Spent lots of time with Gnome 2.
In Dec 2024 I got hooked in Hyprland on Arch and have a cool rice for it. But I’ve tried KDE on desktop now with Parrot OS since Plasma is popular. Still need to find some cool dot files or rice it myself.
I’ve noticed SwayFX getting lots of love lately. I might use that as an option with Plasma but am afraid of conflicts. I’m excited about it since Linux has now officially replaced windows on my gaming rig, which is the very last MS computer left in my house.
Using a few on different systems. KDE Plasma on one laptop my high end one that is pretty much my main daily machine. I also have Moksha on a Bodhi netbook. I have an ElementaryOS install so that’s running Pantheon. And finally, I have the Gnome / “Cosmic” in Pop - though I’ve yet to see it be much more than just a finely tuned Gnome.
So which is your favorite?
https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm
Super minimal, and gets out of my way. I’ve been using it for over a decade
Enlightenment DE
Very underrated IMO. It has been a while since I last used it but I recall it was super light and snappy - even compared to other more well-known lightweight alternatives. It was definitely a pleasant experience. Happy to see it still going strong.
Infact it is selected for GSoC under NetBSD for porting to pkgsrc
https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/programs/2026/projects/mifwPqCq
Nice one, thanks for sharing!
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Sway, me like simple.
NsCDE on several OSes.
I use Cinnamon, it’s not much, but it just works.
I was on Mate back in the day since I did not have good enough computer to upgrade to Cinnamon. Used it for several years to finish Master’s thesis. It certainly gets the job done.
I’m on Mango, and it’s amazing for me. It’s well documented, as well as extremely flexible. I love it.
KDE Plasma because I’m basic and I wanna get stuff done 👍
based
That’s why I just started using Plasma.
kde + wayland on tumbleweed. Wanted to try other things, went for swaywm. NowI found out that krunner and kdeconnect are like 90% of what i need an OS (DE) to do.
I’m using gnome.
Really enjoyed sway but lacked the integration I wanted, KDE before plasma 6 would break all the time and I liked but again lacked integration niri (a scrolling window manager)
KDE (on CachyOS)
KDE Plasma. It’s clean, fast, and just works.
Hyprland, specifically with the end4 illogical impulse desktop.
It’s pretty and I really like how functional it is, but some recent updates have changed how some of the config files work requiring changes. It’s an inconvenience I’m willing to put up with though.
Yeah, I had to fix my hypr.config or whatever to use new the windows rules format. That was a pain in the ass.
KDE Plasma, as it’s most Windows-like and it has lots of cool widgets to add to your desktop Windows 7-style.
I’ve also tried Gnome, but I found it confusing and honestly a bit annoying. Not being able to properly minimise like I’m used to just really throws me off. I do think the visual style is well-designed, though.
I’ve tried Cinnamon as well. I thought it looked a bit too cheap for my taste, at least by default on Mint.
Gnome Vanilla is really not that good. But with Extensions and Gnome Tweaks its usable.
Gnome Tweaks enables the minimize button and Extensions enable pretty much everything one could ask for.
I prefer the simplified UI of Gnome to the thousands of options that KDE offers out of the box. But KDE is a really good DE and i used it without problems over a year.
