6 ms·

Strange to see this, maybe it's the target audience that makes this the result? At the office there are about 40 Linux desktop users, none of them use KDE. Most

Strange to see this, maybe it's the target audience that makes this the result? At the office there are about 40 Linux desktop users, none of them use KDE. Most remote users I've worked with (~100) aren't using KDE either. This is of course somewhat anecdotal, but I suspect that the Linux Journal Readers are a specialised group. Most systems (out of a pool of about 200) I can query run: - Gnome 3 (about 80) - i3 (about 30) - Unity (about 25) - Mate (about 25) - Others (KDE included, about 40) And those are minimally managed systems, all they have to run is orchestration software and IPA, so they choose their own distro and DE and everything else.

Zitrax 9y ago
This is my experience as well, I have used KDE for around 20 years but among colleges and friends it seems relatively rare.
qwerty456127 9y ago
Gnome 3 is everywhere because it is the default in all the major distributions but this doesn't mean people like it. I personally think it actually is the weirdest DE ever and only popular for political reasons.
- adrusi 9y ago
  I found gnome 3 really appealing when I switched from OS X to Linux on the desktop.
  - qwerty456127 9y ago
    Isn't Unity a way better and a way closer to OS X?
    - adrusi 9y ago
      Certainly gnome felt more familiar than unity. What felt truly closest was elementaryOS's pantheon.
      - qwerty456127 9y ago
        What does Gnome 3 have in common with macOS at all? I use a MacBook every day yet every time I've given Gnome 3 a try it seemed a way too bizarre to me. It doesn't even have a traditional dock (unless you install one).
        adrusi 9y ago
        Compare OS X Lion's mission control[1] with gnome 3's dash[2]. By the time I switched to Linux, I never used the dock, instead launching applications with Alfred/spotlight (and switching with some combination of cmd+tab, mission control, and spaces track pad gestures). Gnome 3 maps super+tab to alt+tab which was great for my muscle memory since my super key was where my command key used to be. What I found annoying about gnome 3 was the persistent useless panel at the top of the screen (I still use gnome at work and I use the dash-to-panel extension[3] to make it slightly less useless). [1] http://obamapacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Mission-Control-OS-X-Lion-10.7.jpg http://obamapacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Mission-Co... [2] https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/en.linux/images/9/97/GNOME_Shell.png/revision/latest?cb=20150816153038 https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/en.linux/images/9/97/GNO... [3] https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1160/dash-to-panel/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1160/dash-to-panel/
        qwerty456127 9y ago
        I see. Thank you for explaining. As for me macOS is just the dock, the global menu (both replicated and enhanced nicely in Unity, as well as in KDE though KDE global menu works with Qt apps only and Unity global menu works with Gtk apps only) and a BSD terminal :-) As for Mission Control - I have never used it on Mac but on KDE moving the mouse cursor to the top left corner of the screen shows all the windows in the manner looking a lot like the screenshot in the Wikipedia article for Mission Control. As for the Gnome 3 top panel - I agree it is the most pointless part of it, I wish it could host the application menu the way it does in macOS and Unity. The problem is Linux apps seemingly lack a standard for this so it wouldn't work with all the apps, that's why I've came to the conclusion I don't need a top panel at all.
  - moocowtruck 9y ago
    hmm interesting! I find it terrible, and their constant removal of features... i mean you need a damn tweak tool to make it semi usable!
- oneplane 9y ago
  Strange, according to the queries I did on the package managers, only about 35 of the Gnome 3 installs are default, all the others were manually selected (and often don't have the distro-specific extensions installed like those from Ubuntu and Debian). Most of the users in the pool I can query with Salt and OSQuery are developers/ops/engineers.
  - qwerty456127 9y ago
    Strange indeed. Maybe they are using some kind of Linux tablets? Gnome 3 seems an amazing DE for a tablet. Or maybe this is just a habit - perhaps they had to use Gnome 3 in the past and just don't want to change anything.
    - oneplane 9y ago
      No, just general keyboard and some mouse usage. I suppose most of the use is because they don't use the DE itself that much, it's mostly just a launcher for the stuff they use. It's mostly full-screen IDE on one monitor, browser and terminal on the other.
      - qwerty456127 9y ago
        > I suppose most of the use is because they don't use the DE itself that much, it's mostly just a launcher for the stuff they use. Why not use a pure WM of a kind or XFCE then? > full-screen IDE on one monitor, browser and terminal on the other. What do they do with the activities stuff then as they use to have 2 physical monitors?
        seba_dos1 9y ago
        Experience tells me that they probably simply don't bother and choose the DE that's either default or they're already familiar with. Most of the time you could switch them their DEs and they almost wouldn't notice.
        9y ago

Zitrax 9y ago

This is my experience as well, I have used KDE for around 20 years but among colleges and friends it seems relatively rare.

qwerty456127 9y ago

Gnome 3 is everywhere because it is the default in all the major distributions but this doesn't mean people like it. I personally think it actually is the weirdest DE ever and only popular for political reasons.

adrusi 9y ago
I found gnome 3 really appealing when I switched from OS X to Linux on the desktop.
- qwerty456127 9y ago
  Isn't Unity a way better and a way closer to OS X?
  - adrusi 9y ago
    Certainly gnome felt more familiar than unity. What felt truly closest was elementaryOS's pantheon.
    - qwerty456127 9y ago
      What does Gnome 3 have in common with macOS at all? I use a MacBook every day yet every time I've given Gnome 3 a try it seemed a way too bizarre to me. It doesn't even have a traditional dock (unless you install one).
      - adrusi 9y ago
        Compare OS X Lion's mission control[1] with gnome 3's dash[2]. By the time I switched to Linux, I never used the dock, instead launching applications with Alfred/spotlight (and switching with some combination of cmd+tab, mission control, and spaces track pad gestures). Gnome 3 maps super+tab to alt+tab which was great for my muscle memory since my super key was where my command key used to be. What I found annoying about gnome 3 was the persistent useless panel at the top of the screen (I still use gnome at work and I use the dash-to-panel extension[3] to make it slightly less useless). [1] http://obamapacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Mission-Control-OS-X-Lion-10.7.jpg http://obamapacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Mission-Co... [2] https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/en.linux/images/9/97/GNOME_Shell.png/revision/latest?cb=20150816153038 https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/en.linux/images/9/97/GNO... [3] https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1160/dash-to-panel/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1160/dash-to-panel/
        qwerty456127 9y ago
        I see. Thank you for explaining. As for me macOS is just the dock, the global menu (both replicated and enhanced nicely in Unity, as well as in KDE though KDE global menu works with Qt apps only and Unity global menu works with Gtk apps only) and a BSD terminal :-) As for Mission Control - I have never used it on Mac but on KDE moving the mouse cursor to the top left corner of the screen shows all the windows in the manner looking a lot like the screenshot in the Wikipedia article for Mission Control. As for the Gnome 3 top panel - I agree it is the most pointless part of it, I wish it could host the application menu the way it does in macOS and Unity. The problem is Linux apps seemingly lack a standard for this so it wouldn't work with all the apps, that's why I've came to the conclusion I don't need a top panel at all.
- moocowtruck 9y ago
  hmm interesting! I find it terrible, and their constant removal of features... i mean you need a damn tweak tool to make it semi usable!
oneplane 9y ago
Strange, according to the queries I did on the package managers, only about 35 of the Gnome 3 installs are default, all the others were manually selected (and often don't have the distro-specific extensions installed like those from Ubuntu and Debian). Most of the users in the pool I can query with Salt and OSQuery are developers/ops/engineers.
- qwerty456127 9y ago
  Strange indeed. Maybe they are using some kind of Linux tablets? Gnome 3 seems an amazing DE for a tablet. Or maybe this is just a habit - perhaps they had to use Gnome 3 in the past and just don't want to change anything.
  - oneplane 9y ago
    No, just general keyboard and some mouse usage. I suppose most of the use is because they don't use the DE itself that much, it's mostly just a launcher for the stuff they use. It's mostly full-screen IDE on one monitor, browser and terminal on the other.
    - qwerty456127 9y ago
      > I suppose most of the use is because they don't use the DE itself that much, it's mostly just a launcher for the stuff they use. Why not use a pure WM of a kind or XFCE then? > full-screen IDE on one monitor, browser and terminal on the other. What do they do with the activities stuff then as they use to have 2 physical monitors?
      - seba_dos1 9y ago
        Experience tells me that they probably simply don't bother and choose the DE that's either default or they're already familiar with. Most of the time you could switch them their DEs and they almost wouldn't notice.
        9y ago