• esc@piefed.socialEnglish
    1016·
    3 months ago

    Is it really most popular?

    It’s not more stable than plasma surely, at least when user does any customization.

    Simplicity is questionable, unless simple means ‘unlearn everything and do it our way’.

    • adarza@lemmy.caEnglish
      17·
      3 months ago

      yea, gnome is “more popular”. doesn’t mean it’s “better”, just that it’s the default environment for some of the most widely-used distributions.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 months ago

        yea, gnome is “more popular”. doesn’t mean it’s “better”, just that it’s the default environment for some of the most widely-used distributions.

        But not SteamOS which has the numbers on its side. Not that Gnome is unpopular but Steam Deck single-handedly pulled in millions of users who at least occasionally switch from game mode to desktop mode (=Plasma) to install emulators and stuff.

          • woelkchen@lemmy.world
            1·
            3 months ago

            I’m not sure there are more Steam OS installs than RHEL/SUSE/Ubuntu installs.

            Of course not, if you phrase it like that. According to your phrasing non-desktop container setups also count but they don’t.

            Distributions like Ubuntu also ship Plasma. The preconfigured disk image is called Kubuntu but that’s still Ubuntu and counts as that in Steam’s surveys which I consider the most reliable source of what actual GUI Linux users actually use.

            • Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world
              3·
              3 months ago

              Couple things there are many computer users that don’t play games like for example me.

              Enterprise Linux is not the same as a container and Gnome is flagship for all three of those enterprise flavors.

              • woelkchen@lemmy.world
                1·
                3 months ago

                Couple things there are many computer users that don’t play games like for example me.

                And in which credible statistic are those?

                Enterprise Linux is not the same as a container

                Of course not but you didn’t specifically say desktop-only Ubuntu/… installs and Ubuntu is still very popular in containers that never see any desktop. Ubuntu also ships Plasma, flagship DE or not.

    • herrvogel@lemmy.world
      10·
      3 months ago

      Gnome is more stable in my experience. The base Gnome without any extensions is rock solid and just works without a hitch. Problem is that it’s bland as hell and not very practical. Most of the popular extensions to make the DE are also pretty solid and reliable, as gnome’s extension API doesn’t really allow them to break anything in any spectacular way. Plasma allows better and more powerful extensions, but they also tend to have a bigger effect on the DE’s stability.

      That said, I fucking hate how Gnome devs handle the extension API. Every update to Gnome disables all the extensions even if there’s no breaking changes that would cause them to stop working. You gotta either manually edit their manifest files to trick Gnome into thinking they’ve been updated to the latest DE version, or you gotta wait for the devs to update. Every now and then they do release a breaking change that does break things too, and things get annoying. I used to maintain a relatively popular-ish, very simple Gnome extension. But eventually I got sick and abandoned because nobody’s got time to deal with Gnome’s extension API. I had to rewrite some basic shit for no good reason one too many times.

    • warmaster@lemmy.world
      3·
      3 months ago

      Forget opinions, just look at the most popular distros, which one do they ship with by default?

      I prefer Gnome’s UX/UI, but I use KDE because they are faster to implement gaming related stuff.

    • Zwiebel@feddit.orgEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      What do you mean, the workflow for opening programs and arranging windows is the same as in Windows

      • esc@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        It really isn’t. Starting from only having a close button on every window, windows behaving differently, not having a panel with currently running programs, etc.

        I mean yeah there are windows and you can interact with them, but that’s where similarities end.

        • Zwiebel@feddit.orgEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          super/win+name+enter to open a program, super+arrow key to arrange or minimize, alt+tab to switch. Dragging windows to the edge is the same too

          There is literally a panel with running programs, its just set to hide by default, kinda like when you set windows taskbar to auto hide

          • esc@piefed.socialEnglish
            1·
            3 months ago

            So it’s really not the same workflow at all? Just this month I’ve explained to really smart people how to use corner tiling in windows and hotkeys, most people today don’t even own a PC. For me, personally, the difference is negligible, for a lot of people it’s really alien.

            • Zwiebel@feddit.orgEnglish
              1·
              3 months ago

              Idk what your mean, i literally use the exact same way to launch programms in win and gnome. Also counter anecdote, I installed ubuntu on my 65year old moms pc and she just straight up used it as well as windows. But whatever

    • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.mlEnglish
      56·
      3 months ago

      There’s an extension that lets you do that. Once a week it breaks and makes icons appear over other windows.

    • anyhow2503@lemmy.world
      153·
      3 months ago

      Icons on the desktop is a non-feature for most gnome users. Even my Windows desktop has been empty since XP released. If you really want desktop icons then using an extension for that should be fine, but it’s silly to frame this as a failing of the “Gnome people” just because Gnome doesn’t replicate the classic Windows desktop experience.

      • BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world
        11·
        3 months ago

        Icons on the desktop is a non-feature for most gnome users

        Yeah because everyone who uses them is on KDE now.

        • anyhow2503@lemmy.world
          6·
          3 months ago

          Probably, yeah? I mean I’d hope they’re not still using Gnome if desktop icons are their one wish in life…

      • Lumisal@lemmy.world
        81·
        3 months ago

        Then why have a desktop? Why not just an app drawer or always ready terminal?

        Seems like the worst of both worlds in terms of utilitarianism and aesthetics.

        • anyhow2503@lemmy.world
          101·
          3 months ago

          For all intents and purposes I don’t have a desktop. It’s just a wallpaper and canvas for the actual workflow. The app drawer is one keypress away, as is the terminal (and I prefer to have separate sessions for different tasks anyway). I usually see my desktop for about five seconds after bootup per day so there’s not much reason to put anything else there. Think of it like the wallpaper or black background of a tiling window manager. I really don’t get how this is such a crazy idea to some people. I’ve subconsciously used the exact same workflow since before Gnome even implemented it, just without explicit support from my desktop environment.

        • matlag@sh.itjust.works
          5·
          3 months ago

          That’s the beauty of KDE: you can make it pretty much anything you like and customize it: desktop icons or not, using the app menu or krunner, a mix of all, etc.

      • elucubra@sopuli.xyz
        4·
        3 months ago

        I have icons on my desktop, icons in my taskbar, and of course the menu. taskbar, always there, one click, boom! second tier apps, desktop, less used stuff, open menu.

        I use KDE BTW

        • anyhow2503@lemmy.world
          7·
          3 months ago

          Whatever floats your boat. I’m using my keyboard probably 90% of the time and hitting super and typing in one to three letters followed by enter is the fastest way for me to navigate to pretty much anything including system settings and documents. Finding stuff on a desktop with more than a dozen icons is annoying to me. I move windows and switch focus with the standard keyboard shortcuts etc. It’s a familiar workflow for tiling WM users and works that way out of the box, yet Gnome has been catching shit for it since v3. It used to be the disgruntled Gnome 2 userbase but nowadays it seems to be mostly people who don’t use Gnome at all lol.

    • BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world
      7·
      3 months ago

      Jesus it was pissing me off since 2017. I left Gnome in favor of KDE in 2019 You’re telling me you still can’t make a shortcut like a human being???

  • trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world
    482·
    3 months ago

    I really don’t want online accounts integration in my DE though. I must admit that I fail to see what good that could do.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
      37·
      3 months ago

      I must admit that I fail to see what good that could do.

      In theory the one place where you can enter your Nextcloud or whatever credentials and syncing for calendar, mails, file storage ect. happens automatically everywhere after confirming which services should connect.

      It’s not my personal must have feature but when it works, it’s alright.

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
    332·
    3 months ago

    I like Gnome. I like KDE, too. I actually think they’re both great, in their own ways, but I personally prefer Gnome.

    • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.mlEnglish
      11·
      3 months ago

      I use KDE on desktop and Gnome with a bunch of extensions on laptop because it has good touchscreen support

    • thetrekkersparky@startrek.website
      10·
      3 months ago

      I’ve only used KDE until recently because it’s pretty familiar feeling after coming from windows, but my wife recently put gnome on her laptop and she loves it. I’ve used it a bit, and besides just being unfamiliar I do actually like it.

  • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
    16·
    3 months ago

    KDE got around to updating the theme Kpersonalizer.

    Original for those who don’t remember what it was like:

    Jokes aside: I love KDE. Gnome is an idea that would work if you could actually do anything with it (maybe always adding extensions means they should you know make it functional).

    • TipRing@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      I was going to mention that there’s probably a lot of people who don’t know what e621 is, but then I remembered what community I was in.

  • saltesc@lemmy.world
    13·
    3 months ago

    Heh. My Linux started with Ubuntu like many others. I appreciated GNOME.

    Then I got confident enough to distro hop and with that cam DE hop. Can’t deny KCD is just so much better for the kind of user I am.

    It’s just kinda nice having your computer do what you want it to do, ya know?

    • Bhaelfur@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      The GNOME workflow works for me. I tried KDE recently and found I kept trying to make it like GNOME and kept failing. I do miss OpenBox, though… I’m tempted to try some Quick Shell set up using labwc.