Which Has the Best Apps?: KDE vs. GNOME, Part 2

April 22, 2007
By

Bruce Byfield

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In file managers, GNOME and KDE take different approaches. GNOME's Nautilus is so tightly integrated into the desktop that all desktop folders are potentially a file manager. Although this approach is often useful, it is seriously weakened by a default view that offers a tree view in a pull-down menu available from the bottom of the window that must be navigated one step at a time if you are using a mouse. Nautilus' File Browser tool, available from the main menu as a system tool, is a traditional two-pane file manager, one of which can be configured to display the directory tree, and is consequently far more powerful.

By contrast, KDE's Konqueror also doubles as a web browser. It is also tied to the desktop folders, but its default two pane structure is more useful than Nautilus' single pane one. In addition, it includes links to a mail program, termina, and the main menu. Neither shows hidden files by default, and both support bookmarks, file sorting, and a variety of views. Nautilus also includes the ability to categorize files with emblems, although I have never known anyone to use this capacity. Both, too, have recently added CD/DVD burning capabilities.

For business use, KDE offers mail, address books scheduling, and task lists as separate small programs. GNOME, on the other hand, has chosen a more centralized approach in Evolution. Evolution could be characterized as a better organized, more easily customized version of Microsoft Outlook, with which it is constantly becoming more compatible. Divided into four views -- mail, contact, memo, tasks -- and easily synced with a phone or PDA, Evolution is designed primarily for business. However, it is memory intensive, although recent versions have been noticeably improved, and still subject to occasional fits of flakiness, all of which might make it seem overkill for a home user.

Office Suites

KDE comes with KOffice, a comprehensive office suite that includes not only a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, and database, but also a number of smaller applications, including separate editors for rasterized and scalable vector graphics. KWord, the word processor, is probably the standout application in the office suite, being based on a series of text frames that give it advanced desktop publishing capabilities. However, the other KOffice applications are also suitable for beginning to intermediate use. The main disappointment of KOffice is that most of its applications have evolved more slowly than fans might hope, and many of them are just starting to get the advanced features that would make them a match for OpenOffice.org.

GNOME began its own office suite, but development had not gotten beyond basic functionality for either the AbiWord word processor and the Gnumeric spreadsheet when Sun Microsystems released the code that was to become OpenOffice.org. Plans for GNOME Office were quietly dropped, and, although you still hear it mentioned, it will most likely never be completed.