After publishing my latest GNOME and then Plasma articles, I think it is interesting to summarize between them in a separate article considering several interesting stuffs. First, their release date are the same, 11, except Plasma is in February and GNOME is in March. Second, they publish interesting videos and announcements I listed below. Third, they had conferences in 2019 that back them up namely Akademy and GNOME.Asia Summit I also listed below. Fourth, they have users who love to write reviews such as Dedoimedo and OMG! Ubuntu I listed below too. Last but not least, I also mentioned where to download their source code, to contribute to them, and the donation links. I wish this summary article helps you in figuring out more about both. Enjoy desktop GNU/Linux!
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Index
- About
- Release Date
- Tagline
- Videos
- Announcement
- Long Term Support
- Conferences
- Reviews
- Get Involved
- Source Code
- Donations
About KDE and GNOME
KDE and GNOME are the best user interface created for GNU/Linux operating system. KDE is name people know for the first desktop environment for GNU/Linux which keeps traditional appearance and created using Qt software library. GNOME is name of its rival desktop environment created solely to solve freedom problem KDE used to have at past time. Now, the KDE desktop is called Plasma while GNOME desktop is still called GNOME. They are both free software projects, the biggest ones in computer user interface field, which are used in many operating systems such as Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Their websites are www.kde.org and www.gnome.org respectively.
- To get KDE Plasma 5.18 quickly in your computer, follow this.
- To get GNOME 3.36 "Gresik" quickly too, follow this.
# Release Date
KDE: 11 February 2020
GNOME: 11 March 2020
KDE released on time just as planned. GNOME also released exactly on time as planned.
(5.18 LTS release plan table)
(Gresik release plan table)
# Taglines
KDE:
- "More convenient and with Long Term Stability" --from official announcement posting
- "[...] easier system settings, interactive notifications, emojis, wallpapers and more" --from official video title
GNOME:
"Version 3.36 contains six months of work by the GNOME community and includes many improvements, performance enhancements, and new features." --from first paragraph of official announcement posting
By tagline I mean a short phrase or sentence that explains the product. KDE uses several different taglines in titles of their announcement, just like usual. GNOME does not use tagline in the title, just like usual, but their phrasing above is the usual one.
# Videos
KDE: [PeerTube] [YouTube]
GNOME: [YouTube]
This is KDE:
New features summarized:
- new pretty wallpapers
- discover more apps & plasma addons & updates
- new emoji selector
- interactive audio volume
- drag-and-drop files directly from download notification (similar to doing that with screenshots previously)
- new global themes
- new easier user feedback sender to KDE developers
- new night light widget (similar to Redshift)
This is GNOME:
New features summed up:
- major overhaul
- reorganization and functional designs
- new calendar tray look & new button there
- new search look
- new wallpaper settings look
- new user settings look
- new icons look e.g. Calendar's, Calculator's, etc.
- new, simpler login screen
- new Clock's polished design
- new Do Not Disturb switch
- easier grouping and renaming group of apps on Applications Menu
- now it is click instead of swipe up to loggen in back
- notification is now displayed on lock screen
- new blurry translucent lock screen
I don't remember since when, but I think it is the first time KDE publishes their video on PeerTube. I mean, there is same video on their official YouTube but they place the PeerTube one on official announcement. This is a good example for another Free Software project to follow. Apparently, this change is caused by a 2018 feature request.
# Announcements
KDE: [Ann1] [Ann2] [Mail] [RelNot] [ChaLog]
GNOME: [Ann] [Mail] [RelNot] [DevNot] [i18n]
KDE and GNOME announce their new release primarily at mailing list. So if we subscribe kde-announce we will receive the Mail before/at the same time the website announces the posting and so do us with gnome-announce-list. Plasma release posted by Jonathan Riddell --the founding father of Kubuntu and now founder of KDE neon-- while GNOME's by Matthias Clasen --Red Hat employee, senior developer of Fedora & GNOME & also Flatpak--.
(Email by J. Riddell on KDE mailing list)
(Email by M. Clasen on GNOME mailing list)
Both announcement summary posts are short & simple. KDE displays a video on the page while GNOME does not except a link to YouTube. KDE does not display a release artwork unlike GNOME with that blue Gresik one but only a screenshot.
(Web announcement on Dot KDE Org)
(Web announcement on GNOME News)
# Long Term Support
Only KDE gives such thing as Long Term Support as version 5.18 entitled LTS that means it is suitable for schools, offices, governments, and organizations to upgrade their computer to as it is supported directly by the developers for a longer duration of time compared to regular release. The support lifespan for this LTS is 2 years at least. This LTS is the successor to the previous one 5.12. Read more about Plasma LTS here.
GNOME does not have any information regarding its support lifespan for every release.
# Conferences Behind
GNOME.Asia Summit 2019 in Gresik, Indonesia
- Website: https://2019.gnome.asia
- Program: [schedule]
- Video recordings: [youtube]
- Photos: [ahmad] [darian] [fitraditya] [rania] [tuanpembual] [gnome_asia][boxer.or.id]
- Venue: Muhammadiyah University, Gresik
Akademy 2019 in Milan, Italy
- Website: https://akademy.kde.org/2019
- Program: [schedule]
- Video recordings: [dot] [FTP] [peertube]
- Photos: [valorie] [ivana] [share.kde.org] [gerardo] [kai] [volker] [neofytos] [bhavishadruve]
- Venue: University of Milano-Bicocca
All Free Software projects love conference especially KDE and GNOME. Right before these releases, Akademy 2019 and GNOME.Asia Summit 2019 held in Italy and Indonesia, respectively.
(Akademy 2019 website)
(GNOME.Asia Summit 2019 website)
# Reviews Around The Web
KDE:
[OMG! Ubuntu] [Dedoimedo] [Phoronix] [Pointiestick (Dev)] [Softpedia] [ItsFoss]
GNOME:
[OMG! Ubuntu] [DebugPoint] [9to5Linux] [FossBytes] [ItsFoss] [GamingonLinux] [BetaNews] [LinuxUprising]
Up to Wednesday, 18 March 2020, these are written reviews I can find on the net I can present here. Of course by the time we will eventually see more reviews and as usual I also planned to write mine here.
(Dedoimedo's review on 5.18 LTS)
(ItsFoss' review on Gresik)
# Get Involved
KDE: [Contribute!]
GNOME: [Contribute!]
Do you want to join to develop them? If you can do programming, there are places for you. If you can do artworks like user interface design and icons, there are places for you too. If you love social engagement and marketing, there are places for you too. And many more.
# Get Source Code
KDE: [List] [FTP] [Browser] [GitLab] [Guide]
GNOME: [FTP] [GitLab] [Guide]
Both are Free Software so both give source code to all users. What is the proof that a software is free? Yes, there is access to the source code available. These links are helpful for you to get the source code.
# Donations
KDE: [Funding]
GNOME: [Funding]
As usual, I love to present Free Software projects' donation information so people who want to financially help them can help.
# Some Comments
Just like GNOME does not have a particular tagline, KDE does not have codename. If GNOME names the 3.36 release "Gresik" officially, I would love to see KDE names the 5.18 release "Milan", regarding their respective conferences mentioned above. These release are great. However, I didn't try them thoroughly yet so I cannot say much about them right now. I hope this article can be a good start for you to get them and for me to start my new reviews here. Enjoy!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.