Hi all,
I am trying to build a Linux machine for graphic designing and video editing. Of GNOME and KDE, please help me choose one for best visual detail and efficient use of the hardware.
Hi all,
I am trying to build a Linux machine for graphic designing and video editing. Of GNOME and KDE, please help me choose one for best visual detail and efficient use of the hardware.
Short answer: pick the desktop you like — GNOME vs KDE is mostly about workflow and UI, not raw rendering. The real performance bottlenecks for graphics and video work are the display server/compositor and the GPU driver/hw‑accel stack (Xorg vs Wayland and whether your driver exposes VA‑API/VDPAU/NVENC/NVDEC, etc.). That’s why ’s point about “the drawing is done by X” still matters today, only now it’s Xorg or Wayland + compositor and driver support that make the practical difference. (martchus.dyn.f3l.de)
What to prioritize when building a machine for design/video: a recent GPU with solid Linux driver support and the right hardware‑accel APIs, enough CPU cores (and decent single‑thread speed), plenty of RAM and a fast NVMe scratch/project disk. Editors and their backends matter: the encoder/decoder/hwaccel plumbing comes from FFmpeg/libav and the driver stack, and many timelines still rely heavily on the CPU — Kdenlive’s docs explicitly note CPU‑heavy timeline playback and limited GPU timeline acceleration in practice. (ffmpeg.org)
App differences and workflow tips: editors differ — Shotcut documents which tasks it uses the GPU for (UI drawing, optional decode/encode and some OpenGL effects) while others expose only encoding or experimental GPU effects. Use proxy editing, low preview resolution, and timeline/preview caching to keep editing smooth. If hardware is constrained, disable desktop effects or use a lighter window manager as and suggested — that often helps more than switching GNOME↔KDE. (shotcut.org)
Color and final‑output notes: for color‑critical work calibrate and profile your monitor (DisplayCAL + ArgyllCMS is the common free toolchain) and ensure your session loads the ICC profile. Final checklist: test your exact apps/codecs with your GPU/drivers (live USB or short install), favour GPU/driver + RAM + NVMe in your budget, and tune or disable compositor effects — those choices give far more real benefit than desktop aesthetics. (displaycal.net)
Jump to Post— Sturm 270>If you want video editing out of the box, i've heard that ubuntustudio is just for this case...also keep in mind that if you pick ubuntu{any flavor} you will have the support of the largest community
But definetely not the most knowledgable.
Oh and whats with debians crappy …
Jump to Post— jbennet 1,618I have always have good support with the debian community. Thats the main reason i went back to Debian from Gentoo
Jump to Post— TheNNS 112I tried the beta, which was a little buggy, but nonetheless I liked it. I would recommend it, expect it only works on xp and vista, obviously.
Jump to Post— jbennet 1,6182k?
Jump to Post— TheNNS 112no. I guess MS wants to completley get rid of 2000 and below, I think they probably won't support xp for much longer.
They are just desktops
The actual drawing is carried out by something called "x" (usually x.org nowadays) so you shouldnt notice any differences.
Personally i like Gnome though.
the new KDE 4 looks kind of cool, you can little widgets on the desktop, but in my opinion, gnome uses less system resources.
Yes, I run a debian system with gnome (im using the latest versions) and it uses between 50 and 200mb ram - just a bit better than windows XP
Debian + Gnome runs well on my pentium 3 with 384mb ram for websurfing, typing, email etc... (about the same as XP would)
graphic designing and video editing
That probably means you are used to macs in which case GNOME would be the easiest for you (its quite maccish, whereas KDE is vistaish)
KDE is windowsish, but there's many other desktop enviornments out there, like xfce, or beryl, compiz, etc
XFCE is nice (very like the mac)
beryl and compiz arernt desktops anyway, there window managers
Dreamlinux, ships with blender3d the gimp and the dvd codecs straight out the box. I'm not sure about video editing though. But then I suppose it doesn't matter what linux flavour you're using cos most of the things you need can be installed.
If you're coming from a mac it has similarites.
Im pretty sure that Dreamlinux has APT so you can always download it
I like evilwm ;-p (icewm is nice if you want a tradtional(read: windows like) wm)
I like TWM for basic stuff, e.g on a redhat server where a GUI isnt necesarry apart from the rare occasion where you need to run a GUI tool
i use gnome, and i like its simplicity, although when KDE4 comes out..i will definately try it!
If you want video editing out of the box, i've heard that ubuntustudio is just for this case...also keep in mind that if you pick ubuntu{any flavor} you will have the support of the largest community {www.ubuntuforums.org}...i use gnome, and i like its simplicity, although when KDE4 comes out..i will definately try it!
If you want video editing out of the box, i've heard that ubuntustudio is just for this case...also keep in mind that if you pick ubuntu{any flavor} you will have the support of the largest community {www.ubuntuforums.org}...
although when KDE4 comes out..i will definately try it!
i dont like it. Too "fluffy" and vista-ish. I like my WM to be practical.
>If you want video editing out of the box, i've heard that ubuntustudio is just for this case...also keep in mind that if you pick ubuntu{any flavor} you will have the support of the largest community
But definetely not the most knowledgable.
Oh and whats with debians crappy community? Its awful...
I have always have good support with the debian community. Thats the main reason i went back to Debian from Gentoo
>If you want video editing out of the box, i've heard that ubuntustudio is just for this case...also keep in mind that if you pick ubuntu{any flavor} you will have the support of the largest community
But definetely not the most knowledgable.
Oh and whats with debians crappy community? Its awful...
this used to be true...but i don't think it holds anyore...The fact is that the simle questions that we noobies ask, are definitely answered...also there are guides for almost everything..
i dont like it. Too "fluffy" and vista-ish. I like my WM to be practical.
i think that the hard part of making kde4 won't be its looks but also to make it more practical than the previus versions...i hope the suceed:)
Last time I checked debian forums sucked...
good ones
> I have always have good support with the debian community. Thats the main reason i went back to Debian from Gentoo
I thought you hated gentoo.
question:
I'm planning on making a backup server that will back up all the files in the machines in my house. Is it better to use windows home server- i tried the beta and i thought it was good- or is it better to use debian or some distro like that? What I like about windows home server is the simplicity of it, and that you're able to restore any computer if it were to crash. But with linux it would be hard to do the same thing, wouldn't it?
>I thought you hated gentoo.
I do but loads of people kept asking me to try it so i did but i got stuck and when i asked on the gentoo forums i got called a n00b by some really unhelpful people which just helped to compund my hate of gentoo
Personally, i dont like WHS. On my home LAN i have a PC with a core debian install + base system (i used the netinstall cd abd chose those 2 categories - installed and downloaded in well under an hour) and use SAMBA to share files to my windows PCs
is there a way to back up in linux, that is like whs? i'm just looking for the easiest way of doing this.
I use samba and an Rsync script i made to do incremental backups of my my documents (shared by samba) to my linux server
cause that's what i like about whs. It'll automaticaly back up files and settings and you can restore them if your computer crashes.
I havent tried it. I dont think its out over here
I tried the beta, which was a little buggy, but nonetheless I liked it. I would recommend it, expect it only works on xp and vista, obviously.
2k?
no. I guess MS wants to completley get rid of 2000 and below, I think they probably won't support xp for much longer.
We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.