Linux

I remember my first time installing Ubuntu as a teenager and the fact that the desktop environment was Gnome made me hate it. At that age and time I wanted something familiar and Windows-like. Since then, 13 years ago, I always hated Gnome (and Ubuntu) and I don't feel like that is going to change any time soon.

The new SteamOS opened my eyes to KDE Plasma and now I am running Garuda on my main desktop. Eventually I plan to switch to Arch and "make my own distro" or just use SteamOS once it gets official desktop release.

What I like:

• I like GNOME 40 more than GNOME 3 because it's prettier.
• I like GNOME in general because it's stable with pretty, high quality bundled programs.
• I like the UX. It takes all the good things about the macOS UX and makes them better, while taking all the bad things and making them less stupid.
• I like that they completely separate the dock from normal window management, so I never hit it when my cursor reaches the edge of the screen.
• I like that you can set Nautilus to use one-click to open folders, even though that is cribbed from Dolphin. (Even if I use lf most of the time)
• I like the simple IBus integration that lets me setup my Japanese IME easily.

What I dislike:

• I dislike that I need a system tray extension for some software.
• I dislike how in-your-face the notifications are and that they can't be stacked.
• I dislike that I need to use Dconf to set shortcuts for workspaces 5-10.
• I dislike needing GNOME Tweaks to set autostart software/daemons—this is a basic feature, not a "tweak".
• I dislike not having an easy way to port my settings for GNOME to a new computer. It's annoying to have to set all this stuff up again compared to Sway, where I clone a repository and copy some config files over.

I like GNOME but there's something so frustrating about how much it's lacking out of the box. It feels like you have to fish out a lot of extensions to make it comfortable to use, and these extensions often break each update. Not having native support for a taskbar to quickly show/minimize the apps you have open... Just why?

Luckily a lot of distros do add those features out of the box like Zorin/Nobara, but otherwise I'd just go for Plasma. A lot of Gnome feels like it's copying Mac for the sake of copying Mac which I don't like very much, but maybe I'm biased because I mostly use and got comfortable with Windows-style UI. People compared it to Windows 8 and I totally agree, the way they want you to use Gnome feels more like it's made for tablets than desktops.

Gnome is pretty good otherwise, it's just their team makes weird decisions and never seem to change their stance.

I hate the giant app menu thing where everything is massive and clearly designed to accommodate a touch interface, so I've never used it much beyond that. I am on a desktop, not a mobile device, why is it designed like a mobile device? It's the same thing people hated about Windows 8, why the hell would you follow that design philosophy?? I really don't get it.

I understand you can use extensions and whatnot to change that, but why would I want to fight with it when other DE's are already designed for a desktop experience? Gnome is just flat out not for me.

gnome 4 is fine. i come from macs and chromebooks, so a minimalist desktop with an app dock is familiar. KDE, XFDE, etc are too windows-y for me.

Coming from Windows, gnome was the desktop that taught me how to use and appreciate multiple workspaces. I'm now entirely sold on KDE, but there's something to be said about the gnome workflow.

I like Gnome Shell. It's polished and extensible. Libadwaita and the header bars are nice as well. I generally prefer nautilus to dolphin, even if I hate having to ctrl-l to edit the path.

I use KDE however because Mutter is still dogshit slow, especially in wayland. My work PC has a R5 3600, RX 570, and 48GB ram and it struggles to maintain 60fps across 3 1080p monitors. KWin runs significantly better, so I use KDE and just configure it like I would Gnome.

Ir was my first desktop I encountered when introduced to GNU/Linux and it is actually what made me delay my switch to GNU/Linux since I disliked it so much. back then I did not know there are more desktop options so Iit made me think the whole GNU/Linux is not interesting to me. It was not until a few years later until I was told there are other options and I was shown KDE desktop (not called Plasma yet back then) that I fell in love with GNU/Linux.

Why I did not like GNOME was that it was too limited and limiting and unconfigurable. And I would say nowadays it has gotten even worse while KDE Plasma has improved a lot. I think GNU/Linux would have a lot more success at capturing the desktop OS market if KDE Plasma would be the major and default desktop in all those enterprise distributions. It is just so much better and so flexible you can even turn it to mimic any other desktop or even better customize it to fit your wery own best way of workflow and using computers.

Mostly like. Big negatives list:

• constantly breaks extension compatibility
• actively hostile towards tiling
• forced horizontal workspaces
• fails miserably if dri doesn't work 100%
• changes configuration systems like socks
• output/logs noisy and not useful

I use vanilla gnome. Dead simple, no nonsense, gets out of my way. Perfect DE for me.

I use a vanilla Gnome without extensions - Arch Linux.

• clean desktop
• I don't want distraction desktop with tons of infos....app like NextCloud must running without infos about syn etc.
• for productivity need clean and optimal desktop with tiling windows
• 3 or 4 working desktops
• and keyboard shortcuts

Most important for me, less blotware, functional, clean and minimal distraction - minimalist desktop.

What I hate is CSD.. using it with CSD is sad for #xfce user :'(

I ran Pop! OS for about a day which uses Gnome (don't know which version) and while I liked bits of it I really disliked the file browser and image viewer. The file browser makes it difficult to browse folders outside of my home folder, there are no image previews and there's a needlessly large gap between folders and files wasting visual space. The image viewer is not great, it can't open the images made by my Nikon DSLR and quite a few times the image viewer would load the image at full resolution putting the title bar off the top of the monitor.

I tend to prefer KDE because I'm a tinkerer, but I don't hate GNOME or anything. I think it's good for someone who wants the UI to just work and generally get out of the way without much fiddling, although last time I tried it I did find it needed a few extensions to add some basic stuff for whatever reason.

But ultimately, I think it's good to have choices for both sides of the spectrum, that's kind of what FOSS is all about in the end.

I like the aesthetic, Gnome applications are very pretty. But I really don't like the workflow, it's not objectively bad but I already have my own and I refuse to change it. The desktop should adapt to my choices, not the other way around. I know you can change how Gnome behaves with extensions but I believe that kinda defeats the whole point, and I've heard they often break.

I prefer Xfce; it's simple but not too minimalistic, it's customazible but not so much to give you choice paralysis, and it just lets you run things however you want without getting in the way.

I admire their uncompromising stance on feature creep and polish of the core functionality.

I'm a simple man, all I need 95% of the time is keyboard shortcuts to switch between maximized browser and a maximized terminal emulator.

Compare and contrast KDE, where you have three infinitely configurable screen zoom plugins, and I've never seen 3/3 working.

I like the overall design of the Gnome Shell (top panel) and the workflow with different workspace. I like it so much that I actually copied it in KDE. What I don't like is the look and feel of GTK apps. They're often so limited or the advanced options aren't clear at the first look.

I like GNOME because I don't want customizability.

OK, I like a bit of customizability, but I'm not a designer and trying to make things look consistent and nice is a pain. I once spent days making an icon theme work in Xfce (the freedesktop standards for naming icons are not followed by anyone... (meaning both Xfce and icon themes))

I use GNOME as is and accept it and everything is swell.

Also I use a laptop and I'm addicted the three-finger swipe window preview...