Neither, XFCE.

Gnome! I use Nixos so I prefer to use things that can be configured using its system, I like KDE but I can’t find a elegant way to configure the UI layout using nix

Five years of Mate (which is essentially Gnome 2 on life support) replaced by a couple years of KDE Plasma.

Mate treated me well enough, it was mostly stable, capable, and competent. But it was a bit crusty around the edges, and being so niche meant search-engine-visible help resources for anything than went wrong were virtually nonexistent. In hindsight, using it as a beginner's DE was probably a mistake. I suppose in being so austere and devoid of resources it taught me to develop more of a "get to the bottom of it yourself" attitude to debugging and have humbler expectations about form versus function, but that's a pretty rough sell to most people. Mate is definitely better as a drink than a desktop environment.

I don't need to talk about KDE Plasma at all because the rest of the thread already has. I have nothing new to add beyond the comment that I like their mascot character.

I have no informed opinion on Gnome 3. All I've gleaned about it is that it's supposedly "my way or the highway" by design, and the "my way" in question is controversially counter-grain to a lot of established expectations (e.g. it's literally why Mate exists). Which is neither here nor there to me, objectively. But I will say I have no interest learning a new way of doing things, even if it's theoretically superior, when a conventional system still exists, is viable, is highly polished, and is kept sharp-edged. Hence, KDE Plasma.

I started on gnome. Used gnome for most of my linux life. However, after some memory and performance issues, I decided to try KDE. That was about 3 years ago and everything that handles it well and I use a GUI with has been moved to KDE.

KDE since I hand compiled a 2.0 beta.

Gnome. Love how it just gets out of the way and let's me do whatever I want without interruptions.

No, I don't

KDE Plasma Wayland, I'm using it for gaming mainly and occasionally for VR.

Pros:

• supports DRM leasing mandatory for wired VR headsets
• supports tearing (also in windowed apps but requires an additional setting) which reduces input latency in games
• usually all the new fancy features, ex. HDR, appear quickly
• decent support for fractional scaling (handy on laptops)

Cons:

• you might encounter bugs. While Plasma 6 has been a much better experience as opposed to older versions of it, there are still some bugs here and there appearing between the updates. As of this writing thought I can't recall any bugs on my system.

I'm OK with GNOME.

KDE with Polonium for Window Management because I want tiling but still looking for a better way to get tiling into KDE. If someone knows.

KDE. Historicaly I was using Gnome (1 then 2) but Gnome3 was just .... So I switched to KDE and never looked back since, it so customizable that I can set it just right for me. No shade to the great work made by the Gnome3 team but I am a KDE guy now...

XFCE

I prefer GNOME on my Microsoft Surface because I fine it much better than KDE for touchscreens. And GNOME's dynamic workspaces are amazing to use for my screen.

I prefer KDE on my desktop and laptop. Highly customizable and works great. I wish it natively had dynamic workspaces though

GNOME because it just works better with network shares. Really wanted to use KDE but I use a lot of network shares and it just annoyed me.

In KDE I open a network folder in the file browser, double click a video and VLC can’t see it because it uses a different sharing protocol.

On GNOME it just works seamlessly.

I know I can fix it in command line, but I don’t want to. I tried the KDE fuse plug in but that had other issues.

gnome since 2.x, consistent, simple and customizable

very interested in cosmic

Used to use GNOME on my workstation, switched to KDE and regretting it, now using GNOME on the laptops and will use GNOME on my new workstation once I get it

KDE, mostly as that is what I first used in 2000 in Mandrake. in saying that my laptop is a M2 mac with macos on it

Good question, but you should definitely install both and try them out! Just in case you didn't know since you're new to Linux, you can install as many desktop environments as you want. You pick the one to use at the login screen. All your programs and files will still be there.

To answer your question: I prefer Gnome because I find it simpler and less distracting, but I've since moved to i3, then Sway, and now Hyprland.

I love GNOME and the way you just open everything in a full screen window and just switch workspaces easily.

I find it so much better than just switching windows the way I have to do on Windows 10 at work.

I might be tempted to try to have the same workflow on KDE one day as personnalisation might a bit too limited on GNOME. Does anyone know if you can do it?

I use KDE for desktops/workstations and Gnome where I want more of a 10ft interface...like HTPC, or if I have a touchscreen device.

I use lxqt mostly beacause it's simple and moderately lightweight.

Been using KDE for 2 years and love it. Only weird issue is my old desktop i am running Arch with KDE headless to stream to the steam link in the kids room and plasma shell crashes a bunch. Still haven't figured out why.

XFCE + xmonad

To be clear, these are not the only two options, just the biggest and most new-user-friendly.

I got started in gnome, but am currently using Hyprland (and QTile if I need X)

Started on Gnome 2 for a short stint then used Unity for a while (used to be Ubuntus DM). When I switched away from Ubuntu I was still looking for something "familiar" so switching to Gnome (it was like 3.8 at the time) felt right. Have been using Gnome ever since.

I've thought about switching to KDE a few times (when Gnome made some bone headed decision) but the way key combos and workflows are ingrained to me I would just set up any DE to feel like Gnome so why should I switch.

I use KDE as I can set it up just how I like it. I never got on with Gnome at all. The truth of it is that the only way to know if you prefer Gnome to KDE is to give it a good try out. Don't forget Cinnamon, Xfce, and Mate also!