Should you use KDE Plasma instead of GNOME?

[@Hzuuuu]

I switched to Plasma this year and never looked back. There is only one reason: Dolphin. It is truly the most powerful file manager in the whole Linux desktop ecosystem. My job have been a lot easier since using Dolphin, not to mention the file picker is designed for the current age and not the stone age like GNOME's.

[@yawarete]

Yes, God save Dolphin!

[@carabouzouklis]

Imagine if you could install dolphin in Gnome :(

[@yawarete]

@@carabouzouklis I installed it in Ubuntu, but it is not the same as in kde

[@imtiredtoday]

@@carabouzouklis gnome doesn't have good QT (KDE application design style) application support... It just looks terrible...

[@vxer]

Dolphin is good but not great. It's very obvious no one really cares about it as much as other kde projects hopefully that will change in the future. I personally settled on Nemo. A fork of nautilus. It does everything I need and looks great.

[@АлексейШилин-д1ф]

This is actually a well-balanced overview of these DEs conceptual differences. Didn't expect that. Well done! I used KDE for ~15 years until I switched to GNOME 4 years ago. Customization is a lot more first-party in KDE compared to GNOME for sure, so if you like extensively customizing things then KDE is a more suitable choice for you - GNOME can be kinda boring for tinkerers. As for myself though, ricing and stuff was fun only for the first 10 years or so, but now I just want to have my work done, so I've switched to GNOME and couldn't be happier with its stability, predictability and productive workflow.

[@nategraham4027]

I think you should absolutely use GNOME if you prefer its basic vanilla workflow, or if you're workflow-agnostic and willing to get used to the GNOME way. It was made for people willing to adapt to its usage paradigm, and it's really good at it--better than Plasma is if you try to replicate its workflow manually. And vanilla GNOME shell is less buggy than Plasma because there's simply so much less of it. But if you actively dislike vanilla GNOME's workflow, or you're not the kind of person who thinks about computer workflows at all and just wants something that works generally the way you're accustomed to it working, then Plasma is for you. It was made to be intuitive and traditional, to not force you to learn a bunch of weird new things, and to adapt and grow with you when your needs and preferences change. The fact that both exist is a marvel of the modern world we live in.

[@Denis-zo6qo]

What bunch of weird things are there to learn with GNOME? When I switched from Windows to Linux I tried both desktops and I must say that GNOME was way more intuitive to use than Plasma, for me at least. Plasma has to many menus and submenus and the settings are all over the place and confusing.

[@rvmiv_]

I started with gnome, I liked it compared to windows and thought it was pretty customizable with plugins Then I tried KDE, and my eyes were opened, it's not perfect stability wise, but otherwise it is everything I want in a DE

[@theplaymakerno1]

What stability issues have you encountered?

[@ashishkushwaha6430]

​@@theplaymakerno1me also want to know that issues

[@theplaymakerno1]

Yes. I am waiting for the reply.@@ashishkushwaha6430

[@OlafurViir]

I might be one of few going from KDE to GNOME. I am sold on the workflow and it works for me. There are few things that I miss from KDE, and I would love to be able to combine these into GNOME. I do not have that many extensions installed and enabled (like 4 or 5). I think I get the idea behind both DE, but GNOME speaks bit more to me. Both are very good DEs and it comes down to personal preference.

[@jasonthirded]

In my experience extensions tend to break after a few months or so. I prefer the look and feel of gnome but they gone too far on removing features. Kde has the exact opposite problem

[@emilymarriott5927]

Back in college I preferred Gnome 2 to KDE. When Gnome 3 came out I used it but wasn't really happy with it. It was very inflexible and clearly going in a direction where if you don't like what they are doing, you can't do anything about it. Very "my way or the highway." After a long gap of no linux, I'm back and finding I really like KDE these days. Plasma feels far better than KDE 3 and 4 did back in the day and I really like the customizability.

[@koye4427]

Small correction, you don't need to install a plugin to get a minimize button, it's a configuration that can be enabled graphically through gnome tweaks or manually through dconf.

[@mikeonlinux5491]

Except Gnome Tweaks IS a plugin, so you do need that to get a minimize button, plus honestly a lot of basic stuff that should be in settings anyway. Gnome is getting better with the latest versions, but it still lacks some basic settings. No need to go crazy like KDE, but really, all other major OS use minimize buttons without relying on less stable third party tools... Also, bluetooth is just now being added when it's been around since forever, same with dark mode. Sometimes, too much minimalism actually hurts workflow.

[@lumac1232]

can you make a video customizing the KDE Application Style a bit more? maybe a little more round corners

[@sabriunal_]

Can I correct you? KDE's simple text editor is Kwrite, not KATE. Kwrite uses the same codebase as Kate. GNOME used to have Gedit but now uses GNOME Text Editor (gnome-text-editor) as default. There is no exact corresponding application for Kate but GNOME has GNOME Builder IDE and is similar to Kdevelop.

[@vdochev]

Geany? I thought it was the Kate corresponding app for Gnome.

[@tuxia6498]

Geany isn't developed by GNOME afaik.

[@LevisRaju]

@@vdochev GNOME Text Editor is the basic text editor app for Gnome. It was Gedit before, but they dropped and moved on to Gnome Text Editor. Kwrite and KATE comes as a single package 😆since they share the same codebase.

[@alem.14]

I think he mentioned it because Kate usually comes preinstalled o.O

[@_tanzil_]

Kate is literally like a VScode without intellisense. Amazing.

[@oakld]

I use KDE since since about 1997. Maybe since before Nico was born. But still enjoy his content, sometimes finding new things I missed. Good job 👏

[@AssociateMinisterReserveDeacon]

A. When I install Linux for family and friends. I installed both The GNOME Desktop Environment and The KDE / Plasma Desktop Environment. B. I've found that some KDE / Plasma applications don't work well under The GNOME Desktop Environment. C. For maximum software compatibility I install both Desktop Environments. D. Does anyone else install both The GNOME Desktop Environment and The KDE / Plasma Desktop Environment on the same Linux installation? If YES. Please leave a reply to this list of comments explaining why you install both Desktop Environment on the same Linux installation.

[@keyboard_g]

Cinnamon was the perfect middle ground for me. Customizable, but not to the extreme like KDE. Much more polish and stability.

[@reekinronald6776]

Agreed. The Linux Mint Team seem to have nailed it. They stick with a good stable arrangement of software then they just polish it up a bit with each edition. Other distributions often feels like it's the developers' Sandbox to try new things.

[@kuroneko9710]

Exactly!

[@phrtao]

Plasma gives people choice and the project accepts that people want to customise things. Gnome pushes the responsibility for this onto 3rd party developers and it is their responsibility to make sure their tweaks and extensions work with new releases. Looking through the distros there are more that offer a tweaked version of gnome than offer a tweaked version of plasma. So even though you can customise more on plasma, it is not done by most distros.

[@nawantabahpangestu1973]

It would be wrong to think that GNOME doesn't care about customization. The extension is not officially supported by GNOME because it does not use the API provided by GNOME so it is unreliable. The problem lies in the fact that until now GNOME lacked an API for customization. The only way to customize GNOME is GNOME Tweak. Why? Because nobody wants to build a decent API for GNOME customization.

[@dermond]

I can't decide if GNOME or Plasma it's better for me so I sticked with cinnamon 👀

[@softwarelivre2389]

What really matters is that we're all enjoying Free and Open Source Softwares on our GNU/Linux systems.

[@youtube.user.1234]

GNOME seems to suit my current workflow and there are so many things I wish I had on plasma, so I’m gonna switch to Fedora + GNOME sometime

[@jaunie8217]

What sorta things do you have on gnome that’s not in KDE?

[@softwarelivre2389]

@@jaunie8217 GTK4 + LibAdwaita probably

[@MarcoMissere]

@@jaunie8217 dynamic workspaces. The real "killer application" for me

[@sagichdirdochnicht4653]

I love the fact, that KDE lets you do (almost) anything. Digging around the settings can be overwhelming, as a new user; gnome is much simpler in that regard. But if like to make your desktop your own, KDE is your tool. My desktop isn't that traditional either, but I can change basically anything. There are a few feautres I'm missing yet, but they are getting slowly implemented anyway.

[@nategraham4027]

There are actually many more apps made by or for KDE compared to apps made by or for GNOME. Fedora's packages + Flathub show me 210 apps by or for KDE, and 167 by or for GNOME.

[@truko22]

Excelente, sin duda son dos proyectos increíbles 👍🏼 Pero a la final es cosa de gustos.

[@LevisRaju]

I love em both. They're both AWESOME and the way they are actually different. This gives the Linux community a variety of workflows to start with. . I really didn't know why Ubuntu went with GNOME when they're against customization and KDE was a lot open to it. If Ubuntu was going with KDE when they dropped Unity, thing's would've been a lot easier for Canonical.

[@esn2618]

I think they didn't choose KDE because there already was Kubuntu

[@LevisRaju]

@@esn2618 May be. There was Ubuntu GNOME too 😉 But it was not an official flavor I think.

[@esn2618]

@@LevisRaju Yeah it wasn't official

[@yousefkhaled2]

um using both

[@mml1357]

I have used kde plasma for 10 years in a row. Previously, I used it intermittently, toggling between Gnome and Unity. But definitely, Plasma for me is the best. Knoppix was my first encounter with it. Years later I tasted it with Kubuntu, and currently on Fedora and KDE neon as well.

[@pettycrimesandmisdemeanors]

To me it boiled down to how it works with my hardware specifically and surprisingly of all things workspaces on primary monitor only

[@51n79]

For all KDE's options it still has a lot of bad UX that can't be fixed like the alt tab switcher having mouse hover or cycling windows correctly with alt grave, something Gnome does out of the box. Also how about any distro supporting MacOS key bindings.

[@gljames24]

The one thing I don't like about the plasma themes is that there are no theme editor. Most plasma themes are usually a slightly different color and slightly different spacing. The different customisations can also overlap in a weird way. A nice set of settings to adjust the color, spacing, and a drag and drop for svgs or icon packs would be awesome to have.

[@ajx803]

I have been jumping around DE and WM for some time. Some times I swear KDE is not for me.. all those configurations, settings and the the itch of trying new themes inevitable breaks it. But if I keep all these experiments to minimum I find it a lot better than anything out there; considering the features and the resource consumption. Gnome + a few extensions gives that macos like refined experience but consumes a bit more resource; and sometimes the DE feels insufficient or breaks when your extensions stop working. XFCE seems better but just lacks features like using Kwin scrips/Gnome extensions. I need a simple manual tiler script like the Ultrawide or Awesome Tiles. Is it possible for KDE to prioritize on stability and performance VS all these features? Or a minimal edition that offers a more refined experience with FEWER options?

[@jesse7631]

Nicco, I used KDE for two weeks straight a couple weeks ago and found some glitches that annoyed me. For example, I have dual monitors, and it seems that KDE Plasma still has issues with dual monitor configurations. I had application and task manager panel on both monitors and I configured both of them to show tasks only for apps running on each monitor. It worked good for a couple days, then one day, they were reversed for some reason. The app on one monitor showed its task bar in the other monitor and vice versa. I had to go into the setting for each panel and swap them between monitors. This happened a few times. The same thing happened with wallpapers. I noticed that sometimes Plasma thought I had 3 monitors, even though I have only two and I am not using a laptop; just my Desktop PC. There were other inconsistencies and I eventually went back to GNOME. FYI, this was all done on X11, not Wayland.

[@yawarete]

I use ubuntu on a laptop and kubuntu on 2 desktops. In the comparison I highlight, apart from the customization and widgets, the excellent software: dolphin, gwenview, spectacle, skanlite, kde connect, okular, ktorrent, etc. From Ubuntu I like the use of the meta button and its stability

[@MannyGraal]

We need a search option in thr file opening chooser. Currently i can only search for things in the current directory but not anything else. If time doesnt let you guys do that its fine, but maybe make some time to have that implemented. Maybe with krunner integration

[@cugansteamid6252]

Rocking KDE on Manjaro ❤

[@celguek8263]

used to linux mint gnome, tried linux mint KDE and wont get back to gnome. now Im using neon

[@Dobaspl]

Its ro right. A would like to have gnome, but with apps from kde. And some settings options form kde. And some ui elements. Basically, I want to kde with something like gnome workflow.

[@netbotcl586]

I use Plasma because I agree with most of its default configuration, I can easily change the rest. I tried Gnome but feel too clunky for me, having install an extension (that might not work anymore after an update) to have the dock on the bottom, can't use number keys to activate task, feel slower in general.

[@logicalfundy]

A bit surprised KDE is known to be lighter on resources - usually having a lot of customization / configuration uses more resources. Personally, I do like the customization. I personally don't do the virtual desktop thing, because I just close apps I don't need and I have dual monitors so I can just put the other app on my second monitor if I'm doing two things at once.

[@electric_lizzzard]

short answer: yes definetely long answer: watch the video

[@alphamx13]

Nicco what distro do you thing is better with KDE Plasma and also what distro has lower CPU and Ram consumption ? Thank you!

[@Chertograad]

Thanks you for the awesome video! I greatly prefer how KDE looks and feels but it's a pity that most distros default to Gnome. I kind of wish KDE was chosen more as the first DE option on distros (not as a "spin" or "flavor" but the default).

[@merlingt1]

People say Gnome is opinionated but so is pushing features on the user like KDE does. Kate is a good example, I don’t need any of these features on this text editor since I will end up installing a more powerful editor of my preference. The plain Gnome editor works just fine for very basic things.

[@Denis-zo6qo]

I'm a casual user and about a year ago I bought a XPS 13 with Ubuntu pre-installed. It was my first time using Linux after 10 years or so (in school). So I'm defninitly not a pro user and I'm looking for an uncomplicated out of the box expierence without having to fiddle with the system too much. After using Ubuntu for a while I wanted to try something new, so I decided to try Manjaro /w Plasma. Unfortunately, I have to report that for me it wasn't a pleasant expierence at all because many things didn't work as I would expect. Touchpad gestures like pinch-zooming in Firefox didn't work. Many apps couldn't be found in the app store (later found out that I had to activate flatpak manually), couldn't switch between lightmode and darkmode in system tray menu, no pre-installed power management profiles selectable in system tray menu. I also didn't like the windows-like app menu either, showing me useless app categories instead of just a simple list or matrix of apps. The app-store was unintutive to navigate, not good looking and slow to install apps. However, I must say I liked how easy ist was to customize the UI according to my preferences with on-board tools and that it already looked pretty damn nice without using themes. I'm aware that most of the problemes mentioned above can probably solved more or less easiliy with some work. But like I said, I don't want to do that, I want it to work straight away as I can expect from a modern operating system. So I dicided to switch to POP OS Gnome/Cosmic and everything looked and worked like a charm right from the start. So my conclusion is that Gnome offers a more straight forward and uncomplicated expierence, especially for casual users, while Plasma requires and offers way more customization and appeals more to pro users or those who enjoy to modify their system a lot.

[@watynecc3309]

About Kate how I can improve vim inputs ? for example I press zz it doesn't center the current line (I don't like writing code at the bottom of the file) ?

[@scripterzofindia]

Use gnome 43 on fedora. I use gnome because it works for me. I face a lot of bugs when I install plasma. I reported many bugs, but with every release the bugs keep increasing. Currently I am not willing to switch to plasma. However I would if kde becomes more stable in the future.

[@Soraviel]

KDE is stable, I use KDE neon 24/7 and it is not buggy

[@scripterzofindia]

@@Soraviel I used it on arch

[@doubletimedan6]

@@scripterzofindia I use it on arch and it's fine

[@Jeff_T918]

@@Soraviel I use KDE neon too (x11), but just this morning I ran this command: aliase agu: `sudo apt update ; apt list --upgradable ; echo "flatpak update" ; flatpak update' and on the flatpak update I saw the Y/n prompt and Konsole closed; no warning, no complaints, nothing. I did it 3 times with the same results, then did it on urxvt and it updated just fine. I rebooted afterward and since there are no updates the command runs and exits in Konsole without error, so I cannot reproduce now. Overall, I don't have any problems with KDE Plasma.

[@Soraviel]

@@Jeff_T918 Yeah i don't run those commands on my computer, if I want to update, I just let discover handle that.

[@guss77]

Read about "Tyranny of the default" (which is an expansion of "Tyranny of small choices" that is even worse).

[@TrustJesusToday]

GNOME extensions crashed my systems and I like customizing. KDE works for me.

[@mauriciobassaletti980]

Yes ❤ kde its the best

[@miguelguthridge]

I can't wait to switch back to KDE as soon as they fix the issues with multiple displays!

[@dragonek_gnu_linux_pl]

did kwin has an option to assing windows to workspaces? im using gnome right now but i think is time to switch to kde after added this new futures at 5.26. They looks very interesing and this tilling in kde is very nice, but assing window to workspace is very important for me

[@toranshaw4029]

I'm running Pop and my laptop's fan would often scream at me (often all day) when I used GNOME. Since switching to KDE, while it still flares up, it seems to far less stressful to my machine. I also prefer KDE's panel much better than I do GNOME's. I also agree about the GNOME issue, as the last time I had to make an upgrade to it some of my core extensions just didn't work! I do also like some of KDE's apps more, like I'm using Akregator for my RSS feeds, KOrganizer for my calendar and Kasts for listening to podcasts.

[@bologna3048]

If I was forced to choose between the two I'd go with KDE, but personally I wouldn't use either lol I run minimalist systems and live in the terminal as much as I can, i have no need for such.. pretty graphics lol

[@DarkGladiator]

You don't even use a window manager?

[@treyquattro]

how is it that KDE is more performant even though it's more complex? I started off with GNOME but found that KDE was more performant on an older i7 laptop. I do feel that KDE is the more natiural DE for Windows users while GNOME is more natural for Mac users. I use all three OSs but Linux with KDE is my preference.

[@conan_kudo]

The new text editor for GNOME is called... "gnome-text-editor". Hilariously, this kind of violates their own HIG where apps shouldn't call themselves "GNOME "...

[@duckrinium]

Ah yes, I totally understand what baobab package does first time seeing, very simple

[@nsa3967]

It does not violate their HIG since it's the package name. The application name is "Text Editor".

[@finkitsallover]

When I started using Linux it was on a 2016 tablet laptop which is the idea use for Gnome with the layout and workflow options but it still felt like a step back and I began distro hopping just to try a variety of DEs without needing any knowledge on it and I loved all of the distros that used KDE and now I use a basic Arch KDE setup on a spare laptop and I'm thinking of completing removing Windows from my life.

[@roracle]

I love this video because it really is a use case thing. I like to create and work, and as a result i love Gnome because the lack of customization allows the desktop to leave me alone so I can work. This ease of use and distraction free workflow is great for the general _computer_ newcomer or for granny. But KDE is great for gamers who like to rice their desktops. It's a great introduction to the Linux or BSD systems for hard core gamers or power users. Tweaking the desktop is kind of show of creative ability, and what others do can influence future design choices, especially if a particular element is common with users. But very good approach, sir. Love it!

[@scripterzofindia]

No disrespect for plasma though. Packing so many features is an awesome feat and many user prefer kde over gnome.

[@ShaunakHub]

Personally I use both. For some reason, I find Gnome to work better (way better actually) on less capable hardware even though most reviewers seems to call it bloated and what not. However, for new users - I think KDE/ Plasma is the right way (actually the only way) to have a good experience in Linux. There are quite a few reasons for that, but mostly its Dolphin 😀

[@jasonthirded]

If they compare to a window manager yea, gnome is bloated. Last time I checked there isn't a good way to benchmark desktop environments. Those who say kde or gnome is bloated probably go by feel and bias

[@enkiimuto1041]

I find it funny how people say KDE is broken, but extensions on gnome are a nightmare to manage and find what is wrong with them.

[@guss77]

The GNOME text editor was indeed called gedit, (I've seen it rendered with either a capital G, a capital E, both or neither) then for a while it was labeled as "Text Editor" (at about the same time they started calling Epiphany simply "Web") but now there's a new - and even simpler - GNOME text editor simply called "Text Editor" (I have no idea how to install it - searching for "text editor" in Discover brings up too many results for me to handle). They did the same thing with their terminal application - the original (and rather simpleton) terminal was called GNOME Terminal and the new one, which is even simpler and has less features is just called Console. gedit is actually not that minimal - it has a file browser panel and a plugin system with some useful out-of-the-box plugins. It is of course no match to Kate for features but if you can get used to its weird find and replace behavior (which should be familiar to EMACS users, a group I was never included in) then it could be quite useful - so they had to strip it down. If you check the GNOME apps website you can see that all the apps there are about "being user friendly" (which in GNOME parlance means "not scarily full with options") and "pleasing default experience" (read: no other experience).

[@QuantifyUncertainty]

I have both on my machine and use whichever suits my mood that day, and I've customized them both to behave pretty much exactly the same way. While Plasma has all the customization options built-in, some of the settings are hidden away in weird places and I actually had an easier time customizing Gnome to my liking. At present, even with all my extensions, Gnome is actually consuming less RAM than plasma (but a bit more CPU). But there's plenty I love about Plasma (looking at you, krunner!). Ultimately I don't think I could pick a favorite and will likely continue to use both (when I'm not using a tiling window manager lol). One of my favorite thing about Linux is the ability to try out a variety of graphical environments, tweak them, keep my favorites, and switch out between them. I've fiddled with a lot of them and for me Gnome, Plasma, and Wayfire WM come out on top.

[@Sqwert-g6h]

Also, the way KDE handles taking ownership of drives/volumes, and making them mount on startup is absolutely BS. KDE needs an application that has the same functionality of Gnome Disks.

[@reekinronald6776]

This is the real killer. Had all kinds of problems with loading NAS drives, Samba, and reconnecting to Wifi networks after sleep or suspend. It all seemed to stem from KDE controlling the permissions when mounting all these devices after reboot or sleep. Then there was Dolphin not allowing the user as sudo. The KDE team locked down the desktop to the point it was unusable or simply annoying for anyone with more complicated setups.

[@Иван-ы4с5ц]

Biggest issue for me in KDE for now is power consumption while playing hw accelerated videos in Firefox: it is just too high compare to Gnome. But KDE has great power management in other cases, that is so shame((

[@JanuszKrysztofiak]

Two things for KDE: 1) improve stability on Wayland, KWin hard-freezing (and effectively taking the apps with itself) is a no-go 2) the default Breeze theme is very ugly, Gnome's Adwaita used to be as ugly, but it is much better after modernization

[@aheendwhz1]

KDE Plasma has a lot of these quality of life features, that actually Gnome wants, but doesn't have. Take media controls on the lock screen as an example. Since years, Gnome mockups include these, but no one ever took the time to implement them. Instead, they sometimes have these flashy concepts, that change everything around and look fancy on paper, but if you balance the effort for developers to implement and the effort for users to adapt against the use that they bring, you'll have to agree that they are not that efficient in increasing usability (I talk about things like horizontal workspaces or the new Mosaic concept). While Gnome's strategy to achieve stability is minimal options, KDE's strategy to stability is technical conservatism/being careful when changing something. This technical conservatism is not only a bad thing: Notifications in Gnome for example are broken since years. In KDE, they work fine since the early SC 4 days, and they only got better over time.

[@TheZakarumite]

absolutely...

[@KuruGDI]

I don't think it's really fair to compare gedit (or it's recent replacement) with Kate. I would say the notepad-ish kwrite is much better comapred to gedit.

[@MrUploader14]

i really like KDE plasma and use it but a have a few frustrations with it. 1. KDE partition manager sets the owner and group as root anytime i format a drive in ext4 even if i set the permissions as everyone so can't manage it in Dolphin. I have to format it in btrfs which isn't a big deal but it's still really annoying since btrfs doesn't have a lot of the features that ext4 has and also lacks in performance compared to ext4. 2. Not being able to open Dolphin as root, i know the Devs say it because of security concerns but their are multiple ways to run system as root through just text files in the terminal and Rubber Ducky's can easily spoof a keyboard and just type your sudo password in the terminal if they have it. It's my computer i should be able to use it and it all the more frustrating when you have bugs like the one listed above. 3. Their is no way to change a owner or group of a driver/file in the GUI. 4. the KDE settings panel is a mess and very overwhelming at first. i will say it's better then GNOME which has a very beautiful settings panel that is almost completely useless, you need gnome tweaks and a few extensions just to make it usable. but a lot of the options that are separated could be consolidated and just hidden behind an "advanced settings" drop down. 5. Discover has some issues with downloading in the background, a lot of times when i minimized discover it will pause my download or cancel it with out ever telling me. 6. when moving a file the progress pop up appears in the farthest right hand corner of the screen which can lead me to not realizing a file it transferring that popup should be front and center. to bounce off that a temporary file should be hidden until it is done transferring. i have had steam deck owners come to me asking why they can't open the file immediately only to tell them that it hasn't finished transferring. but beyond those nitpicks i really like the desktop and will continue to use it.

[@andermetalbrasil]

Kate is one of the reasons for me to like Plasma. I know I could install Kate in GNOME, but I like the idea of having it installed with the desktop environment. I like the customizability of KDE, but this is becoming less important to me.

[@sandwicheems]

KDE Plasma = customization and lot of features Gnome = simplicity

[@syeedahmed6635]

don't you think KDE dev should focus on sddm improvement. it's really annoying when you need a quick reboot sometimes it takes 2-3 min to just shutdown everything.

[@themedleb]

As far as I know, SDDM is not a KDE project.

[@jhonyortiz5]

Stability and quality is an issue when it comes to gnome extensions. It feels more premium when not changing anything, but as soon as extensions come into play, it starts to feel a little broken. KDE by default feels hacked together with tape and glue. So neither feels like what apple user enjoy, neither is cohesive in the same way. If you like gnome as is out of the box, i think it's a better experience. But if you need to customize it, then KDE offers the better experience. It won't brake as often, the quality for better or worse is the same even if you do customize it since you aren't bringing in code from outside. I don't like default gnome, so I go with KDE since for me that will be the more consistent experience. Also, I do prefer KDE default apps. They are also more customizable in looks and behavior. But again, if you like default gnome, that honestly looks and feels better before extensions get involved.

[@dibyanshmohanta752]

KDE is only good as long as you don't customise it extensively. Then it becomes unusable, panel breaks and even sometimes the whole desktop crashes. At least GNOME is far better in that aspect.

[@esra_erimez]

In a word: Yes

[@DekritGampamole]

I've been using KDE since 1997 (or may be 1998) with KDE version 1 in Caldera OpenLinux. I switched to Gnome for a while in KDE version 4 but quickly got back to KDE. To me Gnome is too simple, I want something that I can customize to my heart. Also, Dolphin is the best of the best file managers in the world for me. I like something like Finder in Mac but Dolphin trumps them all.

[@lob06780]

I've had to change from Plasma to GNOME this year, because of Nvidia. KWin has many problems like stutters, slow animations, crashing and this kind of stuff, on AMD Plasma works really well. But at this day I won't want to go back again to Plasma (maybe only for Dolphin FM because Nautilus is really bad in my opinion).

[@puspamadak]

Status of 2023: Use GNOME if you want smoothness & performance Use Plasma if you want more customisation Currently Plasma feels less smooth as compared to GNOME & also it is slow to start up.

[@avg_user-dd2yb]

Thanks

[@raderator]

Zorin customized Gnome so I don't have to. Best looking distro out there. And anyone can sit down and use my PCs cuz it's laid out like Windows. Especially since I stayed with Chrome. Horrors!

[@walter_lesaulnier]

I'm a COMPULSIVE tinkerer so KDE Plasma forever!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@heartlesscaesar4427]

Yes

[@guilherme5094]

From the moment I need extensions for basic functions this is already a red flag for me. And unpopular opinion, I like Canonical's efforts to make Gnome more usable. But anyway I prefer Plasma.

[@MeowieGamer]

Depends on your use case. You like a productive, keyboard-driven environment? Use GNOME You like a productive, mouse-driven environment? Use KDE

[@NamasteProgramming]

KDE is both

[@softwarelivre2389]

@@NamasteProgramming and so is GNOME tho

[@scripterzofindia]

I definitely agree.

[@NamasteProgramming]

@@softwarelivre2389 Gnome mouse experience is not that good

[@Maxtraxv3]

me using cinnamon superior mouse functions: you all suck.

[@pewolo]

Most Linux distros are basically all the same. If you don’t like what you have by default, you can remove it and install whatever you like. Don’t let the names distract you.

[@davidwayne9982]

To answer your thumbnail question directly-- HELL YES--- and dump the other trash.. too much time wasted in the rest..

[@jimiarisandi]

for me. what the deferent?, iall is ok include windows or mac what the deferent for user ?. but but but about driver , you using kde neon then all be perfect, talking about x and wayland kde neon is the master, event kde KaOS it self can not defeat kde neon,. so my six sense tell me that linux is kde neon(ubuntu based) is the linux represented future os. so yeah you must forcing everybody to using kde plasma. for their best

[@PpVolto]

KDE is a Windows like UI and Gnome is a Mac like UI but removed the bad part of the Mac UI

[@Soraviel]

Yeah erm... I'm no fan of Apple MacOS (Gnome-ish systems)

[@dermond]

Gnome workflow it's very different from MacOs, MacOs feels so mouse centric and I really hate that (and a better windowing system)

[@scripterzofindia]

Gnome is not to be customized. It is designed to be so forgettable that you focus on your work.

[@DarkGladiator]

It looks ugly

[@Soraviel]

Gnome is crap (yes, I've tried it some time ago).

[@keit99]

KDE adjusts itself to your Workflows, GNOME adjusts you to it's "designers'" intended workflow

[@bologna3048]

that's a hilarious admission

[@scripterzofindia]

@@DarkGladiator still better than windows. To me, gnome is ok. Kde is beautiful but gnome is ok

[@marshmallow8709]

No

[@aaron6807]

kde is by far why better

[@frosty295]

No, it's still a buggy and ugly experience, experience especially when most apps are GTK

[@scripterzofindia]

Comparing gnome and kde on customisation is not fair

[@Soraviel]

Lmao, Gnome is crap, end of discussion.

[@MarcoMissere]

@@Soraviel GNOME is crap for you, end of discussion.

[@refayatul]

@@Soraviel not for everyone

[@Sqwert-g6h]

I would daily drive KDE if Konsole profiles actually worked. Also, KDE window title bars for Firefox drives me nuts. Just make it work like how Gnome handles it. Any time I use KDE, first thing I always do is disable all window decorations. Gnome doesn't compell me to do that because they actually make their title bars look good, and they don't put an unnecessary titlebar on firefox.

[@alternatuber6698]

GNOME more mobile view instead of desktop. I use KDE KOOD KREAT KOOL

[@softwarelivre2389]

GNOME works well for both mobile and desktop, tho

[@grxgghxrpxr]

​@@softwarelivre2389I agree, I would far rather use GNOME on a tablet PC

[@davidwayne9982]

I've used BOTH-- and HATE gnome-- it's just STUPID to me.. waste of space.. LOVE MY KDE... on everything I've put it on. The ONLY time I liked gnome was the POP OS setup--- and I only liked that because of the TILING which I loved-- but hated the rest of it and LEFT POP due to that .

[@davidwayne9982]

I DO--- I've tried gnome several times-- installed it 4 times- and I just CAN NOT get use to the "flow" or whatever it's called... seems STUPID to me.. and I do NOT like it AT ALL.

[@EmptyNullified]

Use extensions! Arcmenu, Dash to Panel, DING, etc. Even if I also switched to Plasma because it's better for me, as far as I remember, those extensions very rarely break. Especially if you run an older version of Gnome (like in Debian). So just work however you want with any desktop environment you want!

[@davidwayne9982]

@@EmptyNullified No extensions- I'm just back to KDE.. PERIOD.

[@EmptyNullified]

@@davidwayne9982 installing Fedora KDE spin as we speak xD But cant deny, Gnome has its strengths. Like being simple to configure cause everything is pre-configured for you. Comes in handy if you keep distro hopping.

[@davidwayne9982]

@@EmptyNullified Yes- I don't deny it's great software-- IF you can get your head around the "flow" as they call it-- I couldn't. and I honetly TRIED.. I just can't. BUT I don't say it's not GOOD- it's GREAT setup-- smoothed, FAST, probablly very efficient if you like that way it works. It looks good too.

[@EmptyNullified]

@@davidwayne9982 i think its also hate that remained since Gnome 3 as to why people hate Gnome. I was still using Windows back then so I cannot really share it. But since the Qt licensing problems, Gnome was adopted and worked on more and more to optimize a really good workflow. Its centered around apps + workspaces. Not one desktop + taskbar. Technically you are supposed to open the app drawer with Mod + A and drag and drop each app into a workspace of your choice, making 3, 4, 10 (however many you need) workspaces that you can switch using shortcuts, gestures or Mod and click it. I find that a window manager can have a better workflow but it takes time, effort and knowledge to set up into a functioning environment.

[@roarc0]

no

[@axMf3qTI]

No