Fwd: Am I wrong for not being willing to try KDE?

Am I wrong for not being willing to try KDE? I went through this funky phase where I decided that I really needed to try KDE4. I have barely any experience with it, as opposed to GNOME. My Linux-Fu is decidedly average. I just use it because it's free, and it has some apps I like, and I think Windows is dumb, except for playing games on the computer. I have some Mac experience, and GNOME is the default in Fedora, and was when I first tried RedHat Linux, so I've stuck with it. I've heard comparisons that GNOME is more like Mac and KDE is more like Windows.

Whatever... I want to use it for what it is, not what it seems like. Anyway, There's all this hubub about KDE 4. It's the "default" in Fedora 9's KDE spin, and I still haven't given it a go? Why? Because, I heard that KDE is really a second-class experience in Fedora... that's fine. I'll just try another distro. Again, my Linux-fu is only average, so switching to something like Mandriva or openSUSE to get an experience that has more of a KDE-centric focus is a pretty big deal.

I booted up Mandriva 2008 spring, and the only thing that strikes me as a "WoW" factor is that I get binary nvidia drivers and Compiz Fusion on the LiveCD. Whatever... Mandriva is fading quickly as a heavyweight distro, unfortunately to that whole misconception thing about requiring payment. It's really an awesome distro and deserves more publicity than it gets. KDE 3.x... meh... I still get the same apps, or something reasonably equivalent.

I tried openSUSE 11.0 beta. I haven't really had a good install experience. It failed on my old box, I couldn't figure out how to get dual-boot working with Vista. (I could search and find out what I need to know, and my Live CD just kind of stalled out. I think it is because I have bad media though... Here's the kicker... 4.1 isn't out yet. Everything I have read basically says it's coming along...stabilizing, but 4.1 is where the *average* person needs to come on board. Even the 11.0 DVD gives you the option of using 3.5 or 4.0, and differentiating them by their "maturity".

So, I think I'm just going to go back to GNOME on Fedora. Maybe I'll try the KDE spin with Fedora's awesome Live USB stick technology when Fedora 10 enters it release cycle. Here's some tips for Mandriva and openSUSE though:

Mandriva - buying a LiveUSB is cool, but make some tools available to let me make one on my own. GUI, please. Oh, and release or have someone in the community get some decent artwork for the media. Don't hide all the good stuff from people who just want to use your distro, and *not* pay you.

openSUSE - you're on your way to being Open. That's good. Since you're following RedHat anyway, hurry up and get that damn LiveUSB stuff working easier, like Fedora. If you beat them to a GUI app on Linux, rather than a script that requires root access. I might switch... or not, but it'll matter to a lot more people than me.

I'm not sure why I'm so miffed over having to run a script on Linux to make a Live USB stick, and getting a GUI app on Windows first. I think I understand the logic. It needs to be easier for Windows people, and if you have Linux installed already, making a Live USB stick is probably lower priority. At least a USB stick doesn't waste CDs, but I'm loving the idea of giving away this spool of LiveCDs with Fedora and kick-ass artwork printed on them with my Epson Stylus Photo R320. Too bad I'm so average that I can't figure out how to get the SVG to crop and import into GIMP at something higher than 90 dpi... the printout is much less impressive. Maybe I'll figure that out and blog about it.

Oh, and by the way, posting to my blog using e-mail from work... awesome. I don't know if I'd want to give up using a local client at home, but I'm finding myself more comfortable, being able to save drafts, and just pop an idea whenever I'm daydreaming at work, since I don't always focus 100% on the current menial task, and I have e-mail open anyway. I wonder if other blogging platforms have an e-mail posting gateway? Another blog post... back to work... or maybe lunch...