What is the main difference between KDE, Xfce, and GNOME GUI's?

Question

Can anyone tell me the difference between GNOME,KDE,and Xfce GUI's? Also can you give me a list of the popular Distro's in which these are used. I know Ubuntu and Debian (because Ubuntu is merely a Debian offshoot) use GNOME, but not much more. What does Redhat use?

Answer 1

KDE is created using Qt

Gnome (and XFCE) from GTK



Qt and GTK are ways of creating XWindows applications



Gnome is fatter than Xfce, it looks cooler. Xfce is better for older machines but it does less



You can run any of these Desktop engines on Ubuntu, you can install the other DE and then at bootup you choose what to load.



Since there's an overhead in installing the DE it makes sense to keep the apps you use written in the same windows kit? else you'd have both lots of DE's installed in teh background somewhere, that's why with KDE you get dolphin (Qt) as a file manager and nautilus (GTK) on ubuntu and it's also why when you install dolphin onto ubuntu it downloads loads of other files too (it's downlaoding the Qt files it needs)

Answer 2

Redhat ships Gnome, as does the CentOS recompile, but many derivatives ship KDE. See, Gnome's a favorite as a replacement among CDE-using workstations, so Redhat uses Gnome to mirror trends in that segment of the industry.



KDE is generally held to be Windows-like, Gnome is a bit lighter, maybe, but many say it hides core features, and XFCE is the little kid in the shadows of the two big ones. All are desktop environments, including standard applications and setup routines, but XFCE has less of them than the others.

Answer 3

Ubuntu uses gnome

kubuntu uses KDE

xubuntu uses Xfce



They are different desktop environments. I prefer Xfce, simply because it is lighter than the others, but I like them all. I do not however like Ubuntu/kubuntu/xubuntu.

Answer 4

A detailed explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_X_Window_System_desktop_environments



Red Hat has both Gnome and KDE available.