Trying Plasma for a bit to see how green the grass is as a longtime Gnome user. The last time I ran Plasma on my main desktop was version 5.11, I think? It’s been a while…
The couple of times I have decided to switch to Plasma I somehow get pulled back to GNOME. Like, I tried out earlier Plasma 5 on my system76 laptop and then s76 announced Pop!_OS. Then I tried again when I came across Nitrux which was essentially a heavily customized Plasma. Then I got a Librem 5 which uses phosh, based on GNOME.
I really liked it though, and have thought about trying Plasma Mobile.
Welcome, make yourself at home! Want to put files on your desktop? You can do that here! We’ll still make fun of you for doing it, but you can do it.
KDE Plasma is honestly impressive in terms of customization, I’m running it on Pop!_OS on an ancient Macbook and I have it customized to look like Window 7.
Good stuff.
NGL, you had me in the first half…
I think that’s the window environment on SteamOS. I honestly really enjoy it on my Deck. It feels light and fresh.
I used to be a huge fan of Gnome, back before they switched to whatever this mobile-first nonsense design is. Looks like something you would see on a tablet designed for children. They destroyed Gnome!
I use Cinnamon on my desktop to avoid the whole “modern” Gnome problem. It’s far better. But it’s Plasma all the way on my laptop baby!
Yeah, Cinnamon is great, but I use Plasma myself. I got used to it after switching to Nobara, back in the day, but for most of the past year or two I’ve been using Bazzite and it defaults to KDE as well.
The same. I used to love GNOME, now I’m forced to use KDE because GNOME 3+ is completely disgusting and unusable.
Yeah, they really did our boy wrong.
Old gnome was great. Was like the best middle ground. Enough options to tweak stuff, but not plasma levels of knobs. Le sigh
And let’s not forget that it looked great. The perfect blend of style and minimalism.
KDE + Arch is such a great combo. I’m using it on a 10yo laptop (though admittedly it’s a rather beefy lappy for it’s gen, a 2014 ZBook g2, with 32 GB ram)
KDE can be slow on lower spec devices but it is so great to use and it was trivially easy to alter keyboard shortcuts, default application, startup behavior, etc.
KDE can be slow on lower spec devices
Not any slower than anything else. KDE is surprisingly light for all it does. I am using it on a laptop with an Intel N processor and 4gb ram. I also use it on modern stuff, but it works better than gnome and about equal to xfce on this old hardware.
Yeah I used to do consumer computer recycling and the really old laptops that were not worth a Windows reseller’s license we would just slap Linux on I tested just about every de out there and plasma was shockingly fast on some of these ancient Celeron laptops. Gnome was like molasses, I’ve never understood where people get the idea of the plasma is heavy
gnome user getting confused by customization, seems about right lol.
Ironically most of my customization so far has been to make it more like Gnome lmao
Still trying to figure out how to make workspaces/virtual desktops more…usable.
Overall though it’s amazing how solid Plasma is now, it sure as hell isn’t the buggy mess it used to be in the earlier Plasma 5 days.
I’m a regular Gnome user. I love KDE’s activities. I don’t know if it’s still required, but Latte dock made it so that you had a nice dock with clean animations, dropping and adding your preferred shortcuts for whatever activity you’re currently on.
I generally had three activities, work, general, and play. switch to work, and it looks like all I do on this computer is work. professional look and feel, all the relevant applications available in a clean autohide dock. switch to play, and it’s some sick background from anime or a game I’m currently into. Steam, Discord, Heroic, and various preferred games are the only visible icons on the dock. it’s really a pleasure to use.
my problem is that when in Plasma, I miss Gnome’s overview, though, and whenever I switch back to Gnome, it just feels homey, functional, and straight to the point. Sure, I lose some customizations, but I gain in simplicity. Overall, that itself is a big customization choice - whether to use Gnome, KDE, or something else. …so I don’t regret Gnome’s lack of customizability, that’s just Gnome fulfilling is niche well. But Plasma is always a close second for me.
For me, i made it so pressing Super+<number> switches to that workspace.
Super+Tab to toggle overview (Super+W by default)
And a hot corner, which is set to trigger almost instantly, to toggle overview.
I remapped my side mouse buttons to switching workspaces, and I absolutely love it.
Yea I did something similar on GNOME I mapped one of my mouse side buttons to be META and that way I could use it to access the overview and applications aswell as using side button + scroll wheel to switch workspaces.
I love it so much I have implemented the same functionality In cosmic and would do the same in KDE.
That actually sounds good, but i like to use those in the browser and games
Same here with the Super+<number> to switch (or equivalent function key if you use that binding for something else), and similarly Super+Shift+<same key used to switch to workspace> to send the current window to that respective workspace. For me, without the second one workspaces are waayy less productive.
Same. I have to use windows for work, and the virtual desktops are just mediocre at best to use.
Man, the Windows implementation of virtual desktops is beyond useless to me to the point of exponential loss of productivity. That’s probably my fault for thinking it’s the same use case as workspace switching in Unix–it’s really more like KDE’s Desktop Sessions feature, which is nice, but not really useful for my case.
I just installed a global theme to make it look like macOS 😄 loving it, have now a old unsupported macBookPro (2013) running latest macOS bootleg on latest Linux kernel 😆
Love it!
For me i use 4 workspaces in a grid manner(2 rows) and switches with three finger swipes to whatever direction. Also four finger swipe up/down for overviews
Still trying to figure out how to make workspaces/virtual desktops more…usable
That’s a thing about gnome. The multiple desktops are great and easy to switch between. Especially on a laptop you can easily switch between them with the trackpad, or if you have, by using the touchscreen.
I don’t really have a use for it, so I removed it, but for a while I was messing with multiple desktops on KDE, and it was incredibly easy and super customizable. Nothing you said is specific to gnome.
You can do the same on Plasma. Switch by three-finger-swipe
Didnt knew that, since I have only used KDE on my Desktop so far.
confused about
customizationbeing allowed to customize anything…FTFY
To be fair customization is a good thing, the problem is it’s too easy to accidentally get into too advanced settings. It feels like the settings most people want 95% of the time are burried in the same place as the niche settings. The gnome tweaks app often gets criticized because it contains basic settings, but I think it could be beneficial for plasma to have the same thing. Only keep the base level user settings the the settings, and put all the customization stuff in a separate tweaks app. The simple by default, powerful when needed moto is true to some extent, but the simple by default part could be much improved and a lot more intuitive
As a new linux user I was overwhelmed by plasma and all the choices. I much prefer an OS and DE that feels like it isn’t there and gets out of my way. It was all a bit too distracting, so I went back to Gnome like DEs (Cinnamon and now Cosmic).
Something like your suggestion, with basic settings first and then a deeper layer or toggle for advanced settings would have kept me on the platform longer.
I don’t understand. If you’re overwhelmed by settings just don’t open them? You don’t “need” them, like ever.
it’s all stuff you need to sort through to get to the relevant settings you want. Some people aren’t there to learn to OS, they’re only there to use it.
Yeah this shit is weird… I guess some people just see a lot of text and say “nope” without even bothering to read if any of that shit is actually necessary?
Isn’t there an advanced toggle already in the KDE settings?
I installed cosmic the other day. Uninstalled it like 5 minutes later but I enjoyed its vibe. I am excited to see it come out of alpha
Same here, I prefer KDE, but popos has been my daily driver for a while now just for compatibility and ease of use.
Very excited for cosmic as in not a fan of gnome.
I’ve never been a real plasma user (played around with it sure but never more than a week or something) and have been using GNOME since ~3.10 the whole workflow is just ingrained in my mind and simply works. So I’d be happy to hear how you’re doing on Plasma even if I don’t see myself switching anytime soon.
Plasma is so good nowadays compared to some years ago. I remember suffering a lot in those early times too.
I love plasma. For the longest time there was just something that felt off about it and I could never get into it.
Once I started using it with the steam deck I fell in love with it. Whatever visually thing irked me was gone and it’s such a good looking DE.
I have a colleague, who’s super deep down the Linux rabbit hole and he always ran GNOME. I was never quite sure, if he actually prefers it, or if he just does not care, because he’s doing most things in a terminal anyways.
Recently, our IT department made a change, which accidentally switched him over to KDE. He could easily switch back, but he’s been checking KDE out instead, and yeah, it’s been super interesting.
He definitely has some of that GNOME workflow baked into him. For example, under GNOME you can use Alt + the key above Tab to switch between windows of the same application. In KDE, that shortcut exists, but the default keybinding isn’t exactly usable.
Another minor complaint was, for example, that using Meta + arrow-keys doesn’t move windows between screens automatically when you press it repeatedly. That’s a separate shortcut under KDE, with Meta + Shift + arrow-keys.
EDIT: Apparently, I misunderstood him, his complaint was that Meta + Shift + arrow-keys moves the window between screens in a weird way. It just picks some kind of order for the screens and then goes between them as previous/next, even though you press the left/right arrow keys. There even is the more appropriate shortcut key for left/right, but it’s just not the default binding.
Meta + arrow-keys does work for moving windows between screens.
He’s aware that he may need to relearn some of his workflow, but yeah, will have to see, if he sticks to it. His emotions are nigh impossible to read, unfortunately. 🙃
To clarify, those are the default keybindings, but you can change them to match your needs or expectations. I like the alt tilde for windows within a program switching, it works fairly well though I have not set it up on my current machine yet.
Yea, my sister, for example, had changed all keybinds in GNOME to be the same as they are in macOS
Lol, about that, while changing keybinding on spectacle (kde app to take screenshots/screenrecording) seemed to work, changing key bindings to launch keepass, somehow de-activated the key
y. I noticed that rebooting fixed it, until I pressed any keybind (even ctrl+c). I had to reset the keybindings.Not sure exactly what is going on, but I noticed that if I opened discord it would type
ycontinously whenywas disabled.Somehow this happened again with
xwhen I launched outerwilds and discord.Very weird bug, but I was too busy setting up linux to report it. I’m just being a bit hesitant to change any system keybind now😆
Woah, that is wild, I hope you did some bug reporting about that, for something to go so insanely wrong it would have to be a fairly bad bug but also hard to find. Cool trick though, “Check this out, Copy ate my Y key, I am without purpose!”
I didnt report that bug cuz I ~just had installed nixos on my laptop and wanted to get things working again (it was some tedious 4 days after ~4months of preparation).
Once I get enough time again (now that my system seems stable enough), I might play around and try to file a proper report(s).
(There was also another issue with file associations preventing kde apps from exporting to some types of files, like png, jpg etc. I had set some file associations, differrent from the default and somehow it caused that bug. Check the step 13. in my guide if you want more info.)
. For example, under GNOME you can use Alt + the key above Tab to switch between windows of the same application. In KDE, that shortcut exists, but the default keybinding isn’t exactly usable.
KDE’s shortcut key options are endlessly customizable. I’d be shocked if you couldn’t get this functionality after like 30 seconds of tinkering.
Oh yeah, we did find out right then and there how to set it like in GNOME. But well, you know how it is, if there’s potentially dozens of these tiny differences, then finding the correct customization does become tedious and there is a chance of some things just not being configurable in quite the same way.
man, I love the workflow of meta-arrow switches desktops, and meta-shift-arrow takes your current window with you.
Is that the default on GNOME? I happen to have the same workflow configured on KDE, except I use WASD instead of arrow keys. 🙃
not sure of it’s the default, but I change Gnome or KDE to that. I think it’s KDE’s default.
Good comment ! I laughed at “the key above Tab”. So useless nobody remembers caps lock. Do we need an international caps lock day ?
Well, caps lock is below the tab key (still useless tho). The key above is the weird backtick or tilde key.
Yeah, I specifically wrote “the key above tab”, because on our German keyboard the ^ is there, but it’s still the same keybinding, so presumably GNOME determines it based on key location rather than the produced symbol.
Thanks for correcting me !
Until you remap it in Plasma. You can actually do things with it then.
Got used to the Steam OS Desktop on my steam deck. I used Ubuntu a decade ago and went with Kubuntu on my gaming rig which won’t support windows 11 but I wanted the same desktop like my steam deck.
More than 6 months and no regrets. Since 24.10 you even get wayland natively. Even my old NVIDIA 1080 Ti works good.
So went frivolous, and installed KDE after years of Xfce.
Wierd interactions everywhere, ctrl f4 doesn’t close windows, the terminal is called “Konsole” lol
Would not recommend, i m going back.
alt+f4 closes windows, like it did in Windows. Where does ctrl+f4 come from?
Even in Xfce ALT+F4 closes windows. Maybe bro changed it at some point and forgot about it
Funny thing, I used Xfce pretty much everywhere. When I recently had a work laptop I tried KDE seriously for the first time ever, and I was like, oh, this is just a sensible desktop nowadays.
Clearly meant for nice hardware though. Sometimes a bit slow on my Raspberry Pi 4. Might switch back. But otherwise, no complaints.
And the RAM usage!
XFCE for life!
Lol ram usage. If you are trying to split hairs between KDE at about 800 mb and XFCE at 400 mb when a browser is going to hit you for at least a gig these days, I am not sure it matters that much.
I have been a GNOME 2 and then MATE user for over a decade. Now I use KDE since that’s what SteamOS comes with and it’s fine.
Wow, I found the one other MATE user. Cheers.
I just installed plasma and I love it. I have no experience with it before this year.
I last tried KDE when it was KDE3. Then Gnome, xfce, and finally settling on i3/sway
But I got given an old Windows tablet so decided I’d see what is usable as a tablet and I was pleasantly surprised by KDE.
So much so, I’ve ostree-rebased all my machines to it.
The tiling could be better (and it sounds like it was, then wasn’t?), but it’s passable. And simple stuff actually seems to work. Unlike the gnome+sway kludge I have now.
