I switched from GNOME to KDE around the time 6.0 shipped, and I've been very happy with it. GNOME aims to be Mac-like but in my experience makes a lot of weird decisions. I've been on GNOME since 1.4 (2001?)
I had such a great time with KDE, and decided to promote it from just being on my "Linux PC" to all computers I own. I don't run Windows anymore, which is a nice feeling!
I find KDE to be a bit like using Mac OS 9 with extra customization--not in a literal sense, but in terms of the ethos. It looks more like, say, late-90s Windows, but the UX is more consistent in a old Mac-like way, albeit with some rough, this-is-a-community-project edges.
GNOME seems to be trying to oversimplify and prettify like today's Apple, but yes, makes weird decisions. But Apple is definitely worse than either in terms of feature/design churn.
Its their reluctance to support a system tray and hide background application info behind a "control center"-esque widget and then a picture of a ghost that boggles my mind.
I've extensively used Windows, Mac, and Gnome. KDE is by far the greatest. Each decision is great, everything not matching my preference is configurable.* It's fast, intuitive. It's the way our tools should've been: enabling and liberating us, not limiting us and try to get a tax of anything we do.
*The only exception: I wish I could have the same status bar shown on all monitors.
I just configured KDE today and I just "cloned" my status bar across my monitors. Seems to be working ok. The only thing is that they seem to be truly independent clones: once I changed some config on one of them, it didn't propagate to the others. On the upside is that they can be positioned indepently on their respective monitor..
Yes. It's been so good for a while now. And never I'm scared about major versions: we just get iteratively better desktop. Commercial desktops should take a note.
fiinally, the most frustrating thing about KDE, wot lead me to learn so much about other WM systems over the last couple of decades, is gone
(the issue was a few days over 21 years old, though closed several weeks back now)
I came to find I prefer tag-based systems, where apps can have multiple tags (I came back to AwesomeWM for a number of years twice)
but the way KDE didn't handle the "classical" pager behaviour made any kind of workflow a hair pulling experience that necessitated the constant dragging of pager window representations been desktops for one of the screens
the new issue for adding a "switch the screen the virtual desktop hotkeys affect" or "switch the virtual desktop somehow on only screen X" system (afaiu, at first brief scan) is https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=519009
After using i3 for a heck of a long time, I'm finding myself liking KDE quite a lot. The amount of obvious care and polish that went into it is delightful. I just wish it had support for tabbed window layout!
Love KDE. Very excited for Union. All these videos and demos are great.
Except for the "Faster virtual desktop switching in the Overview" one. 2 fps animations, no voiceover, no text overlay, just a person pressing control (or maybe not?) and the arrow keys.
I switched from GNOME to KDE around the time 6.0 shipped, and I've been very happy with it. GNOME aims to be Mac-like but in my experience makes a lot of weird decisions. I've been on GNOME since 1.4 (2001?)
I had such a great time with KDE, and decided to promote it from just being on my "Linux PC" to all computers I own. I don't run Windows anymore, which is a nice feeling!
I find KDE to be a bit like using Mac OS 9 with extra customization--not in a literal sense, but in terms of the ethos. It looks more like, say, late-90s Windows, but the UX is more consistent in a old Mac-like way, albeit with some rough, this-is-a-community-project edges.
GNOME seems to be trying to oversimplify and prettify like today's Apple, but yes, makes weird decisions. But Apple is definitely worse than either in terms of feature/design churn.
This might explain why I like it, my first computer ran System 7.5 so I have fond memories of Classic Mac OS.
It boggles my mind how modern gnome doesn't come with a traditional desktop that you have to install an extension to enable.
Its their reluctance to support a system tray and hide background application info behind a "control center"-esque widget and then a picture of a ghost that boggles my mind.
https://linuxiac.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/gnome44-back...
I've extensively used Windows, Mac, and Gnome. KDE is by far the greatest. Each decision is great, everything not matching my preference is configurable.* It's fast, intuitive. It's the way our tools should've been: enabling and liberating us, not limiting us and try to get a tax of anything we do.
*The only exception: I wish I could have the same status bar shown on all monitors.
I just configured KDE today and I just "cloned" my status bar across my monitors. Seems to be working ok. The only thing is that they seem to be truly independent clones: once I changed some config on one of them, it didn't propagate to the others. On the upside is that they can be positioned indepently on their respective monitor..
Same experience. Been around the block as far as operating systems and desktop environments. KDE feels juuuust right, like I'm at home.
Yes. It's been so good for a while now. And never I'm scared about major versions: we just get iteratively better desktop. Commercial desktops should take a note.
per-screen virtual desktops!!
fiinally, the most frustrating thing about KDE, wot lead me to learn so much about other WM systems over the last couple of decades, is gone
(the issue was a few days over 21 years old, though closed several weeks back now)
I came to find I prefer tag-based systems, where apps can have multiple tags (I came back to AwesomeWM for a number of years twice)
but the way KDE didn't handle the "classical" pager behaviour made any kind of workflow a hair pulling experience that necessitated the constant dragging of pager window representations been desktops for one of the screens
the new issue for adding a "switch the screen the virtual desktop hotkeys affect" or "switch the virtual desktop somehow on only screen X" system (afaiu, at first brief scan) is https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=519009
After using i3 for a heck of a long time, I'm finding myself liking KDE quite a lot. The amount of obvious care and polish that went into it is delightful. I just wish it had support for tabbed window layout!
XFCE is my default, but KDE is far better than others on touchscreens.
Love KDE. Very excited for Union. All these videos and demos are great.
Except for the "Faster virtual desktop switching in the Overview" one. 2 fps animations, no voiceover, no text overlay, just a person pressing control (or maybe not?) and the arrow keys.
There is a huge opportunity for Linux as many countries seek to ditch Microsoft Windows and office so keep going!
Finally we can use plasma login manager!
[dead]
I use KDE only because SteamOS comes with it, worth to be tried.