Dr. Dobb's Journal February 2001
With all the hot air in Florida swirling around the presidential race, news of another contest — KDE versus GNOME — almost slipped by. Butterfly ballots aside, KDE and GNOME are windowing systems that lay to rest the common misperception that Linux is a command-line operating system with no appeal to Windows-weaned users. In truth, there are several graphical desktop environments for Linux, with KDE and GNOME leading the pack.
On the surface, KDE and GNOME are two chads in the same pod. The K Desktop Environment (KDE) is an open-source project that includes a window manager, file manager, panel, control center, and the like (see http://www.kde.org/). Likewise, the GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME) is a free software project that provides a consistent interface, file manager, drag-and-drop, objects on the desktop, and so on (see http://www.gnome.org/).
Both environments were developed to provide an easy-to-use desktop alternative to the command line. And both projects are supported by a full complement of applications, ranging from games and productivity tools, to development tools, such as GUI builders and scripting languages. Under the hood, however, there are some fundamental differences between the two. KDE is designed around the concept of interprocess communication and built using the Qt library. GNOME, on the other hand, is built using the GTK+ widget set and adopts a CORBA-like architecture. While there is perhaps some degree of compatibility between the two systems (including limited drag-and-drop), the ability to run an unmodified KDE application under GNOME can be difficult at best. And, according to both the KDE and GNOME project leaders, it is likely to stay that way.
Frankly, there's nothing really wrong with this lack of interoperabilty. For the most part, if a GNOME application developer wants a program to run on KDE, he just writes a KDE version of it. Right now there are hundreds of programs with either the prefix "g" (for GNOME or GTK+) or "k" (for KDE). Furthermore, choice between desktop environments is a good thing for users, as is competition between the two development groups.
So, you'd think that two projects with similar goals and mindsets — and a common enemy — could at least get along. That doesn't appear to be in the wind, however, as there's every indication that proponents of KDE and GNOME are about to make the same mistakes as combatants in the UNIX versus UNIX wars of the 1980s.
The opening salvo was fired by GNOME with the launch of the GNOME Foundation — a consortium whose mission is to "help set the technical direction of the GNOME project, promote the broad adoption of GNOME on Linux and UNIX desktops and offer a forum for industry leaders to contribute to GNOME." The GNOME Foundation is backed by organizations such as Compaq, Eazel, Free Software Foundation, Gnumatic, Helix Code, Henzai, HP, IBM, OMG, Red Hat, Sun, TurboLinux, and VA Linux. The Foundation will be directed by an advisory board initially consisting of representatives from the corporations and organizations just mentioned. In short, the Foundation will "provide organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project, and help determine its vision and roadmap."
Not to be outdone, the KDE folks fired back with the KDE League, a consortium whose mission is to facilitate "the promotion, distribution and development of KDE, with the goal of establishing KDE as a desktop standard for PCs, workstations and mobile devices." In this case, the founding members include the likes of Borland, Caldera, Compaq, Corel, Fujitsu-Siemens, HP, IBM, KDE.com, Klardlvdalens Datakonsult, theKompany.com, Mandrakesoft, SuSE, Trolltech, and TurboLinux. Governance of this consortium is controlled by developers and corporate sponsors who share power equally.
Jumpin' Jehoshaphat, this sounds like déjà vu all over again! If you recall, back in the 1980s — before Windows owned the desktop — UNIX was posed to take a run at dominance. Hoping to see a single unfettered standard emerge, AT&T had stepped back from its draconian hold on the OS, enabling Sun, the Hamilton Group, the University of California BSD folks, and others to quickly fill the void. But what emerged from all this was, on one hand, the Open Software Foundation (consisting of IBM, DEC, HP, Silicon Graphics, and the like), and on the other, UNIX System V (backed by AT&T, Sun, Unisys, Motorola, Toshiba, and so on). The end result was confusion — not unity — and the door opened for Windows to dominate the desktop.
No one is saying that KDE and GNOME need to get all touchy feely and warm and fuzzy with each other. Nor, for that matter, should either project develop reactively to the other. But as KDE and GNOME look to the future, they might also consider the past and try not to repeat the same mistakes of UNIXes of a generation ago. After all Toto, we're not in Florida anymore.
Jonathan Erickson
editor-in-chief
jerickson@ddj.com