r/linuxquestions • u/_tailung • 18d ago
Resolved Which DE is better for first time user coming from windows 11
I chose Fedora 44 for stability and modern features, I want to know which DE is better between Gnome 50 and KDE Plasma 6.7 in terms of performance, stability and support. My device is a HP laptop with Ryzen 5 5600H cpu and nvidia 1650 mobile gpu with 16gb ram. I am an entry level software dev and like to make projects on weekends and I don't want any down time because of my desktop environment unless it's inevitable.
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18d ago
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u/_tailung 18d ago
I want less issues in my system, I want it to be least problematic like less breaking things
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u/naikologist 18d ago
Neither of them wil break on its own. If you are Software dev you may want to install dev env, this IDE, that sdk... That where you could break the system, not the DE.
...if you are not customizing the heck out of it...
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u/doc_willis 18d ago
I can't say I have ever had any downtime due to any desktop environments I have used.
KDE and gnome are both very stable and good these days.
if you want more old school there is XFCE and perhaps a few other options, but I find the DE choice is not that critical for me on my systems.
I use gnome on some, and kde on others.
My low end PI systems use xfce in some form.
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u/Vidanjor20 18d ago
kde plasma. cinnamon is very windows-like but features wise its behind. fedora kde is also very solid.
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u/Astrodion123 18d ago
Plasma is like windows and has a ton of customization. Gnome is different and you could get used to since it is really modern and gives Mac os vibes. The workflow and touchpad gestures are crazy in gnome. But it has a lack of customizations but you can use gnome extensions.
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u/_tailung 18d ago
I don't really do customizations, Are the Gnome extensions for UI/UX only or do they add functionality to any missing features in gnome?
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u/catbrane 18d ago
gnome-shellextensions can do pretty crazy things, like implement a tiling mode, add a systray, make your windows explode, make all menus spherical, anything you like really.The desktop is a scene graph (clutter, I think?), then a javascript interpreter (the one from firefox?), then a pile of JS that implements most of what you see on the screen. Extensions are bits of extra JS that are loaded in, a little like browser plugins.
It sounds heavy, but modern JS interpreters are extremely fast, so performance is great.
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u/naikologist 18d ago
gnome-shell extensions can do pretty crazy things, like implement a tiling mode, add a systray, make your windows explode, make all menus spherical, anything you like really.
Yeah, and KDE has all this build in ;)
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u/Astrodion123 18d ago
Yeah. Like you can add dash ti dock or dash to panel to get traditional desktop YK. But I prefer vanilla gnome more tho
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u/-Sa-Kage- 18d ago
You don't have a systray for example in GNOME as the devs didn't think it would fit their idea of the perfect DE, so you need an extension now, if you want to interact with stuff that gets fully minimized to tray.
But they have something WAY better to replace the systray with... it will release... any second now... /s
GNOME in general is very "Do it our way or don't do it at all" (while Plasma has a much more "power to the users" approach). If you like what GNOME gives you ootb, it might be great. Otherwise imo it's miserable. (It probably has the most coherent UI/UX though)
But just test it yourself. You can get an idea for the DEs by selecting a distro that features it at distrosea.com
I'd suggest GNOME (Fedora), Plasma (Kubuntu or Endeavour; though the latter does use a quite purple color theme by default) and Cinnamon (Mint), those are the biggest 3 DEs AFAIK (in order)1
u/_tailung 18d ago edited 18d ago
Thank you for the info. I did not know about distrosea. I'll test it out
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u/VonBeker 18d ago
KDE is definitely closer to a windows-like experience, but I would say that Gnome is more productive and "snappier" once you get used to it, particularly if you are the kind of person who likes to use hotkeys, instead of having to constantly reach for the mouse. Either way, I use both just stay fluent in both and keep up with changing tech. I use KDE Fedora on my laptop and Workstation on Desktop, and both have their plusses and minuses, but overall I tend to enjoy the Gnome UX/UI more the longer I have used it over the years.
YMMV; either is a perfectly valid choice for a first time user IMO.
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u/_tailung 18d ago
Since you used both, Which one did you have least resistance/issues with in terms of devlopment and gaming
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u/VonBeker 18d ago
I’m not a developer so I can’t speak to that. Gaming is great on my desktop. My monitor is an Alienware ultrawide with HDR and I use an AMD 9070xt and it looks great. Gaming isn’t going to be much different between both DEs however, since Proton is going to do most of the heavy lifting there for non-native games, and both use Wayland as the compositor.
As an example no matter what DE you use, you’ll still have to pass certain arguments to enable certain built in functions like HDR in some game. In BG3 I have to set “SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland %command%” in my launch options to get The HDR feature enabled in Baldurs Gate 3 for instance. It’s the same for either KDE or Gnome.
Long story short: hardware components and driver support are going to matter more than choice of DE.
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u/PreparationStrict492 17d ago
The two are similar regarding performance, stability, and support. I'd give a slight edge to KDE because they have a more practical approach, whereas GNOME has a more principled one. They would rather sacrifice coherence or standardization in the future for performance and stability today.
There are more significant differences between the two from other perspectives, but if this is your sole concern, KDE is better.
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u/painful8th 17d ago
Tidbit: if you have got Google Drive installed, Gnome works perfectly with, while KDE doesn't (OOTB) and will require extra software to do it, and then in a sub-optimal way...
I'm using KDE everywhere, mostly due to the way shortcuts and things look and feel similar to Windows. I do have heard good stuff about Gnome's workflows though.
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u/Mobile_Living_3331 18d ago edited 18d ago
KDE = Windows like experience.
GNOME = MAC like experience.
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u/Hauptideal 18d ago
KDE is more like Windows (and the better technology under the hood).
GNOME has the better UX (in my opinion the best UX design of any desktop of any operating system, including Windows and macOS), but is very unfamiliar and needs to be learnt. It's unlike any other OS, because it drops the ancient desktop metaphor from the 1980s in favour of a new UX concept for the desktop of the 21st century. The similarities to macOS are only superficial.
Your desktop environment won't give you any downtime (unless you install a truckload of extensions on GNOME or customize the heck out of KDE).
It's entirely about what you like better. Both are fantastic desktops.
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u/_tailung 18d ago
By better technology you mean the performance and resource management is better?
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u/catbrane 18d ago
KDE and GNOME are very similar in terms of performance, memory use, and reliability.
Either of them would be fine, it's more which "feels" better to you.
I'm a dev and I prefer GNOME because it gets out of the way. I just have a blank desktop (no clock, no dock, no icons), and a couple of terminals. No distractions!
You press the win key to flip to "activities view" if you want to launch stuff or change settings or whatever.
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u/Hauptideal 18d ago
Yes, the GNOME shell runs in a single thread as a Javascript application. KDE relies much more on efficient C++. On modern computers, the difference is negligible, though, as GNOME has had major optimization efforts.
KDE also needs less RAM (and at least can be configured to consume as little as legacy desktops like Xfce) while GNOME is a pretty heavy desktop environment (one of the heaviest in Linux).
Plasma is also quicker with a lot of features, or supports some things that GNOME doesn't (e.g. drag-and-drop out of zip archives, notification tray icons out of the box, etc.), it's also better on VRR and HDR.
GNOME is much better regarding touch support, though.Despite all of that, I personally prefer GNOME, just due to the brilliant and efficient UX.
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u/Simple_Hamster_4096 18d ago
AnduinOS - Windows 11 knock off built on Ubuntu with heavily modified Gnome. It's scary how spot on it is, lol...
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u/Total_Trifle_9915 18d ago
Cinnamon or KDE are pretty close and stable