all 6 comments

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Most Linux users probably perceive what this guy calls the "desktop" as a handy graphical application that helps with a few niche tasks, not as the thing that defines the whole OS. In other words, I don't care about superficial GUI differences between Ubuntu and Mint as long as Grep, Apache, GCC, Emacs, etc. work the same.

And as much as I hate Microsoft, this is kind of a "horses for courses" thing. If I need to crop an image on an Apple (*nix machine) I might run MSPaint in Parallels for that. I've been using it forever.

File Explorer is also vastly superior to Finder, and slightly better than whatever the Ubuntu analog is.

If I need to do complicated source control stuff on a Windows machine, I'll likely end up using MinGW or Cygwin.

[–]Tums_is_Smut_bkwrds 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I've distro hopped for years. Generally my criteria was what ran best on the hardware I had at the time. The desktop was never that important since none of them were, frankly, outstanding. Once I got comfortable with their quirks they generally worked well enough to get the job done and that was all that was important. But my main PC was still Windows, because of games.

Then early this year I gave Pop!_OS a try on a whim. Five minutes and I was sold. It helped that 2022 is the year that gaming finally became a practical reality on Linux, but that's not limited to Pop. I can still dual boot to Windows if I need to, but I've only needed to 3 times so far.

Pop isn't perfect and there are some annoying design choices as a result of its Gnome heritage, but its a DE that is literally worth changing for.

[–]Optimus85 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I use Pop! OS too but Gnome has turned to shit and using it aggravates me. I decided to install KDE Plasma a while back and it's a better experience overall. XFCE is worth a look too if you want a more simplistic and less bloated DE. Although Thunar, the file manager, had its issues.

[–]chadwickofwv 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

KDE is awesome, but I can see why the extreme amount of options could confuse a normie. Also, yea, Thunar sucks. Install Dolphin instead.

[–]Optimus85 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's the Swiss pocket knife of desktop environments; highly customizable. It's smooth and less buggy than it was a while ago and Dolphin works great too. I really enjoy using it.

[–]catfishrising 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

How about Cinnamon? It's basically Gnome 3 whipped into shape.