Three reasons why I use both KDE and GNOME

First of all, I’m not Guru. I used to be a Windows user, but now I’m a Linux fan. I’ve been using Linux for quite some time now. I don’t play with the kernel or do any serious system administration stuff; I chiefly use Linux for web development and other “normal stuff” (internet, music, video, graphics etc).

This month, I came across some interesting posts: Sal Cangeloso’s Three Reasons to Use GNOME, Hans Bezemer’s Three reasons NOT to use GNOME, Irfan Habib’s Happy birthday KDE! (he gives three nice reasons for using KDE), RuddO’s Three reasons to use KDE and Three reasons not to use KDE.

I’ve been using Linux for around four years, and I’ve never stuck to either KDE or GNOME. I find myself switching between these two every few months. During these four years, I never really pondered over this matter. But, when I read above mentioned posts, I decided to give it a thought and came out with my reasons for using both KDE and GNOME. They might be lame, but here they are:

1. I get bored easily

Probably it’s just me, but I can’t use either KDE or GNOME for long. I need a change, often. This might sound kiddish, but I like trying out the latest stuff from KDE-Look.org and GNOME-Look.org, experimenting with random SuperKaramba themes and gDesklets, and other such things. So, I need to have both KDE and Gnome installed.

2. I’ve already got the libraries installed.

I need GIMP, Evolution, Beagle, Ekiga, Dia, Gnumeric, and Inkscape. I also need amaroK, K3B, Kaffeine, Kile, and Kate (I’m not very comfortable with Emacs and Vim – I use SciTE and Kate). So, I need both GNOME and KDE libraries. I know I can use GNOME and run KDE apps on it or vice versa, but I’ve plenty of disk space. So, I installed both KDE and GNOME.

3. I don’t have to take sides.

I’m not knowledgeable enough to participate in KDE vs GNOME debates. So, whenever I find myself among more educated people debating about pros and cons of using KDE/GNOME/XFCE/etal, I just say “I haven’t still figured out which one is right for me – I use both.”

The original title of this post was “Three reasons to use both KDE and GNOME”, but then I figured out that not everybody has got disk space (or requirements) for both. And there are people who prefer XFCE or other window managers (I like many of these, but I use them only when I’m at a thin client terminal). So, I decided to change the title to “Three reasons why I use both KDE and GNOME”.