Linux

Gnome is my choice because it doesn't look and feel like it was designed in 2015. I also much prefer the workflow with the touchpad gestures. I used to have extensions but since I reset my PC and didn't install any apart from the one that shows my cpu temperature in the top bar.

KDE - Was Gnome, but I switched for a reason. I, uh, forgot the reason.

I use lxqt mostly beacause it's simple and moderately lightweight.

KDE... Mostly sane defaults out of the box and tons of customization options if there's anything you dont like.

Afaik, Gnome is very opinionated about how it should work. This makes it work out of the box, but if it does something that you don't like, it might be a pain to fix it. I use KDE because configuring it is relatively fast and easy, and it has some neat features and custom plugins.

I use and love both. KDE (Bazzite) on my desktop gaming PC, and Gnome (Bluefin) on my laptop for casual stuff, mostly YouTube.

KDE is a bit better for gaming since it has HDR and VRR and is the standard DE on the Steam Deck. I tried Gnome too just a few days ago, but it felt inferior in regards of gaming and content creation.

Gnome on the other hand has a place reserved on my laptop aswell as in my heart. Especially the ultra smooth and well thought out touch gestures and minimalist UI makes it perfect for laptop usage.

For me personally, I prefer Gnome over KDE. KDE is a bit more capable, but it overwhelms me sometimes. Gnome has a better concept and workflow for me. You either love or hate it, I do the first.

KDE Plasma. It makes sense to me and everything functions more or less how I prefer it to. If I need something, it's usually easy enough to find. Plasma being flexible is a plus, but I rarely need to do any modifications.

I loathe GNOME. Any time I use it it's like pulling teeth. On a touch surface I can maybe get it, but on desktop I honestly think it has some serious usability problems cooked in. And since GNOME extensions can break at any time, trying to "fix" GNOME is a losing battle. If I had to use GNOME, I'd install GNOME Classic which is ok. Or better yet, use XFCE or MATE. GNOME is highly opinionated and that's fair enough, they can do their thing and people seem to like what they offer, but boy is it not for me.

I used KDE Plasma for a long time ever since I started daily-driving Linux.

I like how KDE Plasma allows quite a surprising amount of customization. I also had some experience with Gnome via Ubuntu, and XFCE. Gnome looks polished, but doesn't allow for much customization. XFCE is a lot more customizable than Gnome, but getting it to look quite right took a lot of effort.

I used KDE for about 10 years, but switched to GNOME when 3 came out and haven't looked back. It's a little unusual if you're coming from Windows, but I've found that once I let go of old paradigms like a start bar and icons and embraced multiple workspaces, that GNOME is pretty damned amazing.

Gnome! I use Nixos so I prefer to use things that can be configured using its system, I like KDE but I can’t find a elegant way to configure the UI layout using nix

KDE since I hand compiled a 2.0 beta.

Use both! You can switch between them when you log in. Find what you like.

I enjoy gnome but that isn't everyone's cup of tea.

This is the power of Linux. Not that it gives you a nice configuration (it does) but it gives you the power of choice and control over your own device.

Out-of-the-box GNOME, with no extensions or tweaks.

I used to be a customise-everything kind of guy. But I'm not naturally efficient, so any workflow I designed for myself would always end up being inefficient. With GNOME I see it as a kind of off-the-shelf workflow that I can adapt to, something I wouldn't have come up with myself but it makes me more efficient.

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as KDE, is in fact, KDE Plasma.

Anyway, I use Gnome but if you are used to Plasma, there is no need to make things harder by using Gnome on a device and Plasma on another. Just stick to Plasma.

Kde. I’d love to be able to give some erudite examples of why.

Alas, the default is clean and works for me. It stays out of the way.

XFCE + xmonad

KDE.

As a former Windows user myself, I find it to behave pretty much like how I'd expect, albeit some differences in details.

KDE with Polonium for Window Management because I want tiling but still looking for a better way to get tiling into KDE. If someone knows.

Neither, XFCE.

KDE. Historicaly I was using Gnome (1 then 2) but Gnome3 was just .... So I switched to KDE and never looked back since, it so customizable that I can set it just right for me. No shade to the great work made by the Gnome3 team but I am a KDE guy now...

I'm OK with GNOME.

GNOME because it just works better with network shares. Really wanted to use KDE but I use a lot of network shares and it just annoyed me.

In KDE I open a network folder in the file browser, double click a video and VLC can’t see it because it uses a different sharing protocol.

On GNOME it just works seamlessly.

I know I can fix it in command line, but I don’t want to. I tried the KDE fuse plug in but that had other issues.

Started on Gnome 2 for a short stint then used Unity for a while (used to be Ubuntus DM). When I switched away from Ubuntu I was still looking for something "familiar" so switching to Gnome (it was like 3.8 at the time) felt right. Have been using Gnome ever since.

I've thought about switching to KDE a few times (when Gnome made some bone headed decision) but the way key combos and workflows are ingrained to me I would just set up any DE to feel like Gnome so why should I switch.

Gnome. Love how it just gets out of the way and let's me do whatever I want without interruptions.

KDE Plasma Wayland, I'm using it for gaming mainly and occasionally for VR.

Pros:

• supports DRM leasing mandatory for wired VR headsets
• supports tearing (also in windowed apps but requires an additional setting) which reduces input latency in games
• usually all the new fancy features, ex. HDR, appear quickly
• decent support for fractional scaling (handy on laptops)

Cons:

• you might encounter bugs. While Plasma 6 has been a much better experience as opposed to older versions of it, there are still some bugs here and there appearing between the updates. As of this writing thought I can't recall any bugs on my system.

Any tips for 4k gaming on Plasma?

If i force system scaling, everthing looks great but games dont get to use the full 4k. If i go with app scaling the games look fine but some apps are blurry.

I figured out a halfway solution where i use no scaling and just made the fonts bigger, but some ui elements are still tiny, and steam doesn't scale at all.

Is there a way to disable system scaling for just selected applications?

Been using KDE for 2 years and love it. Only weird issue is my old desktop i am running Arch with KDE headless to stream to the steam link in the kids room and plasma shell crashes a bunch. Still haven't figured out why.

To be clear, these are not the only two options, just the biggest and most new-user-friendly.

I got started in gnome, but am currently using Hyprland (and QTile if I need X)

XFCE

Check Bodhi Linux's Moksha Desktop. Pretty lightweight and does work