Desktop environment, and OS in general is just something you eventually find one you like, and there's no need to change. It's GNOME for me, it just works in a way that doesn't get on my way and that's all it needs to be

This guy has a preference that differs from mine! Get him! /s

Yeah idk, I tried Pop with GNOME and just wasn't feeling it. Switched to Mint Cinnamon and it's a little more intuitive for me. I'm just a general user, gonna game if/when costs come down enough to build a desktop to replace my 2015 laptop. By then, I'm sure another distro will be a better fit for me. There are options for a reason.

How I feel about gnome

DEs from one distro to another can feel different too, idk what it is about Manjaro but it feels so much more responsive than KDE's own distro. So I think it's worth trying our different distros even with the same desktop environment

I just want a conventional desktop paradigm that feels relatively integrated. For almost a decade I used Cinnamon until I found myself really wanting Wayland. For the past 5 years or so, I have used GNOME. It's clean, and with a few tweaks it meets my needs.

I've been using Linux for twenty years. I didn't use KDE until they declared Plasma 5 ready for primetime. (I hated Plasma 4, and didn't like the look and feel of KDE 3.5 at all)

Since hopping on with Plasma 5 I have absolutely no interest in anything else. I love KDE Plasma and it just keeps getting better.

That's me in OP.

I'm happy with Cinnamon. Maybe OpenBox.

I've yet to see anything that compares to kde, and I just don't understand why so many distros default to gnome!

It's a shame about the licensing issues Qt had back in the day, because otherwise there was no reason GTK (and therefore GNOME) ever needed to exist.

Yes, no DE :)

I like the ones that are forks of pre-ruined Gnome. MATE is my favorite of that type.

I cut my teeth on openbox and fluxbox, and I hated KDE. But to be fair that was like, KDE3? It didn't look so good.

Xfce was good for a while, but then plasma was really the best Wayland option, so it made sense. It's good out of the box, ready and quick to customise.

But after a few years of that I've just last month got going with an Lxqt Wayland session with labwc compositor. This is the winner. No more reliance on plasma for me.

I'm interested in other DEs, i swear! I just don't use them, or like them!

I quite like KDE Plasma on my steam deck, but on my desktops I always use XFCE

me irl, but Sawfish/Enlightenment.

KDE ftw

Windows 10! Hell no I'm on windows 3.11 before they ruined everything!!

And I absolutely hate Gnome. But thank god we have over a dozen DEs to choose from. One of the great things about Linux is user choice.

Because vanilla kde looks whack

Exactly. You can install your beloved distro with just what software you want there, because it's your fucking device

I really like tiling window managers, but plasma is so much easier to deal with

It's GNOME for me

Sicko

I like Gnome with Dash To Panel and ArcMenu. But KDE is nice too.

https://distrosea.com/start/kdeneon-user-default/

I've been using kde for years and really enjoyed the fact that it was simple and worked out of the box.

Recently I heard about niri, I had a look and thought it was cool. I set it up with a desktop environment around it and in less than 1 hour I had a working de. I've been using it a couple weeks now on my work computer and I have to say that I'm really enjoying it, I feel it makes many operations much simpler and moving around different windows is very easy.

I use two screens, and I really like that I can have the applications bar on both on them, which was one major gripe I had with plasma.

I've been using KDE since ver 2.something.
I like the idea of tiling window managers.
But I'm old.
I'm set in my ways.
I don't want to get used to new things.

I use two screens, and I really like that I can have the applications bar on both on them, which was one major gripe I had with plasma.

Csn't you just add a new panel to your second display and add the applications applet?
In plasma 6.3 you can even clone your panel. Or am I misunderstanding?

I've been using KDE for years but right now I think Cosmic is neat

You can easily do that on plasma. Just add a panel and add the widget you prefer (only icons, or icons and window titles)

That gave me a good laugh. Gnome doesnt feel right to me at all man. To each his own.

But yea, sicko fr

Lxqt and i3 4lyfe

Using a Chromebook you gotta levy usage with processing ability.

Mate is a solid fuckin choice. 10/10

KDE is my favorite, but I'm excited to try Cosmic once it's a little farther along.

I also love Cinnamon, not because it looks great, or has a ton of customizablity, but because it is so stable. It's been the best #JustWorks DE in my experience.

Those are the only two I use regularly. Xfce is nice once you get it customized, but it's kind of a pain to get configured. I don't have much use for sophisticated tiling, so tiling window managers are just curiosities to me. I've played with i3, Sway, Hyprland, and a few others over the years.

I wish I had a use case for them, but alas, all my day to day needs are handled just fine with basic Window snapping, tmux, kitty tabs, and occasionally using a second virtual desktop.

since Plasma 6.5 I just daily drive it now. prior to that I was all about WM's be it Herbstluftwm, Sway, Niri, whatever but after awhile I just got tired of configuring them or dealing with quirks about each one and what have you. Plasma just does everything I need and I don't have to think about it. And you can even get it to tile now be it manual or dynamic. Plus you can theme the hell out of it. It just works. Plus Konsole has become my favourite terminal. just don't see a point in using other stuff anymore.

Tried COSMIC the other day. Wanted to connect my bluetooth keyboard. Was not working. No error. Opened up KDE system settings. Keyboard connected. Logged out and went into Plasma again.

I know this is a joke, but before I discovered GNU-Linux I used XP and didn't hate it. I was usable. Microsoft hadn't yet completely stripped away user autonomy.

Ironic given XFCE is supposed to be the light weight one and the steam deck is the portable device.

I like both of them, though. Plenty of customizations in both, not that I tinker around much any more.

Never had a problem with XFCE, even doing some weird stuff with metrics in the task bar.

Though I do not tinker like I did when I was younger, nor do I know what Plasma has over XFCE that's not cosmetic in nature.

I was really surprised how great the workflow of paperWM is. If you like a "scroller" with a working DE and don't want to configure niri: give it a try. I don't even want tilers anymore.

I tried lots of DE's when distros started switching to GNOME 3.

Now I just run Xfce on everything.

KDE and GNOME each have their shortcomings. KDE has never been completely stable for me but it’s so much better than it used to be. GNOME is the best at what it’s good at and the worst at everything else. There’s no grey area with gnome.

Cosmic looks super promising. I need to play with it.

It's weird watching people bitch or take sides on DE like it's a sporting event. Which is another thing I don't really get.

I know when I reload it wont be kde.

Do you have to run GNOME with PopOS? I was thinking of trying PopOS

I like gnome on my older gaming desktop. It's a 2080 ti so when i installed plasma was not super stable on nvidia but I wouldn't change it, arc menu + dash panel and I'm all set. I prefer kde on the laptop though. All the extra bells and whistles feel more useful on a laptop (no mouse).

When did you stop using XP?

mint/cinnamon was definitely the best i found until i checked out kde neon. mint still has a better package ecosystem but in neon everything feels slickly designed.

That's funny, because I started using GNOME on my laptop because it seemed to fit the workflow on it better. Eventually I swapped to GNOME on desktop too

the first DE I used on Linux was cinnamon and I was like “wow, this is great, everything makes sense to me out of the box”

And then I tried Gnome and was incredibly put off by it, like “why the hell is this over here, this layout is strange to me. Why are all these unconventional features on by default, this is very annoying.”

And then I tried KDE and I was like “wow, this is great and everything makes sense to me out of the box, also there’s all these features and options, I don’t know what they do, but i don’t have to interact with them if I don’t want to.”