Spent lots of time with Gnome 2.
In Dec 2024 I got hooked in Hyprland on Arch and have a cool rice for it. But I’ve tried KDE on desktop now with Parrot OS since Plasma is popular. Still need to find some cool dot files or rice it myself.
I’ve noticed SwayFX getting lots of love lately. I might use that as an option with Plasma but am afraid of conflicts. I’m excited about it since Linux has now officially replaced windows on my gaming rig, which is the very last MS computer left in my house.
Xfce + labwc is best combo for now
Cinnamon. Desktop UI peaked in the Gnome 2/Windows XP era and anything after that is bloat for the sake of bloat.
Might try kde plasma though, if I can make it behave the same.
I loved Gnome 2. Used it way after Gnome 3 came out for work. I’m not sure something like Hyprland is bloat though. Some of this is really minimalist unless you add a ton of stuff.
I’m with you on Cinnamon, but I’m anxious for the Wayland support.
KDE Plasma because I’m basic and I wanna get stuff done 👍
That’s why I just started using Plasma.
based
KDE. I don’t even do much to customize it. I think it looks pretty good out of the box.
The only thing I customize is to turn off the floating panel, I just can’t stand the small gap on the bottom and the sides. It just looks off to me.
I’d like to compliment on it changing that when you open a full screen app. Yet, these tiny pixels look so little difference that it looks very much off to me indeed. And I’d prefer to have no dock at all. So I use Sway for myself. It’s that I interact with KDE sometimes.
Been on i3wm for 3 4 years now I guess. Also work with sway on some systems.
you can actually see and use my config
I wish I could give multiple upvotes for both posting dots and using Codeberg rather than Github.
Looks good!
Haha thanks <3
KDE Plasma. It’s the most feature rich “just works” DE there is. GNOME doesn’t even have fucking maximize and minimize buttons by default without adding them via GNOME Tweaks.
I used to be a Cinnamon/Linux Mint lover, but their slow implementation of Wayland, Window Scaling, and certain other annoyances like their split NetworkManager GUI between GNOME’s UI and the native NetworkManager UI made me switch.
Mate 👍
Used it for years back in 2012-2014. Was writing my Master’s thesis in LaTeX. Simple and absolutely no issues. It certainly wasn’t eye candy back then though.
KDE like a real grown up
KDE Plasma all the way, on the desktop, the laptops and the two set top boxes.
Niri + Noctalia shell. I find the scrolling tiles to be excellent for my workflow, and the desktop shell feels nice and polished. Plus, Niri supports the Wayland
zwlr_layer_shell, which means I can finally use Wallpaper Engine; there’s even a Noctalia plugin for it.Niri has been great for gaming and streaming, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t.
I would be hesitant to use anything but KWin with Plasma. They were designed together as a set (like Mutter and Gnome), and I suspect replacing the WM would be no small task.
So Hyprland with Plasma would be no bueno? Honestly, if I can get my dots right, tile some windows, and get the hotkeys set up similarly, it might be just as good.
Do you mind elaborating on that Wallpaper Engine thing and also Natalia shell. What are they? I’m familiar with Niri, but never used it myself. (Not sure I like scrolling logic, I use barebones Sway.)
Noctalia is a Quickshell fork that’s preconfigured. It’s pretty solid, lightweight, and with the most Niri integration I’ve seen. Comes default in the Cachyos Niri config.
KDE on Arch, aesthetically pleasing and mostly functional out of the box. There are some startup quirks, but that’s likely due to my LUKS setup which I will change with the next re-install. Already tried to fix multiple times, it’s too much of a hassle to keep trying to fix an <5 minutes per day issue.
KDE Plasma. It’s clean, fast, and just works.
I use KDE. I like how easy it is to customize pretty much everything. Like, if I want everything to be green, I can make everything green and no one can stop me.
Sway
Niri
