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?

        • _donnadie_@feddit.cl
          1·
          8 days ago

          Nah I’m more into the main distros, they tend to have better support. Debian, Fedora are my main OSs, with Debian being what I use with old hardware that I still want to use on a daily basis, and Fedora for anything that’s new and might require a more up to date kernel.

    • bpt11@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      2·
      10 days ago

      I didn’t know it existed till making this post, as someone that’s new those are just the only two I hear about.

  • WereCat@lemmy.world
    7·
    10 days ago

    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.

  • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
    81·
    10 days ago

    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.

  • verdigris@lemmy.ml
    6·
    11 days ago

    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”.

    • OmegaLemmy@discuss.online
      1·
      10 days ago

      Gnome is so much more different, the closest comparison would be android but android is frankly a downgrade of gnome for me with how slow and clunky it is even with touch controls funnily enough

  • SevereLow@lemmy.world
    5·
    10 days ago

    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.

  • pineapple@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    10 days ago

    I use KDE atm I’m really new to Linux at the moment though and I will switch at some point to see the other side. But KDE seams really good after just coming from Windows.

  • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
    4·
    11 days ago

    Gnome is Snow Leopard OSX basically in attitude and experience, do NOT try to customize anything, go limp and do the experience. KDE is Windows 98, full of fun customizations, but unpolished in odd ways no matter what you do. Choose your fighter!

      • vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de
        23·
        10 days ago

        but only until the next update, which will probably break half your extensions, because they are entirely unsupported and uncared for bythe gnometeam

        • Jiří Král@discuss.tchncs.de
          1·
          10 days ago

          I had about 16 extensions before the last update. After I updated 2 of them became unsupported which 1 of them is already supported again if I am not mistaken. It depends on what extensions you use of course.

          • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
            1·
            9 days ago

            I’m still waiting for Gnome’s titlebar hiding on fullscreen extension to work again on Fedora 41 Gnome. As an enlightened individual where Gnome is good, tell me how to hide it again since I am dumb and you are smart.

            • Jiří Král@discuss.tchncs.de
              1·
              9 days ago

              You could use dash to panel extension, in the settings move the bar to the top, reorganize it as you wish (you should be able to make it look practically indentical to the original panel), make it thinner and turn on autohide. Even though I have some bad experience with the dash to panel authide feature and know this is a half baked solution. See if it works for you.

    • Zeoic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      8 days ago

      Uhm, what? Gnome is all about customization lol Mine looks more like windows than it does mac

    • audaxdreik@pawb.social
      0·
      11 days ago

      KDE is Windows 98, full of fun customizations, but unpolished in odd ways no matter what you do.

      Absolutely perfect. And part of why I’ve grown to love it.

      • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
        1·
        9 days ago

        I agree, but I got hooked on Apple gestures from work. I’m like a cop who had to go undercover and got hooked on speed to operate

  • exu@feditown.comEnglish
    3·
    10 days ago

    KDE because it has a lot oft integrations and I can mostly configure it how I want. I previously, ran i3 and then Sway, but I grew tired of having to integrate everything myself.

  • doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml
    3·
    10 days ago

    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.