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NAME="WHYNOT"
>Why not CDE? or KDE? or GNUStep?</A
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><P
>Because GNOME is better!  Seriously though, each of these
      desktop systems have issues which encouraged us to start fresh
      with the GNOME project.</P
><P
>CDE is not Free Software, it isn't even close.  Many
      people also find it lacking in features, performance and
      functionality.</P
><P
>At the time of GNOME's inception, KDE had serious
      licensing problems, which they are still trying to resolve.
      First, KDE is based on a library called Qt, which was originally
      non-free.  However TrollTech's recent release of Qt version 2.0
      uses the QPL, so it qualifies as Free Software.  KDE Development
      releases are based on the QPL'ed versions of Qt.</P
><P
>The other issue is that originally, KDE programs were
      released under the GPL.  The GPL was designed to encourage more
      GNU software, so it doesn't work well when linked to software
      under other licenses.  This incompatibility doesn't prevent
      anyone from using KDE, but it does make it troublesome to
      distribute.  For more details, you can read <A
HREF="http://www.debian.org/News/1998/19981008"
TARGET="_top"
>Debian's position on KDE</A
>.  KDE is in
      the process of changing their licenses over to the Artistic
      license, which avoids the problem.  However, changing licenses
      on a large project with many authors like KDE is a long and
      difficult process, so it will take them a while.</P
><P
>The GNOME people like the KDE people, and we consider this
      an unfortunate situation that is in the process of being fixed.
      Hopefully, this will cease to be an issue soon, and GNOME and
      KDE can compete friendlily on technical merit and design.  This
      matter has been hashed out time and time again on the gnome-list
      mailing list.  Asking this question on gnome-list is discouraged
      behavior. If you want to go somewhere and start a flame war on
      this topic, then please do it somewhere far far away where we
      don't have to listen to you.</P
><P
>There are significant design differences between KDE and
      GNOME.  Top of the list is a difference in widget set.  We find
      GTK+ to be nicer, more customizable, more friendly to
      development in various programming languages, and more flexible
      than Qt; others may disagree.  In all, the projects are
      different enough so that both should be able to coexist and even
      collaborate.</P
><P
>GNUStep is another desktop environment that has a lot of
      good things going for it.  One issue with GNUStep are that they
      are trying to reimplement the OpenStep desktop and API, with
      GNOME we'd rather develop something new and good rather than
      just redo something old, even something old and good.  Also,
      just like Qt strongly pushes C++ on KDE developers, GNUStep
      strongly pushes Objective C on its developers.  GNOME wants to
      remain language agnostic, and support development in whatever
      language you wish to use.</P
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