There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

flashgnash ,

Started with GNOME, then once I got more comfortable I jumped ship to hyprland

KDE or cinnamon are probably the closest ones to windows if you’re looking for familiarity but I think gnome/tiling wms improve on that

Hyprland and other tiling wms are great but only if you’re the kind of person who likes to tinker and fiddle constantly

governorkeagan OP ,

I do enjoy tinkering so I might play with it on a VM

flashgnash ,

Just bare in mind you start with basically nothing with many of the tilers, gotta install your own top bar, app launcher, guis for WiFi,Bluetooth, audio devices

I would not recommend you try it as your first daily driver

governorkeagan OP ,

Totally agree! I won’t be installing it as a daily driver anytime soon

lemmyvore ,

I also feel that tilers with best when used mainly with apps that have extensive keyboard support. If you have to switch between keyboard and mouse too much it breaks the flow. But I can see it working with a track pad or nub.

flashgnash ,

“keyboards are for the weak” Opens paint“Shiiiiit”

Fuck_u_spez_ ,

only if you’re the kind of person who likes to tinker and fiddle constantly

What if, completely hypothetically, I’m the kind of person who is incredibly lazy and just wants things to work out of the box with minimal effort and maintenance?

Pega ,

Definitely Gnome

vrighter ,

but not if you want two or more windows on screen at the same time. It hates you if you want that

flashgnash ,

Gnome or pantheon

lemmyvore ,

Any classic desktop environment will work, you don’t have to tinker with them unless you don’t like the default organization and settings. But there’s no way to guess what you’d like out of the box.

Tiling window managers are a niche for power users, they’re a different category.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I recently switched back to GNOME after a few years on KDE, mostly because of Wayland support. I honestly don’t care much about the DE, provided it gets out of my way. I used to use a Tiling WM, so I may give a Wayland tiling WM a shot.

thanksforallthefish ,

Hmm I am using Wayland on KDE for 6-12months with no problem, why did you need to swap to Gnome to get it working ?

Just curious, no tribal warfare intended (the gnome vs kde fight is a bit silly to me)

sugar_in_your_tea ,

IDK, Wayland was super unstable for me on KDE, even on my AMD GPU (RX 6650XT). It wouldn’t launch at all through SDDM (black screen, and I checked other TTYs), and it would lock up quickly (maybe a kernel panic?, I couldn’t even switch TTYs) when I launched through the command line. I used NVIDIA before that, and couldn’t get KDE to launch at all on Wayland (GNOME did, but was buggy), so I used KDE on X until I replaced my GPU.

I honestly didn’t look much into it, but launching GNOME through GDM worked perfectly, so I didn’t feel the need to debug further.

My goal was to use Wayland, and I didn’t particularly care which DE did it. I have a slight preference for KDE, but I honestly don’t use enough DE features to care too much, I just want something to launch apps and then go away. As long as it has a decent terminal with tmux, can switch windows, and has a clock with a calendar, that’s enough for me.

thanksforallthefish ,

Interesting. I’m using the 6600 on arch kde wayland with no problems. I wonder what caused your issues.

Anyway as you say if you’ve got a working setup great.

CorrodedCranium ,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

XFCE. It’s just so easy to click and drag things where I want them and edit icons to be uniform.

Have you tried testing out DE in a virtual machine? It’s a big time saver versus installing it on actual hardware.

governorkeagan OP ,

I’m doing all my testing on a VM before committing and doing a bare metal install

CorrodedCranium ,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

Ah good to hear. I was not smart enough to do that when I was first getting into Linux and I only had one PC so you can imagine the headache.

lemmyvore ,

You can also boot a live CD. Last time I switched distro I got a bunch of live CDs and picked the one where everything was working out of the box (accessing shares, playing music/video, printing, Bluetooth, hooking up my phone to USB, gaming controller etc.) (Ended up on Manjaro btw.)

CorrodedCranium ,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

Totally. You can typically get CDs at the dollar store these days. I have a few from dealing with older computers now but I also have a sizeable amount of USBs now and several computers.

What made you decide on Manjaro?

lemmyvore ,

Oh it’s only “CD” in the name, you can boot the image from a USB stick. No need to go out and buy actual CDs.

I wanted to move away from Ubuntu and .deb based desktop distros because they don’t do well with long term use.

The way debs work, if you want third party software you have to add repos individually. But each of them tracks dependencies only within their scope. So eventually you end up with combinations of packages that the installer cannot solve anymore and you can’t upgrade your main packages. Which results in an reinstall.

I wanted something Arch-based because I heard it takes “rolling distro” seriously and you can keep upgrading and using it indeterminately. And there’s a single third party repo (AUR) which only breaks its own packages when the main system is updated, but not the main system. Which seems like a reasonable compromise.

But I wanted a more polished desktop experience so no plain Arch. The candidates were Manjaro, Garuda and Endeavour so that’s where the live CD test came in.

CorrodedCranium ,
@CorrodedCranium@leminal.space avatar

Yeah I know I’ve used them for years but I keep some on hand for older devices.

Fair enough. I used Manjaro for a while, maybe a year, and it kept breaking my system. I’ve been using EndeavourOS and Fedora ever since and haven’t had an issue.

thanksforallthefish ,

Good call, just be aware that while you can (pretty much) install any DE on any distro. Many distros will have a ready prepared install that may feel quite different to you adding the DE later.

If that’s not clear, Ubuntu with cinnamon DE is very different to Mint Cinnamon. Same with Kubuntu (KDE Ubuntu) and KDE Neon (Debian KDE).

All of the differences are of course replicable, they’re themes and tools and configs. But for example it took me literally most of a day to get Arch with cinnamon to feel like Mint cinnamon.

nixfreak ,

Hyprland

TootSweet ,

Honestly, this is the first I’ve heard of Hyprland, but it looks sick.

Jean_Lurk_Picard ,
@Jean_Lurk_Picard@lemmy.world avatar

No DE. Just openbox + polybar + rofi

MigratingtoLemmy ,

Do you think OpenBox is usable with minimal config? I’m looking for a WM which I won’t have to spend too much of time configuring, which is why I’m considering floating WMs

Jean_Lurk_Picard ,
@Jean_Lurk_Picard@lemmy.world avatar

Honestly you can use Openbox right out the bag if you really wanted to. If you need to configuring autostart and hotkeys and the menu is really easy

MigratingtoLemmy ,

I’ll configure the theme, hot-keys and maybe install a compositor or something. Thanks for the tip, I’m trying to decide between OpenBox and IceWM right now

UraniumBlazer , (edited )

In my (and my friend’s) experience, KDE has been notoriously unreliable. We faced issues like the wifi icon just disappearing randomly, the time thingy disappearing, etc.

I have been using GNOME for around five years now (I temporarily switched to KDE 2 yrs back and reswitched to GNOME 3 months later). Till now, GNOME has been extremely stable for me. The only issue that I experienced was a memory (although that was fixed in subsequent updates).

Hence, based on this experience, if you’re looking for stability, I would highly recommend GNOME. However, if u’r looking for more customization at the cost of less stability, KDE ain’t bad.

dukatos ,

KDE is very stable. You are using some bad, 2 years old version because Ubuntu LTS cycle.

UraniumBlazer ,

I don’t think so. I was using Garuda at the time, which is based on Arch.

blkpws ,

Garuda has some customized KDE desktop, I suppose you need to use the plain theme and look, that KDE gives support for. Garuda added many extras and some extra pannels… a bit messy.

UraniumBlazer ,

I see… Maybe I’ll give KDE a try again the next time I’ll distro hop!

TootSweet ,

Sway

sping ,

Sway is a WM not a DE. So you create your own DE? Or, I see Regolith is integrating sway, I think with Gnome Flashback as with i3. Not sure if there are others.

TootSweet ,

Yeah, I thought about not responding on the basis that Sway wasn’t a DE, but someone else responded CWM, so I figured at least if I bucked the system, I wouldn’t be alone in it.

Plus, not everyone really knows the difference between a DE and a WM. And not everyone knows that a lot of people don’t use a DE. So, often times, people use “DE” and “WM” synonymously, not really knowing there’s a difference.

(Not saying that describes OP or anyone here in particular. But there was definitely a time when that described me. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that described some folks who were browsing this thread.)

governorkeagan OP ,

I didn’t realise that people use them interchangeably. I’ve got an idea on what a WM is and what a DE is but nothing super in depth.

lemmyvore ,

A WM is literally just the window manager. It makes windows work and have a border and maximize and stuff but that’s it.

A DE gives you a lot of other stuff: a root window that makes up the “desktop”, panels & widgets, notification area, an application menu, workspaces, window and workspace switchers, global hotkeys, the concept of a session and stuff related to it (things to run on start, or saving your session between reboots), a unified theme and fonts etc. etc.

There are also programs that fall somewhere between these. For example tiling WM tend to fill the whole screen so they don’t care a lot about all the things I mentioned but they can integrate with some other stuff to some extent. Or something like OpenBox which includes a very lightweight desktop, menu and panel so I guess you could call it a DE but it’s all contained in one executable.

sping ,

I’ve really appreciated running i3 within gnome-flashback. I keep hitting things that just work, that I didn’t even realize I wanted. I hit the pause/mute button on my headphones when watching youtube and it paused… Things like ssh agents, hotplugging monitors and having it remember your preferred config, the main gnome settings GUI, the compose key, etc… I’m just not interested in reinventing all that, even though each individual step is usually not hard.

I’m glad to see Regolith is making a DE with Sway. One day I’ll migrate from i3 and I may let Regolith give me a DE.

MyNameIsRichard ,
@MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml avatar

Plasma definitely. Xfce is second.

governorkeagan OP ,

Any preferences on the distro? I’ve been enjoying Fedora but I’ve also tested Ubuntu and enjoyed that

netchami ,

You should try Arch btw

thanksforallthefish ,

Not for beginners, that’s just mean

imgel ,

Dont listen to this removed. Try arch after you feel comfortable with Linux.

xkforce ,

Tbh youre probably better off on something like Linux Mint or something else Debian or Ubuntu based. Fedora is a good distro but rpms are a lot less common than debs are and alien does not entirely fix that issue.

raptir ,

While I would still recommend Ubuntu or Mint or even Debian, I have been using openSUSE for years and have never run into a case where I had to compile software.

Secunergy ,
@Secunergy@social.tchncs.de avatar

@raptir @xkforce Isn't compiling normally for ?

raptir ,

I’m not sure why you are bringing Gentoo into it here. I mean that all the software I have tried to install is either available in the repos or available as an appimage/flatpak. Were it not available in binary form I would need to compile it - and I have not run into that scenario.

governorkeagan OP ,

I’ll probably end up settling on Ubuntu. Thought I’d try a couple before making a final decision.

steersman2484 ,

Install gentoo

steersman2484 ,

But for real, depends on your use case I use arch on my dev machine and you get nearly every package in the AUR

MyNameIsRichard ,
@MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml avatar

I landed on openSUSE Tumbleweed about five years ago and still don’t see myself hopping to another one

thanksforallthefish ,

Ubuntu is doing an annoying attempt to generate lock-in and profits by forcing snap on everyone and making it annoyingly difficult to avoid.

Consider one of the ubuntu derivatives (there’s a number of them, Mint, Pop etc) in preference to ubuntu itself, a debian derivative (KDE neon for example) or go with Fedora if you’re a business orientated user.

FarLine99 ,

Fedora Plasma is truly awesome!

imgel ,

Opensuse TW or Fedora

zabi94 ,

Personally I’ve been on KDE for a few years, I love the way I can customize my workflow, from the default apps to the panels layout. The KDE team has made fantastic progress since I’ve started using it, and it’s now very stable and feature rich. I’m very excited for the upcoming Plasma 6

And as a reminder to everybody, please donate if you can, no matter what software you use. Especially if you’ve been using that DE for a while. Open source projects like these are always in need of funding!

bastion ,

Every time I hear this, I’m tempted to try KDE again, but every time I do, I run into stability issues.

I really like the customizability, particularly being able to set up the workflow you want. But then I hit stability issues and that just kills it for me - pun only somewhat intentional.

zabi94 ,

I guess it’s a hit or miss depending on the hardware. I’ve never had a single stability issue with plasma ever since I started using it

bastion ,

I doubt it’s a hardware issue. That said, fair enough re: experiences may vary.

radioactiveradio ,

I love gnome but too used to kde to switch.

backhdlp ,
@backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Plasma, but only on Wayland (which is better anyway unbiased opinion).

corship ,

Man i didnt realize how much better Wayland is until I had to use a provided setup for a few weeks.

The fact that I can’t swipe to switch virtual desktops on xorg was enough to drive me insane after a few days.

lemmyvore ,

How are you swiping, out of curiosity? I have windows occupying the whole screen.

I switch workspaces with a keyboard shortcut or by clicking buttons on the panel.

Knusper ,

It’s with three fingers on a touchpad.

There’s some short clips of it here: kde.org/announcements/plasma/5/5.25.0/

lemmyvore ,

Oh I see. But I thought such gestures were available a long time ago, I remember apps like Fusuma, and there was talk of adding them to libinput so that every DE could let the user assign actions to gestures.

Knusper ,

Yeah, this is now using the libinput gestures. It’s mainly exciting, because it’s available out-of-the-box, even for non-techies and lazy people (me).

With general technological advances and I believe Windows having similar gestures, it’s now also rarely the case that touchpad hardware doesn’t support multi-touch input…

backhdlp ,
@backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

The swiping thing is apparently a deliberate decision by KDE for whatever reason.

Knusper ,

Well, yeah, but they made that decision, because X11 is a pain to implement and debug this stuff on.

backhdlp ,
@backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

That sounds like a pretty good reason yeah

blkpws ,

Yeah, X11 has been not changed for years because it’s so messy that every change they try to do, breaks many things. (or that’s what I read at least)

OddFed ,
@OddFed@feddit.de avatar

But screen sharing was not possible for me. Which is kinda a deal breaker. Is that implemented yet?

Gamey ,

When I switched from Windows definitely Cinnamon but by now it’s Gnome, it’s a little odd at first but I absolutely love the workflow!

MJBrune ,

Gnome doesn’t really support multiple monitors without addons.

GnomeComedy ,

As someone who uses GNOME on two monitors…I dont understand

MJBrune ,

Do you have any information on your second like weather or time? I love that most DEs have a panel or an option to have a panel in the second monitor.

nlm ,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

I used to use this extension a while back, seems to have been forked and Ihaven\t tried it lately but it did it\s thing back when I used it.

extensions.gnome.org/…/multi-monitors-add-on/

MJBrune ,

That’s exactly what I mean. For decent multi-monitor support, you have to add some roughly supported.

danHD ,
@danHD@mastodon.social avatar

@governorkeagan gnome, comes cause it doesnt look like windows

blkpws ,

But many DE doesn’t look like Windows… the only similar is that there is a bar (if you custumize it like a Windows).

redd , (edited )
@redd@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Thanks for all your discussions. All your experiences are very helpful for me. Now here is my top list and reasons:

  1. Cinnamon (most familiar and very stable for me)
  2. XFCE (I like the responseness and lightweightness)
  3. MATE (stable and reliable)
  4. KDE (I like the configurability, but unfortunately I experienced a lot of instabilities and accidents)
  5. Gnome (I don’t like the new UI concept. When I tried it, it was laggy and non-responsive)

Out of this list:

  • I3 (only head good things, but never tried it on my own installation)
  • Cosmic (first time I heard about today)
  • Budgie (first time I heard about today)
possiblylinux127 ,

Gnome will be slow without acceleration. Were you running it in a vm?

redd ,
@redd@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Tried it on VM and Backup Notebooks. Especially on old Notebooks its hardly usable.

possiblylinux127 ,

That is likely true although it may also have to do with a lack of ram and bad GPU support.

inetknght ,

Cinnamon is, straight up, the best. The only annoying part is that damn debugger thing that shows up that damn and useless LookingGlass thing which defaults to Super+L. Super+L definitely should be Lock Screen instead.

Pantherina ,

I have to say KDE Plasma, but I look really forward toward Cosmic Rust.

KDE is simply so damn old and has weird quirks everywhere, it has features and basic things like

  • functional apps: dolphin, spectacle, kate, kde connect, systemsettings, discover, …
  • SSD with hitboxes in the very corner (looking at you GNOME)
  • wayland support
  • a regular but modular bottom panel
  • extensible everywhere

But it also just has too many features. Extensions are not tested or versioned so many simply dont work anymore, often some of the dozens of components has an issue. I cant imagine Cosmic reaching the level of features in like 3 years, but if it would do, this could be great. But in the end its up to the devs, so I have no idea at all.

I dont find GNOME usable really. At least in the default settings. The decorations make no sense on Desktops (they are perfect for tablets), the top bar makes you look down too much, the ubuntu way wastes space too. Everything is too thick, too little GUI settings and the standard apps could be from Android, the little features they have.

smoof ,

Plasma 6 is coming out soon. Not sure if it addressed any of your issues though.

Pantherina ,

I think they clean up a lot, thats true. I am very excited!

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •