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KDE4 overtaking GNOME in terms of usability?

[ Thanks to Daniel
Memenode
for this link. ]

“Fundamentally, in terms of user interaction with the
system KDE4 actually didn’t change all that much. It remained a
somewhat Windows-like interface with a typical panel-desktop
paradigm. It has “merely” upgraded it and rebuilt the gears behind
the scenes which is where the most revolutionary changes and most
potential seems to lie.

“Perhaps the biggest change visible to the user is making
everything into a widget, but the default and typical configuration
of those widgets still resembles a typical paradigm, and that seems
to sit well with the users. At least it does for me. I’m
increasingly finding it more natural to have a single panel at the
bottom with all of the stuff I need immediately available than to
alternate between upper and lower panel.

“GNOME 3.0 on the other hand promises to completely do away with
the typical main menu currently resembling Mac OS X and replace it
by something that probably wont be very familiar to neither Windows
nor OS X users. Upon pressing of the “activity” button an entire
screen transforms. It’s not just another menu, it’s a whole new
“mode” of operation. It’s yet to be seen how are users to respond
to this as they begin to test it in day-to-day use, but I am
somewhat skeptical and tend to side with some of the Bruce
Byfield’s commentary. Furthermore, as he points out, it doesn’t
appear that the GNOME Shell is getting enough opportunity to be
tested by users for valuable feedback. This increases chances of
GNOME 3.0 becoming a similar scenario to KDE4.0.”


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