What DEs are people using?
I wanted to get a feel for everyone’s thoughts on desktop environments (or window managers if you don’t use a DE). I’m new to Lemmy, so apologies if this is too low-effort a post.
Personally I’m running KDE on my main computer, but I have an Arch virtual machine I use for more experimentation. That VM has seen KDE, i3, and will probably see hyprland at some point soon
I use GNOME.
Great wallpaper. This is the original artist: https://www.deviantart.com/arsenixc
Yes! There are several variations of it and I use dwall to change them according to daytime.
I enjoy having dynamic wallpapers from this package.
long time i3 user, now switched to sway
I’ve seen people mention Sway every once in a while. What’s the benefit over i3 if you don’t mind me asking?
it comes down to wayland, i3 only supports Xorg, sway only supports wayland.
as far as features goes sway was built to be pretty much a drop in replacement for i3 with a few improvements.
Well, the benefit is Sway being on Wayland which is slowly but surely replacing Xorg (i3 is on Xorg). Xorg is in maintenance mode now and Wayland is being actively developed. I think Wayland can be considered the default now, since major DEs like KDE and Gnome have switched to it. One thing that gets mentioned a lot when talking about the benefits of Wayland (and therefore Sway) is better multi-monitor compatibility. So if you're running i3wm with two or more displays (running with different frame rates) you might want to switch to Sway or anything running on Wayland.
I use a window manager, Openbox. It's great once you have your personal config file and shortcuts! Also, I can't be sure but I think @[email protected] recently switched to Hyperland lol
Lol read this comment first then understood the last sentence after a short stroll. Take my up vote!
Hah! Lemmy.world issues maybe?
I'm surprised you mentioning that after I only sent that twenty times :-D
Kde, let me change everything every time I get bored instead of switching to a whole different WM.
Yeah, but it still bloated KDE anyways.
On other side - if you like it, stick with it.
I did a pretty selective install, with the bare minimum and installed only what I needed after. So no bloat here. At least I use every piece of software I intended to have installed. But I get what you mean, a basic kde install with all meta packages is pretty heavy
Valid!
I'm using xfce. It's on endeavros as I like to belong to the arch crowd without working with the lengthly set up from scratch.
I prefer xfce as anything of note is accessible with a few minor exceptions due to endeavros security concerns such as Bluetooth which requires a quick systemctl command.
I started off with it after discovering ubuntu and trying the xfce version. I liked it and went through a few distros including crunchbang with openbox but ultimately xfce is a very straightforward experience for me and fairly customisable. The only drawback is it doesn't look like some of the awesome screenshots I've seen of i3 or other tiling managers but as a teacher I don't do development or have that much knowledge to tinker so xfce is my go-to.
XFCE is also very light on resources and it looks better than LXDE so I always install XFCE on old laptops.
Arch now has a guided installer that makes it just as easy as any other distro
https://youtu.be/bDzGfAxWxC8
I just jumped up on the Hyprland band wagon (4 weeks ago). Very pleased with it so far!
I have tried tiling WM's but they are not for me. KDE Plasma offers the right balance of customisability, look consistency and features to always come back on top again. It's been my go-to desktop environment since KDE3.
I use xmonad on my laptop with my small screen, and xfce on my desktop with a slightly roomier screen. I think tiling window managers tend to matter less and less as emacs has begun to take over all of my time on the computer everything tends to stay in one or two emacs frames (and many buffers).
i3 with dmenu and polybar. Such a great and efficient setup for school and work, love it.
That’s the setup I tried to get used to. I miiight still have it, although it was on my testing VM so I think I have reinstalled since then
XFCE on Arch...been using it for years.
I have Plasma installed on my Arch based installation, but I hardly use it since I also have i3 installed which I adore.
My i3 setup looks very similar to my Plasma setup, I prefer window managers because they are more productive to use.
Longtime cinnamon user here. I've also spent significant time in i3, plasma, and mate on variously specced systems. I'll probably end up switching to gnome at some point though, whenever I finally commit to de-xorgifying my pc.
Sway. I look around every few months but nothing usually, um, erm pendulates my interest. I have hyprland installed...but my config file breaks with every update, and it's rice first, function later. I'm an opposite-ricer. I like to strip all decorations.
I just started using sway as well! Care to share any tips, tricks, or your favorite config snippets?
Just keep the config file(s) handy and always be playing with them. Join IRC #sway@Libera. Oh...and you can use the majority of the i3wm docs outside of anything doing with output or input. While I love man pages...I prefer web content for my docs.
I'm using Cinnamon
I recently switched to hyprland, love it!
I used to build e17 / Enlightenment on Arch for years, was kinda cool and I learned a lot about building packages, but now I don't care anymore and I just use gnome. Or rather I'm using Firefox and a terminal and that's pretty much it. Oh and Gimp every once in a while. But most of the time it's fullscreen Firefox so who cares what de is behind it as long as it just works
Xfce on Manjaro VM. Love it.
I just use GNOME with a few extensions. Works fairly well for me.
Gnome for 10+years... Across a variety of PCs... Intel NUC, mac pro 13, several dell laptops, and dell XPS 9560 and 9570 ATM.
Gnome. It just seems simple, elegant and smooth. It does what I need from a DE (not that much, I do a lot in terminal and Emacs). It has good keybindings out of the box and good virtual desktop mechanisms. It was also the first DE with good Wayland support. At first I was unsure if I liked Gnome's concept and restrictions, but I've grown to like it fast.
I use Cinnamon which is quite a niche I think, but I really like the minimalistic design. My main requirement for a DE is for it to not get into my way.
I would like to use sway but because I have a Nvidia card it doesn't work wery well for gaming, So I use i3.
I use windowmaker and plasma. I also dabble in icewm
Haven’t heard of windowmaker before
XFCE with the WM replaced with Openbox. Ask me about my Openbox keyboard bindings for window moving and resizing :)
I kind of want to try KDE again, but I still feel it's too laggy, at least on my machine with intel graphics.
I am asking about your Openbox bindings
Win+ijkl moves the window to the next edge with the "MoveToEdge" function, snapping it around the screen.
Win+Shift+ijkl grows the window from any edge.
Win+Ctrl+ijkl shrinks the window from any edge.
Win+Cursor switches desktops, Win+Ctrl+Cursor sends window to other desktops.
It seems intuitive to me because ijkl is used for actions within the desktop, cursor keys (reaching farther) are for between desktops.
https://pastebin.com/N2w84aEx
Makes sense to me too. That’s pretty nifty
KDE on Wayland or sway. Thinking about trying hyprland somewhere soon.
Trying GNOME from time to time, without installed mutter-performance from AUR it is piece of lagging sh*t.
Just i3, very simple. I am considering testing wayland (sway probably) sometime soon, but i'm not too knowledgeable in case something goes awry and my laptop has a discreet nvidia so RIP.
Ooooooof. Yeah I feel your pain there, my tower has an RTX 3060
KDE on Mandrake/SuSE back when they were on version 1/2, GNOME on Debian/Ubuntu until 2016, a little bit of Enlightenment for the quirky days, XFCE instead of Enlightenment when I had to do actual work on a lighter machine, and now have been using GNOME daily for 4-5 years. For me it's customizable enough, and I prefer the design to KDE these days (KDE has too many different margins and paddings for me to handle).
Desktop - KDE
Laptop - Gnome
I've switched to LXQt recently. I like KDE and use mostly Qt apps, but KDE itself has too many features I don't really need. So far so good, I can't say I miss anything.
I'm currently using Gnome, but I'd like to switch to a tiling WM at some point
I am a die hard Cinnamon guy. I used to like MATE and then I played with Linux Mint for a short while and Cinnamon became my thing. Cinnamon works really well in Arch too. I just wish that its window manager, Muffin, would support Wayland. I really want to drop xorg like a bad habit.
I'm currently using Xmonad on my main Arch system, before that was Herbstluftwm. Occasionally I boot up KDE to check on how it's coming along or when i'm feeling nostalgic for what helped get me into Linux many years ago.
Hyprland for me, but sometimes I also log onto XFCE4 when theaching. I love how WM works and Hyprland by default is a visually good WM. I use it everyday except when teaching because sometime I need to zoom the code when I teach programming.
Arch, btw and I use KDE on my desktop and laptops. I did put Gnome recently on one of my laptops to try and see all the new hub-bub from the latest upgrade, but went running back to KDE. I love 'global menus' and to my knowledge, gnome doesn't have an extension for that, but besides, the DE always feels simplified and overly constrained for usage, imo. I only with the Gnome devs weren't such control freaks, LOL, but maybe that is why some like Gnome.
I am excited about the development of Hyprland, kind of the best of two worlds, customization theming and dynamic tilling in one, although not really ready yet for everyday usage from what I have read.
I recently switched to hyprland and I love. I used plasma before but wanted to touch base with a tiling wm.
Sorry for the spam. These are my first activities with Lemmy, guess I should click less and be more patient
None - I don't run any DE, just a WM - i3. All I need is a terminal, browser, sublime-text for larger projects, and that's about it.
I use Xfce on my computers except my Pi where I use Window Maker. Window Maker with its lower resource needs really helps when the Pi is used with resolutions over 1080p.
I'm always returning to cinnamon, but was on Bungie for awhile
Hyprland window manager on my PC and laptop at the moment, but I might switch (back) to KDE soon for some QoL stuff and bc why not lol
qtile and picom. It took some getting used to but I never want to leave the luxury of dynamic tiling.
I went from Gnome2, a few months on MATE, then Mint's Cinnamon until I moved on to Manjaro Cinnamon for 2 days, then tested KDE and got stuck on KDE.
AwesomeWM and KDE as a fallback when I mess my configuration.
i3 user here! ;)
I have been using Arch+KDE plasma for ~5years on my main rig, I love it!
icewm is awesome for what i need! lightweight and simple, with good themes online.
Bspwm, but MATE has been my go-to for years
I use KDE, and have done so for many years. Because I also use Mac computers, I tweaked KDE to look just like MacOS using https://store.kde.org/u/vinceliuice themes. I am loving the DE
I have been using Arch+KDE plasma for ~5years on my main rig, I love it!
I always liked XFCE cuz I was a sucker for gnome2 back in the day, more recently tho I have found myself on KDE, it seemed the most polished and feature rich lately. However, I admittedly don’t use Linux on desktop anymore, most of my Linux usage nowadays is just my servers.
That’s totally fair! XFCE runs great on lower-power devices where other options might not make sense. I run Arch and Fedora Server in my homelab
I don't like much using a full DE, I love Icewm I can't leave it
I've been using KDE, GNOME for a short while to see where they are in usability. Got bored and started using hyperland setup for a few months now. I was also using i3 for years before thag.
KDE on my work machine as it just works and has delivered for years without problems. hyprland on my private machine as I realized I don't really need a full DE, once I looked closer at my real use cases...
I use XFCE or AwesomeWM depending on what I want.
KDE, for kwin's superior window management tools.
Kwin is pretty cool
DMW on desktop, dwl on laptop.
I am using Budgie on Manjaro. It's pretty great!
Qtile
For years I was using KDE, but since 2-3 years I'm now using Cinnamon: it's fast, it's uncluttered, it gets the job done. I like it 😊
Totally valid! I use KDE because I like eye candy. I also like the ability to have a menu bar like macOS does.
Is Cinnamon in the repos? I’ve used Cinnamon when I played around with Linux Mint. It’s pretty fast, no real complaints with it. Customization can be difficult ime, which is part of the reason I went with KDE. Themes and whatnot are so easy to find because of the downloader built in
Yes it's in Extra so it can be installed quite easily: Arch Cinnamon
Themes can be installed from within it's Settings Menu, so I can't complain there 😊
Sway but transitioning into DWL.
I'm running i3 cuz it works and im not really interested in trying anything else
On my laptop I run Cinnamon. The classic, easy to use layout works best for me there.
On desktop I'm using Gnome. Having a full keyboard for the various navigating shortcuts makes it easier.
Totally get it! Cinnamon uses a layout Windows pioneered a long time ago. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?
Gnome is cool. I used it for a while but couldn't get comfy without a bunch of tweaks and extensions. KDE was intimidating (and i3 doubly so), but as I got used to it it was fine
I just switched from GNOME to Xfce after many years of the former. I had enough after some extensions broke for the millionth time. And the amount of resources used was bonkers. Currently working on setting up Xfce to my liking
herbstluftwm - I remember there were reasons why I chose it, but I don't remember them xD
I recently switched to hyprland, love it!
I recently switched to hyprland, love it!
I recently switched to hyprland, love it!
I recently switched to hyprland, it's great! I used KDE before but wanted to touch base with a tiling wm.
I recently switched to hyprland, love it!
I enjoy gnome with the arcMenu extension https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/3628/arcmenu/ I will include usually some other extensions, but arcMenu is what makes the experience a lot better than the stock one for me.
I'm not an Arch user (I stayed in Fedora because convenience at the time), but I use Qtile these days. I have my own little scripts for making the colorscheme the same as the wal colorscheme.