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?
I’ve been using spectrwm for over a decade https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm and have no plans to change
Interesting, do you know i3wm? If so, what is the advantage of spectrwm over it?
I’ve looked at i3wm, but I never used it, so I don’t know. If I had to move to another wm, i3wm seems like the first one that I’d look at, since they seem so similar
I have a whole system around it, different machines sharing their config files (over a git repo), so if I tweak one, the others catch-up.
Also, you can “build the config file” (I am cat-ing several dynamic blocks depending on the machine I am sitting on) and then init the DE.
Ah, nice. I have a similar setup, I have a repo, and for each rc-file, I do:
cat shared/${general_config} ${machine_name}/${machine_specific_config} > ${rc_file_name}So for spectrwm it does: cat shared/spectrewm.conf laptop/spectrewm.conf > ~/.spectrewm.conf
Hahahah, same! I use a folders named as the hostname to build that machine’s config on the fly. And all my config files are in one repo that then I
stow
Plasma for the last decade. Then probably XFCE, then Cinnamon.
I try Gnome every year or so, but every time I get pissed off with it within a few minutes and wipe it off my machine.
Xfce
KDE plasma. Coming from 30 years of running exclusively windows it’s just the most comfortable and easy for me to use (way more than Gnome). Easily configurable, works. Can’t ask for more.
it’s probably gonna be plasma6 by a hair over cinnamon on a rolling distribution. as much as people shit on manjaro here and on that other site, it has never broke on me–whether i update constantly or let it go 2-3 months between them.
but if the de and the underlying os are magically compatible, and those and programs kept up to date, never obsolete, and new ones appear for it as needed or desired… then sorry, it won’t be linux… i’m going back to something like 95osr2, 98se or w2k.
W2k was the best.
Xfce, and Cinnamon. You can’t force me to choose just one.
There is nothing better than Xfce, if you dont like the desktop, at least Xfce allows you to customize. KDE seems interesting, but the last time i tried it, 10 years ago more or less, it was a bit buggy.
You owe KDE a second look if it’s been that long.
Agreed. I used to be a diehard XFCE fan and hated KDE. Then I saw their resource usage came pretty close to each other but KDE had way more development behind it so they could add Wayland support (which I actually don’t even use.)
KDE used to be buggy and bloated. They’ve been improving stability for years and their efforts really show. I used to think it was bloated, but it really isn’t if you only use the parts you need. I use it pretty similarly to XFCE, it just has more dev support.
I remember when kde looked like xfce and yeah back then it was buggy. Today it looks like a slightly jank windows 7 but with the giant buttons and curved corners that characterize 2015 software.
Most of the bugs seem to come from Wayland still being vaguely trashy and kde not having fully migrated from xorg
That’s not too hard a question for me, I’ve been using the same DE for years: KDE
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
Oh yes. Much better since the KDE4 branch / debacle.
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.
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.
KDE.
Sway for a laptop, Plasma for desktop.
Had you have asked me a few weeks ago, I probably would have said Sway for both,.or maybe Gnome for the desktop… But I decided to check out KDE again for the first time in like 20 years, and while it’s still kind of a hot mess it has come a long way.
The amount of not KDE answers here surprises me. Y’all a bunch of nerds [endearing]
My current desktop is xmonad + xfce in no-desktop mode. Almost no configuration in xmonad, all the stuff like monitor layout and mouse props is handled by xfce. And yes my laptop that I used it on for 6-7 years is now broken (ish) so I’ve already unlocked this acheivement.
I do feel slightly guilty about not moving to wayland, but I’m not sure how that would improve my experience at all. I did hear xfce is almost there on wayland, so maybe I can move to sway + xfce on wayland at some point.
i’m already doing this with gnome lol.
if my computer was older, probably xfce.
Not a DE, but I’ve been using sway for around 5 years now, and I have no intention of moving away from it unless something really bad happens. I love using it, and it’s been behaving perfectly all tgis time.
Herbstluftwm with dmenu. Just a windows manager. I’ve gotten used to using the command line for things I used to rely on a DE for.
