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?

  • Kory@lemmy.ml
    631·
    30 days ago

    That’s not too hard a question for me, I’ve been using the same DE for years: KDE

    • aksdb@lemmy.world
      15·
      30 days ago

      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.

      • jamie_oliver@lemmy.world
        2·
        29 days ago

        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.

    • hddsx@lemmy.ca
      2·
      29 days ago

      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

  • Lemmchen@feddit.orgEnglish
    325·
    30 days ago

    I’d rather not use a computer at all than use GNOME for the rest of my live.
    For me it’s KDE Plasma all the way.

    • Photuris@lemmy.ml
      303·
      30 days ago

      It’s wild to me how GNOME evokes such strong opinions in folks. It really is a love it or hate it kind of deal (I’m in the “love it” camp).

      I wonder why that is. I like KDE ok, but it doesn’t elicit a strong emotion from me. KDE works fine, I just really like GNOME.

      There must be something about GNOME in particular that some people love, and others hate.

      • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        281·
        30 days ago

        For those of us that expect room to breathe and make our machine work for us rather than the other way around, we feel like Gnome takes a lot of liberties away for the sake of “simplicity.” There is so much missing from Gnome that is present in most other DEs and even custom WM setups.

        The primary contributors who work under The Gnome Foundation also come off as controlling and arrogant in a lot of cases, and refuse to take community feedback to heart, whereas KDE has literal summits to get user feedback on major core features we want to see which then later get added to their backlogs and sprints as Epics. Gnome acts a lot like Apple in the sense that they’re very much “we know what’s best for you better than you do.”

        Now, the singular area I can give Gnome true props in is their accessibility functionality, but that’s primarily it. KDE’s accessibility is fairly behind by about a decade in comparison.

        That’s just my take, take it as you will.

          • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            29 days ago

            I miss old Gnome. I wish they’d stuck with the old Gnome 2 design philosophy but breathed new modern design principals into it, instead of trying to go the Ubuntu Unity route. Maybe something like Cinnamon but even more flexible and feature-rich.

              • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                3·
                29 days ago

                I was waiting for someone to say that.

                I like that Mate is a thing, but like I said, I’m looking for something thats based on it but as if its had the same 20 years of enhancements everything else got.

                The closest thing to that I’ve found is quite literally KDE. So I use KDE.

        • lastweakness@lemm.ee
          12·
          29 days ago

          There is so much missing from Gnome that is present in most other DEs and even custom WM setups.

          There are also plenty of features that gnome has that kde and other desktops and wms don’t have. It’s all about tradeoffs and what’s acceptable or necessary for you.

      • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        30 days ago

        Honestly, that defaulting to the Search field in the Save dialog when I’m trying to save something just gets me wild. It beggars the imagination why the developers think that’s a reasonable thing to do and it colors my whole perception of the DE.

        • Ohh@lemmy.ml
          5·
          30 days ago

          This and shortcut for creating a subfolder doeesnt work in save dialogue.

          • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            30 days ago

            I haven’t lasted long enough after the Search piss-off to notice the tomfoolery of that. Well, you probably shouldn’t be creating new folders from there, don’t you understand how the workflow-as-handed-down-by-Jehosaphat is supposed to be used?

      • Domi@lemmy.secnd.me
        121·
        30 days ago

        There must be something about GNOME in particular that some people love, and others hate.

        GNOME is heavily opinionated.

        As such it gets praise from people that share that opinion and gets hate from the people that do not. Many other DEs are much more configurable, giving a broader audience the possibility to adjust everything to their liking.

      • pmk@lemmy.sdf.org
        7·
        30 days ago

        You know how the ending of LOST or Game of Thrones can bring up feelings in people? That’s how it was for me when Gnome 3 first came out. I had been using Gnome 2 for a few years and had a good workflow, and then suddenly, everything changed. Back then Gnome 3 was buggy and lacked a lot of things, which didn’t help. It also didn’t help that the devs took a “the problem is you” stance to all feedback. That said, I use Gnome now, and I like it, it took some years to mature and become good. But the feeling is still there sometimes.

      • Broadfern@lemmy.worldEnglish
        103·
        30 days ago

        GNOME is a lightly upgraded MacOS interface. Every time I’ve had to use a Mac has pissed me off so GNOME gives me war flashbacks.

        Not necessarily the DE’s fault but ¯_(ツ)_/¯

        • Photuris@lemmy.ml
          42·
          30 days ago

          Ok.

          But, in Mac OS, Windows, and Linux, all three of which I work in regularly, I open up a terminal and type stuff in it, open up applications in windows and work in them, and copy and paste between them.

          Really, any DE can handle this stuff. Not sure what all the fuss is about otherwise. But it’s all good.

        • HouseWolf@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          30 days ago

          Gives me more Windows 8 flashbacks than Mac.

          An interface that works well on touchscreens, but feels clunky on mouse and keyboard and the general theming of it looks more phone like than a desktop PC. Gnome itself being harder to theme doesn’t help with that.

          That being said I’d pick Gnome over all else for touch devices. I threw it on an old Surface 3 and it worked better than the original Win8 interface.

          • crawlspace@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            28 days ago

            I agree it looks kind of like a phone. But, and take this with a big grain of salt because I didn’t use Gnome for very long at all, I thought it was really nice to navigate. I ended up using the mouse much less than I do now with Cinnamon.

      • desentizised@lemm.ee
        3·
        29 days ago

        I was team Gnome before Gnome 3 came out. Nowadays I don’t mind it for auxiliary computers that I don’t interact with regularly. It has a huge community behind it and that is a quality in its own right. But since MATE never really managed to become a worthy successor to Gnome 2 I guess I’m team Plasma now. I got it “forced” on me by my beloved Steam Deck and I can definitely see why Valve went for it.

        Currently I’m experimenting with Hyprland but that is definitely too early to call it my forever pick, so Plasma it is.

  • warmaster@lemmy.world
    222·
    30 days ago

    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.

  • AugustWest@lemm.eeEnglish
    19·
    29 days ago

    KDE. Been upgrading the same environment for 5 years just keeps getting better.

    I started around maybe KDE 3?

    • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
      4·
      29 days ago

      Was on KDE 2, KDE 3 was absolutely incredible, ran it on Mac when it was supported on xquartz.

      4 was a mess, but got better, 5 & 6 are fine, but it’s overall far better than any other DE, it’s just so customizable, the only other thing that comes close is xmonad or something.

        • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
          2·
          26 days ago

          I mean, they added a ton of features, especially minor or niche ones, but a lot of amazing ones like KDEConnect too.

          But what makes KDE the best is that the features don’t get in the way of core functionality anymore, the basic DE is always safe and they generally layer stuff on such that it doesn’t break anything.

          So basically the opposite of most of modern software nowadays.

  • slembcke@lemmy.ml
    171·
    29 days ago

    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, >_<)

  • oldfart@lemm.ee
    16·
    30 days ago

    XFCE, using it for over 10 years, not planning to change it unless the DE changes radically.

  • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
    16·
    29 days ago

    My computer doesn’t really break, I’m Ship of Theseus-ing it regularly.

    Apart from that, the only one among the normal window based ones that has felt like it respects my will to configure stuff in ways that feel right to me has been KDE Plasma.

  • lengau@midwest.social
    15·
    29 days ago

    This isn’t even hard. KDE without a second thought.

    I regularly try other desktops, and I regularly come back to the only desktop with any sort of reasonable thought put into it.

    • toastal@lemmy.ml
      2·
      28 days ago

      I would say the same & I don’t even use it—but I would trust it being around the longest & is better than GNOME IMO.

  • florge@feddit.uk
    13·
    30 days ago

    If it has to be a DE then I’d go with XFCE, otherwise I’d probably go with openbox.