After 2y on Linux I can say with full confidence that switching from GNOME to KDE (for me) is a bigger barrier than switching from Windows to Linux ever was.
I’ve tried a lot to like KDE but I just can’t. I usually see people discussing distros but I feel like picking the right DE makes much bigger impact. I’m yet to try Hyprland though.
Considering the fact that I’m itching to get Steam Frame and VR on GNOME will likely be broken indefinitely, idk what to do.
The choice for me was something that did well in gaming. Features like good VRR support made the voice of KDE plasma the only option. I’m not bothered about the KDE UI. It is nice, and similar to windows, so ready enough to get along with.
I am monitoring Cosmic. Once it has HDR and solid VRR, etc I may try it out.
I need a good DE for launching apps and switching tasks. As a mouse user I found Gnome poor in launching apps. Huge mouse movements needed, and hard to lay out the launcher apps as I need them compared to Plasma. Id consider Gnome if I found a suitable replacement launcher. It would need favourites, category navigation and search.
Something like 4 out of 10 important for me, but 10 out of 10 if I share a computer. I keep xfce4 on my computers because I like some of the utilities that come with it by default and I’m not the only person in my home who logs in. The default setup is close to what my people expect and it can be modified easily enough.
That being typed, I use a window manager after spending years adding custom shortcuts to an increasingly modified xfce setup to match my day-to-day use patterns. I got tired of dealing with stacking windows and wanted to try a setup that tiles the windows instead. It made sense at that time to try out a window manager that came closer to what I was looking for. I still use xfce4 if I want to run an x-11 type of environment for some reason, but I’m using sway for my personal day-to-day environment. I’m willing to use KDE or GNOME if that’s what is installed by default, but I’m working against muscle memory when I do so.
I don’t care at all about DE, as long as it is not gnome. I run vanilla kde with minimal configuration. I tried many DEs through the years, tiling wm and so on. Now I just want something that works and that I don’t worry about. But gnome, I don’t get it. I did try it a couple years ago and my colleagues at work use it, it feels like it is hindering me. I don’t like how the application switcher works, the software launcher and so on. When I use it it feels to me I’m fighting the UI in order to do very simple things.
I use kde for my main desktop. Although I will probably switch to a window manager when I get the time to learn it.
I tried gnome once because I thought it was better for laptops (I used asahi for a little while on my macbook) Although I quickly changed to kde because I could not live with the horrible window tiling (only half and half no quarters) I realise now you can probably fix this with extentions but I didn’t get around to it.
Gnome is where the heart is for me! It’s just so customizable, the extension framework is such a cool concept. And yes, I know, KDE has a lot of bells and whistles, and I think think that’s why I dislike it. It’s cluttered, Gnome is simple. I like the polish and the smoothness, KDE is nice for people who want more but I’m happy with less. Thanks for coming to my TED talk!
Very critical. GNOME and KDE have two very different UX paradigms.
Usually people used to Windows opt for KDE, and Mac or older Ubuntu users opt for GNOME.
The thing is though, a golden standard DE can easily be setup to act as both. XFCE is so customizable that I’ve seen both DE types setup as UNIX like or Windows like workflow.
I’m not sure if KDE or GNOME can do the same because I’m pretty sure they focus on a target audience.
What are your issues with KDE exactly? I always hated GNOME’s lack of standard window buttons and handling multiple windows in a Mac like fashion. Also the app menu which gives me flashbacks of ChromeOS.
Super important. I do also choose a DE first and look for a distro that supports it out of the box second.
This being said, while I think Gnome looks amazing, it’s whole UX is killing me. I tried it over and over again, because it looks so beautyful. But it always starts to frustrate and annoy me.
I was ling term Cinnamon user and recently switched to KDE Plasma. Luckily, as Linux users we have a choice.
It is important. But I find the ones I have tried good, and would survive if I had to use either of them. I use KDE Plasma on my main personal laptop, I have Cinnamon running on a living room computer connected to my TV (not an ideal solution, but I’ve so far not taken the time to optimize the setup) and GNOME om my work laptop. I much prefer KDE Plasma out of them, but I like the others also.
Extremely. I’ve tried KDE flavors of various distros and one thing that trips me up every single time is the workflow for connecting to my hidden WiFi network. On Gnome and Cinnamon I can do this in a few clicks from the network icon in the task bar. On KDE I always have to spend several minutes fumbling my way around the network settings before I can start using it. Every. Single. Time. I don’t know why, it’s like my brain just works a certain way and because this is such an early and crucial step in setting up a fresh install, I’ve never been able to stick w/ KDE despite all the rave reviews it receives in these types of posts.
I just wish I could have AfterStep’s mini desktop pager in a modern window manager. It was so cool seeing an overview of my virtual desktops next to each other and being able to drag windows from one to the other without switching desktops.
What DE you like is very much dependant on your work flow and how well you can adjust to changes.
Personally, I love KDE Plasma. It’s the right amount of “bling”, bells, whistles, aestetic and settings for me. Gnome feels way to “simple” and XFCE feels reliable but old.
For me, the DE is often more important than the base underneath, but I do like my rolling release. :)
i’ve tried gnome, cinnamon, hyprland, lxqt and whatnot… but everything i have settles on KDE
When going over to Linux from Windows full time I landed on Gnome. Despite KDE being superficially like Windows, Gnome keyboard shortcuts are closer to what I’m used to, the defaults feel more sane to me, and the DE gets out of my way faster when in the terminal. I really want to like KDE but it hasn’t clicked for me.
One of the early irritants was way back in the KDE v1 days- the injection of the letter ’K’ in the app names - it harkens back to frat house level shenanigans (at least in the college I attended, except they liked the letter ’Q’). It hasn’t felt right with me.
Dash to panel and a couple of other extensions fixes the main gripes I have with Gnome DE. After testing Cosmic recently I am pretty close to that with my current configuration, and will likely try a transition that DE once it stabilizes.
I can technically manage in any DE generally - heck, I ran CDE on Digital OpenVMS back in the day and it did the job then. It a tool. The terminal is still where things happen for me.
Edits: reformatting the wall of text, added nuance.
For me it’s pretty important because I want my computer to feel good to use, so I’ll spend quite a lot of time making sure everything’s set up the way I like it. In terms of GNOME vs KDE, I’m definitely a KDE person. Not that I hate GNOME or think there’s anything wrong with other people using it, I just don’t get along with it personally. For me it feels like there’s too much stuff in GNOME that should be part of the core DE that relies on extensions, which tend to break with updates so there’s always something that’s not quite working.
I only use one extention “Dash to Dock” and I had no issue of it breaking from Fedora 38 to now Fedora 43.
On the contrary, I had to use so many widgets and addons on KDE to get a somewhat passable experience that it took me over 5h of customising and still felt not enough… also no “Latte Dock” on KDE 6 :(
^ All part of the fun of KDE.
So much to fiddle with.
And never perfect.
Even from a development side, not just user configuration side. They mend something and break something else. Many perfect features, but never at the same time.
Yeah I do miss Latte Dock. I’ve managed to get my docks pretty much back to where I had them using Panel Colorizer though.
I haven’t seen this one yet, looks definitely nicer than what you can do with the dock by default
I’ve also tried Gnome very briefly before going back to KDE. I never went deep enough to try extensions, as I’d also agree that most of that stuff should be built in to the DE, and I was annoyed by it missing these features that KDE just had out of the box. Hearing that extensions exist kinda reminds me of what I’ve heard about MacOS, where features that have existed on Windows for over a decade and Linux for years still require third party applications.
Back in the X11 days, I actively avoided GNOME, because Cinnamon, KDE and XFCE were so much better. I had so many issues with the design philosophy, that using GNOME felt impossible.
However, when Wayland started having some support in GNOME, I got very curious and gave it a try. Then, I also bought my first touch screen laptop, and simply had to try GNOME with it. Turns out, GNOME wasn’t that bad, as long as you’re not trying to tweak every little thing about it. If you’re a tweaker, KDE is definitely the way to go. If not, GNOME might be tolerable or even good.
I’ve done so much tweaking already, that I don’t really have that itch any more. Sure, some things like custom keyboard shortcuts have to be just right, but that’s why you have GNOME Tweaks and the dconf Editor.
