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?

  • oldfart@lemm.ee
    0·
    24 days ago

    XFCE, using it for over 10 years, not planning to change it unless the DE changes radically.

  • florge@feddit.uk
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    24 days ago

    If it has to be a DE then I’d go with XFCE, otherwise I’d probably go with openbox.

  • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    24 days ago

    it’s probably gonna be plasma6 by a hair over cinnamon on a rolling distribution. as much as people shit on manjaro here and on that other site, it has never broke on me–whether i update constantly or let it go 2-3 months between them.

    but if the de and the underlying os are magically compatible, and those and programs kept up to date, never obsolete, and new ones appear for it as needed or desired… then sorry, it won’t be linux… i’m going back to something like 95osr2, 98se or w2k.

  • Lemmchen@feddit.orgEnglish
    0·
    24 days ago

    I’d rather not use a computer at all than use GNOME for the rest of my live.
    For me it’s KDE Plasma all the way.

    • Photuris@lemmy.ml
      0·
      24 days ago

      It’s wild to me how GNOME evokes such strong opinions in folks. It really is a love it or hate it kind of deal (I’m in the “love it” camp).

      I wonder why that is. I like KDE ok, but it doesn’t elicit a strong emotion from me. KDE works fine, I just really like GNOME.

      There must be something about GNOME in particular that some people love, and others hate.

      • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        24 days ago

        For those of us that expect room to breathe and make our machine work for us rather than the other way around, we feel like Gnome takes a lot of liberties away for the sake of “simplicity.” There is so much missing from Gnome that is present in most other DEs and even custom WM setups.

        The primary contributors who work under The Gnome Foundation also come off as controlling and arrogant in a lot of cases, and refuse to take community feedback to heart, whereas KDE has literal summits to get user feedback on major core features we want to see which then later get added to their backlogs and sprints as Epics. Gnome acts a lot like Apple in the sense that they’re very much “we know what’s best for you better than you do.”

        Now, the singular area I can give Gnome true props in is their accessibility functionality, but that’s primarily it. KDE’s accessibility is fairly behind by about a decade in comparison.

        That’s just my take, take it as you will.

          • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            24 days ago

            I miss old Gnome. I wish they’d stuck with the old Gnome 2 design philosophy but breathed new modern design principals into it, instead of trying to go the Ubuntu Unity route. Maybe something like Cinnamon but even more flexible and feature-rich.

      • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        24 days ago

        Honestly, that defaulting to the Search field in the Save dialog when I’m trying to save something just gets me wild. It beggars the imagination why the developers think that’s a reasonable thing to do and it colors my whole perception of the DE.

      • Broadfern@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        24 days ago

        GNOME is a lightly upgraded MacOS interface. Every time I’ve had to use a Mac has pissed me off so GNOME gives me war flashbacks.

        Not necessarily the DE’s fault but ¯_(ツ)_/¯

        • HouseWolf@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          24 days ago

          Gives me more Windows 8 flashbacks than Mac.

          An interface that works well on touchscreens, but feels clunky on mouse and keyboard and the general theming of it looks more phone like than a desktop PC. Gnome itself being harder to theme doesn’t help with that.

          That being said I’d pick Gnome over all else for touch devices. I threw it on an old Surface 3 and it worked better than the original Win8 interface.

        • Photuris@lemmy.ml
          0·
          24 days ago

          Ok.

          But, in Mac OS, Windows, and Linux, all three of which I work in regularly, I open up a terminal and type stuff in it, open up applications in windows and work in them, and copy and paste between them.

          Really, any DE can handle this stuff. Not sure what all the fuss is about otherwise. But it’s all good.

      • Domi@lemmy.secnd.me
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        24 days ago

        There must be something about GNOME in particular that some people love, and others hate.

        GNOME is heavily opinionated.

        As such it gets praise from people that share that opinion and gets hate from the people that do not. Many other DEs are much more configurable, giving a broader audience the possibility to adjust everything to their liking.

  • nfh@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    24 days ago

    I’ve been using Cinnamon for most of the last decade, but switched to Gnome3 recently, heavily customized to work like Cinnamon. Basically because Wayland is finally stable enough to use.

    If Cinnamon gets Wayland support working well, that’s my choice. Otherwise I’ve got some Gnome3 configs that make it work pretty well, and I’d happily run it into the ground too.

  • spicy pancake@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    24 days ago

    any computer I need to be stable enough for work/school: KDE

    any computer whose primary purpose is for goofing off and gaming: LXQt (and I will spend the entire time configuring LXQt instead of gaming…)

      • spicy pancake@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        24 days ago

        tbh hadn’t heard of steam and always assumed arch was difficult to learn. but i had been considering trying arch just to see what the hype was about

  • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
    0·
    24 days ago

    i’m already doing this with gnome lol.

    if my computer was older, probably xfce.