Chapter 2. The All-Expense-Paid Desktop Tour

I remember the first time I installed Linux. I said to myself, "Boy you're going to really thank yourself."

Then I said, "Yeah, I know."

Then I said, "Hey, you're not supposed to answer. I'm talkin' to myself."

"Well, duh." I replied. "I'm you, so I know that."

"You're being awfully contrary. Whadya gotta go and try to start a fight for? I was talking about Linux."

"Hey, I'm just having a conversation here. You're the one trying to start a war. So, which desktop environment are you going to use?"

"GNOME," I said.

"What? KDE is way easier. It's way better-looking, too!" I argued with myself.

"You wanna start a war? I will argue with you," my GNOME half said.

"I don't want to fight. You're the one being unreasonable. How can you use GNOME when KDE's controls are in one central command center?"

"But GNOME gives me more flexibility to customize my desktop however I want it. I like how Gnome handles themes better."

"You know, you really got the stupid side of our brain. I can't believe that you are also me. I mean, themes? You want to talk about themes? KDE has much better themes." My KDE half then went to kde-look.org and started pointing, saying, "Huh, right? Look. Look!"

"So what? GNOME has art.gnome.org. KDE has more themes, but everything looks so plastic."

Then I got indignant with myself. I told myself to shut up. Profanity followed. It was messy. I felt like I was both the North-going Zax and the South-going Zax. (It's from the Dr. Seuss story "The Zax," in The Sneetches and Other Stories. Geez, try to keep up here.) Eventually, I just started drinking. The voices don't go away unless I start drinking. You know, drinking supernutritious, chocolaty Ovaltine. Ovaltine is good for me and good to me.

If I can start a war with myself over whether KDE or GNOME is better, just imagine how easy it is to goad dedicated KDE and GNOME users into fighting and arguing over which is the better desktop environment. You might eventually become one of those fractious zealots, but try to keep an open mind for now. Both KDE and GNOME are very functional and usable environments. They have many features in common. Try out both. Feel free to use KDE programs in GNOME and to use GNOME programs in KDE. Your decision on which desktop environment to use will eventually come down to which feels better to you.