Hey there, folks! I'm about to do my first Linux install and I'm trying to figure out which DE I wanna use. I'm not concerned about how analogous the DE is to any other OS because I'm willing to learn and develop a new workflow. From a performance and overall compatibility perspective, does either GNOME or KDE outshine over the other for this? This is specifically considering the latest non-beta/stable versions of each. Does the Anaconda installer work in the KDE spin of Fedora, or is the install process different altogether? I know Fedora's default is GNOME, does this make for any less stability with KDE?
Edit: I appreciate all of your comments, thank you for taking the time to write them! Initially I was really interested in GNOME for its minimalist design, but it seems KDE can be altered for a similar form without needing to rely much on third party pieces because of how much is already built into it. Although I'm certain the GNOME DE is a really nice one, I think I'm gonna give it a go with KDE simply because it has three customizability already out-of-the-box and it seems to be slightly lighter weight. Of course, there's no reason to ever settle and it's likely I'll try GNOME at some point instead. Thank you! :)
I might get eviscerated for saying this, but you can replicate the GNOME workflow fairly well on KDE—KNOME if you will.
There's an overview similar to that in GNOME, you can set up shortcuts to mimic the keyboard+one-app-one-workspace workflow, etc.
Good luck trying to recreate Plasma with GNOME though.
I tried to do this before, but it did not work out.
I couldn't make the meta key alone open overview. I also tried to add a dock there, but I can only have a panel when not in overview, which is the opposite of that I wanted. I also liked the notification menu and the quick toggles menu in top right corner.
I have been planning to get into plasma extension development to fix some of these issues.
Yeah it's not a one-to-one conversion of course. An update few months back allowed meta to open Overview on its own though, fwiw.
I'd still like the dock in the Overview too, like yourself, but for now I just have a launcher on the bottom like dash-to-dock.
I gotta say, i love how these comments are civil. Linux often seems to devolve into turf wars. Just made me happy
I used to prefer GNOME, until I started using KDE daily on the desktop, I thought it would just be temporary, but I ended up liking KDE way more because of the features that are built-in, the integration is simply priceless and I'm tired of those GNOME extensions that keep breaking at the next GNOME major release and I have to wait weeks for the poor devs to catch up and fix them up to get the compatibility going again, in some ways that also happens on KDE with the widgets, but, arguably, you will need way fewer of those to extend the already wide functionality provided by the Fedora KDE experience, so you risk incurring in that issue a lot less. Note I specifically mention Fedora both because it's the system you want and because the pool of apps included is the best for a streamlined, but not bloated, experience, which also allows me to use Kinoite without troubling myself to overlay crucial apps that aren't provided (or don't work fully) as Flatpak.
Widgets and themes broke when version 6 was released but that was a major upgrade which changed the underlying technology (Qt5 to Qt6) and it was announced before-hand. It tends not happen with minor and patch updates.
Both GNOME and KDE are first-class DEs in Fedora - stability is a non issue. You can install both if you want and select your choice at the login screen to just switch back and forth. The only thing you might want to keep in mind is that both have their own prpgrams, like file managers for example, so you'll have two programs for the same task.
Performance is a wash, really, with a halfway modern setup. Your browser will be consuming way more resources than the desktop by far.
Compatibility is also a non issue nowadays, both implement the Freedesktop standard and are fully compatible with each other.
I'm pretty sure that the installer is the same for all major spins.
Hope you have fun with Fedora!
From a performance and overall compatibility perspective, does either GNOME or KDE outshine over the other for this?
Not unless you are doing specific things. Last I checked, but I know Gnome is moving on these fronts too. Things like HDR, VRR, Virtual Reality Games and stuff like that you are going to want KDE for. There was probably some other stuff, but that's what I have off the top of my head. However, if you try Gnome and decide that you really like them. They are making moves on those fronts too, but I'm not sure how long it is going to take.
If it's you're first install go with gnome since it's intentionally simplified.
You WILL get lost in all of the customization options that are available in KDE and most xwindows environments if you have no experience w anything besides Windows or Mac
All I do in KDE is set it to Breeze Dark, set my taskbar to dock + autohide, and change media keybinds. There's tons of options but you don't really have to touch any of them. Default is fine.
if that were all they touched, it would be fine; but i've lost track of the number of times i setup a linux system for newbies and got emergency phone calls that the install was broken only to discover that they clicked on some kde setting somewhere that they both forgot about and didn't understand.
it's sort of like people deleting the windows folder on a windows system because they don't think that they use it.
