this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
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I'm a bit out of the loop,... but every time I hear about the gnome project it sounds a bit authoritarian and close minded. Maybe it's because they're spread thin ? but it seems more like they have tunnel vision. They remind me of Apple
Gnome is the apple of the Linux world. It's their way or the high way, and you have to smack a butt load of mods to make it remotely modifiable.
yes, I've had to install extensions to add basic things, and some said they were compatible but in fact weren't.... it was complicated
They wish they were Apple, lol.
Apple actually makes good design decisions that their users like.
Everyone tries to copy Apple. Nobody tries to copy gnome.
Good software should be handled like that, try looking at how the kernel does things.
Sadly for gnome doing so does not make you automathically good software
Should a desktop environment use the same philosophy as a kernel ? don't they have different requirements ? I'm asking as a layman
The less options, the better for a new person to jump in. Modern Gnome is a DE I can recommend everyone. ‘It’s like Mac but simpler,’ I advertise it. I like it even as a pro user, though. But even if we, the pro users, couldn’t work with it, that’s okay. Many pro users hate modern Gnome, and use other environments. But having one with limited options and an opinionated design hurts nobody, and helps a lot. I can install it for an elderly parent or a friend, and they can use it without much assistance, as it’s not very far from their tablet or smartphone.
I'd say KDE Plasma 6 with one of the one-button global theme modifications can do everything you're promising, while resulting in a simpler and more familiar layout.
More options help everyone, whether they use them or not.
My perception of Plasma is that’s too complex, even for me. While Gnome’s logic is very different, it’s not difficult to grasp, to be effective with it.
Anyway, if we’d go with the theme. Are there some you’d like to recommend? I’m still balancing between going with Gnome and teaching them it, and just going with the Plasma and making it similar to what they had.
There are some very convincing Windows themes. Gnome, too. There are a couple to make it look exactly like the IRIX theme, or CDE.
Personally, I think the default layout is plenty simple. You press the applications icon, you press on the thing you want, that thing opens.
If you can take twenty seconds to set it up for them, run everything they'll ever want to run, right-click on it in the task bar, click Pin to Task Manager.
Then all they'll ever need to do is poke the one they want to run and it runs.
KDE also has a Mobile DE called Plasma Mobile. Looks like it can be installed on desktops and laptops too.
Default plasma is by far simpler then gnome to anyone that's used any windows anything for the last 30 years.
What you meant is not simple, but rather familiar. While I agree, my mother used Windows for many years, but she forgot that experience partially, due to using iPad for like 15 years. So, Gnome is simpler for her, as it’s similar to her most recent experience.
If they would just take it a step further and embraced the Kernel's most important "don't break userspace" rule.
I love Gnome, for me... their UI is the most beautiful of any desktop OS. But I had to move to KDE Plasma primarily for all the gaming related features that come out first on Plasma. That led me to see just how much flexibility I was missing.
Now I greatly value both desktop environments, both visions are valid, but they cater completely different minded users.
Beautiful, I agree. It looks slick, but that's not what I am looking for in a tool
Yes, tunnel-vision.
And if you report a non-critical bug, it gets shoved around between projects that deny responsibility, until it gets dropped as "not our problem, ask there".
Not true at all. Reported a very non-critical Bug with dynamic workspaces and it got fixed within 12 hours.
Guess it depends on the kind of bug.
Yeah, I can't stand GNOME. It's completely unusable.
KDE is great and also the Linux Mint DE, Cinnamon.
Since Valve's midas touch, KDE Plasma has been pure gold for gaming. I love it.