I know Gnome is the default on popular distros: Fedora, Ubuntu, Rhel, Pop OS (it’s Cosmic Desktop yes but it is still based on Gnome)…etc. But Gnome just doesnt work for me. I would pick XFCE - stable and no BS.

Before Manjaro and their cetificate shenanigan, I used to use their XFCE version. At the time, it was marketed as the “Flagship Manjaro version”. I went 4 years without any problems and I did tinker a lot, just couldnt get their XFCE to break.

After a tough Arch or Gentoo installs, I just want to put XFCE on and call it a day.

What about you guys?

  • hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
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    3 months ago

    I currently use GNOME and would continue to but if it were a low spec machine, probably icewm or jwm.

    y’all sure like KDE though 🤢

  • the16bitgamer@programming.dev
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    3 months ago

    Cinnamon for 2 reasons

    1. KDE is missing a lot of features which still only works in Gnome. Like the taskbar Calendar app syncing events with services like Google Calendar

    2. cinnamon is extremely stable and doesn’t move your icons around when you connect to an external display with your laptop and the display has a different resolution.

  • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    I’d say Gnome, since I’m so used to it that I feel it doesn’t get in the way of the things I’m doing.
    Because that would be my aim: something that doesn’t interfere with the work I am doing.

  • J52@lemmy.nzEnglish
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    3 months ago

    Ran KDE then Gnome a long time ago. Now it’s openbox wm.

  • floppybutton@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
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    3 months ago

    I keep coming back to KDE time and time again. It’s so easy to mess with, I can set it up exactly how I like it without much effort, and it always looks good because someone else did all the work making themes and widgets I use.

    That said, I love XFCE, I’m just trash with CSS so it takes me forever to get it how I like, and on my Surface I can’t get the scaling to work so everything is beyond tiny.

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
    English
    0·
    3 months ago

    Until my laptop dies or cannot support it, I’m sticking with KDE Plasma. Love how MX configured it (because I’m lazy) and absolutely will keep using it for as long as my laptop survived or can hold it.

    Might try other ones in VMs (like ratpoison) in the future for other machines I might set up in the future, but for now KDE Plasma is my go-to that I’ll probably be using for a long time.

    • AugustWest@lemm.eeEnglish
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      3 months ago

      The surprising thing is that KDE would run on there just fine too. If you don’t add all the PIM stuff, it’s almost a wash in memory usage and just as snappy.

        • AugustWest@lemm.eeEnglish
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          3 months ago

          Lol, yep. It’s always funny to see xfce as being light weight.

          Is this where I continue the meme and say I use arch by the way?

          On the other hand KDE discover… Yikes. The software manager uses as much memory as XFCE.

          • non_burglar@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I was just joking around, I hope you didn’t take it too personally. I’ve been hearing a lot of KDE enthusiasm lately.

            And xfce is great, but it has its pitfalls.

            I also get excited about projects, I’m no different.

  • AugustWest@lemm.eeEnglish
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    3 months ago

    KDE. Been upgrading the same environment for 5 years just keeps getting better.

    I started around maybe KDE 3?

    • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Was on KDE 2, KDE 3 was absolutely incredible, ran it on Mac when it was supported on xquartz.

      4 was a mess, but got better, 5 & 6 are fine, but it’s overall far better than any other DE, it’s just so customizable, the only other thing that comes close is xmonad or something.

        • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          I mean, they added a ton of features, especially minor or niche ones, but a lot of amazing ones like KDEConnect too.

          But what makes KDE the best is that the features don’t get in the way of core functionality anymore, the basic DE is always safe and they generally layer stuff on such that it doesn’t break anything.

          So basically the opposite of most of modern software nowadays.

  • lengau@midwest.social
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    3 months ago

    This isn’t even hard. KDE without a second thought.

    I regularly try other desktops, and I regularly come back to the only desktop with any sort of reasonable thought put into it.