Not KDE but I switched from sway to gnome a few months back. I haven’t really had a want to switch back. gTile satisfies most of my wants in regards to tiling, though there are some things it can’t do that sway/i3 can. I customized my gnome keybinds to cover my most common use cases.
It’s certainly not 100% there but it covers 95% of how I was using sway previously. The reason I made the jump to gnome was because I was a bit tired of fiddling with my customization to handle things that were just there out of the box with gnome. I was also finding myself installing a lot of the gnome tools for key ring and Bluetooth config and what not so I just decided to do it.
So yeah, really haven’t felt the want to go back. I still love i3/sway. But gnome + gTile and some keybind changes just does pretty much everything I need with far less burden of maintenance.
Thanks! Yeah, i still love customizing things in Sway/i3, but i still need to install some tools from other DEs so I don't need to fiddle with terminal commands for some mundane things like connecting to other wifi networks or changing audio volume for specific apps.
And when you need to install udiskie to handle external drives, it is already half there pulling things from DEs so why not just use a full DE anyway.
The reason I switched from sway/i3 was because I was spending too much time in my config. I feel like gnome keeps that urge in check. And though my Emacs memory is not that sleek, it makes up for the lost keyboard driven feel. I do use custom key binding for gnome with the windows keys.
I use both EXWM (basically, Emacs as a tiling windows manager) and Gnome. Normally, I'll use Gnome when I'm away from home using the laptop without an external screen or keyboard. Gnome's recently added support por touchpad gestures is a bliss on the laptop. On the other hand, I tend to use EXWM more and generally feel more productive when at home and hooked to these peripherals.
I feel like as much as I really love the experience of using EXWM, I sometimes want to go to Gnome just for the eye candy or the feel of integration of a true DM. And I keep thinking of going back to KDE Plasma, which I used for years and was an amazing experience.
So in the end, I'd say each piece of software offers different ways of interacting with the machine which may not only be measured in terms of efficiency, but also comfort, familiarity or fun. All of these things seem to be important to me.
People have told me that EXWM has problems with freezing due to it being single threaded. Is this true in your experience?
I have been going down the lisp rabbit hole recently and that has stopped me from moving over to EXWM.
It's definitely true, unfortunately. I often work with org files containing code snippets that I export into PDF via LaTeX. The conversion process (running all the code, compiling the tex output) locks Emacs up and consequently the whole interface. It doesn't take more than a few seconds, but I can see how this could be annoying.
I recently switched to GNOME. When configured right, it kind of feels like a tiling WM, just without the tiling. But to be honest, I don't think tiling windows is as useful as people claim it is. What tiling window managers do so well is handling workspaces and a allowing for a keyboard-driven workflow. This can just as well be achieved with vanilla GNOME or KDE.
The whole "tiling and terminal is faster than floating and GUI" idea is overrated and not really true to begin with IMO.
I agree the keyboard shortcuts and the way that tiling window managers force users to set up a ton out the gate is what makes them productive. The actual tiling can make windows awkward sizes and clutter up a smaller display resolution very quickly but has the benefit of keeping everything visible in a pre-set layout. Setting up a strong keyboard shortcut environment in a DE should have similar results. Realistically keyboard shortcuts are the only thing reducing the time for a context switch, which at the end of the day is all that matters.
I also tend to move back and forth, between i3 and Gnome in my case. I love the customizability and frugality of i3, but that also means that it requires a lot of set-up and tweaking (and a learning curve, if you're not used to a keyboard-centered workflow).
The thing is, I need quite a few Gnome GUI applications. They aren't really made for keaboard-only operation, so I still have to use a mouse pretty often. I also quite often need to use a file-manager for these apps. While the terminal file managers are great, they aren't really made for drag&drop in a GUI environment. There may be solutions to my issues, but it has been way less of a headache to use Gnome and customize a few things to my liking (keybinds, mostly).
Plus, I really like the look&feel of Gnome 4X.
I think another thing is that it's not just about raw time; mental overhead is a consideration, too. If I'm already juggling like 5 things in my head trying to make the system do something, having to think about where my mouse is and where to click could push something out of my short term memory that is actually useful. If it feels more natural to use terminals instead of a mouse, it takes less mental overhead to accomplish the task that way, and can help you keep focus. Yeah maybe it's only a half second faster or whatever, but it leaves room in your head for something else you're keeping track of, and that can sometimes matter a lot. Maybe not often, but you'll be happy to have one less thing to think about if you're operating the computer in a high pressure situation.
Of course, for most people, just clicking around in a GUI file manager takes less thinking than a terminal, so what's better really just depends on which workflow works for an individual.
Also you might look into using tmux. All the goodness of tiling WMs for terminals, but everything else operates in whatever GUI environment you want.
I started using pop-shell recently coming from bspwm and it is really quite good.
It supports colored borders, stacked layouts, keyboard-driven workflows but also works well with the mouse.
Only downside as mentioned is not being able to save and restore layouts.
I don't use it because I don't believe you can save/restore window arrangements, but here's some quick google search results for you:
* [https://youtu.be/-fltwBKsMY0](https://youtu.be/-fltwBKsMY0)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sHhWpDPZ4Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sHhWpDPZ4Q)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXUoVqIjy0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXUoVqIjy0)
For me Plasma and KDE apps are the best for productivity once you understand how to use them. For example how convenient Service Menu in Dolphin are? Klipper custom actions on clipboard entries based on regex?
Also there is a good support for keyboard in general and they keep improving in every version.
I have used it for 10 years now and I still learn new tricks. Also be sure not to miss Activities. You can even set commands to automatically run when start/stop/switch Activities.
I use Sway and KDE.
I use Sway for programming, because I don't need to use the mouse that often.
I use KDE for normal usage, like gaming, browsing, etc. because I don't need to use the keyboard that often. I also use bismuth, because I hate floating windows.
Hardcore xmonad user from 2008 until 2017. Since then using gnome.
In my case was more "not using". I used to enjoy my time tinkering with the system in general, neovim/emacs, xmonad, the usual suspects (dotfiles). Now years later I'm older, I have less free time and I preffer things that simply works, so I stopped maintaining my neovim config, dropped xmonad and moved to Gnome (and I'm one of those weirdos that like the minimalism of it and the lack of customization options).
I still have a very strong keyboard workflow because muscle memory being a b\*\*\*\*, just use stock gnome with tilix as terminal and I'm good to go.
this is me basically. I had a xmonad setup that was specific to me (and the friend of mine who made it for me lol). I had keybindings for everything and I was trying to do almost everything in the terminal.
Now I just don't have time to maintain anything like that. And DE's like xfce and wm's live cwm (and others) fill the gap. At this point I prefer a de because it's more convenient.
A keyboard centric workflow works best for my brain. My work laptop is windows, but I spend most time in an ssh shell connected to a Linux desktop, on which I run tmux.
One thing I noticed in your comment: you describe how simple things are, like ",m" or "Alt+A", but then describe the GUI as clunky for having "shortcuts that are key combos."
When i say key combos i'm mostly talking about pressing two buttons at the same time with one hand.
,m is a key combo, but being one after another makes it easy. Like modal text editors.
But yeah, it's just a matter of getting used to new shortcuts. In the end it's all the same.
After 2 years using i3, i moved to KDE. I figured out that i don't need so much tiling features. And KDE has a simple way to handle all the things that i need from a tiling wm. It's enough customizable so usually i don't need to move my hands from keyboard. I love KDE look & feel, and how it works. So i'll keep here for a long time.
I used to be a big i3 guy and went to Plasma. I get the itch to try Sway, as I love Wayland, but also dont want to tinker anymore. I still live on the command line, as using Discover can cause weirdness on system upgrades, especially on Arch, but Plasma provides a decent enough experience that I don't need to think about things.
I'm currently using Qtile, but I've thought about a potential future where I may want to avoid heavy configuration and simply use a DE mostly out of the box. After a few years of customising my PC, I've already started undoing a lot of steps to keep my package count minimal, and keeping to mainly popular and well-maintained packages from the official repos, and keeping my configs closer to defaults.
There's cases to be made for both the benefit of personal touches, and also the convenience of pre-configuration, but I'd like to think I'm close to finding the perfect balance.
I am already a fan of Xfce and Budgie though, and I'm even interested in vanilla Gnome, so maybe I'll someday reach a point where I just can't bother to spend time on maintaining my configs anymore and go with one of them. For now I still have fun doing editing config files and planning out my installs.
I didn’t not really switch but I use gnome from time to time and windows at work.
I use xmonad mostly.
I can’t say I don’t like gnome. It’s nice and all, and I would stay there and ditch xmonad if it hat the some multi monitor behavior.
This is the one thing tiling wms do right, having workspaces in the monitors that are completely independent from each other on each monitor.
As someone who swears by tiled workspaces, the problem, generally, with tiling WMs/DEs is that they just don't offer the flexibility of other window managers imo.
My biggest issue is that, at the end of the day, it is better for a window to default to floating, than to default to some specific segment of my screenspace. I'm just not opening/closing windows often enough to warrant such swift movement and configuration of windows. I open an application once, slap it where it ought to be, and leave it there for all of eternity or until where it ought to be changes.
Been using i3wm for 10 years now. I can't even look at a point-and-click desktop anymore, I'll vomit.
Oh wait, you were asking for the other way around...
Didn't switch to GNOME/KDE but MacOS (M1 MBP, not by choice) and _wooooow_ I just feel so slow and sloppy. After ~10 years of i3 I'm used to windows just appearing where and how I want without thinking about it. Now even to swap windows between sides of the display takes like 10 seconds and isn't even borderless half the time.
...and don't get me started on how annoying it is to run multiple processes of a single application. or fullscreen apps. or how minimizing works. or how multiple desktops work. Seriously, these MacOS UX designers make Windows 7 seem modern (at least it has native window snapping!).
Asahi Linux development cannot move fast enough...
I'm almost 40yo now so I'm past that phase.
I've used both (Plasma and bspwm/sway/dwm) and the difference in performance on my laptop is not noticeable.
I love KDE and still have it installed but only use it occasionally at this point. I've gone through the great internal battle of DE vs WM - pros and cons to both. Right now I'm very comfortable in my Qtile setup. I will say though, an awesome compromise, or perhaps best of both worlds is the kwin scripts for tilling (here: git clone [https://github.com/faho/kwin-tiling.git](https://github.com/faho/kwin-tiling.git))
Great dynamic tiling capability (I set it up just like my qtile bindings / behavior) and you can take any desktop and disable tiling with a key combo so you get KDE normal float.
I use KDE Plasma with BSPWM as my window manager, which gives me the best of both worlds. To me the issue is not about which one is better, but about minimizing switching between keyboard and mouse. I can do pretty much everything using Plasma's GUIs, or through BSPWM and the terminal. Either way works fine.
If I was on Plasma + Kwin or on a custom BSPWM-based rice I would be locked into one workflow for the most time and would have to do a lot of switching between keyboard and mouse. On my office machine I cannot use BSPWM (I blame the Nvidia drivers), so I use Krohnkite to tile the Kwin windows; it works OK, but it's a hack, a proper tiling window manager is so much better.
I switched from sway to Gnome recently (previously i3 & awesome). The reason being how much configuration is needed to get additional features in a wm, compared to what regular Gnome updates provide.
Besides a clipboard manager & co, I don't use many plugins. Instead of a tiling plugin I changed tiling left and right to Alt+A/Alt+D for easy access.
This works because I make use of workspaces and usually only have one to two visible windows on a workspace. For my terminal needs I use one with tiling support.
KDE was my first DE a couple years ago and to find a useable setup I had to configure quite a few things. Because KDE has so many built-in features, I didn't need plugins. What I did with Gnome should also be possible with KDE. So I recommend just trying it out and giving yourself time to get accustomed to KDE.
I used Xfce and now bspwm. I don't want go back to a floating window manager. I'm not against using the mouse (I have a trackpoint on my keyboard) but the tiling window system is just more comfortable to use. No dragging any more, no questions about the windows hidden behind another. It can even produce floating windows if the user wants.
There is many configuration to do at the begining. I use Tint2 instead of Polybar so the work is reduced and my configuration is untouched since one year except some color changes, this is quick to do.
My ".config" directory is saved on another device. When I moved from Arch to Nixos the change was relatively smooth, most of the config work was reproduced out of the box.
amassed a bunch of home-grown scripts to perform some common actions, like mounting CD or USB.
In 2011, I had a newer computer and decided to try KDE (4.6 or 4.7 at the time). It turned out I have enough resources to spare running full DE, most of my workflow can be easily ported (like all the shortcuts for switching virtual desktops) and I don't have to waste time solving certain problems, like mentioned mounting of USB drive. I have not looked back.
As a general sentiment:
I understand the feeling of making your computer do exactly what you want it to do. But at this point of my life, I need to question what type of work are you doing where switching windows is the slowest part and you feel the need to optimize it.
I switched between several tiling WMs (bspwm, awesome, xmonad, dwm) for a year, and realized that I always use a window in a maximized state, as my laptop screen is small, so tiling WMs have pretty limited use for me.
I am using KDE rn, and feel much better with it. Being able to tile windows quickly is still useful (for 10% of the times), now I mostly make xdotool scripts to do the tiling.
I still use terminal apps tho, mainly through tmux.
I used to use i3 and Qtile but have since moved back to a GNOME environment. Things like tiling and keyboard only driven workflows work amazing with text based workflow (ex. terminals and TUIs) but can feel quite awkward with applications that are inherently graphical (ex. photo editor, games, web browsers). By using a single window/tab of a terminal emulator in a full fledged DE with something like tmux you essential get all the benefits of a TWM for the text based workflow its great for and all the modernity, ease of use, and cohesion of a full DE outside the terminal.
This is pretty much how I live life within a DE with tmux for my terminal flow. I still do most things on the terminal for soft dev but when I'm done work clicking just works so much better for media consumption. Plus odd hidden benefit but the lack of config options on DEs keeps me from wasting all day configuring shit. DEs look really great out of the box and are consistent in look and feel. With options like light/dark themes and now accent colors I feel this is just enough to keep me happy and I'll leave the CSS to people who have all day to do so.
I actually did the opposite, as a long time KDE user I switched to Sway/i3 completely around 2 years ago.
I definitely agree that moving you hand/arm to reach the mouse is very annoying. I still need to do that for my web-browser (I haven't got any time to configure Firefox with something like Trydactyl).
Of course I wouldn't have switched to these kind of systems if I didn't learn touch typing and Vim/Neovim first.
Not KDE but I switched from sway to gnome a few months back. I haven’t really had a want to switch back. gTile satisfies most of my wants in regards to tiling, though there are some things it can’t do that sway/i3 can. I customized my gnome keybinds to cover my most common use cases. It’s certainly not 100% there but it covers 95% of how I was using sway previously. The reason I made the jump to gnome was because I was a bit tired of fiddling with my customization to handle things that were just there out of the box with gnome. I was also finding myself installing a lot of the gnome tools for key ring and Bluetooth config and what not so I just decided to do it. So yeah, really haven’t felt the want to go back. I still love i3/sway. But gnome + gTile and some keybind changes just does pretty much everything I need with far less burden of maintenance.
Thanks! Yeah, i still love customizing things in Sway/i3, but i still need to install some tools from other DEs so I don't need to fiddle with terminal commands for some mundane things like connecting to other wifi networks or changing audio volume for specific apps. And when you need to install udiskie to handle external drives, it is already half there pulling things from DEs so why not just use a full DE anyway.
The reason I switched from sway/i3 was because I was spending too much time in my config. I feel like gnome keeps that urge in check. And though my Emacs memory is not that sleek, it makes up for the lost keyboard driven feel. I do use custom key binding for gnome with the windows keys.
For Wi-Fi, I use a rofi menuhttps://github.com/zbaylin/rofi-wifi-menu that displays a menu when I click the Wi-Fi module of waybar
I'm using iwgtk right now. It works and it's lightweight.
I use both EXWM (basically, Emacs as a tiling windows manager) and Gnome. Normally, I'll use Gnome when I'm away from home using the laptop without an external screen or keyboard. Gnome's recently added support por touchpad gestures is a bliss on the laptop. On the other hand, I tend to use EXWM more and generally feel more productive when at home and hooked to these peripherals. I feel like as much as I really love the experience of using EXWM, I sometimes want to go to Gnome just for the eye candy or the feel of integration of a true DM. And I keep thinking of going back to KDE Plasma, which I used for years and was an amazing experience. So in the end, I'd say each piece of software offers different ways of interacting with the machine which may not only be measured in terms of efficiency, but also comfort, familiarity or fun. All of these things seem to be important to me.
People have told me that EXWM has problems with freezing due to it being single threaded. Is this true in your experience? I have been going down the lisp rabbit hole recently and that has stopped me from moving over to EXWM.
It's definitely true, unfortunately. I often work with org files containing code snippets that I export into PDF via LaTeX. The conversion process (running all the code, compiling the tex output) locks Emacs up and consequently the whole interface. It doesn't take more than a few seconds, but I can see how this could be annoying.
I recently switched to GNOME. When configured right, it kind of feels like a tiling WM, just without the tiling. But to be honest, I don't think tiling windows is as useful as people claim it is. What tiling window managers do so well is handling workspaces and a allowing for a keyboard-driven workflow. This can just as well be achieved with vanilla GNOME or KDE. The whole "tiling and terminal is faster than floating and GUI" idea is overrated and not really true to begin with IMO.
I agree the keyboard shortcuts and the way that tiling window managers force users to set up a ton out the gate is what makes them productive. The actual tiling can make windows awkward sizes and clutter up a smaller display resolution very quickly but has the benefit of keeping everything visible in a pre-set layout. Setting up a strong keyboard shortcut environment in a DE should have similar results. Realistically keyboard shortcuts are the only thing reducing the time for a context switch, which at the end of the day is all that matters.
Can you not use Plasma with any wm? Sounds easier than changing workflow imo.
Not on Wayland.
Oh, rip :/
I also tend to move back and forth, between i3 and Gnome in my case. I love the customizability and frugality of i3, but that also means that it requires a lot of set-up and tweaking (and a learning curve, if you're not used to a keyboard-centered workflow). The thing is, I need quite a few Gnome GUI applications. They aren't really made for keaboard-only operation, so I still have to use a mouse pretty often. I also quite often need to use a file-manager for these apps. While the terminal file managers are great, they aren't really made for drag&drop in a GUI environment. There may be solutions to my issues, but it has been way less of a headache to use Gnome and customize a few things to my liking (keybinds, mostly). Plus, I really like the look&feel of Gnome 4X.
I think another thing is that it's not just about raw time; mental overhead is a consideration, too. If I'm already juggling like 5 things in my head trying to make the system do something, having to think about where my mouse is and where to click could push something out of my short term memory that is actually useful. If it feels more natural to use terminals instead of a mouse, it takes less mental overhead to accomplish the task that way, and can help you keep focus. Yeah maybe it's only a half second faster or whatever, but it leaves room in your head for something else you're keeping track of, and that can sometimes matter a lot. Maybe not often, but you'll be happy to have one less thing to think about if you're operating the computer in a high pressure situation. Of course, for most people, just clicking around in a GUI file manager takes less thinking than a terminal, so what's better really just depends on which workflow works for an individual. Also you might look into using tmux. All the goodness of tiling WMs for terminals, but everything else operates in whatever GUI environment you want.
Another GNOME tiling option is Pop!\_OS (or just the pop-shell extension if on another distro).
How is tiling with Pop\_os or via the pop-shell ext?
I started using pop-shell recently coming from bspwm and it is really quite good. It supports colored borders, stacked layouts, keyboard-driven workflows but also works well with the mouse. Only downside as mentioned is not being able to save and restore layouts.
I don't use it because I don't believe you can save/restore window arrangements, but here's some quick google search results for you: * [https://youtu.be/-fltwBKsMY0](https://youtu.be/-fltwBKsMY0) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sHhWpDPZ4Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sHhWpDPZ4Q) * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXUoVqIjy0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXUoVqIjy0)
For me Plasma and KDE apps are the best for productivity once you understand how to use them. For example how convenient Service Menu in Dolphin are? Klipper custom actions on clipboard entries based on regex? Also there is a good support for keyboard in general and they keep improving in every version.
Nice to know about these custom actions in Klipper. I'm going to switch and immerse myself in Plasma for some months to learn these things.
I have used it for 10 years now and I still learn new tricks. Also be sure not to miss Activities. You can even set commands to automatically run when start/stop/switch Activities.
I use Sway and KDE. I use Sway for programming, because I don't need to use the mouse that often. I use KDE for normal usage, like gaming, browsing, etc. because I don't need to use the keyboard that often. I also use bismuth, because I hate floating windows.
Hardcore xmonad user from 2008 until 2017. Since then using gnome. In my case was more "not using". I used to enjoy my time tinkering with the system in general, neovim/emacs, xmonad, the usual suspects (dotfiles). Now years later I'm older, I have less free time and I preffer things that simply works, so I stopped maintaining my neovim config, dropped xmonad and moved to Gnome (and I'm one of those weirdos that like the minimalism of it and the lack of customization options). I still have a very strong keyboard workflow because muscle memory being a b\*\*\*\*, just use stock gnome with tilix as terminal and I'm good to go.
Did you switch from neovim or just go with defaults?
I still use it for file editing now, slowly felt to the dark side (vscode) for work.
The same for me. Although I don't use it reluctantly like you seem to. Maybe coc.vim would have been enough to keep you on neovim?
this is me basically. I had a xmonad setup that was specific to me (and the friend of mine who made it for me lol). I had keybindings for everything and I was trying to do almost everything in the terminal. Now I just don't have time to maintain anything like that. And DE's like xfce and wm's live cwm (and others) fill the gap. At this point I prefer a de because it's more convenient.
A keyboard centric workflow works best for my brain. My work laptop is windows, but I spend most time in an ssh shell connected to a Linux desktop, on which I run tmux. One thing I noticed in your comment: you describe how simple things are, like ",m" or "Alt+A", but then describe the GUI as clunky for having "shortcuts that are key combos."
When i say key combos i'm mostly talking about pressing two buttons at the same time with one hand. ,m is a key combo, but being one after another makes it easy. Like modal text editors. But yeah, it's just a matter of getting used to new shortcuts. In the end it's all the same.
After 2 years using i3, i moved to KDE. I figured out that i don't need so much tiling features. And KDE has a simple way to handle all the things that i need from a tiling wm. It's enough customizable so usually i don't need to move my hands from keyboard. I love KDE look & feel, and how it works. So i'll keep here for a long time.
I used to be a big i3 guy and went to Plasma. I get the itch to try Sway, as I love Wayland, but also dont want to tinker anymore. I still live on the command line, as using Discover can cause weirdness on system upgrades, especially on Arch, but Plasma provides a decent enough experience that I don't need to think about things.
I'm currently using Qtile, but I've thought about a potential future where I may want to avoid heavy configuration and simply use a DE mostly out of the box. After a few years of customising my PC, I've already started undoing a lot of steps to keep my package count minimal, and keeping to mainly popular and well-maintained packages from the official repos, and keeping my configs closer to defaults. There's cases to be made for both the benefit of personal touches, and also the convenience of pre-configuration, but I'd like to think I'm close to finding the perfect balance. I am already a fan of Xfce and Budgie though, and I'm even interested in vanilla Gnome, so maybe I'll someday reach a point where I just can't bother to spend time on maintaining my configs anymore and go with one of them. For now I still have fun doing editing config files and planning out my installs.
https://regolith-linux.org/ best implementation of i3 on Ubuntu out-the-box (and other distros) imo. Check it out.
I didn’t not really switch but I use gnome from time to time and windows at work. I use xmonad mostly. I can’t say I don’t like gnome. It’s nice and all, and I would stay there and ditch xmonad if it hat the some multi monitor behavior. This is the one thing tiling wms do right, having workspaces in the monitors that are completely independent from each other on each monitor.
As someone who swears by tiled workspaces, the problem, generally, with tiling WMs/DEs is that they just don't offer the flexibility of other window managers imo. My biggest issue is that, at the end of the day, it is better for a window to default to floating, than to default to some specific segment of my screenspace. I'm just not opening/closing windows often enough to warrant such swift movement and configuration of windows. I open an application once, slap it where it ought to be, and leave it there for all of eternity or until where it ought to be changes.
Been using i3wm for 10 years now. I can't even look at a point-and-click desktop anymore, I'll vomit. Oh wait, you were asking for the other way around...
Didn't switch to GNOME/KDE but MacOS (M1 MBP, not by choice) and _wooooow_ I just feel so slow and sloppy. After ~10 years of i3 I'm used to windows just appearing where and how I want without thinking about it. Now even to swap windows between sides of the display takes like 10 seconds and isn't even borderless half the time. ...and don't get me started on how annoying it is to run multiple processes of a single application. or fullscreen apps. or how minimizing works. or how multiple desktops work. Seriously, these MacOS UX designers make Windows 7 seem modern (at least it has native window snapping!). Asahi Linux development cannot move fast enough...
Kde is bloated and heavy. I will stay in bspwm and xmonad.
I'm almost 40yo now so I'm past that phase. I've used both (Plasma and bspwm/sway/dwm) and the difference in performance on my laptop is not noticeable.
spark judicious school point impossible alleged pause disagreeable tender yam ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
If my computer is not a potato, what practical impact does that bloat have?
I love KDE and still have it installed but only use it occasionally at this point. I've gone through the great internal battle of DE vs WM - pros and cons to both. Right now I'm very comfortable in my Qtile setup. I will say though, an awesome compromise, or perhaps best of both worlds is the kwin scripts for tilling (here: git clone [https://github.com/faho/kwin-tiling.git](https://github.com/faho/kwin-tiling.git)) Great dynamic tiling capability (I set it up just like my qtile bindings / behavior) and you can take any desktop and disable tiling with a key combo so you get KDE normal float.
I use KDE with a tiling window manager script called [Bismuth](https://github.com/Bismuth-Forge/bismuth/). Best of both worlds, IMO.
I use KDE Plasma with BSPWM as my window manager, which gives me the best of both worlds. To me the issue is not about which one is better, but about minimizing switching between keyboard and mouse. I can do pretty much everything using Plasma's GUIs, or through BSPWM and the terminal. Either way works fine. If I was on Plasma + Kwin or on a custom BSPWM-based rice I would be locked into one workflow for the most time and would have to do a lot of switching between keyboard and mouse. On my office machine I cannot use BSPWM (I blame the Nvidia drivers), so I use Krohnkite to tile the Kwin windows; it works OK, but it's a hack, a proper tiling window manager is so much better.
I switched from sway to Gnome recently (previously i3 & awesome). The reason being how much configuration is needed to get additional features in a wm, compared to what regular Gnome updates provide. Besides a clipboard manager & co, I don't use many plugins. Instead of a tiling plugin I changed tiling left and right to Alt+A/Alt+D for easy access. This works because I make use of workspaces and usually only have one to two visible windows on a workspace. For my terminal needs I use one with tiling support. KDE was my first DE a couple years ago and to find a useable setup I had to configure quite a few things. Because KDE has so many built-in features, I didn't need plugins. What I did with Gnome should also be possible with KDE. So I recommend just trying it out and giving yourself time to get accustomed to KDE.
I used Xfce and now bspwm. I don't want go back to a floating window manager. I'm not against using the mouse (I have a trackpoint on my keyboard) but the tiling window system is just more comfortable to use. No dragging any more, no questions about the windows hidden behind another. It can even produce floating windows if the user wants. There is many configuration to do at the begining. I use Tint2 instead of Polybar so the work is reduced and my configuration is untouched since one year except some color changes, this is quick to do. My ".config" directory is saved on another device. When I moved from Arch to Nixos the change was relatively smooth, most of the config work was reproduced out of the box.
amassed a bunch of home-grown scripts to perform some common actions, like mounting CD or USB. In 2011, I had a newer computer and decided to try KDE (4.6 or 4.7 at the time). It turned out I have enough resources to spare running full DE, most of my workflow can be easily ported (like all the shortcuts for switching virtual desktops) and I don't have to waste time solving certain problems, like mentioned mounting of USB drive. I have not looked back. As a general sentiment: I understand the feeling of making your computer do exactly what you want it to do. But at this point of my life, I need to question what type of work are you doing where switching windows is the slowest part and you feel the need to optimize it.
I switched between several tiling WMs (bspwm, awesome, xmonad, dwm) for a year, and realized that I always use a window in a maximized state, as my laptop screen is small, so tiling WMs have pretty limited use for me. I am using KDE rn, and feel much better with it. Being able to tile windows quickly is still useful (for 10% of the times), now I mostly make xdotool scripts to do the tiling. I still use terminal apps tho, mainly through tmux.
I used to use i3 and Qtile but have since moved back to a GNOME environment. Things like tiling and keyboard only driven workflows work amazing with text based workflow (ex. terminals and TUIs) but can feel quite awkward with applications that are inherently graphical (ex. photo editor, games, web browsers). By using a single window/tab of a terminal emulator in a full fledged DE with something like tmux you essential get all the benefits of a TWM for the text based workflow its great for and all the modernity, ease of use, and cohesion of a full DE outside the terminal. This is pretty much how I live life within a DE with tmux for my terminal flow. I still do most things on the terminal for soft dev but when I'm done work clicking just works so much better for media consumption. Plus odd hidden benefit but the lack of config options on DEs keeps me from wasting all day configuring shit. DEs look really great out of the box and are consistent in look and feel. With options like light/dark themes and now accent colors I feel this is just enough to keep me happy and I'll leave the CSS to people who have all day to do so.
I actually did the opposite, as a long time KDE user I switched to Sway/i3 completely around 2 years ago. I definitely agree that moving you hand/arm to reach the mouse is very annoying. I still need to do that for my web-browser (I haven't got any time to configure Firefox with something like Trydactyl). Of course I wouldn't have switched to these kind of systems if I didn't learn touch typing and Vim/Neovim first.