[Hampshire] Decisions, decisions... KDE3, KDE4 or Gnome?

Hi all,

First, please let just me say that I do not want to start yet another
Holy Desktop War.

As you all probably know, Ubuntu/Kubuntu 8.10 is out. Until now I have
mainly been running Kubuntu because I like the KDE3 desktop and have
become rather attached to a couple of applications (Amarok and
digikam).

I tried to update from Kubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 but that failed rather
dismally. Previous updates have usually gone pretty smoothly. So, took
the plunge and did a re-format and fresh install. First impressions of
KDE4 are not the best. It's kinda dark and dismal, maybe an influence
from Vista. It also does not seem to be very stable, I had several
crashes in one afternoon, don't think I had so many in the 6 months
since 8.04. And I could not do simple things like resize Konsole. I
guess KDE4 is still Beta quality at best.

So, for the first time in several years, I have installed a Gnome desktop.

After re-organising the toolbars it does not seem to be too bad at
all, but alas no Amarok or digikam. I guess I could install Amarok, it
pulls in quite a few libs, but it does not seem to be too many (not
actually tried, just looking at what Synaptic is telling me it would
have to do). But Digikam is another story, if I want to install that
then it seems I have to pull in everything KDE, including Dolphin.
Looks like a LOT of dependencies. :(

I have tried F-Spot and it looks OK. It seems to have pulled in all
4000+ photos but wants to show the thumbnails to all of them. Digikam
only showed the thumbnails for the directory I was looking at. Anyone
else use F-Spot, am I missing a trick? Also, the slideshow seems to
want to show everything, even if I highlight just a few photos. I also
had to turn off desktop effects otherwise the slideshow and
full-screen view don't seem to work. Pity, cos I was already getting
used to those cool sliding, bouncing, whizzy effects. The web site
says I have to turn off the "Legacy fullscreen fix" setting in Compiz,
but I don't seem to have any compiz settings options in Gnome, any
pointers?

I actually used Gnome from the first Red Hat release up until about 4
years ago, so I don't mind switching back if I can sort these couple
of things out. I have also used XFCE and even Motif/CDE (on Solaris)
quite a bit. I am no zealot, I'll use whatever is best to get the job
done. It's why I use (K)Ubuntu, I don't have to waste too much time
installing and maintaining it, so I can spend my time on the things I
want to do.

The things I use my laptop for mostly are:

- Photos, storing, viewing, printing and some editing (usually in Gimp)
- Music, ripping to mp3 and storing on my iPod for all those long
flights I take way too often (I like having the cover art too, Amarok
works very well for this)
- Web browsing, obviously
- e-mail, though I am using my Google mail account almost
exclusively now so Firefox is all I really need
- Office type stuff, OpenOffice is great if a little heavy-weight
- programming, mostly C/C++ from the good old command line.

I also use Kubuntu on my work machine, almost exclusively for
programming (sadly also for running WinXP under VMware so I can get at
my company e-mail account).

I am almost tempted to go back to 8.04 and stick with KDE3, but that
is not a good solution for the long term. Couple of years down the
line I won't be getting any updates and who knows how many security
fixes I will be missing. I could hold out on KDE3 until KDE4 matures,
but I am not sure I like where KDE4 is headed. I don't have a problem
with it trying to look like Windows Vista, but I am not sure all this
active desktop stuff is really for me -- I tend to have most of my
windows maximised most of the time (terminals being one exception).
Finally I could switch to Gnome, and get used to it again. No problem
there if I can find the right apps. Some of the Gnome apps I used
years ago have gone and others have replaced them, not sure what are
the best options any more.

So, what do you all think? What is the best way to go? If Gnome then
what apps are the best in features and stability?

Thanks!
Rich