You are used to KDE and Gnome is very different But also KDE is buggy, I dont know how Steamdeck people make it better. If you chose Xfce, you will get a KDE similar desktop but more robust. Xfce can look modern with few efforts. MX Linux distro is a good example of a nice Xfce config.

KDE Plasma. GNOME is nice but I like the customizability and the features of KDE Plasma.

Why no love for XFCE ?

Gnome is Snow Leopard OSX basically in attitude and experience, do NOT try to customize anything, go limp and do the experience. KDE is Windows 98, full of fun customizations, but unpolished in odd ways no matter what you do. Choose your fighter!

KDE for best fully integrated, out of box, modern DE.

XFCE + Compiz if you're running on lower end hardware (uses less ram and utilizes gpu better). Also if you want even more customization than KDE with the drawback of limited SVG support (and still on X11 if that matters for you)

GNOME if you hate yourself and want to use a knockoff of ChromeOS or Mac.

Cinnamon and MATE if you want to see when GNOME used to be good.

LXQt is the XFCE equivalent of KDE, but is now on wayland with GPU accel, so it can fit the same area as XFCE+Compiz.

Wayfire (compositor) basically Compiz for Wayland if you want all the fancy effects on anything that uses wayland.

I use GNOME. KDE is nice in that it allows you to customize everything, but if I want that degree of control I'd rather use a fully customized window manager setup (sway is generally my go-to).

GNOME is also designed to be used in a keyboard-centric workflow, which I prefer. It's a nice comfy default for when I want the option to use my computer "lazily", i.e. just kicking back mostly using the mouse to browse the web, but still has enough power-user functionality to make zipping around without touching the mouse feel good.

I also just like their defaults a lot. If you start to install a bunch of third party extensions etc it starts to get messy and degrade the point of the whole unified vision, and at that point you're better off with KDE IMO.

It's also worth noting that I don't really like the default Mac OS UX -- while I can see why people say "KDE is like Windows, GNOME is like Mac," it's really only a surface level comparison that mostly ends at "KDE uses a taskbar and GNOME has a dock".

XFCE fan here.

KDE if these are my choices & by a long shot.

I usually cobble together my own tiling setup. This has less bloat, but also a lot less integration.

I use KDE. It's very powerful and flexible. While it can be windows like, you an also craft pretty much any GUI you like with it with relative ease. It can be Mac like or something unique, or even Gnome like if you really want that.

It's also intuitive and user friendly, with well made apps and a comprehensive settings menu.

I've found KDE to be reliable and stable, as well as attractive and customisable.

There are a lot of apps made for it - the only downside is software bloat if you install all of them. I'd start with the basics KDE desktop and add apps one by one rather than install the whole KDE app suite. Although the apps are usually excellent lots of the apps may not be useful to you personally . For example I don't like installing the PIM suite (email, contacts etc) as I don't use it - all that is online for me so I don't need the native apps.

I'm personally not a fan of Gnome. It's got a single rigid GUI philosophy which you can now expand with extensions but I find they can be hit and miss on whether they work or are stable, and time consuming to set up how you want.

So for gnome you either like it as is or you don't, and if you dont like it then honestly I'd say don't bother trying to make it be what you want - just use something more flexible.

But regardless of what desktop you use, Apps will work on either or any of the others available.

I like Plasma. It feels very modern and has an easy interface with lots of customization if wanted. It also supports Wayland and lots of HDR features. Overall it's a cutting edge DE

I just like GNOME better. Especially on a laptop. KDE is technically better on a desktop but all the things that annoy me on KDE tip the scales enough for me to use GNOME instead.

KDE.

Used to use GNOME. But now I worship KDE.

Kde, nothing against gnome, I just need to adjust KDE less to get what I want.

I'm in love with KDE right now.

Plasma.

As a Linux convert from Windows, IMO it's really close in look and feel to Windows 7 or 10 but with none of the bullshit. You barely have to change your workflow if you're already used to Windows.

I settled with Plasma. It has its fair share of issues, mostly minor things compared to coming from Windows and its environment. But you really can customize it the way you want and it's relatively comfortable, so I'm fine with it. I still miss the old KDE3, but I'm not that hardcore to use Trinity. Not even sure how's Trinity nowadays.

Gnome 3 is just not my world, at all... at least, for desktop. I kinda use it on my htpc if I need an environment. That, or Xfce. I can imagine on a palmtop pc or other portable device that runs Linux, either with or without a touchscreen Gnome could be a pretty decent choice. Also, I'm sure I could/would get used to it if there's nothing else, but there are other options so I'm not going to sit down and get to (re)know Gnome, tho it's not like I'm against it.

I was on xfce for a long time due to having low power hardware. I got a decent computer around the time kde plasma came out. I tried it and have stayed on it.

I hate gnome with every fiber of my being.

Gnome is my choice because it doesn't look and feel like it was designed in 2015. I also much prefer the workflow with the touchpad gestures. I used to have extensions but since I reset my PC and didn't install any apart from the one that shows my cpu temperature in the top bar.

I use GNOME and I enjoy it a lot. If you decide to go with GNOME, imho try to install as few extensions as possible so that you can experience the desktop environment the way it's intended by the developers. Of course, if it's not for you, then with the help of extensions you can adapt it to your liking.

Pros:

• Beautiful to look at and gets out of the way. GNOME scored great productivity gains for me.
• Fast, responsive and very stable (I'm on Fedora 40).
• Great experience with flatpaks.
• The best touchpad gestures in the world. Any DE, any OS.

Cons:

• Even though it is very stable, sometimes it crashes. Last time the crash was caused by Thunderbird; then I switched Thunderbird to flatpak too, so that if it crashes again it will not bring down the whole DE (applause to flatpak for delivering the tech 👏). Disclaimer: prior to the crash, I haven't shut down / restart my laptop for 20 days... it might not be Thunderbird alone that caused the problem.

🚧⚠️ That said, there's currently a really annoying bug in GNOME that causes HUGE (or even - INSANE!) disk I/O! I don't know when it is going to be fixed, but for the first time in two years this made me consider trying other desktop environments.

KDE... Mostly sane defaults out of the box and tons of customization options if there's anything you dont like.

KDE, coming from Windows it was the easiest to get used to for me. It has a lot of options and required some tweaking to get it the way I like, but once I did it was smooth sailing.

KDE because it has a lot oft integrations and I can mostly configure it how I want. I previously, ran i3 and then Sway, but I grew tired of having to integrate everything myself.

I use KDE atm I'm really new to Linux at the moment though and I will switch at some point to see the other side. But KDE seams really good after just coming from Windows.

KDE for 27 years.

I use and love both. KDE (Bazzite) on my desktop gaming PC, and Gnome (Bluefin) on my laptop for casual stuff, mostly YouTube.

KDE is a bit better for gaming since it has HDR and VRR and is the standard DE on the Steam Deck. I tried Gnome too just a few days ago, but it felt inferior in regards of gaming and content creation.

Gnome on the other hand has a place reserved on my laptop aswell as in my heart. Especially the ultra smooth and well thought out touch gestures and minimalist UI makes it perfect for laptop usage.

For me personally, I prefer Gnome over KDE. KDE is a bit more capable, but it overwhelms me sometimes. Gnome has a better concept and workflow for me. You either love or hate it, I do the first.

I've used GNOME in the past but currently use KDE Plasma. Both are good, but as for recommendations most Linux people I know of say for new users that if you're coming from Windows start with Plasma and if you're coming from Mac OS start with GNOME since those are the closer desktops to what you used before and will make things a bit easier. Depending on the distro you choose you may also have access to other desktops like Cinnamon, which I haven't used but have heard is even easier than Plasma for new users coming from Windows. It's not ready for daily use yet, but the upcoming Cosmic desktop may also be quite good for that.

Gnome ftw

KDE Plasma is really nice, I love all the settings. But every time I try it, I give up after a couple weeks because I get annoyed at the hangups/crashes. Maybe because I'm always on old hardware. But I've never had Gnome crash. In 2 weeks, I had to ctrl-alt-f2 to reset plasma like 5 times. I never had to do that with gnome.

Sometimes on Gnome I really wish I could change a setting that would be easy in Plasma. but it's just not worth the hiccups. And it's nice that Plasma gives access to a bunch of different task switchers. But I couldn't find any that work as well as the Gnome task switcher. Plasma feels like beta testing

❤️ to KDE, though. I love K3b, KDEconnect (plus the GSconnect gnome extension), kate, krita, etc.

Gnome

I used to use KDE but I tried gnome and the default settings is exactly what I want anyway so I just switched

Would put gnome in my phone if I could but android itself already acts similar enough, but switching between apps is such a damn pain why is this such a pain god just be fast for once android

Kde. I’d love to be able to give some erudite examples of why.

Alas, the default is clean and works for me. It stays out of the way.

Out-of-the-box GNOME, with no extensions or tweaks.

I used to be a customise-everything kind of guy. But I'm not naturally efficient, so any workflow I designed for myself would always end up being inefficient. With GNOME I see it as a kind of off-the-shelf workflow that I can adapt to, something I wouldn't have come up with myself but it makes me more efficient.

KDE Plasma. It makes sense to me and everything functions more or less how I prefer it to. If I need something, it's usually easy enough to find. Plasma being flexible is a plus, but I rarely need to do any modifications.

I loathe GNOME. Any time I use it it's like pulling teeth. On a touch surface I can maybe get it, but on desktop I honestly think it has some serious usability problems cooked in. And since GNOME extensions can break at any time, trying to "fix" GNOME is a losing battle. If I had to use GNOME, I'd install GNOME Classic which is ok. Or better yet, use XFCE or MATE. GNOME is highly opinionated and that's fair enough, they can do their thing and people seem to like what they offer, but boy is it not for me.

Using KDE configured like GNOME.

KNOME, if you will.

KDE.

As a former Windows user myself, I find it to behave pretty much like how I'd expect, albeit some differences in details.

I used KDE for about 10 years, but switched to GNOME when 3 came out and haven't looked back. It's a little unusual if you're coming from Windows, but I've found that once I let go of old paradigms like a start bar and icons and embraced multiple workspaces, that GNOME is pretty damned amazing.

I use a window manager on my desktop, and gnome on my laptop. Gnome's gestures are amazing with a touchpad

Kde. It's nice but I get some hangups and crashes sometimes.

Of the two I prefer Plasma. I strongly dislike Gnome. My absolute favorite DE is Cinnamon.

I used KDE Plasma for a long time ever since I started daily-driving Linux.

I like how KDE Plasma allows quite a surprising amount of customization. I also had some experience with Gnome via Ubuntu, and XFCE. Gnome looks polished, but doesn't allow for much customization. XFCE is a lot more customizable than Gnome, but getting it to look quite right took a lot of effort.

I'm pretty happy using GNOME on my laptop. Never tried KDE in my ~6 years of using Linux, maybe if I install it onto another device I will.

Gnome user here.