this is just a meme, I know that everyone is different and not all GNOME or KDE users are like that!!
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Is that really a thing? I don't usually get into discussions about DEs that often, and pretty much never irl. So I haven't seen any general vibe at all.
Like, my impression of kde vs gnome is that they're both very geared towards a more general user that's going to be doing basic things, but with the ability to go more advanced as needed. I kinda assumed they were both going to draw people that are "basic" like the images in the meme for gnome, with cinnamon users also being in that range, where something like xfce would be for folks that want a bit more modularity and "hackiness".
I'm not being a smartass, I just don't really know if there's more to the meme than just a bit of fun or not.
Bottom right uses Enlightenment. Bottom left made his own tiling window manager which turned out exactly like the other tiling window managers.
The philosophies of the two DEs are diametrically opposed. For example KDE will let you customize everything, they'd even let you customize their mothers of they could, while GNOME won't let you customize anything, at least not without extensions that break every time GNOME updates.
KDE devs are also a lot less opinionated than GNOME devs. If they could, GNOME devs would question the use case of your clothes, conclude they're useless and then strip you naked. KDE devs will be fine with whatever you're wearing.
Now as you may have gathered I definitely prefer one over the other, but I do recognize some people may like GNOME for its simplicity, looks, flow and I even heard some like the lack of customization because it prevents them from getting distracted with tinkering. All in all use case depends on what you want to do with it, tho hopefully Cosmic DE beats the shit outta GNOME devs those damn pricks.
I keep hearing how customisable KDE is but I couldn't find a way to change how big the app icons in the application launcher were, they're so huge!
Don’t quote me on it, but I think they just scale to match the panel height, so I’d you shrink the panel the icons should shrink as well. I’ve used the xp style taskbar instead for a long time tho, so I’m not certain…
There may be a different setting somewhere for what you're talking about but when I tried that it just added more rows or columns of icons.
Ohhh!!!! There is definitely a setting for that (at least on the xp version, but I'd be surprised if it's not for the 7 style one)
Different launchers probably have settings for this
No you're right, it's mostly stereotypes that don't have any real world importance. From my intermediate POV, it comes down to GNOME being a resource hog which the 1337 H4X0Rz don't like. But with most modern systems having more than enough resources to spare, you're not likely to notice unless you're the sort to always have one eye on the system monitor pegged to your desktop. It's an argument for the sake of an argument. I use KDE btw.
It's that gnome isn't configurable at all.
They give you a few options. But they remove them in the next version. Because fuck you.
Which is false. Gnome is as configurable as KDE.
I think KDE has been way more customizable historically
It's a different philosophy. KDE gives you a default setting, and all the options you need to ~~fuck it up~~ customize it.
Gnome gives you the default and an API for extensions to customize it. Install one of the big ones like V-Shell and you'll have more options than you know what to do with.
V-shell basically just gives you KDE-like options.
I've come to the conclusion that even gnome has too many features for me. It would be fine if they were all perfect, but it's software, so...
Off the top of my head:
Language doesn't switch fast enough when I use ibus to type Chinese. The fact that I need to concern myself with my input method because choosing Chinese actually only types in Latin characters by default is lol
Can't use the file manager to mess with files or folders owned by root. Text editor similarly sucks, I actually sudo gedit because it just works. It is a Gnome issue because vscodium just asks me to put in my password to save the file.
When I alt tab or super key out of a wine game, going back into it will have the alt key pressed down (not sure which key combination, but it's an issue)
In my experience, it strongly depends. In my team at work, the biggest Linux nerd is on GNOME, basically because he doesn't care where his TMUX session runs.
And I'm the guy with the most elaborate desktop workflow (tiling and 40+ virtual desktops among other aspects) and I wouldn't want to use anything but KDE, because nothing else has as many features + customizability to support me in that workflow.
But yeah, both of us started out on such mainstream desktops, then spent multiple years checking out all other desktops and eventually found different paths back to the mainstream.
I use KDE plasma because I'm new to Linux but also want something minimal system-wise. I love the programs and the interface. Maybe my opinion would be different if I spent more time with other DE's or used it as my daily driver, but I'm sold on it now.
GNOME is definitely more user-friendly for someone who is moving over from Windows/Mac. I wouldn't recommend KDE to someone who is just going to stick to using one-click apps.
I don't understand.
The lack of even the most basic customisation of Gnome ia mind-blowing to me. Why do i need to install a gnome shell extension for even the most basic functionality that even MacOs has!?
Kde is minimal now? Doesn't it require a GPU? Aren't there animations?
I remember trying it out a few years back on my laptop from 2012 and it was unusably slow. Like 10 seconds just to open the menu.
Xfce ran just fine though. That's a minimal DE.
Needing a GPU might be hyperbole, but no, it'll still be slow on older hardware. It looks lightweight on neofetch since, at rest, the RAM will appear as low as XFCE's, but it's not nearly as snappy.
Actually I tried out KDE Plasma on my grandmother's budget laptop from about the same time. It was a little too slow with default settings, but once I killed the animations (can be done in Settings app) it ran pretty well. It ran a whole hell of a lot better than the Windows it came with.
I also tested KDE vs XFCE in my old gaming computer, and I actually managed to get slightly less RAM usage in KDE than XFCE, so long as no plugins were used.
Both systems were tested with Debian 12. On the gaming PC, I actually used the XFCE iso, so it was installed first.
So depending on how your distro ships the default KDE Plasma settings or how you set it up, it actually can be a lightweight option compared with XFCE.
It's all relative. Ubuntu desktop is minimal compared to Windows, and I've found KDE to run much better than default Ubuntu. It's lightweight for how much it offers.
Gnome devs say, they don't want you to use themes or otherwise customize it. Probably that's why.