Linus Torvalds has never been a big fan of Gnome owing to its extreme simplicity. Even Gnome 3.x failed to impress the father of the Linux kernel.

He has now given KDE a try after a long time. Linus using your software is double edged sword, it cuts both ways especially if Linus doesn't like it, get ready for the harshest, yet the most honest and useful criticism.

So, what does Linus think of KDE? It looks he did not use KDE for a long while as his statement clarifies, "I'm trying out KDE after a long absense."

The opening statement about KDE is a mix of praise and complain:

It still looks a bit too cartoony, and the default widget/plasmoid behavior with mouse-over pretty much immediately showing the controls for it annoys the hell of me. You can lock the widgets down and they calm down and act normal, but it's some really odd and distracting default behavior.

He is talking about the default 'desktop view' introduced in KDE 4.x. It can be easily changed to 'folder view' and that's the first thing I do after installing KDE. I was a long time Gnome+Ubuntu user but I gave up on Unity after 11.10 when things seemed to be heading in the direction I did not want my Desktop Linux to behave like.

What I liked (and still like) the most about KDE is what Linus also felt:

But ah, the ability to configure things. And I have wobbly windows again.

However he did say that too much customization of almost everything is too much odd:

I do understand why some gnome people think that KDE may have gone a bit overboard on the configuration ability, though. Because some of the "you can configure everything" things are just odd.

Like being able to rotate those desktop widgets any which way you want. "I wonder what that odd rotation thing on the widget control bar does? Whee - trippy".

That's true but at least it gives the option to customize or not to customize unlike Unity where you can't do much.

Linus concluded his post with a funny note (I was  fearing he might tell KDE developers to go kill themselves):

As a result, right now my terminal and web browser buttons look like a drunken fratboy has been messing with my desktop. I suspect I'll turn them back to their boring upright position (because that's how I roll - boring), but for now I'm mildly amused by the sheer whimsicality of it all.

That's quite encouraging for KDE developers. I have been using KDE since Ubuntu 11.10 (and found openSUSE integration to be the best) and have now gotten so used to it that I find other DEs far behind KDE's customization and ease of use. KDE is one of the most advanced yet underrated DEs, in my opinion, which deserves some attention.

Note: Linus' post reminded me of the long series I was planning on KDE. If you are a KDE user/fan and want to contribute to the article series, please contact me at editor@muktware.com.