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How important is a DE to you? (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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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.

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[–] 19 points 9 months ago (6 children)

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.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    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 :(

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    ^ 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.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    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.

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