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I've been using the Kde desktop (Kubuntu) for about 6 months now after switching from Windows 10 for Ruby development. The UI is damn good. Way more polished a

I've been using the Kde desktop (Kubuntu) for about 6 months now after switching from Windows 10 for Ruby development. The UI is damn good. Way more polished and consistent than what passes for the three way mess that the Windows 10 UI is these days. Straight out of the box you get a polished, Windows 7 type layout, complete with a start menu better than Windows, consistent fonts and smooth animations. And unlike every other desktop, the dark theme actually works as advertised. The only time I go back to windows is when is need Corel Draw for my graphics design work. And I immediately feel the difference in polish and consistency. If I could get without Corel Draw, I would definitely banish Windows from my laptop. That being said, GNOME is a clusterfk. It's what we all accused Windows 8 of beign. A wannabe tablet desktop in a world without any actual tablets. What is possessing them to remove functionality available in ALL other desktops? When this is pointed out they point to extensions written in a leaky javascript implementation, which can be broken the next gnome update because why not? If you want a modern desktop on Linux, Kde is what you want these days.

jammygit 8y ago
Imho, gnome is quite nice. I think I'm in the minority maybe but I would be pretty sad if gnome went away one day (or had another memory leak/slowdown issue)
- petepete 8y ago
  The mostly-silent majority. KDE has some nice features but under the shiny screenshot it's still a disorganised and inconsistent jumble. GNOME gets out of your way and lets you get on with your work. Customising every last detail isn't necessary to be productive, and if it is a DE isn't for you anyway.
  - keithpeter 8y ago
    Also Gnome is keyboard driven to a large degree. I used dwm/dmenu for quite a time then went back to the default DE which was Gnome and it felt similar (small screen by the way so not too many tiled windows in dwm)
    - Lio 8y ago
      Yes that’s what attracts me to Gnome too. The keyboard shortcuts are enough for me to be productive without being fully tile based. If I could just get terminal shortcuts like ctrl-w for delete word or Ctrl-m for return to work in Firefox text fields it would be perfect for me.
      - chungy 8y ago
        Open Tweaks, "Keyboard & Mouse" tab, enable Emacs Input. Now you get Ctrl-W in text fields and other shortcuts from Emacs. Doesn't quite work in Firefox though, which has a lot of conflicting shortcuts.
        Lio 8y ago
        I have done exactly that... except it doesn’t work in Firefox, as you mentioned. There Ctrl-w always closes tabs, except in pinned tabs when it jumps to another tab without closing. It does work as expected in Chrom(e|ium) and most other apps. In Chrome you can still close tabs with ctrl-w, you just have tab out of a text box first.
      - jhasse 8y ago
        Ctrl+Backspace is delete word.
        Lio 8y ago
        I’m aware of that but I don’t really like it. I’d much prefer the shorter movement of Ctrl-w. It puts less stress on my right wrist, which suffers RSI a bit and is consistent with terminals on every (unix-like) OS. On macOS I get this behaviour via Karabiner Elements; on Gnome I mostly get it via Tweaks. Except in Firefox, as mentioned, where I put up with ctrl-backspace and curse.
  - KozmoNau7 8y ago
    You should really try out KDE Neon, it is by far the best and most consistent DE available for Linux, and is so far ahead of Win10 it's sort of embarrassing for MS. The default settings are very sensible, I only change one or two things myself, most noticably focus follows mouse, which requires a silly gconf tweak and is considered "broken" by the devs.
    - KozmoNau7 8y ago
      That last bit should have read "requires a silly gconf tweak in Gnome/Cinnamon", of course.
  - Sylos 8y ago
    > KDE has some nice features but under the shiny screenshot it's still a disorganised and inconsistent jumble. I'm not too deep into GNOME's architecture, but I don't see that at all. KDE is the KF5 Frameworks on top of Qt on top of QML and C++. Desktop widgets, panel widgets etc. are all architecturally the same thing, "Plasmoids". Settings screens are all isolated and also architecturally the same thing, "KCMs". On the other hand, GNOME is GTK on top of GObject on top of C, Vala, JS, Python, Rust and a few other languages still, because they still haven't really decided what they want to go with. The extensions are written in JavaScript, but run in the same process as the entire Shell, meaning that if anything locks up or just takes longer in an extension, then your Shell does the same. I don't want to argue that GNOME is horrible in this aspect, but in my opinion KDE is better at it.
    - petepete 8y ago
      Yes, I agree that GNOME under the hood isn't the most sensible or consistent of designs. But 'over the hood' that's all hidden away, if you use it as-intended it works just fine. KDE/Plasma has a much better design and is built on more stable technologies, but there are just too many options and too much configuration.
- 738472527784 8y ago
  I am with you. I actually love gnome a little bit. To be fair, changed theme and two extension are essential for me. It's so awesome once you got accustomed to the shortcuts and UI idea. Typing everywhere, I can pretty much never leave the keyboard if I want to, BUT if I am lazy I can also never use the keyboard. Honestly there are so many good ideas there, I wish they would rework the core and default aesthetics, to achieve real greatness. KDE on the other hand is somewhat fine, if you don't touch anything. Customizing opens hell. UI Inconsistencies, weird bugs, stuff drawn off screen, almost guaranteed... Horrible IMO.
  - KozmoNau7 8y ago
    Where are you people trying out KDE? I'm on KDE Neon now, after having used Mint for a while. KDE is simply a joy to use. Everything works, and the visuals are consistent and well-proportioned.
- finchisko 8y ago
  I kinda like gnome too, so I never thought I would say this, but "I miss Ubuntu's Unity". And boy I hated it in the beginning. Who is minority now? :D

jammygit 8y ago

Imho, gnome is quite nice. I think I'm in the minority maybe but I would be pretty sad if gnome went away one day (or had another memory leak/slowdown issue)

petepete 8y ago
The mostly-silent majority. KDE has some nice features but under the shiny screenshot it's still a disorganised and inconsistent jumble. GNOME gets out of your way and lets you get on with your work. Customising every last detail isn't necessary to be productive, and if it is a DE isn't for you anyway.
- keithpeter 8y ago
  Also Gnome is keyboard driven to a large degree. I used dwm/dmenu for quite a time then went back to the default DE which was Gnome and it felt similar (small screen by the way so not too many tiled windows in dwm)
  - Lio 8y ago
    Yes that’s what attracts me to Gnome too. The keyboard shortcuts are enough for me to be productive without being fully tile based. If I could just get terminal shortcuts like ctrl-w for delete word or Ctrl-m for return to work in Firefox text fields it would be perfect for me.
    - chungy 8y ago
      Open Tweaks, "Keyboard & Mouse" tab, enable Emacs Input. Now you get Ctrl-W in text fields and other shortcuts from Emacs. Doesn't quite work in Firefox though, which has a lot of conflicting shortcuts.
      - Lio 8y ago
        I have done exactly that... except it doesn’t work in Firefox, as you mentioned. There Ctrl-w always closes tabs, except in pinned tabs when it jumps to another tab without closing. It does work as expected in Chrom(e|ium) and most other apps. In Chrome you can still close tabs with ctrl-w, you just have tab out of a text box first.
    - jhasse 8y ago
      Ctrl+Backspace is delete word.
      - Lio 8y ago
        I’m aware of that but I don’t really like it. I’d much prefer the shorter movement of Ctrl-w. It puts less stress on my right wrist, which suffers RSI a bit and is consistent with terminals on every (unix-like) OS. On macOS I get this behaviour via Karabiner Elements; on Gnome I mostly get it via Tweaks. Except in Firefox, as mentioned, where I put up with ctrl-backspace and curse.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  You should really try out KDE Neon, it is by far the best and most consistent DE available for Linux, and is so far ahead of Win10 it's sort of embarrassing for MS. The default settings are very sensible, I only change one or two things myself, most noticably focus follows mouse, which requires a silly gconf tweak and is considered "broken" by the devs.
  - KozmoNau7 8y ago
    That last bit should have read "requires a silly gconf tweak in Gnome/Cinnamon", of course.
- Sylos 8y ago
  > KDE has some nice features but under the shiny screenshot it's still a disorganised and inconsistent jumble. I'm not too deep into GNOME's architecture, but I don't see that at all. KDE is the KF5 Frameworks on top of Qt on top of QML and C++. Desktop widgets, panel widgets etc. are all architecturally the same thing, "Plasmoids". Settings screens are all isolated and also architecturally the same thing, "KCMs". On the other hand, GNOME is GTK on top of GObject on top of C, Vala, JS, Python, Rust and a few other languages still, because they still haven't really decided what they want to go with. The extensions are written in JavaScript, but run in the same process as the entire Shell, meaning that if anything locks up or just takes longer in an extension, then your Shell does the same. I don't want to argue that GNOME is horrible in this aspect, but in my opinion KDE is better at it.
  - petepete 8y ago
    Yes, I agree that GNOME under the hood isn't the most sensible or consistent of designs. But 'over the hood' that's all hidden away, if you use it as-intended it works just fine. KDE/Plasma has a much better design and is built on more stable technologies, but there are just too many options and too much configuration.
738472527784 8y ago
I am with you. I actually love gnome a little bit. To be fair, changed theme and two extension are essential for me. It's so awesome once you got accustomed to the shortcuts and UI idea. Typing everywhere, I can pretty much never leave the keyboard if I want to, BUT if I am lazy I can also never use the keyboard. Honestly there are so many good ideas there, I wish they would rework the core and default aesthetics, to achieve real greatness. KDE on the other hand is somewhat fine, if you don't touch anything. Customizing opens hell. UI Inconsistencies, weird bugs, stuff drawn off screen, almost guaranteed... Horrible IMO.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  Where are you people trying out KDE? I'm on KDE Neon now, after having used Mint for a while. KDE is simply a joy to use. Everything works, and the visuals are consistent and well-proportioned.
finchisko 8y ago
I kinda like gnome too, so I never thought I would say this, but "I miss Ubuntu's Unity". And boy I hated it in the beginning. Who is minority now? :D