After trying out Cosmic, Gnome,KDE Plasma, and Hyprland, I feel like plasma is the most usable for me coming from Windows. It solves the gripes I had about lack of customizability while still starting me off with a familiar homebar. I will be going back and forth with gnome for a while.
I really like gnome and the sliding desktops, and all the extensions seem to make it very customizable as well, but not directly like plasma, instead you mix and match (or make) extensions to get the look you want. (correct me if im wrong, I used it for a day)
Hyprland seems very nice for multitasking but the keyboard focus of the presets ive tried doesn’t really appeal to me, I like being able to just use my mouse sometimes.
Cosmic, is definitely an alpha and im interested to see what it becomes, wont be using it now.
You must log in or # to comment.
DWM
Never used hyprland but Sway you can use the mouse to move stuff around, resize windows, etc. just hold down you mod key, usually super/windows key. If you have a bar setup correctly you can even click between workspaces or have a task list like on windows that you can click on. Alt Tab needs some re-imagining as its now three dimensional, but that’s easy to tweak to how you want it with something like swayr. You can even add a start button equivalent if you wish.
I use Sway on Tumbleweed, before that Sway on Ubuntu. I have six main workspaces defined, odd numbered workspaces on my left monitor and evens on my right monitor. Both monitors are 32"@4k so a ton of real estate, I can easy fit in four large tiles per monitor, eight is a stretch but if you use the option to make windows full screen then you can run stuff in the background and then flip between things that are running in the background.
I use the layman add on to predefined layouts for my different workspaces, then bind apps on start up using my config to a particular workspace. I can still move them around, but automating as much as possible with a tiling windows manager is the secret IMO. Having everything just work and appear where I want with zero faffing around speeds up my workflow enormously. On Windows I use power-toys to provide a noddy version of tiling, but everything has to be done manually and its a complete PITA over a work day where I am opening and closing stuff.
As an example, I have my third workspace as my main coding workspace. Its divided into 3/4 and 1/4. The larger part I lock VS Code to it, the smaller part is usually a Firefox tab for reviewing documentation. My second workspace is my social workspace, that’s divided into four long quarters, one for music, one for discord, one for signal, one for mail. All of this, including binding the apps to the workspace, are fully automatic.
I use the keyboard for most things. I use QMK based keyboards (configured using Vial), so I can bind multi modifier shortcuts to just two keys either on a separate layer or a chord. Reducing the number of keys you press really helps the ergonomics of activating them, especially if you move them to the home row and away from the pink hell hole that is where the modifiers are on most standard keyboards.
I think the biggest problem is that it requires work to get the right add ons and make it work the way you want to work, but get it right and the WM becomes transparent to how you work.
Sway is it. I tried originally building it all up from scratch. It was fun, and taught me how all the pieces fit together, but now I just grab the EOS community dotfiles and make a few minor tweaks.
For me, it’s not a “workflow” that is sped up, it really just helps me remember where stuff “belongs”. Workspace 1 always has my Spotify, audio mixer, and discord/signal. Workspace 5 is gaming, etc.
Resizing and swapping window locations around is so simple with just super+mouse click/drag.
The EOS files look a great place to start.
Do you default your apps to start on a particular workspace?
I tried to do that when I started, but now it’s just habit. Super+Shift+# does most of the work.
My only complaint with the EOS configuration is the lack of Bluetooth on the bar. And the sound/screen brightness buttons don’t give any visual/audio feedback. I have some notifications imbedded, but they look and feel kinda janky compared to how nice and clean they are in Plasma.
Yeah I added bluetooth in mine, it’ll show me whats connected on hover and just launch the gnome app for bluetooth if I click it, super lazy implementation. I don’t need brightness controls so never looked at them.
EOS seems to use mako for notifications? I have never tried it.
I use swaync, which once themed and the rights bits you want, added, is ok. I wanted something more like the Gnome notification drop down that had do not disturb, media player controls, extensible menus, etc. in it.
I should take another crack at sway. I didn’t know about EOS. I started with nwg-shell.
I love plasma. I used to be into cinnamon, but since the steamdeck, I’ve changed my preference.
Now, I have fedoranplasma spin on my thinkpad.
I really like the windows style DE.
Debian and xfce, generally. I’m happy to wait for features when they arrive, and xfce works fine.
However, Debian with gnome on my surface pro 6. Xorg just doesn’t handle rotation and touchscreen things very well.
On the other hand, several apps still behave very poorly under Wayland, so it’s a bit of a catch 22 at the moment.
ive used many de’s and wm’s over the last 15+ years and ended using gnome the most. most familiar with it now so, its fine for me.
KDE and I keep it mostly stock. I usually get a compact desktop pager widget and add a kwin plugin to dynamically add/remove virtual desktops.
I’ve jumped over the years, Gnome, Cinnamon, KDE, XFCE, Unity, AwesomeWM, QTile, XMonad, Hyprland.
For the last couple of years I’ve completely settled on KDE for my Desktop, and Gnome on my Laptops.
I love the customisability of KDE and being able to turn it into whatever the hell I want lol. But Gnomes gestures on a laptop are unmatched in the Linux space imo, and finally at a point that I firmly believe Gnome gestures are now on par with MacOS gestures.
For the touchpad? I basically use my laptop like a desktop with a mouse, pluggedin to power. (it was more for easy transportation from college to back home, didn’t have a desktop and gaming laptops get insane deals if you keep track, got mine $2,000 off at like $1100 and it was the best all amd alienware config at the time (still handles everything), just preemptively explaining because im used to redditors giving me shit for using a laptop as a desktop)
Lol dw, you won’t get shot here for using your hardware how you intend to use it… Why would anyone get mad about that??
Well if you don’t use your trackpad then obviously Gnome gestures won’t be a big point for you. I never really used to either back when I used tiling Window managers, I solely relied on a purely keyboard driven workflow, until I got a new job and they use MacBook Pros as our work laptops, there I got super into the trackpad gestures. For example, three finger swipe left or right to change workspace, three finger swipe up for an application/workspace overview.
I love the customisability of KDE
I read this often but found KDE so difficult to customise. XFCE or Cinnamon is what I’d consider extremely customisable, KDE doesn’t even consistently listen to what theme colour I set :-(
I started using Windows as a young lad, but when I tried using Linux I easily transitioned to KDE. Then I tried Gnome and loved it, used it for a few years before moving over to Hyprland a couple of months ago and I can confidently say that I won’t be going back.
EDIT:
Forgot to mention that the main reason I love Hyprland is because of the crazy level of customization. I use it primarily on my laptop and can navigate easily with keyboard shortcuts, clicking, and even trackpad gestures.Don’t let somebody else’s idea of how to use a DE limit you, just configure whatever you want!
KDE has given me the desktop I need for the past few years. Hyprland isn’t a desktop environment, as far as I know.
Before KDE I used Cinnamon on Linux Mint. It was functional, but after many years I wanted a change.
Use whatever suits your needs. In my experience, KDE and Cinnamon are the most complete desktop environments without having to install extensions or extra software. Both are mature, have large communities behind them, and release incremental updates frequently. Those are my criteria for a good desktop environment.
Trying cinnamon right now, Its definitely functional, closer to windows back when I liked it. Feels boring, but in a good for productivity way.
My preference is the opposite of yours. I just recently set up Hyprland and I love it for the focus on keyboard and the ease of customizing the keybinds.
The other thing I love is the tiling. I almost always have two windows side by side and in every other DE I’ve used (haven’t used cosmic), I always had to faff about to get my windows half and half or into the quarters. So pair that with the keyboard focus and hyprland is the winner for me.
I often dont use my keyboard when casually browsing, reaching for it constantly is annoying in those cases, I’m assuming yall that use linux more are more used to the opposite and not using a graphical interface.
plasmas had no issues going half and half or quarters, better than windows at least, but yeah my monitors are relatively small compared to what other ppl have, so i never want to divide by more than 4
yeah i don’t know what the use case is for hiding or partially hiding windows as if they’re papers on a desk other than sheer skeuomorphism.
I can have multiple windows open at large size, arrange them to overlap so I can peek at the important part and click to bring one to the front. Like in a file browser, I can have multiple directories in multiple windows and switch back and forth without losing sight of the other one entirely.
I tried working with tiling and while it felt kinda cool, in the end it didn’t solve any problem I have. At most I’m working in 2 different windows 99% of the time and I have a second monitor for that. So it’s not that hiding windows is a use case, it’s that tiling them isn’t one.
Agree. It’s a windowing behaviour I’ve hated forever. Before jumping to linux I used macOS for a long time and the only thing that made it tolerable was a toolbar app that let me create custom keybindings for splitting windows. When inwent Linux I went gnome initially as it gave pretty close to the same functionality built in with super+arrow keys, but there is some stuff about GNOME that just does not work for me. So for me, Hyprland is great
I use Cosmic and really like it- have used i3, Awesome and Gnome in the past for a while too, I really likes them.
The most time I spent with a set up was Awesome + rofi, which I really enjoyed. I customised literally everything and spent hours tweaking stuff.
That was super fun, but in all honesty my workflow is more or less:
- Open up a terminal (alacritty, tmux + fish shell + helix editor)
- Open up a browser (Firefox, have played with others but there’s always some quirk where I give up)
- That’s it.
Honestly, all the tweaking is fun for me, but with my workflow I have like 0 requirements for anything fancy. Daily driving cosmic is going nicely for now, and seems to mostly get out of my way.
Keep in mind that cosmic is still in an alpha build. It’s missing a lot of features and his buggy here are there. I’m sure it will be pretty awesome and once it releases it 1.0 version.
i was impressed with cosmic when i gave it a spin here… it has a lot of potential… just still very ‘incomplete’ currently.
Actually I like Cinnamom the best. For VMS without video accelertion, XFCE. For media center and my laptop I stayed with Ubuntu/Gnome.
Work flow. Any desktop will do, that is more about Apps. For me Firefox, LibreOffice esp Calc, Python, Bash, Thunderbird, ssh, Zim, Geany are what I use most.
I really like the gnome workflow plus a couple of extensions. Notably I ran across a tiling extension called “grid” that scratched my tiling window needs on my desktop, and gnome is amazing on my laptop trackpad. I zing through desktops quick! Anything it can’t do out of the box, you can find an extension for.
I like the feel of something different than windows.
I am not using DE i am using hyprland With arch Linux btw
I keep forgetting tiling managers arent des
