I’m currently testing Fedora KDE on a VM (windows host) before eventually switching over to Linux completely.
Personally I’ve been on KDE for a few years, I love the way I can customize my workflow, from the default apps to the panels layout. The KDE team has made fantastic progress since I’ve started using it, and it’s now very stable and feature rich. I’m very excited for the upcoming Plasma 6
And as a reminder to everybody, please donate if you can, no matter what software you use. Especially if you’ve been using that DE for a while. Open source projects like these are always in need of funding!
Every time I hear this, I’m tempted to try KDE again, but every time I do, I run into stability issues.
I really like the customizability, particularly being able to set up the workflow you want. But then I hit stability issues and that just kills it for me - pun only somewhat intentional.
I doubt it’s a hardware issue. That said, fair enough re: experiences may vary.
Cinnamon! Although I want to give KDE another chance to become my default DE.
I bounce between Xfce and Plasma. I used Xfce for… I don’t know, 15 years? And only switched to plasma for a while because of getting a hidpi laptop before Xfce had support for it.
Xfce. It’s lightweight and looks great with a little bit of customisation. For me it’s the perfect balance between performance, usability and looks
Gnome, KDE is also nice but the default doesn’t function in a way that makes sense to my brain anymore after using gnome
KDE is what finally got me to switch from Windows.
Out of the box I found it a better user experience than Windows 10s desktop, but having it be stupid easy to customize and theme on top of that has made me never wanna go back.
I’m running Plasma with Arch, but I like Gnome to, it’s simple and easier to use, but I also think that plasma is more customizable.
Cinnamon because it’s Gnome without being Gnome.
Plasma. It’s the most customizable and you can dive in and shape it. It feels much more natural for me to jump into.
I put xfce on older hardware.
Distro wise I tend to go with Ubuntu flavors most because they seem to have better compatibility for various software and stuff I need, but I haven’t really shopped around too hard in years. Work is RHEL (and clones) and they make me sad.
I’m thinking of settling on Ubuntu for the same reason. It’s easy enough to get a VM setup and test other distros if needed
I have to say KDE Plasma, but I look really forward toward Cosmic Rust.
KDE is simply so damn old and has weird quirks everywhere, it has features and basic things like
- functional apps: dolphin, spectacle, kate, kde connect, systemsettings, discover, …
- SSD with hitboxes in the very corner (looking at you GNOME)
- wayland support
- a regular but modular bottom panel
- extensible everywhere
But it also just has too many features. Extensions are not tested or versioned so many simply dont work anymore, often some of the dozens of components has an issue. I cant imagine Cosmic reaching the level of features in like 3 years, but if it would do, this could be great. But in the end its up to the devs, so I have no idea at all.
I dont find GNOME usable really. At least in the default settings. The decorations make no sense on Desktops (they are perfect for tablets), the top bar makes you look down too much, the ubuntu way wastes space too. Everything is too thick, too little GUI settings and the standard apps could be from Android, the little features they have.
I think they clean up a lot, thats true. I am very excited!
Sway is really impressively stable if you’re willing to learn it and set it up. It’s a tiling WM.
I’ve been running the same arch install with roughly the same sway config for 3 years. My computer has never been so boring!
I love Sway with Arch, been running it for about two years across a few devices. Sway has yet to freeze, crash, or otherwise act unstable. It’s wonderful.
I started with Zorin, then GNOME via Pop!OS, then KDE, vanilla GNOME, then KDE again.
Who knows cos they all have good features.
I love cinnamon a lot
