I’ve been using Fedora for a couple of months now, and have been loving it. Very soon after I jumped into this community (among other Linux communities) and started laughing at all the people saying “KDE rules, GNOME drools,” and “GNOME is better, KDE is for babies.” But then I thought, “Why not give KDE a try? The worst that happens is I go back to using GNOME.”
Now I get it. The level of customization is incredible, it’s way faster than GNOME, and looks beautiful too. At this point, I’m not going back.
I’ll happily contribute to the playground fight over desktop environments. KDE rules, GNOME drools.
I essentially did the same. Used GNOME for almost 10 years, then got my first try of KDE last year and don’t plan on going back either. GNOME has some really good points, I wouldn’t have used it so long if it didn’t, but I can actually use an honest to goodness theme on my desktop and customize without having extensions break on every update. Also, the UI in GTK is just too big and chunky for me, it’s like every window is designed for tablets or something. I don’t need a title bar that’s practically an entire inch tall. If you like GNOME, awesome, I will likely never say GNOME is bad, but I’m a KDE guy now.
EDIT: apparently I need to specify that the “entire inch tall” comment is exaggeration, because internet. My point being that GNOME’s UI is too big for my tastes.
Yeeees, GTK looks awesome but I just cant see how apps like Plasma systemsessings, qBittorrent etc using Qt could work like that.
Gimp 3 alpha is pretty crazy, as GTK2 was very nice and usable, but already with GTK3 everything got huge, so now the buttons dont fit as well anymore.
Also I have to say GNOME would have some big issues for me.
- I dont want a top panel on a laptop, as it makes me look down more
- docks are weird as they waste screen space. Why not use a normal panel, everything there, at the bottom or side?
- not seeing all my open apps is weird, also not being able to open or close from the panel is weird
- I and I guess 99% of Desktop users dont need virtual Desktops. As they dont change the panel and more, I dont even use Workspaces on Plasma
- thus, normal window decorations are necessary
- hitboxes need to be in the upper corner and not some padded thing in the center. Every decoration failing this (looking at you Firefox & Thunderbird) just sucks
- UIs need to be compact when needed. Not everyone is a child and settings are not that simple.
Gnome has some nice apps like Loupe that are actually more secure. And it probably is way more stable. But KDE apps are so great, at least for usability! Could not live without Dolphin for example
Edit: incomplete scentence
Gimp 3 alpha is pretty crazy, as GTK2 was very nice and usable, but already with GTK3 everything got huge, so now the buttons dont fit as well anymore.
I reported that issue to gnome a while ago: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/9907
Hopefully they will fix it one day because it means I wont be using gimp 3 otherwise.
not seeing all my open apps is weird, also not being able to open or close from the panel is weird
The extensions that enable this are so simple too. Its a real shame its not built into the settings out of the box, even if they want that to be the default. I wish they made extensions more discoverable too, since you kinda need to know they exist in order to go get them, and easier discoverability would help people solve tbose problems faster.
UIs need to be compact when needed. Not everyone is a child and settings are not that simple.
I really wish these things were built in settings. Thunderbird Supernova’s setting for this is a fantastic example of how much of a difference it makes. Yeah, it’s a bit spacious by default. But once you drop the spacing to medium or small based on your needs and dpi, it feels great. Opinionated design done well makes for great consistency and feel, but it also needs to have some room for adjustments without needing to install stuff.
Agree, if they had the flatpak extensionmanager installed by default that would be cool. But dash to panel is still much worse, way less tray icons fit there, the app menu may be inconsistent.
Also I have to say that the complete lack of .desktop entry modification makes distinguishing flatpaks from native apps, or creating entries with slightly changed parameters, appending arguments like “force X11” etc. very hard.
Nautilus may be solid but it lacks so many features and I still dont know how to deal with it. If you know how to add a real “delete” entry that would be great.
I also think the traditional decorations extension is gone? But I dont know.
Didnt know you could change the UI density, thats cool.
KDE has a lot of nice points, I do really like the customization and I think I prefer a lot of the default KDE apps over their GNOME counterparts.
But there’s just something about GNOME I find really comfortable to use. I feel like on paper I should like KDE more, but I always end up going back to GNOME and being happier with it.
Gnome is sleek, gnome is special, gnome is unique. I love gnome. I’ve used KDE, but I don’t want a Windows clone, I want something special.
[…] but I don’t want a Windows clone, […]
KDE fortunately doesn’t have to be a Windows clone. There are several guides available on how to customize the UX / workflow to something completely different. I get what you mean, though, the default UX seems to be at least inspired by Windows.
I appreciate KDE for being a comprehensive toolbox that will let just about anyone craft the mouse-driven GUI of their dreams given enough time and effort. I appreciate GNOME for its bold and unified vision, which isn’t afraid to cull features or embrace innovation.
In what sense do you mean “faster” though? If you mean more performant, I haven’t experienced that – both desktops are extremely responsive.
My first Desktop was KDE, but switched to Gnome about 15 years ago. So, I am very comfort with the Gnome’ish workflow. But some months ago I bought a Steam Deck and use the Desktop (KDE) a lot. But I don’t feel that comfort as with Gnome. I miss the flexible workspaces and the look of the designs is, well, not that modern (some even make glitch effects). If you’re comfort with it, it’s okay, but personally I don’t understand and feel the benefits of using it.
