I find the lack of a system tray in Gnome to be a problem. I need to know when my sync app is actively syncing, etc. Background applications disappear for the most part on Gnome and I don’t like that.

I don’t really like Gnome as a desktop interface. Not sure why but never really adapted well to it.

Love KDE and Cinnamon though. Probably because I was used to Windows interface for years before I started using Linux.

I like gnome because it’s a very clean, slick, and minimalist interface. it stays out of my way so I can use the tools I need to use. It’s very like macOS (in the way that KDE is like Windows). I also like its extensions.

I have also seen what’s coming up in GNOME 51, and I like the direction they’re going.

As far as I’m concerned, a DE should be a thin layer between me and my apps. In my experience, KDE is just “too much“.

I use KDE. I like that it doesn’t fight my choices and actively supports customization. GNOME is too opinionated for me. They have a specific vision on what the desktop should be and that vision just doesn’t jive with me.

KDE Plasma can be (and by default is) configured to work mostly like Windows, which I have to use at work anyway. I have no interest in having to do things radically differently on different computers I regularly use.

I prefer the customization and vibrancy of KDE. KDE is just so thoughtful and rich with features that I find really useful, the ease of use makes me not want to ever leave it. You can get it heavy or light, customize that install to your delight. Plasma just speaks to me. I can literally leave it alone and it still looks very appealing or go hard on it and make it truly customized with little effort. The quirks are mostly ironed out these days with the latest 6.7 update and that makes me really happy, it’s starting to really feel like a mature DE.

GNOME is just there, breaking extensions with every major update, not doing much of anything (except recently they seem mildly concerned with adding QOL features in an upcoming major update). Still won’t get me to use that DE though, I’d use feature rich WMs before GNOME. That is simply the way it is. GNOME just doesn’t capture me based on its design, but this does not mean it is absolutely bad. Just a bit too minimal, bland, and inflexible for my tastes. I’ve used it for about 6 months (a fallback distro used GNOME) at a time during my distro-hopping days (doing my due diligence and figuring out was next for my machine). Not a good time for me, but I endured. ROFL At least until I landed on Garuda Linux and haven’t left their KDE based editions.

KDE. I can do damn near whatever I want with it.

Both my gaming PC and my laptop run LMDE 7 with KDE Plasma on top. However, they are set up very differently. My laptop is almost a 1:1 clone of Mac OS (dock at the bottom, taskbar up top, menus for programs show up in the task bar, etc), while my gaming PC is much more Windows-esque.

I stick with KDE because they actually listen to user feedback.

I feel like KDE does a good job of making Linux accessible to Windows expats, but it works a bit too hard to be like Windows (albeit better). Meanwhile Gnome takes cues from macOS (disclaimer: I’m a Mac guy), but it’s not made to imitate macOS. They just share some UX points.

I prefer Gnome but KDE isn’t bad.

KDE here, haven’t used Gnome much. I have pretty specific preferences and KDE meets them. I like a vertical task bar on the left side of the screen. Even if I have a ton of windows open, I can see them all at a glance and switch to them easily. I really hate the minimal taskbars of Windows 11 and MacOS. They look nice visually but they are so much less functional.

I get that Gnome has other ways of switching windows, and maybe it’s habit more than anything else, but I want my damn task bar.

Kde Much prefer the settings Visually it also looks nicer by far but that’s not really part of why I choose it.

Knew about Linux back in 2006 with Ubuntu 5.10, it had Gnome 2 which at the moment was great.

But for some reason its devs decided they knew much more than their users about how to use a DE so they imposed a lot of groundbreaking changes so for a time (some months) I used Xfce and then moved to KDE like in 2009 or so (I think it was late 2008). At the time there was the KDE4 shitstorm but imho it was nothing compared to what Gnome 3 did (i.e. Plasma was way more customizable than now, there was stuff that never came back like window tabs and one-wallpaper-per-virtual-desktop things…).

All in all nowadays KDE is for me much more stable and suited to my day-to-day needs than Gnome 2, not to even speak about what Gnome 3 turned out to be.

However I reckon today’s Gnome has evolved a lot since its 3.x days and I suppose it should be amazing for the people who happen to like its way to do things, it just happens it’s not for me.

I tried both, back and forth, but settled on GNOME. It didn’t have the odd quirks Plasma did, and it is all cohesive like you’d expect a polished product this be like.

I also had one machine from 2010 with a celeron and GNOME was just faster at responding due to how it precaches stuff into memory.

i’m on mint but i use kde-standard just because i love being able to go into any option and picking get more themes. also love konsole more than gnome-terminal :3

plus sddm for login :3

I use gnome with a handful of plugins. I appreciate that it’s cohesively designed and does a good job if staying out of my way.

With that said, I need those plugins and other tweaks to keep the other daft ideas from the gnome team at bay.