I’m relatively new to the linux space, I was introduced by the steam deck which uses kde, and it’s pretty similar to windows in terms of how it works so that’s the DE i’d be leaning towards when I eventually switch. I’ve never used gnome so i’m not sure if it’d be worth using I guess?
So I’m just looking for some input from the community, do you use Gnome or Plasma, why do you use it, and what’s kind of like a pros and cons kinda thing between the two?
You are used to KDE and Gnome is very different But also KDE is buggy, I dont know how Steamdeck people make it better. If you chose Xfce, you will get a KDE similar desktop but more robust. Xfce can look modern with few efforts. MX Linux distro is a good example of a nice Xfce config.
Why no love for XFCE ?
I didn’t know it existed till making this post, as someone that’s new those are just the only two I hear about.
KDE for best fully integrated, out of box, modern DE.
XFCE + Compiz if you’re running on lower end hardware (uses less ram and utilizes gpu better). Also if you want even more customization than KDE with the drawback of limited SVG support (and still on X11 if that matters for you)
GNOME if you hate yourself and want to use a knockoff of ChromeOS or Mac.
Cinnamon and MATE if you want to see when GNOME used to be good.
LXQt is the XFCE equivalent of KDE, but is now on wayland with GPU accel, so it can fit the same area as XFCE+Compiz.
Wayfire (compositor) basically Compiz for Wayland if you want all the fancy effects on anything that uses wayland.
I use GNOME and I enjoy it a lot. If you decide to go with GNOME, imho try to install as few extensions as possible so that you can experience the desktop environment the way it’s intended by the developers. Of course, if it’s not for you, then with the help of extensions you can adapt it to your liking.
Pros:
- Beautiful to look at and gets out of the way. GNOME scored great productivity gains for me.
- Fast, responsive and very stable (I’m on Fedora 40).
- Great experience with flatpaks.
- The best touchpad gestures in the world. Any DE, any OS.
Cons:
- Even though it is very stable, sometimes it crashes. Last time the crash was caused by Thunderbird; then I switched Thunderbird to flatpak too, so that if it crashes again it will not bring down the whole DE (applause to flatpak for delivering the tech 👏). Disclaimer: prior to the crash, I haven’t shut down / restart my laptop for 20 days… it might not be Thunderbird alone that caused the problem.
🚧⚠️ That said, there’s currently a really annoying bug in GNOME that causes HUGE (or even - INSANE!) disk I/O! I don’t know when it is going to be fixed, but for the first time in two years this made me consider trying other desktop environments.
I just like GNOME better. Especially on a laptop. KDE is technically better on a desktop but all the things that annoy me on KDE tip the scales enough for me to use GNOME instead.
KDE if these are my choices & by a long shot.
I usually cobble together my own tiling setup. This has less bloat, but also a lot less integration.
KDE.
Plasma.
As a Linux convert from Windows, IMO it’s really close in look and feel to Windows 7 or 10 but with none of the bullshit. You barely have to change your workflow if you’re already used to Windows.
I use GNOME. KDE is nice in that it allows you to customize everything, but if I want that degree of control I’d rather use a fully customized window manager setup (sway is generally my go-to).
GNOME is also designed to be used in a keyboard-centric workflow, which I prefer. It’s a nice comfy default for when I want the option to use my computer “lazily”, i.e. just kicking back mostly using the mouse to browse the web, but still has enough power-user functionality to make zipping around without touching the mouse feel good.
I also just like their defaults a lot. If you start to install a bunch of third party extensions etc it starts to get messy and degrade the point of the whole unified vision, and at that point you’re better off with KDE IMO.
It’s also worth noting that I don’t really like the default Mac OS UX – while I can see why people say “KDE is like Windows, GNOME is like Mac,” it’s really only a surface level comparison that mostly ends at “KDE uses a taskbar and GNOME has a dock”.
I use a window manager on my desktop, and gnome on my laptop. Gnome’s gestures are amazing with a touchpad
Gnome user here.
I’m in love with KDE right now.
Kde, nothing against gnome, I just need to adjust KDE less to get what I want.
Gnome ftw
KDE Plasma is really nice, I love all the settings. But every time I try it, I give up after a couple weeks because I get annoyed at the hangups/crashes. Maybe because I’m always on old hardware. But I’ve never had Gnome crash. In 2 weeks, I had to ctrl-alt-f2 to reset plasma like 5 times. I never had to do that with gnome.
Sometimes on Gnome I really wish I could change a setting that would be easy in Plasma. but it’s just not worth the hiccups. And it’s nice that Plasma gives access to a bunch of different task switchers. But I couldn’t find any that work as well as the Gnome task switcher. Plasma feels like beta testing
❤️ to KDE, though. I love K3b, KDEconnect (plus the GSconnect gnome extension), kate, krita, etc.
Of the two I prefer Plasma. I strongly dislike Gnome. My absolute favorite DE is Cinnamon.
