KDE was the first desktop environment I really stuck with on Linux, previously I'd just used Blackbox and whatever apps seemed to work. For me, it peaked around KDE 3.2 - it felt like a nicely structured, object-oriented system. You could open up KOffice documents in tabs in Konqueror alongside web pages, thanks to KParts. Every address bar and file dialog could connect to any protocol, thanks to KIO. KMail and KNode were functional and consistent. KDevelop was very nice, for someone coming from a Visual C++ background. And Atlatik stole more hours than I can remember.
I have to admit I drifted off to OS X for most stuff, but I still have fond memories of how well thought out, consistent and tasteful everything was.
I have to admit I drifted off to OS X for most stuff, but I still have fond memories of how well thought out, consistent and tasteful everything was.