On Wednesday 26 May 2004 20:18, Mike wrote:
From surveys that I have seen, the vast majority of SuSE users prefer KDE to Gnome. I know very few long-term SuSE people who prefer Gnome.
That may be the case, but my point goes beyond just the absence of other window managers. It's about having the options available and the fact that I seem to not have a lot of libraries and other files that I need to install and run some of the applications I wanted to run (e.g., kweather). In 9.0 I had or could get what I needed off of the installation disks. I think the ability to install desired software is limited in a way that 9.0 was not. (When I say "9.0" I do not mean 9.0 Professional.)
For the main SuSE userbase, the Personal version may be a lower cost way to get the SuSE core.
I'm no economist, but I think, typically, if someone has the money to have a computer and look at Windoze alternatives, they can afford the extra $10 that SuSE was charging to also include the added software with gnome, icewm, and the various games that 9.0 had. $30 to $40 isn't that much. I'm a law student and do not have a nice, high-paying job. I'm pretty sure that if $40 is do-able for me, it would be for most everyone. You don't fit that group and it's too bad you didn't
get the edition that suited you, but that doesn't mean it is "not worth it".
KDE is, I'm sure very good for people who know how to configure it to look and behave the way they want it to, but I don't think that's the case for newbie users. I'm little better than a newbie myself and I think KDE is harder to configure than Gnome. I think Gnome has a better Windoze feel to it than KDE as well. Obviously that's just my opinion, but it's what I've found. KDE clearly has its advantages, but when someone new to linux is stuck with just KDE, they could get easily frustrated trying to tailor it to their liking. That's why I think paying for just KDE is not worth it. It's far better to pay a little extra and get options.