Desktop environment, and OS in general is just something you eventually find one you like, and there's no need to change. It's GNOME for me, it just works in a way that doesn't get on my way and that's all it needs to be
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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This guy has a preference that differs from mine! Get him! /s
Yeah idk, I tried Pop with GNOME and just wasn't feeling it. Switched to Mint Cinnamon and it's a little more intuitive for me. I'm just a general user, gonna game if/when costs come down enough to build a desktop to replace my 2015 laptop. By then, I'm sure another distro will be a better fit for me. There are options for a reason.
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And I absolutely hate Gnome. But thank god we have over a dozen DEs to choose from. One of the great things about Linux is user choice.
Exactly. You can install your beloved distro with just what software you want there, because it's your fucking device
It's GNOME for me
Sicko
That gave me a good laugh. Gnome doesnt feel right to me at all man. To each his own.
But yea, sicko fr
No kink shaming! Bsdm is a valid way of life! (Or so I wa told)
Openbsdm or Freebsdm though?
DEs from one distro to another can feel different too, idk what it is about Manjaro but it feels so much more responsive than KDE's own distro. So I think it's worth trying our different distros even with the same desktop environment
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Same, and the OS is Ubuntu for me. I use my computer to get stuff done, not for distrohopping (though that's also a perfectly valid usecase if you find it fun ๐)
Yeah. I was also at Ubuntu after couple years of distro hopping, until they made a change I didn't like so I just hopped to Debian and been there past 3 releases
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KDE ftw
KDE is my favorite, but I'm excited to try Cosmic once it's a little farther along.
I also love Cinnamon, not because it looks great, or has a ton of customizablity, but because it is so stable. It's been the best #JustWorks DE in my experience.
Those are the only two I use regularly. Xfce is nice once you get it customized, but it's kind of a pain to get configured. I don't have much use for sophisticated tiling, so tiling window managers are just curiosities to me. I've played with i3, Sway, Hyprland, and a few others over the years.
I wish I had a use case for them, but alas, all my day to day needs are handled just fine with basic Window snapping, tmux, kitty tabs, and occasionally using a second virtual desktop.
I tried lots of DE's when distros started switching to GNOME 3.
Now I just run Xfce on everything.
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the first DE I used on Linux was cinnamon and I was like โwow, this is great, everything makes sense to me out of the boxโ
And then I tried Gnome and was incredibly put off by it, like โwhy the hell is this over here, this layout is strange to me. Why are all these unconventional features on by default, this is very annoying.โ
And then I tried KDE and I was like โwow, this is great and everything makes sense to me out of the box, also thereโs all these features and options, I donโt know what they do, but i donโt have to interact with them if I donโt want to.โ
Iโve used GNOME and Iโve used KDE. Donโt have a problem with GNOME but KDE is just how I like my desktop experience to act. I am intrigued about Cosmic though.
KDE and GNOME each have their shortcomings. KDE has never been completely stable for me but itโs so much better than it used to be. GNOME is the best at what itโs good at and the worst at everything else. Thereโs no grey area with gnome.
Cosmic looks super promising. I need to play with it.
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I quite like KDE Plasma on my steam deck, but on my desktops I always use XFCE
Ironic given XFCE is supposed to be the light weight one and the steam deck is the portable device.
I like both of them, though. Plenty of customizations in both, not that I tinker around much any more.
I've been using KDE since ver 2.something.
I like the idea of tiling window managers.
But I'm old.
I'm set in my ways.
I don't want to get used to new things.
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I've yet to see anything that compares to kde, and I just don't understand why so many distros default to gnome!
Never had a problem with XFCE, even doing some weird stuff with metrics in the task bar.
Though I do not tinker like I did when I was younger, nor do I know what Plasma has over XFCE that's not cosmetic in nature.
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I just want a conventional desktop paradigm that feels relatively integrated. For almost a decade I used Cinnamon until I found myself really wanting Wayland. For the past 5 years or so, I have used GNOME. It's clean, and with a few tweaks it meets my needs.
Still waiting for XFCEโs Wayland support. Until then Plasma it is
I miss being on XFCE, I'll be so quick to go back when their wayland transition is done
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I've been using Linux for twenty years. I didn't use KDE until they declared Plasma 5 ready for primetime. (I hated Plasma 4, and didn't like the look and feel of KDE 3.5 at all)
Since hopping on with Plasma 5 I have absolutely no interest in anything else. I love KDE Plasma and it just keeps getting better.
That's me in OP.
I'm waiting for Cosmic to mature
It has so many great ideas, all it needs is time and polish.
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How I feel about gnome
I like the ones that are forks of pre-ruined Gnome. MATE is my favorite of that type.
Mate is a solid fuckin choice. 10/10
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Plasma is great. But it's missing an important feature. Apps, such as backup or sync, cannot navigate to network shares, to use as a backup target. Dolphin sees the shares ok, but its important to backup. Windows lets apps select network targets. Plasma should too.
Dolphin shows you places that are not in your file system, such as network shares or your phoneโs media directory. Those are fake files, illusions of Satan, temptations designed to stray you from the path of God. Avoid anything that is not opened with open and not read with read system calls, for doing so is a sin before eyes of God (fopen and fread are permitted). Mount your network shares using sudo mount -t cifs.
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I'm interested in other DEs, i swear! I just don't use them, or like them!
I've been using kde for years and really enjoyed the fact that it was simple and worked out of the box.
Recently I heard about niri, I had a look and thought it was cool. I set it up with a desktop environment around it and in less than 1 hour I had a working de. I've been using it a couple weeks now on my work computer and I have to say that I'm really enjoying it, I feel it makes many operations much simpler and moving around different windows is very easy.
I use two screens, and I really like that I can have the applications bar on both on them, which was one major gripe I had with plasma.
I use two screens, and I really like that I can have the applications bar on both on them, which was one major gripe I had with plasma.
Csn't you just add a new panel to your second display and add the applications applet? In plasma 6.3 you can even clone your panel. Or am I misunderstanding?
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I went from Gnome 2 to Mate, and switched to Plasma last year. Can't see myself moving away anytime soon XD
I've enjoyed KDE since Mandrake 6. The control you get to have as a user is amazing. Thought to be honest, I really change very little. But the Cube! I will die for that Cube.
But I have used probably every DE that runs on Linux one time or another. Each has its own charms and quirks. While my laptop lives comfortably with Fedora 43 Kinonite, the cheap mini desktop I'm using right now currently has COSMIC on it. And to be honest, as much as I like LXDE, dnfdragoria as it's package manager, someone at Fedora needs to take dnfdragoria out back and launch it into the sun. COMIC is far lighter feeling than I thought would be. I will live with it for a while I think.
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KDE's absolutely excellent, but if you need every little kilobyte RAM, go Sway. SwayโIt's Technically Graphical โข
I'm still stuck on i3 and sway. I hear there's a version of KDE that is tiling...? But I haven't found anything definitive on that.
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I really like tiling window managers, but plasma is so much easier to deal with
i used cinnamon in 2016 (worst time i think), then i briefly used gnome in '23. i've been using kde since '25 and i regret i have no desire to use anything else anymore.
want a tiling wm? - just install a plugin and customize kde within 5 minutes
want to build a mediabox with a simple ui for use with a remote on a tv? - just adjust the sizes and find one of a million widgets!
do you want the ms win98 look? - it's 3 clicks away!
i am sure other DE's may be better for my specific usecases. but the flexibility of kde gives me good enough results within a familiar environment. i can change my whole computer experience in a few clicks and revert whenever on the same de!
i have tried kde and i cannot understand how so many people love it and hate gnome
It's not that I "hate" Gnome, I still love Gnome 2 and Cinnamon by extension, but the workflow of Gnome 3 just sucks balls for me. I can tolerate the workflow of any other DE, but Gnome 3 is just right out.
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