this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025
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After many years on GNOME, I finally switched to Plasma. (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by spicytuna62@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
67 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I still like the look and feel of GNOME a lot so I spent a little time putting it together that way. I want a simple desktop with small elements to maximize real estate for windows. I also use the small taskbar on my work computer for the same reason. But with my work computer, I do show window titles because I usually have at least 5 workbooks open at once so it's nice to see which is which when I need to switch between them.

I love KDE's application launcher. It feels very Windows XP with the way it sorts things. It just makes complete sense.

Century Gothic may not be the most readable font in the world, but I think it has an old school charm to it.

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[–] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 30 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

This literally just looks like gnome with extra steps…

[–] spicytuna62@lemmy.world 37 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

And that's fine. I said I really liked gnome. The only extensions I had were weather in the top bar and dash to dock. I just wanted it to do a few extra things, and I wanted to play around with widgets. Gnome was also a bit too rigid for my taste. Plasma makes tweaking small things a joy.

For me, ootb Plasma felt too much like Windows. I use Windows all day at work so I want my home machines to look and feel completely unlike Windows.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You should have tried Dash to Panel instead of Dash to Dock, based on your preferences. That plus Wintile is what keeps me on Gnome vs Plasmathese days.

[–] john89@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

🤦

Gnome devs shouldn't have put the onus of adding settings onto addon developers...

Never going to forgive those fools for having something like "gnome tweak tools" be recommended to so many users without them adding an official implementation.

[–] gazby@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 weeks ago

Right!? I was half expecting a maintainer somewhere to start adding some extra recommends or something when it really started to get grim. Happy Plasma user now 🚀

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 3 points 3 weeks ago

Hah, yea, good point.

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[–] RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

As a (Plasma based) Kubuntu user I was wondering as well. Looks like they tried to emulate the gnome look and feel in the picture. In Kubuntu the default taskbar is at the bottom and the floating application bar doesn't exist

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 weeks ago

Totally fine to have KDE set up aesthetically as you please.

They like how gnome looks, not as much how it works.

[–] ravermeister@lemmy.rimkus.it 24 points 3 weeks ago

I love the "Windows Just No" Button :D

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 19 points 3 weeks ago

I'm the opposite, after plasma I went gnome

Better than any plasma experience I tried to craft myself – and it's the default setting – so I have no reason to come back. But I still could switch, as long as cosmic is good

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 16 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I recognize many of the deficiencies of Gnome but on balance I still like using it.

I never migrated from Windows or Mac desktop. I got into Linux before WIndows 95 came out and although I had used Mac and Amiga desktops I never owned one myself. I have used tiling wms and plain wms with no desktop environment and I can find my way around on Windows 11 or Mac but I don't like either as much as Gnome. KDE generally has a better foundation thanks largely to qt but I never enjoyed using KDE. Not surprised it is very popular with the new influx of Windows refugees. To me KDE always had a slightly dated Windows look and feel to it. It is still a very solid choice ofcourse.

Gnome hate became fashionable when they moved forward from Gnome 2 and some people never shut up about it. We get it. Your favorite band aren't teenagers anymore and decided to make an album you don't like. It is ancient history. Just use something else guys. Plasma is pretty damn good so use it. Whats the point of a free OS if you can't accept people want the freedom to develop and enjoy different computing experiences.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I used to switch between plasma and gnome but that stopped with plasma 6. It was so good that it just became my primary. Now gnome feels bad when I try it. Everything looks bad there. No proper fractional scaling support, no hdr support etc etc.

[–] Guenther_Amanita@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Same. I still really love Gnome with my heart, but it just felt... inferior... compared to KDE 6.

Everything looked sharper, like if I had switched from 720p to 4k, I could access my hardware better (e.g. control the brightness of my monitor, etc.) and much more.

[–] mski@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I just switched from GNOME to Plasma in the past week, after a long time on gnome, and Plasma 6 is great. The only thing I miss so far is viewing all my windows on the desktop when I push the meta key - alt-tab seems clunky in comparison.

Any suggestions there?

[–] kurcatovium@lemm.ee 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Meta + w

I believe it's called "overview" in shortcut section.

[–] mski@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Amazing - Thanks for that!

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can also change it to literally anything you want.

[–] mski@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 weeks ago

Plasma is great for the flexibility (shortcuts), and so easy these days.

I was searching for task switcher, expose, etc. And just completely gapped on searching 'overview'. (Web searches didn't show it either, possibly because it's too simple, so nobody posts about it.)

Next up I might have to play some window tiling (e.g. like i3, sway & hyprland).

[–] tux0r@feddit.org 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I want a simple desktop with small elements to maximize real estate for windows.

Maybe a tiling (or optionally-tiling) window manager would be a good choice then? No elements! :)

[–] spicytuna62@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

I've considered this in the past, and I might toy around with it in the future once I get the motivation to

[–] superkret@feddit.org 6 points 3 weeks ago

I also recently switched back to Plasma cause Gnome somehow had issues managing open Windows. GTA Vice City launched and ran in Plasma but only gave a black screen in Gnome.
I tend to use Plasma on desktops and Gnome on laptops, and like them both.

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

GNOME lost the plot when they abandoned the 2.x design philosophy.

[–] idefix@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

It's been a bumpy road. I have strong memories of Gnome devs explaining to users how wrong they were to dislike Nautilus's awful spatial mode. And when that guy refused to implement a switch off option because users were wrong to ask for it.

Now really, it's quite functional once you've tweaked with gnome-tools and added vital extensions. You also have to remember useless stuff such as "Video" means "Totem". I'll just never understand why they don't really care about sane defaults.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 weeks ago

except that extensions are second class citizens at best, on gnome. Some (or all, sometimes) of them will break after an update.

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[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Care to explain what that is?

[–] themoken@startrek.website 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

GNOME 3 introduced the current shell paradigm where you don't really have a start menu but a variety of searches, integrated indicators, per-app desktops with a dock etc.

Before, it was far more conventional experience like Plasma/Windows/Cinnamon are now. GNOME 2 was forked to be the MATE desktop if you want to check it out.

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[–] john89@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago

I totally agree.

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[–] crabapple@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Looks really good. Which Dock application is that?

[–] spicytuna62@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Thanks! I'm using Latte for the dock and Tera Circle Blue for the icons.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Huh, I thought Latte dock had wrapped up with 6.

[–] spicytuna62@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

It's Debian so I'm on 5.

[–] azvasKvklenko@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago

On 6 you can have similar experience to Latte with just the panel minus the animations and some of its customizations

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[–] TxTechnician@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I tried gnome for a bit. I really liked the workflow. But the over simplification of the interface just killed me.

I got tired of it. And took the things I like from gnome and implemented them in plasma. (Swipe for virtual desktops for example)

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[–] brianary@startrek.website 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

KDE: With too much power comes too much responsibility. 😉

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I set it up once on install, 4 years ago. I have never needed to tweak any settings after that. Even when installing a different distro (config lives in the home directory)

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[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

Welcome to the club!

For me it feels more like Windows 7 instead.

[–] atek@lemm.ee 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That looks amazing! Can you tell je how you did it? Everytime i start to tweak with the taskbar/dock/statusbar it comes out chonky and doesnt work. All i want i the same look as you have, but ive never come close!

[–] spicytuna62@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Check your DMs

[–] Amaterasu@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I'm not a KDE user, is it possible to have the upper bar all the way up without showing the wallpaper above?

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 11 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, basically pretty much everything you may want is possible. OP just uses the bar in floating mode.

[–] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes, in fact that's the default for panels.

[–] Amaterasu@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ty

[–] Amaterasu@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

Lol, not sure why a "thank you" got downvoted

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[–] hmmm@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

How did you get those panel on bottom?

[–] spicytuna62@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The dock is Latte. I run Debian so this is Plasma 5. As I understand it, Latte doesn't work in Plasma 6.

[–] polle@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I want a simple desktop with small elements to maximize real estate for windows.

While using a top AND bottom bar on the screen. Thats exactly my humour. I am specific about that, because its what confuses me the most about many gnome distros when they so that. The vertical space is the most important one, don't waste it with additional bars.

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[–] UniversalMonk@lemm.ee 2 points 3 weeks ago

Looks great!

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