I use Kmail for mail reading. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but it does what I need so its "good enough". I've got SuSE installed on a couple of the machines in our "Lab" are at work and most people who have sat down at them seem to be able to find Netscape and hit the companies web-mail site without much assistance. Sorry for the rambling reply. I hope this helps a little... Jack On Friday 01 June 2001 10:07, you wrote: > First off, I don't want a flame war. I am perfectly happy with > Blackbox myself, so this is really for my wife, a Windows refugee. I > recognize that she would be much more comfortable with a desktop > environment, and want to make things comfortable. > What I like about KDE is its rapid development cycle. Do these guys > ever take a break? However, perhaps someone more knowledgable could > tell me whether there is significant development, or if each new > release is more along the lines of "Oh, look, I added a paperclip > widget! Let's release a new version!" > On the other hand, I like GNOME's look and feel. Furthermore, KDE > seems to be the Arkansas cousin in the Debian world; he's family, but > we prefer to keep him in the back of the house. (No offense intended > for anyone from Arkansas or having cousins from said fine state.) > What I don't like about both is their bloat. I have run both on my > puny 200 MHz 32MB laptop, and let me tell you, they suffer from bloat. > True, my new system is an Athlon 1.2 with 256 MB, so that should help > matters significantly, but it is the principle of the thing. > So, imagine yourself in my shoes: you have the opportunity to > introduce a newbie to the Linux world. What desktop environment would > you choose? Why? What futures do you see for them? Remember, while I > will be the primary administrator, I will have to be teaching her, or > at least leaving a list of instructions, of how to run the system in > case something ever happens to me. Like, "Oh, no, Peter was hit by a > low-flying penguin! Where's our tax information? And while I'm at it, > how do I change the font?" > I will now wear my asbestos underwear... > > :Peter > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 > a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ > _______________________________________________ > tclug-list mailing list > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list