I know Gnome is the default on popular distros: Fedora, Ubuntu, Rhel, Pop OS (it’s Cosmic Desktop yes but it is still based on Gnome)…etc. But Gnome just doesnt work for me. I would pick XFCE - stable and no BS.
Before Manjaro and their cetificate shenanigan, I used to use their XFCE version. At the time, it was marketed as the “Flagship Manjaro version”. I went 4 years without any problems and I did tinker a lot, just couldnt get their XFCE to break.
After a tough Arch or Gentoo installs, I just want to put XFCE on and call it a day.
What about you guys?
That’s not too hard a question for me, I’ve been using the same DE for years: KDE
KDE is one of the main reasons for me to use Linux. I immensely like the performance, silence and battery lifetime of MacBooks. But if I have to work with anything but KDE, it’s not worth it for me. The only thing OSX does better than basically any other desktop out there, is the ability to drag whole virtual screen between monitors.
I’m running XFCE (but you could do KDE) on my intel Mac, you can get best of both worlds. I heard silicon is more difficult with Linux tho.
Has KDE improved since 2010-ish? I gave up KDE because gnome was just a better DE at the time. Gnome sucks now, but I found i3/sway. Haven’t given KDE a second chance yet
Oh yes. Much better since the KDE4 branch / debacle.
Desktop environment? Who needs a desktop environment?
Plasma, been using it since I was a kid
KDE Plasma.
It has been great for gaming, adopting Wayland protocols at a faster rate than other DEs due in part thanks to Valve’s contributions.
I freaking love GNOME & Adwaita, but I’ll switch back when I deem it better than Plasma.
Plasma for the last decade. Then probably XFCE, then Cinnamon.
I try Gnome every year or so, but every time I get pissed off with it within a few minutes and wipe it off my machine.
Definitely Gnome here. Though I have a long list of notes, it mostly just works exactly like I expect with little friction or guessing. I donate $100/year to both Gnome and KDE since they are both good pieces of software, and I love that I get to chose mine. Further, I think KDE is the logical choice for something like the SteamDeck where it’s going to have a lot of gamers that expect computers to work like Windows. (even if I don’t like it, >_<)
KDE plasma. Coming from 30 years of running exclusively windows it’s just the most comfortable and easy for me to use (way more than Gnome). Easily configurable, works. Can’t ask for more.
KDE Plasma for ease of use if using Nvidia Otherwise Hyprland or exwm
I don’t mind a little “change” every now and then, but still – “Sway” on my “potatoes” (Orange pi zero 3 and Orange pi 5 max) and “Hyprland” on my x86_64 PC.
My daily driver is Arch running sway. Would be hard to go back from the simplicity and elegance.
Isn’t sway based on i3? i3 is a WM not a DE. But as sway is not X11, I’m not sure if it’s just a WM
Sway still primarily counts as a WM + Compositor, but considering it has keymaps, autostart, and libinput config mechanisms embedded in it, I would say it borders a desktop environment.
Gnome
Xfce, and Cinnamon. You can’t force me to choose just one.
Cinnamon for 2 reasons
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KDE is missing a lot of features which still only works in Gnome. Like the taskbar Calendar app syncing events with services like Google Calendar
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cinnamon is extremely stable and doesn’t move your icons around when you connect to an external display with your laptop and the display has a different resolution.
-
I’d say Gnome, since I’m so used to it that I feel it doesn’t get in the way of the things I’m doing.
Because that would be my aim: something that doesn’t interfere with the work I am doing.LXQT. Why? Because: It is lightweight, consumes little resources, is quite customizable, and has full Ukrainian localization.
Maybe I’ll switch to XFCE/MATE, but not if there are a lot of things not translated, or if the translation is worse than even Google Translate.
till
\sigh
