Desktop alternatives

Ask Fedora
21

COSMIC also have Tweaks app. And dconf is just configuration files, but as a database. As for extensions, vast majority of them just need to update their metadata to say that they support new major version.

Except it’s you who is throwing shit at a free software project done by volunteers. Saying “I like KDE more” is perfectly valid, but throwing shade at another project to validate it isn’t doing you any good.

I was replying to your point that GNOME is rigid and “fixated”. It’s not. You don’t even need to rice if you don’t want to (i don’t).

Like what? What am I missing out on?

22 
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface overlay-scrolling false
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23

Mmm.. have you compared some QT and GTK applications that do more or less the same things? From the user perspetive, they are quite different. The QT applications present countless menus and sub-menus, they tend to to everything possibile in a way or another. GTK applications barely do their main fuction, they are so simplified that they are annoying at times.

Of course you can install and run QT applications on a GTK desktop and vice-versa. This could somehow “blend” the differencies for the causal user.

Anyway my point was another: since all the “alternative” GTK DEs are “mods” or “derivatives” of Gnome, they suffer of the same problem of forks, they must spend lots of resources to follow Gnome development or they become incompatible in a way or another and at that point major applications don’t work any more, forcing the user to rely on “legacy” ones. In other words, “alternative” DEs can’t compete with Gnome unless they get the same resources.

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24

Hello everyone,
I’m running Fedora Workstation with my three systems, so I’m using GNOME.
I’ve always used MATE, but eventually, to be able to use Wayland, I’ve adapted to GNOME.
I use my systems for work, and a simple GNOME extension greatly helps my workflow. For me, GNOME is a fundamental aspect—it’s very solid and reliable. The only change I make is disabling gnome-software from autostart, as I update exclusively via the CLI offline.
My systems run great with GNOME, and I don’t miss MATE at all!

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25

If I don’t use GNOME, I use Xfce; I think most of my apps are GTK but KeePassXC is Qt and seems fine.

Being able to pull this off is cool too :stuck_out_tongue:

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26

Do not throw shit at free software projects done by volunteers. This is respectable forum, not reddit. Please maintain some level in the discussion.

27

I’ve seen more-intense stuff with XLibre :stuck_out_tongue:

28

It doesn’t mean we should allow this kind of behaviour here.

29

Maybe, but could they be right? GTK not doing their main function doesn’t sound entirely far-fetched in casual mention without more details :stuck_out_tongue:

30

There are 300 thousand Fedora Workstation users. Ubuntu have ~40 million users. All of them use GTK apps. If those apps were crap… then they wouldn’t use them.

31

Crap can be popular – how many users does Windows have? Better than Windows is a low bar. The main advantage of Windows is the massive size of the user community, so when (not if) a Windows users encounters problems, they can often get help from friends and colleagues. Linux needs is a desktop that people familiar with Windows can start using right away. If Gnome doesn’t scare them away, they will continue to use Linux and over time may switch to a Desktop that better supports their needs.

32

Windows is a bad example. Nobody chooses Windows, since it’s a default. Every laptop comes with it preinstalled. Linux, on the other hand? There aren’t many laptops that come with it. Meaning, vast majority of linux users actively made the choice to install it and use it. And if someone ends up not liking it, then they reinstall Windows.

But linux is not Windows and it’s not similar at all. Every OS is different and everyone needs to get used to it. Like when people switch From Windows to Mac or vice versa. Or when Android user buys iPhone. GNOME isn’t black magic that’s impossible to learn.

33

I mean, why not just straight-up copy Chicago95 onto Xfce and ship it distro-default? I don’t think it gets any more familiar than that :stuck_out_tongue: and it surprisingly works: Desktop alternatives - #25 by Espionage724

Everyone customizes the desktop anyway, but imo it’s more interesting to do something unique. I feel the DE shouldn’t be noticeable: I need to switch windows, and see what’s all open at once; I do both on GNOME with a Win key press or quick mouse-fling to top-left.

GNOME’s consistent: I do that flow any distro that has GNOME, therefore my flow isn’t distrupted regardless of OS.

GNOME’s minimalist: My flow works Vanilla no extensions; I can freely use any GNOME version and have a consistent DE any distro; probably even edge/dev. I don’t need to customize anything (GNOME stays unnoticeable), so I can freely switch OSs on-the-fly and be productive in GNOME instantly.

KDE offers every setting under the sun which is cool for customization, but I feel I have to change more from defaults each distro than I care for (some don’t enable desktop icons), and some defaults I don’t like particularly with the dock taskbar icons + hiding that I have to change. KDE’s fast-moving, and if there was a cli/config way to get some of that config reproducible, I doubt it’ll last long and I’ll have a whole page of dozens of em at some point. Basically I spend more time customizing KDE that’s unproductive.

Xfce is cool, but not unique. But customizing it is easy-enough to command-line consistently: I did that Win95 theme Fedora, openSUSE TW, and Debian with commands I made on FreeBSD :stuck_out_tongue:

Xfce can customize good, but I feel it doesn’t allow going far from having the traditional panel bar; anything more-fancy may be better on KDE, while anything less might be better going WM. Xfce’s good for the traditional look-and-feel!

More with GNOME’s consistency: I had the same UX on a phone that I did on my desktop, and it worked mostly as I expected! (could benefit from touch gestures) Having mainline Linux on a ARM64 Android phone is it’s own thing, but booting straight into a familiar copy-paste DE in portrait mode on a phone was impressive.

I later tried Xfce, and it was reasonably unusable :stuck_out_tongue: It was the full desktop UI, at my phone’s high DPI (tiny), with no touch/large-cursor accommodations. A stylus helped, but that wasn’t convenient.

I switched to Xfce because GNOME was unstable (random crashes to log-in mainly with using on-screen keyboard), but I knew Xfce had reliability with years of experience to do a better test on my phone (wanted to see if it was GNOME or something postmarketOS-related; was definitely GNOME).

Basically I like GNOME, and Xfce’s already available for familiarity!

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34

Btw, are these bugs reported?

And personally, I like to alt-tab to switch windows :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: tho sometimes when i feel like using mouse I also use hot corner!

35

GNOME was unstable on postmarketOS but I’m not too sure why; I don’t use on-screen keyboard on desktop but can’t imagine it causing frequent crashes, but GNOME also crashed on pmOS when doing seemingly anything (tapping app drawer, browsing Firefox). I used GNOME on Wayland on pmOS (not the Mobile variant).

Xfce with brief use seemed more stable, so it seems specific to GNOME on pmOS. GNOME on Wayland on desktop is stable :smiley:

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36

Hey, that is not XFCE from 2025, it is Windows 95 !

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37

I don’t report anything because it is useless.

Bugs aren’t fixed, design flaws aren’t changed.

I take the given software as it is, when I cannot use something I try something else. It is me working around and adapting, for sure it is not “upstream” caring of whatever issue I may encounter. That is because either it is “free” so I am told “you don’t like it, code something else yourself” or it depends on decisions made by whoever pays and needs to sell products and services to somebody else.

Back to GTK ecosystem, it is managed as there were not any other DE and WM other than Gnome. That has forced people to quit GTK to adopt QT (see LXDE) or to fork Gnome (see Cinnamon, Cosmic, Budgie, etc). The point here is the waste of resources in re-inventing the wheel and the fact that on the long term maintaining the compatibility so Gnome “apps” run on the “alternative” DE becomes increasingly hard.

This thread titles “desktop alternatives” and my point is the only real alternative to Gnome is Plasma because it does not depend on the changs in GTK and Gnome.

38

There are some very interesting modern alternatives:

  • Hyprland, used to be the coolest thing;
  • Niri (seems to be taking over Hyprland in terms of interest)
  • upcoming Cosmic desktop (to be released Dec 12)
39

Yes but in your list you have a compositor, that is not a Desktop Environment and a sort-of-fork of Gnome made (partially?) in Rust. Hyperland is not “alternative” to Gnome. Now the problem is Cosmic can be the best invention of human kind but it still needs to run “applications” that are developed for Gnome. So the people working on Cosmic must always make sure it is 100% compatible with whatever changes come in Gnome and GTK in general. Is it worth it? Will they have the manpower? We will see.

I made myself used to Gnome in the most vanilla config because I was tired of working around issues coming from the changes in any other condition. The day I cannot use Gnome and its “apps”, I would move to Plasma. I tried the “alternatives” for years but at some point it becomes clear it is a waste of time. I would not suggest any “legacy” solution to anybody and same goes for forks that struggle to stay alive.

40

It seems obvious to me that Plasma is the way to go, because it can be the closest to modern versions of Windows. Like I already wrote, XFCE is like wanting to use Win95 or Win98 and it may work but on the long term is not worth it.

Problem with Plasma is two folds IMHO, QT applications lack in some areas and it is made for “linux users” meaning it pushes all those options in your face but most of it is an overkill. I am not a novice user but I managed to ruin several Plasma desktop by playing with options and I could not get back to the previous state. I know it is not easy but probably Plasma would benefit by a “default” that works as it is and does not encourage people to make changes.