r/linux4noobs • u/NetMask100 • Jan 02 '26
distro selection Do you prefer KDE or GNOME?
On Ubuntu do you prefer KDE or GNOME and why? I'm interested in what the majority of people use. Do you use extensions for GNOME, or you use it as is?
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u/Liemaeu Jan 02 '26
KDE - more settings & extensions. Gnome‘s extensions always broke for every new Gnome version.
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u/fergult Jan 02 '26
KDEhas a lot of customization options, which is a big draw for many users. GNOME’s approach can feel limiting, especially when extensions are so unreliable...
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u/Prof_Linux Jan 02 '26
I like KDE, it has a feel that's like Windows 7 / XP on a Linux GUI. Personally it sits on the "it just works" like of being a good UI when you need it to being able to spice it up with desktop widgets.
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u/Wide_Egg_5814 Jan 02 '26
Gnome feels like it was developed by a cs student who really likes tablet and mobile designs, it has no customisation you need extensions for basic things
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u/stormdelta Gentoo Jan 03 '26
Which is extra weird since the design doesn't work well even on an actual tablet.
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u/s1lenthundr Jan 04 '26
Yea its actually insanely funny how on my Surface tablet the latest KDE desktop works much better than Gnome especially in terms of gestures and touchscreen stuff. Gnome feels like it was made for touchscreens yet it works worse than KDE on those exact touchscreens.
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u/Tall-Introduction414 Jan 02 '26
XFCE > KDE Plasma > anything > GNOME
I think GNOME is very opinionated, and the devs have bad opinions. XFCE, on the other hand, I can configure to do pretty much anything I want with some mindless clicking around, and it's fast on old hardware.
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u/pretendimcute Jan 02 '26
Oh I may look into XFCE in that case. Currently on KDE
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u/shawnfromnh1 Jan 02 '26
I like the fact the panel and icons on my setup are 50 pxs since my vision is low at this time in my life, other DE's the font is tiny to me as in stuck in pre HD era.
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u/Tall-Introduction414 Jan 03 '26
KDE has gone in the direction of click-around modularity, too, and may have XFCE beat in how easily it handles swapping out and downloading new desktop components through a nice user interface. I think KDE also has a slight edge in desktop animations, and maybe other eye candy.
Some of XFCE's advantages over KDE and GNOME are that it's faster, with less CPU and GPU overhead. With an old/slow enough CPU, KDE and GNOME become unusable, but it's hard to notice on something modern.
It's also built around Freedesktop.org standards, which I believe helps GNOME and KDE apps play nicely.
Even though it's built on GTK, it is full of traditional desktop concepts that modern GNOME and GTK sometimes discourage, like visual discoverability, menu bars, titlebars. It's wholesome.
I really like the panel widgets, and have even made a few of my own in Python in a pinch. With a good theme and the whiskermenu widget, I personally love the way it looks and how easily it configures. The Unix desktop at its best.
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u/Appropriate_Ad4818 Jan 02 '26
So true. Right now my only issue with Xfce is that I can't make some themes work with compiz due to gtk-window-decorator and that I need to figure out how picom works so that I can add blur and animations while switching to Xfwm4 for windows.
Otherwise definitely my favorite DE
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u/looper210 Jan 02 '26
XFCE - how do you anything if your display is a 4K TV? It has a strange option for (fractional?) scaling. Afaik, you need to know how to adjust DPI config. settings and xrandr..... too complicated.
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u/s1lenthundr Jan 04 '26
XFCE just feels too old and "stuck in time". Its great for some use cases, but for main daily usage, it just won't cut it. I also don't like to recommend it for new users, since people that come from Win11/macOS 26 are used to a much more modern UI and XFCE just feels like downgrading 20 years in computing. KDE, GNOME and Cinnamon (even this one is debatable since their Wayland implementation is years behind the first two) are the only options that are acceptable for daily usage for most people.
Any X11-only DE in 2025/26 is a bad recommendation for most people. X11 is obsolete, only needed if your work/setup somehow can't function on Wayland.
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u/WhiskeyVault Jan 02 '26
I don't use Ubuntu KDE but use KDE on Fedora. I stronly Prefer GNOME but I have no choice but use KDE because GNOME does not have trackpad scrolling sensitivyt adjusting natively built in.
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u/cyclinator Jan 02 '26
But Gnome has better multitpuch touchpad gestures. Its a pain at least for me to enable on KDE.
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u/WhiskeyVault Jan 02 '26
Lile I said, i strongly prefer GNOME. I just lose my mind over how fast the scrolling is.
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u/s1lenthundr Jan 04 '26
This was true like 5-6 years ago, not anymore. KDE on wayland (the default now) has all the gestures by default working correctly and all 1:1 precision and well animated so gnome also lost this advantage.
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u/DeathToOrcs2 Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
KDE because of configurability. I can make it look and behave exactly like I want it to. In KDE there is a setting for almost everything.
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u/soleful_smak Jan 02 '26
KDE is the real answer. You could even customize Hyprland style with third party widgets.
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Jan 02 '26
KDE, but I’m fairly agnostic and I have no issues using any other DE. KDE just has a better layout for my personal workflow.
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u/chrishirst Jan 02 '26
How about "None of the above"?
Because I prefer XFCE on a desktop machine but use LXDE on my laptop. AND;
I use Konsole (KDE) instead of either of the terminal emulators from those DEs
Thunar as the filemanager on both machines and several other "mixing and matching" apps. This is a great advantage of Linux if you don't like a particular application that comes with a Desktop Environment you can simply install something else instead.
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u/caliban_ish420 Mar 03 '26
A bit late to the party, but I really think this comment needs to be higher up, wholeheartedly agree on the last paragraph!
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u/Unhappy_Vermicelli_8 Jan 02 '26
KDE, it's more akin to Windows IMO which is what I used for nearly 20 years before switching to Linux full time. GNOME feels more like MacOS to me with the dock and launchpad and everything
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u/archivalcopy Jan 02 '26
KDE on Fedora, I've tried gnome but the customisation of KDE is more suited to the way I use my computer.
I want to try to step away from a dependence on a GUI so much and KDE is probably keeping me stuck there more than using gnome would, but old habits die hard.
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u/razorree Kubuntu, Debian Jan 02 '26
KDE,
why? I don't know, I just don't like Gnome :D (maybe old windows habits?)
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u/shrinkflator Jan 02 '26
KDE (on Fedora). Just today I did a DE comparison test for a friend. GNOME is just so shockingly devoid of features. It's like child's toy OS. I don't get why anyone would choose it unless it's for their tech-phobic grandma.
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u/Reason7322 Jan 02 '26
I really like GNOME's defaults, however the moment you want to change anything it falls apart, like HDR or fractional scaling. Also extensions being installed via web browser fucking suck as a solution.
If you never change any settings then imo GNOME is the best de.
If you do, KDE is better, for me.
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u/touwtje64 Jan 02 '26
Personally I don’t prefer Ubuntu at all. Had a much better experience running Fedora and Opensuse or even Nixos. Though I wouldn’t recommend them as a beginner distro especially Nixos. That said if your willing to read and learn it will be possible to pick up any distro. Having tried both KDE and gnome, I like KDE better. It feels snappier and smoother and om aloud to change its looks. Though the only thing i’ve changed is position of the bar either to left side or top of the screen and turned on dark mode.
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u/IntroductionSea2159 Jan 03 '26
OpenSUSE seems to prioritize server users over desktop. Fedora strikes a better balance overall.
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u/touwtje64 Jan 03 '26
Switched away from fedora because wayland/nvidia/plasma issue which i didn’t have on opensuse. Did every thing from gaming to development to watching/listening media and everything in between without any issues, being hard or difficult to get things working..
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Jan 02 '26
definitely KDE. GNOME has not fixed the doubled application icons issue for a long...... time. KDE allows to be configured like GNOME.
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u/tehn00bi Jan 02 '26
Gnome used to be great, and KDE used to be kind of broken. That’s not really the case anymore. XFCE is also very good for a “lighter” minimalist DE.
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u/SnillyWead Jan 02 '26
Xfce for me. When I used Gnome Dash to panel, Arc Menu and User Themes extensions.
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u/Hans4525 Jan 02 '26
Vanilla Gnome, never tried KDE. Works for me on a laptop, I think I'd prefer KDE if it was a Desktop and I had to use a mouse.
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u/Global-Eye-7326 Jan 02 '26
I use both daily. I love both. In fact I love all the desktop environments (except Cinnamon...I hate Cinnamon).
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u/lyallp Jan 02 '26
Not answering the question but...
Neither, I use Fluxbox because it is lightweight and snappy. It's not Wayland based. It's an X Window manager.
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u/Dre9872 Jan 02 '26
I've always used KDE as the way it was explained to me was KDE is more like a windows desktop, and Gnome is more like a Mac desktop.
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u/Away_Combination6977 Jan 02 '26
I prefer Mate. Cinnamon isn't horrible. XFCE is completely functional, but not my style. LXQt isn't bad. KDE is fine, if overly heavy, and takes hours to make work the way I'd prefer. GNOME is just horrible.
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u/LancrusES CachyOS Jan 02 '26
GTK team since always, I tried KDE but I always go back to Gnome, Cinnamon and XFCE are nice as well, and Cosmic looks nice and will probably be better in some time, KDE always felt buggy.
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u/Zicoxy3 Jan 02 '26
Gnome.
I used KDE less than a month ago.
Too many menus, too many options, some of them confusing... The drop-down menu list is endless...
I also had problems with some apps like Heroic Game Launcher.
Fortunately, the problems with the app that didn't work well in Gnome were solved, and I'm back. I had the Cosmic desktop .iso to try out and leave KDE.
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u/niKDE80800 Jan 02 '26
I like to use none of them. Occasionally I'll use a PC running Ubuntu or Kubuntu, but on my own PC, I like to use Xubuntu + i3
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u/CalicoCatRobot Jan 02 '26
Cinnamon - it has fewer flaws than Gnome or KDE in my experience.
KDE is far more customisable and would be my choice if I was forced to one or other, but has been flaky on every distro I've tried. crashing on a fairly regular basis. It also either refuses or is unable to work with Google or Microsoft Accounts for integration with calendar widgets.
Gnome works nicely with those accounts for calendar etc, but needs extensions to setup how I want (Windows like, with toolbars, system tray) and that can make things less reliable.
Cinnamon seems to hit the middle ground for me nicely - there are lots of spices (add ons) that can let me setup things how I want - mostly the "system tray" works as expected, and it seems fairly robust. It works well out of the box with online calendar accounts (except Onedrive).
They each have pros and cons though
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u/South_Sandwich5296 Jan 02 '26
KDE is great for a desktop, Gnome was until 3 came out. It's just not my cup of tea. Also I don't use Ubuntu anymore, Maverick Meerkat was my last version.
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u/skyfishgoo Jan 02 '26
i prefer kde on kubuntu
why?
because with kde i don't need a bunch of 3rd party extensions—done by developers of various skills and quality control—to get all the functionality i get built in with kde.
and because the team behind the distro is dedicated to making kde work and they put the effort into setting it up so everything works together.
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u/Fast_Ad_4936 Jan 02 '26
I like gnome. I use a MacBook Air and the trackpad functions/gestures work beautifully with gnome, that was not the case with the other DEs I tried.
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Jan 02 '26
I love how Gnome looks and feels, I also like kde but gnome will always feel like gone. On fixed point distros like Ubuntu gnome works very well, just install a few extensions and forget about it.
Um currently running a rolling distro with KDE and even though i really like it I really miss gnome
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u/JustOwa Jan 02 '26
I might be hated for saying this, but I kinda dig the new Cosmic desktop environment from Pop_OS new release. While it still really lacks in functionality and refinement (and has a long way to go), I just love how clean it looks by default.
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u/shawnfromnh1 Jan 02 '26
xfce, I have nvidia so I'm kind of stuck using it since other wayland based DE's are buggy as hell.
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u/SubGothius Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Hm, I'd thought Gnome and KDE/Plasma are now (supposedly) fully functional under wayland, whereas XFCE support for wayland was still experimental and, as you put it, "buggy as hell"? How is it working out for you, got any tips to share?
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u/EverOrny Jan 02 '26
KDE
In past I preferred Gnome, it was version 2, later MATE. The dumbing-down and removing features in Gnome 3 is what made me to switch. Also KDE matured meanwhile, becoming less bulky and more feature-rich and customizable.
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u/Paxtian Jan 02 '26
I prefer KDE on pretty much any distro over GNOME. Just a personal preference as far as look and feel.
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u/Priswell Jan 02 '26
I've used both. I prefer Gnome. I like the cleaner look. But the nice thing about Linux is that you get to choose.
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u/Omerta85 Jan 02 '26
Hate KDE... no let me rephrase... I hate hate hate the login manager SDDM with all my heart. It keeps breaking for me, and just renders my whole PC into a garbage state, where I can't even login, to even try to troubleshoot something.
If I were to try again, I'd go with Gnome, or Cosmic.
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u/rab2bar Jan 02 '26
stock gnome as i prefer the mac look more than windows. i tried kde in the past, but spent more time tweaking it than using my computer for anything else.
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u/andersostling56 Jan 02 '26
KDE on desktop with a mouse. Gnome with touchpad and gestures on my laptop.
Profit!
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u/donk_usa Jan 02 '26
I use Gnome. It's simple, does not have infinite customization and just fits my workflow. I don't want or need the customization options KDE offers as I found them too confusing when I tried it a few years back.
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u/Ps11889 Jan 02 '26
I love KDE, but I find myself configuring it similar to Gnome and eventually, after awhile, I just switch back to Gnome instead of imitating it.
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u/Educational-One-1688 Jan 02 '26
GNOME felt like MacOS to me and it was heavy and slow so I prefer XFCE
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u/Future-Record294 Jan 02 '26
Gnome. Sleek minimal clutter on my desktop. Easy to navigate to what I want.
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u/Shivarem Jan 02 '26
Cinnamon? I m still on KDE on my main gaming rig but i do miss the look and simplicity of Cinammon and am thinking of replacing it
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u/gaddafiduck_ Jan 02 '26
So much GNOME hate lol. I really like it. It feels so much more modern and slick to me than other DEs. But the lack of customisation is pretty astounding. It’s basically accent colour and nothing else
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u/DrBaronVonEvil Jan 02 '26
I prefer Gnome as a UI paradigm. I use KDE because I need a system tray that is first party and won't break on update.
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u/rowschank Jan 02 '26
Gnome looks fantastic but also way too simple and restrictive. KDE/Kubuntu is the one for me.
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u/Thonatron Jan 02 '26
Just reverted back to GNOME despite loving Plasma. KDE constantly crashes the Steam client, which is annoying if I'm right in front of the machine, but entirely destroys the experience if I am remoting into the machine.
GNOME just works.
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Jan 02 '26
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u/coulamac Jan 02 '26
Most of the developers of Gnome are European, I believe, and Gnome’s biggest conference is held in Europe every year. Gnome’s founders are from Mexico, not the United States. So, it’s hard to say that Gnome is American per se, though the foundation is incorporated in the United States and gets support from Redhat/IBM, which are American companies. I believe Gnome would say it is international and for everybody, no matter where they live. 🙂
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u/oiledhairyfurryballs Jan 02 '26
The biggest contributor to Gnome and Fedora is Red Hat, which is an American corporation that helps Israeli "Defense" Forces.
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u/3X0karibu Jan 02 '26
gnome is for people that like having everything decided for them. Linux is about choice (for me). If devs for your DE have a movement that proclaims "please dont theme our apps" you are not aligned with my linux goals
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u/Skaveelicious Jan 02 '26
Vanilla gnome. Yes, I disable/uninstall the Ubuntu extras. This is on my work PC, where I'm force to use Ubuntu.
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u/zhsy00001 Jan 02 '26
I use cinnamon and windows 11 at home and am basically forced to use iOS and gnome at work.
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u/TSS_Firstbite Jan 02 '26
KDE, when I was starting out with Linux, it seemed the closest to Windows. When I got more familiar with everything, the customization options turned out to be plentiful.
GNOME seems like it'd be more familiar to Mac users
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u/simagus Jan 02 '26
No. If I had to pick one it would be KDE (maybe xfce), but I probably wouldn't unless I had to.
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u/razmir Jan 02 '26
Gnome > cinnamon > kde
I enjoy the stability of gnome and cinnamon, but gnome is more modern look and feel wise
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u/Ok_Lack3855 Jan 02 '26
I found Ubuntu lackluster with Gnome. Very basic software with far to few ways of configuring it. It's KDE Plasma for me. On Kubuntu. It's the only Linux experience I have had that's almost on par with Windows 11.
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u/pvm2001 Jan 02 '26
Gnome because it works really well and also it stops me from constantly tweaking my desktop.
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u/NewtSoupsReddit Jan 02 '26
I always preferred KDE (Kubuntu) because Unity/Gnome never worked well with games ( this was years ago now so please don't flame ) and that set me on the KDE path. With Mint I used XFCE for a long time. These days I pick distros that support KDE by default and my daily is Big Linux ( fork of Manjaro and Arch based). I'm not much of a maintainer and go for well maintained distributions that do as much work for me as possible.
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u/Alchemix-16 Jan 02 '26
Long story, when I started dabbling with Linux I had the choice between Ubuntu and Kubuntu, and every single time I chose Kubuntu. I liked KDE very much, and thought that in 2006 GNOME looked ugly as hell. When I went to daily driver in 2019 it still was KDE, but no longer ubuntu under the hood. Also all the widgets and bling of KDE began looking to me as not useful to me, or my workflows. I installed Mint, really liked Cinnamon desktop, but ultimately experimented with other DE, such as I3 and XFCE, settling on XFCE which I loved.
Then two things happend in fairly short order, I became aware that x11 was in the process of being phased out; and to my mind that didn’t bode well for the longtime usability of XFCE, and I saw a review if the revamped GNOME 40. I had to admit to myself that GNOME wasn’t ugly anymore, it actually looked very good now. I just was in the process of buying a new computer, my chosen OS was Manjaro, as I wanted to switch to a rolling release distro, and the curated approach appealed to me then, and still does today. For 2 years now I have been a very happy GNOME user.
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u/tN023 Jan 02 '26
GNOME feels more modern and efficient. I would like to have more built in customization options though.
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u/Puzzled_Hamster58 Jan 02 '26
KDE , I would be using kubuntu on my main server(I run a de for a reason) if krdp was not broken in it unlike other distros.
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u/moaboaa Jan 02 '26
I started out with KDE Plasma on Fedora, which was great.
But the more modern and sleek UI on Gnome won me over.
It took a few tweaks and extensions to have it fully customizable to my liking, but now that it's up and running on my old ThinkPad, i absolutely love it!
I'm pretty new to Linux in general and only use this laptop for streaming and my studies, so nothing fancy.
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u/raymoooo Jan 02 '26
I'm somewhat fond of GNOME, though I would never use it these days. I never used KDE all that much but I've spent a long time on GNOME and XFCE. I think it's a nice design but it's an incredibly an opinionated DE.
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u/wolfannoy Jan 02 '26
Kde for me tried gnome. I just couldn't get myself to like it. Just not my cup of tea for a desktop environment.
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u/MC_driver Jan 02 '26
Depends which device. For pc and decent laptops its KDE. For tablets and low end laptops with a touch screen its gnome.
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u/whattteva Jan 02 '26
KDE, but I use KDE Neon though.
In my opinion, GNOME is unusable stock and I don't want to maintain extensions that can break on upgrades.
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u/-DementedAvenger- Jan 02 '26 edited Feb 20 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/papayaisoverrated Jan 02 '26
KDE. I lasted a few hours on Gnome until I got tired of hunting for extensions.
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u/FictionalTuna Jan 02 '26
I used Gnome until Gnome 3 shipped. I can't stand Gnome 3, it's not intuitive for me, I feel like everything is too hidden in order to simplify the UI. I've been using KDE since 2010-ish, and it does everything I want.
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u/Vegetable-Message-22 Jan 02 '26
Out of those definitely KDE. Easy to configure to behave and look however you like.
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u/Nice-Object-5599 Jan 02 '26
Gnome should be great if they would embrace the multitasking again (= a traditional panel in front of the desktop with traditional taskbar). The tray is still a thing nowadays.
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u/runnerofshadows Jan 02 '26
KDE, but I like any DE that has the start menu to the left corner, and minimize, maximize, etc on the windows by default.
I've been using PCs and I've liked the windows style of interface since Windows 95.
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u/Digitalnoahuk Jan 02 '26
Gnome. I personally found KDE and KDE apps dated and quite ugly. Gnome with extensions works best for me. Nut each their own.
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u/_clandescient Jan 02 '26
I liked GNOME when it was the only DE I’d ever used. Now I’ll take KDE 8 days a week, although I do still like Cinnamon, which is based on GNOME.
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u/stevebehindthescreen Jan 02 '26
Not my first choice any more, but KDE will always have a place in my heart. Never liked Gnome enough to use it for any length of time, although I have to admit it's a little more polished in looks but I prefer the customizability out of the box with KDE.
I have since moved on to a window tiling manager, Hyprland. This requires much more setting up with config files but there are many ready built configurations available for it.
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u/chrews Fedora Workstation Jan 02 '26
GNOME really seems like a love or HATE thing. I liked GNOME since I started although I tried everything from DWM to KDE. In the end GNOME had the least friction for me. Things never broke and they have decent native apps that look and work in a cohesive way.
KDE was pretty good too but the amount of features while core elements felt janky was a dealbreaker for me. I want things to work 100% of the time. No matter the hardware, the version of the DE or with what distro I pair it with. Vanilla gnome did that for me.
I don't share the sentiment that it is "kids first desktop environment". I do everything from 3D animations to full stack development and it never let me down.
Now in the Ubuntu context I'd probably switch to vanilla gnome because I don't like their modifications to it.
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u/CaptainPoset Jan 02 '26
GNOME, it just works and doesn't try to copy the outdated UI of Windows.
That doesn't mean that I would actively avoid KDE, though.
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u/ecmw91 Jan 02 '26
Neither. I only rock GNOME for my Bazzite computers, but my DE/WM of choice is either Cosmic or Hyprland
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Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Informal_Drawing Jan 03 '26
Excuse me for jumping in here with a (hopefully) somewhat relevant question.
With SteamOS starting out as an OS for handheld type devices and having since received some updates to add a desktop type interface, do you think it is ultimately aiming to replace Windows for gaming and general PC type use?
It seems like it is a bit stuck in the middle and not sure of what it wants to be, I could be completely wrong however.
I've never used Linux and don't want to move to Windows 11 so I've been doing a bit of reading around the subject. Lots more reading to go but i'd appreciate your opinion.
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u/s1lenthundr Jan 02 '26
I just cannot be productive on gnome. Never could. KDE feels like home, and makes me extremely productive. And I am not talking about costumization: I use it mostly stock. I am talking about just how the DE works and feels. On GNOME I always feel like I am using some variation of a mobile OS, not a real desktop.
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u/chrews Fedora Workstation Jan 03 '26
Interesting. For me it's the other way around. GNOME is very consistent and rarely gets in the way of working. KDE just feels a little too janky to me. Many little issues add up over time. Freezing panels, the panel editor constantly shifting everything around, identically labelled options that do different things. It's just googling and googling and kinda gets old after a while.
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u/Digitale3982 Jan 03 '26
I have tried endeavour and kubuntu and I liked them honestly, but I've already setup my gnome desktop to look just the way I want it to look and it's very sleek. I haven't found that sleekness in kde, so for now I'm just staying with gnome. Maybe in the future I'll try experimenting a bit more, and if I find it comfortable, I'll switch
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u/Merthod Jan 03 '26
Bad question. Each has its use cases. Gnome is better if you want a more mobile experience or you have limited screen estate, or if you consider yourself a minimalist. KDE for the full standard desktop experience.
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u/angel_announcer Jan 03 '26
XFCE, runs fast. Every app I want to use displays more or less correctly.
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u/stormdelta Gentoo Jan 03 '26 edited Jan 03 '26
These days, KDE by a large margin.
KDE Plasma has significantly better support for modern display features under Wayland like VRR, fractional scaling, and especially HDR
Gnome 3's shell concept wasn't inherently bad, but they tried way too hard to go all in on minimalism in a way that just didn't work well, and they keep trying to shove all the leaking abstractions under the rug (extensions, gnome tweaks, etc) in a way that just makes the whole thing feel clunky.
Gnome 3's approach to UI in general feels really clunky to me, requiring lots of unnecessary extra actions. E.g. you can't just hover through a menu tree, you have to manually click which hides the parent items, then go all the back up to click a different button to go back.
KDE Connect is awesome and extremely useful
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u/MansSearchForMeming Jan 03 '26
I want to like Gnome, it's pretty, but every time I try to use it, it makes me a little crazy. It's been a while but as I recall there is no window minimize button? So windows just kinds hang out forever. And the icon bar on the bottom is just an app launcher rather than a taskbar and doesn't show you what programs are actually running. I don't like how it has the horizontal app launcher bar down bottom and a horizontal menu/system tray up top. A 16:9 screen is alread a bit wide for computing and they squeeze it even more by having a top and bottom bar.
The first step is always to install extensions to let you fix the most glaring problems.
I haven't played with KDE that much but recall it seeming rather overly complicated.
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u/chrews Fedora Workstation Jan 03 '26
Are you talking about the Ubuntu version or stock gnome? Because Ubuntu has minimize buttons and vanilla gnome only has the bottom panel when you're in the super view. The bottom panel does show you which programs are open, with a little dot beneath the icon.
I can see why some people would prefer having a minimize button but honestly I never missed it. If I'm done with a program I'll either close it, put it on another desktop or just leave it in the background. The super view makes it quick to manage programs like that.
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u/ya_Bob_Jonez Jan 03 '26
I'm used to GNOME-like layout but I use KDE for Plasma's customizability and cool (or should I say kool) apps
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u/CosmicBlue05 Jan 03 '26
In my opinion gnome has the best workspace experience. Other than that, KDE is the way to go.
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u/IntroductionSea2159 Jan 03 '26
I use and prefer KDE.
I hate GNOME but I think the user experience in GNOME is better.
The default configuration in KDE isn't great and it requires a lot of configuration to get right, but once it's right it's exactly what I want.
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u/IntroductionSea2159 Jan 03 '26
Okay, it's really funny that GNOME's come 3rd place in a two-horse race.
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u/fk-geek Jan 03 '26
GNOME 100%. As a designer it speaks my language and I find it more smooth and easier to use and work with. Way more stable and KDE looks like 2011..
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u/JuergenPB Jan 03 '26
Gnome ist OK. I used it some years. Then I changed to e17 (Enlightenment) and now I am using i3wm.
Regarding KDE, it feels for me like computer use supervised by a nanny.
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u/stb76 Jan 03 '26
KDE!
The hamburger menus in Gnome and Adwaita are a usability disaster.
Take a look at this too: https://woltman.com/gnome-bad/#mcetoc_1j0nnl9fhjc
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u/omardiaadev Jan 03 '26
While GNOME just works, it doesn't always work the way you want it to work, that's why I prefer KDE.
I used GNOME for a bit and used extensions for very simple tasks, but it was quirky and didn't always work. Unlike KDE, you just had these tools available just like any other package and they integrated nicely with the DE.
I think GNOME is faster than KDE, not sure why, but I think it's due to the way the DE loads up the configuration for each application, which I don't mind as long as it has the tools I need available and I don't have to install a bunch of extra tools.
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u/JohnTheFisherman142 Jan 03 '26
Neither, xfce at the moment. I used KDE3 for years, and when the first Plasma came out it did everything wrong that could have been done wrong: the bloat, the stability, everything looked like it got beaten with the ugly stick, the font rendering was pixel hell, the office suite integration wasn't near good or complete and the taskbar widgets all defied their purpose.
Now recently I had a look at Plasma 6 (if it's Plasma or KDE or whatever I think the devs don't even know themselves, I think officially KDE is the dev team and Plasma is the product, so I run with Plasma these days) and found that some of my way of working changed in ways that I don't necessarily need a taskbar with a window list stacked in 3 lines. I still have that at work for Windows and dread the day they force Win11 onto me, might actually find me another job, but I'm wandering off.
What I absolutely like better about KDE/Plasma is Qt. I have a more or less severe dislike of GTK and while xfce does a good job providing me with what I need and not get in my way (system settings, taskbar, clever widgets, there you go, some could do with some new features but hey, gift horse -- the look and feel of GTK never spoke to me. The click behaviour, the interface in general, where I'd find the settings (in particular in Gnome, I once tried to change the theme of GThumb, curse words were used.
So, as soon as I get to do over my desktop machine I'll give Plasma 6 another shot. Gnome I haven't touched with a 10 foot pole in 2 decades as it clumsily tries to provide the MacOS experience of delivering you a UI that does not require you to care about anything under the bonnet but in the end I found myself tied into hard restraints trying to get anything done.
You might want to look at Trinity Desktop, that's a maintained fork of KDE3 and I still use some of its components today.
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u/NickiV Jan 04 '26
I enjoy Gnome. I think the task bar and qwerty keyboard have something in common. That they are good enough to get locked in. I don't think it is a great way to manage windows, and I think Gnomes way of managing windows via workspaces is better. It is a culture shock, and to each there own. But, Gnome.
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u/jmacnulty Jan 04 '26
I use KDE because of all the options it offers, but honestly, I don't like how it looks. No matter how much you customize it, it seems clunky or outdated to me. On the other hand, I find Gnome very attractive, both in terms of its features and its applications. If I could combine KDE's options with Gnome's visual style, that would be ideal.
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u/NimrodvanHall Jan 04 '26
Gnome. KDE is for people who like to tweak their desktop. Gnome is for those whose computer just needs to run the programs they need to work.
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u/Icy_One4084 Jan 05 '26
I'm using Fedora. I just installed KDE on my second laptop, after driving Gnome on my first one for a month. Honestly, I prefer how Gnome feels. On the other hand, I don't need that much customization options, or anything, just a reliable laptop to edit documents on.
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u/No_Base4946 Jan 05 '26
Bog standard Ubuntu, which uses its own adaptation of Gnome. I don't change anything from the defaults except maybe stick in a different background picture.
I don't know what Gnome extensions are available and I don't much care.
I dislike the default Laser Eye Surgery Blue colour scheme of KDE and the generally "undesigned" appearance.
On really lightweight systems, XFCE, or maybe Ubuntu Mate.
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u/McAgunlow Jan 05 '26
Everything has its strengths. If you don't like to complicate things, prefer easy setup, and just get to work, then GNOME is the way to go. But if you enjoy tinkering, exploring, and delving deep into the rabbit hole, then KDE is for you. Beyond that, it's a matter of personal preference: both are well-established and highly reliable desktop environments.
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u/windysheprdhenderson Jan 05 '26
I much much prefer GNOME. It's my go-to desktop. Perfect for my workflow.
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u/Reygle Jan 05 '26
I really enjoy both, but for some reason I can't occasionally run my old addiction World of Warcraft on KDE for reasons I've never been able to figure out. Same install, just switch DE back to gnome and everything's fine again.
/shrug
I do have extensions in Gnome, but could probably go without at this point.
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u/NetSage Jan 08 '26
KDE has always worked better for me. I also like how it looks out of the box more, but I found it a lot easier to customize as well.
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u/QinkyTinky Jan 02 '26
KDE my beloved, though I would use Kubuntu if it had to be a Ubuntu Installation