{"slug": "gnome", "name": "GNOME", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "Open-source desktop environment for Linux and other Unix-like systems, built on GTK.", "recommenders": 22, "commenters": 58, "warners": 26, "score": -1.207, "rising": 4.75, "first": "2025-11-14", "latest": "2026-10-21", "why": "Liked for working well out of the box with little setup and for a consistent, keyboard-friendly workflow with native GTK apps.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 22, "neutral": 9, "compare": 1, "warn": 28}, "spark": [1, 1, 5, 0, 0, 2, 0, 1, 3, 4, 5, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Works out of box", "Stability"], "caveat": "Limited configurability", "short_quote": "Personally I love GNOME because it\u2019s extremely productive and works out of the box.", "icon": true, "domain": "gnome.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.gnome.org", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["GNOME"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked for working well out of the box with little setup", "cites": [{"id": 792062896, "item_id": 49503931, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49503931", "by": "moojacob", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally I love GNOME because it\u2019s extremely productive and works out of the box.", "excerpt": "That\u2019s awesome! Everyone has different tastes. Personally I love GNOME because it\u2019s extremely productive and works out of the box.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 781775297, "item_id": 48860956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48860956", "by": "abenga", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I install Debian and the packages I use, I open Gnome, I open the software I'm using, I do my work.", "excerpt": "I really don't understand what everyone does that gets in their way on Linux desktop. I install Debian and the packages I use, I open Gnome, I open the software I'm using, I do my work.", "context": "Linux desktop user", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Good Tools Are Invisible"}, {"id": 735249904, "item_id": 45953119, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45953119", "by": "aki237", "date": "2025-11-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use vanilla gnome for my work and personal use case", "excerpt": "I have no idea what issues folks are talking about. I use vanilla gnome for my work and personal use case (given with well supported GPUs, read: no Nvidia). All the features work. Zoom/screen share/obs etc., Multi touch gestures work on laptops as smoothly as they were on a mac. HDR has started working recently even in my browser. VRR has been working for almost a couple of years. It doesn't break, most mem leaks tha", "context": "uses well supported non-Nvidia GPUs", "use_case": "work and personal desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "GNOME 50 completes the migration to Wayland, dropping X11 backend code"}, {"id": 786916080, "item_id": 49182255, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49182255", "by": "floriankarsten", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use gnome on two machines and don't touch it. The font antialiasing seems fine?", "excerpt": "You can't change font antialiasing on macos either. It might be the case that majority people wouldn't even touch whats in gnome tweaks. I use gnome on two machines and don't touch it. The font antialiasing seems fine?", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "\"Gravity is worth asking about.\""}]}, {"text": " and for a consistent, keyboard-friendly workflow with native GTK apps.", "cites": [{"id": 797237344, "item_id": 49827334, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827334", "by": "TonyStr", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is why I love GNOME.", "excerpt": ">I very much miss the days of consistent UX This is why I love GNOME. The community is doing a great job with creating GTK4 native applications. I'll often pick a GTK app over a more featured app, because they usually do enough. It's very satisfying to be able to use the same shortcuts in most applications.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts"}, {"id": 791731137, "item_id": 49483196, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49483196", "by": "Decabytes", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I genuinely miss Gnome and Native GTK apps.", "excerpt": "I moved to KDE from Gnome for a variety of reasons, but I genuinely miss Gnome and Native GTK apps. They weren't as customizable, but the features you did get work so well. One of my main issues with KDE is that the default keybindings for desktop operations feel like they were designed by people who don't navigate their desktop with a keyboard. Then there are little things like in Gnome the screenshot implicitly cop", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven"}, {"id": 797288560, "item_id": 49830535, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49830535", "by": "Roark66", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Eventually I settled on Gnome", "excerpt": "I too am in the \"it's done, it works well, don't mess with it\" camp. I've tested everything. Xfce, tiling window managers, kde. Eventually I settled on Gnome, but I incorporate few \"tiling features\". Such as keystroke changing workspaces on one monitor and the second monitor always showing the same few \"always on\" apps. I always have my terminal with tmux full screen on workspace 1. My Web browser on no 2. My IDE on ", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop with tiling-like workspace keys", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797232784, "item_id": 49827049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827049", "by": "t_mahmood", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love my silly simple Gnome desk", "excerpt": "Last thing I would want AI running on my desk and doing unpredictable things. I love my silly simple Gnome desk or barebones i3 with everything mapped to my preference. I can search and enter my search, and expect same results everytime, so muscle memory friendly. Gnome's search does calculation in search just fine, or search files, no need of any models. And app can provide their own search endpoint that gnome uses,", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is its opinionated, hard-to-configure design,", "cites": [{"id": 792373107, "item_id": 49523319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49523319", "by": "davsti4", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome's philosophy of unconfigurable defaults is disappointing", "excerpt": "That was about the time of the Redhat 9 to Fedora shift and I felt the pain too. I was using RH9 for the stability, but then switched to Fedora like everyone was supposed to. Well, that was a big bag of something left on the doorstep. I had to spend countless evenings messing with configs to get the system useable; then upgrades would break things. Finally found stability with Ubuntu after a few years, and still use ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Get your Windows license refund"}, {"id": 744227969, "item_id": 46514248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46514248", "by": "probably_wrong", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome's \"we know better than you\" attitude is why I switched to Mate years ago.", "excerpt": "I'm with the Mozilla commenter who suggests \"If the feature should be deprecated, the first place for such a change would be the platform toolkits\". I sometimes use apps where Ctrl-V doesn't paste, and they drive me crazy. I would also argue that they should leave middle click alone - \"some users are confused\" doesn't strike me as a good enough reason for removing a 30-years-old Linux feature (someone will always be ", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gnome and Mozilla Discuss Proposal to Disable Middle Mouse Paste on Linux"}, {"id": 764421105, "item_id": 47776319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47776319", "by": "wvh", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "At some point Gnome turned hostile on power users", "excerpt": "This is a flash from an almost forgotten past. I'm happy people are still using and even improving Enlightenment. I used to run Enlightenment in the late nineties and early 2000s, first by itself, then with Gnome bar. At some point Gnome turned hostile on power users and I switched to KDE, leaving also Enlightenment behind, as well as any extensive customization of my desktop. At that time, the ubiquitous themes.org ", "context": "power user", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16"}, {"id": 745365026, "item_id": 46585314, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46585314", "by": "Daunk", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I have to tweak GNOME so much to make it usable", "excerpt": "I've been using XFCE for a long time now. I often give GNOME and KDE Plasma a try, but I have to tweak GNOME so much to make it usable, and KDE Plasma keeps crashing and has weird issues (Steam friends list being delayed for example), which just got worse when they switched to Wayland. I really do feel like XFCE on x11 is the logical choice, it \"just works\" and every app runs well (Discord has broken hotkeys on Wayla", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "XFCE Is Great"}, {"id": 734822192, "item_id": 45926387, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45926387", "by": "killerstorm", "date": "2025-11-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've been using Gnome for years, but, honestly, it just isn't good: seems like it's optimized for very basic use.", "excerpt": "I've been using Gnome for years, but, honestly, it just isn't good: seems like it's optimized for very basic use. Something as simple as adding launcher to a panel now requires an extension. Also Wayland has some problem on my system (Thinkpad / Intel Xe) where it randomly just goes slow, this makes it an easy choice to try things other than Gnome.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "GNOME 50 completes the migration to Wayland, dropping X11 backend code"}]}, {"text": " which led several commenters to switch to KDE or other desktops.", "cites": [{"id": 792373107, "item_id": 49523319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49523319", "by": "davsti4", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome's philosophy of unconfigurable defaults is disappointing", "excerpt": "That was about the time of the Redhat 9 to Fedora shift and I felt the pain too. I was using RH9 for the stability, but then switched to Fedora like everyone was supposed to. Well, that was a big bag of something left on the doorstep. I had to spend countless evenings messing with configs to get the system useable; then upgrades would break things. Finally found stability with Ubuntu after a few years, and still use ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Get your Windows license refund"}, {"id": 789260241, "item_id": 49328765, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49328765", "by": "kushalpandya", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "any time you'd constructively criticize it on places like their Issue tracker or r/gnome, their defenders would come with pitchforks at you.", "excerpt": "The attitude partly affects GNOME too, any time you'd constructively criticize it on places like their Issue tracker or r/gnome, their defenders would come with pitchforks at you. Glad I moved to KDE nearly a decade ago.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "GIMP Development Update"}, {"id": 764421105, "item_id": 47776319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47776319", "by": "wvh", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "At some point Gnome turned hostile on power users", "excerpt": "This is a flash from an almost forgotten past. I'm happy people are still using and even improving Enlightenment. I used to run Enlightenment in the late nineties and early 2000s, first by itself, then with Gnome bar. At some point Gnome turned hostile on power users and I switched to KDE, leaving also Enlightenment behind, as well as any extensive customization of my desktop. At that time, the ubiquitous themes.org ", "context": "power user", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16"}, {"id": 744227969, "item_id": 46514248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46514248", "by": "probably_wrong", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome's \"we know better than you\" attitude is why I switched to Mate years ago.", "excerpt": "I'm with the Mozilla commenter who suggests \"If the feature should be deprecated, the first place for such a change would be the platform toolkits\". I sometimes use apps where Ctrl-V doesn't paste, and they drive me crazy. I would also argue that they should leave middle click alone - \"some users are confused\" doesn't strike me as a good enough reason for removing a 30-years-old Linux feature (someone will always be ", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gnome and Mozilla Discuss Proposal to Disable Middle Mouse Paste on Linux"}, {"id": 745376354, "item_id": 46586022, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46586022", "by": "liotier", "date": "2026-01-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome went in directions I found insane", "excerpt": "I used to love Xfce, when KDE felt clunky to me and Gnome went in directions I found insane. Since then Gnome remains Gnome, but KDE has matured to a stage where most of the defaults feel like they were designed for me - and any that doesn't can be easily changed. After a period of using more and more K* applications, I realized I might as well switch desktop... Xfce is now a fond memory, and the times have moved on.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "XFCE Is Great"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Works out of box", "summary": "Commenters say a vanilla install just works for daily tasks without tweaking.", "quotes": [{"id": 792062896, "item_id": 49503931, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49503931", "by": "moojacob", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally I love GNOME because it\u2019s extremely productive and works out of the box.", "excerpt": "That\u2019s awesome! Everyone has different tastes. Personally I love GNOME because it\u2019s extremely productive and works out of the box.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 781775297, "item_id": 48860956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48860956", "by": "abenga", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I install Debian and the packages I use, I open Gnome, I open the software I'm using, I do my work.", "excerpt": "I really don't understand what everyone does that gets in their way on Linux desktop. I install Debian and the packages I use, I open Gnome, I open the software I'm using, I do my work.", "context": "Linux desktop user", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Good Tools Are Invisible"}, {"id": 735249904, "item_id": 45953119, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45953119", "by": "aki237", "date": "2025-11-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use vanilla gnome for my work and personal use case", "excerpt": "I have no idea what issues folks are talking about. I use vanilla gnome for my work and personal use case (given with well supported GPUs, read: no Nvidia). All the features work. Zoom/screen share/obs etc., Multi touch gestures work on laptops as smoothly as they were on a mac. HDR has started working recently even in my browser. VRR has been working for almost a couple of years. It doesn't break, most mem leaks tha", "context": "uses well supported non-Nvidia GPUs", "use_case": "work and personal desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "GNOME 50 completes the migration to Wayland, dropping X11 backend code"}]}, {"label": "Stability", "summary": "Some users report long stretches without crashes, including on Wayland.", "quotes": [{"id": 743761505, "item_id": 46485094, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46485094", "by": "lifetimerubyist", "date": "2026-01-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I can\u2019t even remember the last time Gnome crashed on me.", "excerpt": "KDE has come a long way but I still find it just too buggy to be usable as a daily driver\u2026which is unfortunate because I don\u2019t really like Gnome either but it\u2019s the least worst of all the real options at the moment. Plasma will crash on me 2-3 times per day just doing regular things but I can\u2019t even remember the last time Gnome crashed on me. The ghost of KDE4 still haunts me.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily driver desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "KDE onboarding is good now"}, {"id": 743790785, "item_id": 46486924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46486924", "by": "joelthelion", "date": "2026-01-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been using wayland with Gnome for years without a single issue.", "excerpt": "I've been using wayland with Gnome for years without a single issue. Arguably my hardware is a lot simpler and I don't use Nvidia. But I just want to point out that, for all the flak wayland receives, it can work quite well.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Can I start using Wayland in 2026?"}, {"id": 735249904, "item_id": 45953119, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45953119", "by": "aki237", "date": "2025-11-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use vanilla gnome for my work and personal use case", "excerpt": "I have no idea what issues folks are talking about. I use vanilla gnome for my work and personal use case (given with well supported GPUs, read: no Nvidia). All the features work. Zoom/screen share/obs etc., Multi touch gestures work on laptops as smoothly as they were on a mac. HDR has started working recently even in my browser. VRR has been working for almost a couple of years. It doesn't break, most mem leaks tha", "context": "uses well supported non-Nvidia GPUs", "use_case": "work and personal desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "GNOME 50 completes the migration to Wayland, dropping X11 backend code"}]}, {"label": "Easy to pick up", "summary": "Several found it intuitive at first use, and it is suggested as a comfortable landing spot for Mac users.", "quotes": [{"id": 796859216, "item_id": 49803701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49803701", "by": "Andrex", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The first time I used GNOME, it was a breeze.", "excerpt": "> I have tried a recent Mac, and the system isn't intuitive at all. The first time I used GNOME, it was a breeze. Not the same with the MacBook system. I thought I was the only one. Maybe it's because I started on Windows and Gnome \"feels\" closer? Hard to quantify. Like they're US and Britain, while macOS is China.", "context": "started on Windows", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 742625762, "item_id": 46414110, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414110", "by": "nout", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a distro with GNOME interface (Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu...) will feel like at home after a couple tweaks", "excerpt": "This is a good time for trying Linux. If you are coming from Mac, then a distro with GNOME interface (Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu...) will feel like at home after a couple tweaks. I recommend \"Dash to Dock\" to get the MacOS dock experience and \"Search Light\" to get the spotlight search.", "context": "", "use_case": "Mac-like Linux desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Last Year on My Mac: Look Back in Disbelief"}, {"id": 763363634, "item_id": 47710227, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47710227", "by": "Cider9986", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am enjoying Asahi Remix with Gnome and it has sensicle window management.", "excerpt": "I switched to Fedora Asahi Remix[1] after being affected by this bug[2] after 5 releases of MacOS Tahoe. I am enjoying Asahi Remix with Gnome and it has sensicle window management. [1] https://asahilinux.org/fedora/ [2] https://youtube.com/watch?v=JjptYWKGVc4", "context": "", "use_case": "window management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Native Instant Space Switching on macOS"}]}, {"label": "Keyboard workflow", "summary": "Users like predictable search, workspace shortcuts and keyboard-driven desktop navigation.", "quotes": [{"id": 797288560, "item_id": 49830535, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49830535", "by": "Roark66", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Eventually I settled on Gnome", "excerpt": "I too am in the \"it's done, it works well, don't mess with it\" camp. I've tested everything. Xfce, tiling window managers, kde. Eventually I settled on Gnome, but I incorporate few \"tiling features\". Such as keystroke changing workspaces on one monitor and the second monitor always showing the same few \"always on\" apps. I always have my terminal with tmux full screen on workspace 1. My Web browser on no 2. My IDE on ", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop with tiling-like workspace keys", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797232784, "item_id": 49827049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827049", "by": "t_mahmood", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love my silly simple Gnome desk", "excerpt": "Last thing I would want AI running on my desk and doing unpredictable things. I love my silly simple Gnome desk or barebones i3 with everything mapped to my preference. I can search and enter my search, and expect same results everytime, so muscle memory friendly. Gnome's search does calculation in search just fine, or search files, no need of any models. And app can provide their own search endpoint that gnome uses,", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 791731137, "item_id": 49483196, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49483196", "by": "Decabytes", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I genuinely miss Gnome and Native GTK apps.", "excerpt": "I moved to KDE from Gnome for a variety of reasons, but I genuinely miss Gnome and Native GTK apps. They weren't as customizable, but the features you did get work so well. One of my main issues with KDE is that the default keybindings for desktop operations feel like they were designed by people who don't navigate their desktop with a keyboard. Then there are little things like in Gnome the screenshot implicitly cop", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven"}]}, {"label": "Consistent GTK apps", "summary": "Native GTK4 apps give a consistent UX with shared shortcuts.", "quotes": [{"id": 797237344, "item_id": 49827334, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827334", "by": "TonyStr", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is why I love GNOME.", "excerpt": ">I very much miss the days of consistent UX This is why I love GNOME. The community is doing a great job with creating GTK4 native applications. I'll often pick a GTK app over a more featured app, because they usually do enough. It's very satisfying to be able to use the same shortcuts in most applications.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts"}, {"id": 791731137, "item_id": 49483196, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49483196", "by": "Decabytes", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I genuinely miss Gnome and Native GTK apps.", "excerpt": "I moved to KDE from Gnome for a variety of reasons, but I genuinely miss Gnome and Native GTK apps. They weren't as customizable, but the features you did get work so well. One of my main issues with KDE is that the default keybindings for desktop operations feel like they were designed by people who don't navigate their desktop with a keyboard. Then there are little things like in Gnome the screenshot implicitly cop", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven"}]}, {"label": "Light on hardware", "summary": "Reported to run well on older machines and to be less resource-intensive than before.", "quotes": [{"id": 779145537, "item_id": 48696596, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48696596", "by": "littlecranky67", "date": "2026-06-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It runs superbly with Gnome3.", "excerpt": "I use Pop_OS! on my old 2014 Macbook Pro (16 GB LPDDR3, i5-4278U with 4 cores). It runs superbly with Gnome3. Given that it is 12 years old now and the latest supported macOS version with opencore legacy patcher was stuttering and unusably slow, there is a second life now for the machine. I mostly use it as a headless home server, the built in battery serves as UPS, keyboard and trackpad make it easier to setup and d", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide"}, {"id": 745380449, "item_id": 46586278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46586278", "by": "emilfihlman", "date": "2026-01-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gnome defaults to a nicer environment nowadays and doesn't seem so resource intensive anymore.", "excerpt": "I used to use XFCE a lot, but since then, even though it sucks in its own ways quite a lot, Gnome defaults to a nicer environment nowadays and doesn't seem so resource intensive anymore.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "Xfce", "story": "XFCE Is Great"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Limited configurability", "summary": "Many object to its opinionated, unconfigurable defaults and 'we know better' attitude toward power users.", "quotes": [{"id": 792373107, "item_id": 49523319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49523319", "by": "davsti4", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome's philosophy of unconfigurable defaults is disappointing", "excerpt": "That was about the time of the Redhat 9 to Fedora shift and I felt the pain too. I was using RH9 for the stability, but then switched to Fedora like everyone was supposed to. Well, that was a big bag of something left on the doorstep. I had to spend countless evenings messing with configs to get the system useable; then upgrades would break things. Finally found stability with Ubuntu after a few years, and still use ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Get your Windows license refund"}, {"id": 744227969, "item_id": 46514248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46514248", "by": "probably_wrong", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome's \"we know better than you\" attitude is why I switched to Mate years ago.", "excerpt": "I'm with the Mozilla commenter who suggests \"If the feature should be deprecated, the first place for such a change would be the platform toolkits\". I sometimes use apps where Ctrl-V doesn't paste, and they drive me crazy. I would also argue that they should leave middle click alone - \"some users are confused\" doesn't strike me as a good enough reason for removing a 30-years-old Linux feature (someone will always be ", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gnome and Mozilla Discuss Proposal to Disable Middle Mouse Paste on Linux"}, {"id": 764421105, "item_id": 47776319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47776319", "by": "wvh", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "At some point Gnome turned hostile on power users", "excerpt": "This is a flash from an almost forgotten past. I'm happy people are still using and even improving Enlightenment. I used to run Enlightenment in the late nineties and early 2000s, first by itself, then with Gnome bar. At some point Gnome turned hostile on power users and I switched to KDE, leaving also Enlightenment behind, as well as any extensive customization of my desktop. At that time, the ubiquitous themes.org ", "context": "power user", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16"}]}, {"label": "Window controls", "summary": "Missing minimize/maximize buttons and the tray-less design confuse users coming from other desktops.", "quotes": [{"id": 796848896, "item_id": 49803056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49803056", "by": "some-guy", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The decision made to remove these buttons absolutely perplexed me beyond belief.", "excerpt": "> Why don't windows have maximize and minimize buttons? Having had issues with KDE I decided to give GNOME a try recently. The decision made to remove these buttons absolutely perplexed me beyond belief.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 796842128, "item_id": 49802633, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802633", "by": "ndiddy", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Why do the extensions I installed to work around some of the above problems", "excerpt": "> I have tried a recent Mac, and the system isn't intuitive at all. The first time I used GNOME, it was a breeze. Not the same with the MacBook system. I guess it depends on what you're used to? The last time I tried using GNOME, I found it very unintuitive. I ran into stuff like: - Why don't windows have maximize and minimize buttons? - Why do I have to go to a separate screen to un-minimize a window? - Why does lau", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 797266784, "item_id": 49829174, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49829174", "by": "Telaneo", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Ergo Gnome does not 'just' work.", "excerpt": "> Well, it doesn't have a tray per se, so what would minimize actually do? That's not good criticism that it's different from win XP ergo bad. It doesn't fit with workflows I have. Ergo Gnome does not 'just' work. > For maximize, it's double click on the top bar, or super+up. Very discoverable. > It has a huge target for the mouse and it's super intuitive. No, it's not intuitive. I use it, but only because I read abo", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}]}, {"label": "Extension reliance", "summary": "Basic features like panel launchers require extensions, and heavy tweaking can hurt stability.", "quotes": [{"id": 734822192, "item_id": 45926387, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45926387", "by": "killerstorm", "date": "2025-11-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've been using Gnome for years, but, honestly, it just isn't good: seems like it's optimized for very basic use.", "excerpt": "I've been using Gnome for years, but, honestly, it just isn't good: seems like it's optimized for very basic use. Something as simple as adding launcher to a panel now requires an extension. Also Wayland has some problem on my system (Thinkpad / Intel Xe) where it randomly just goes slow, this makes it an easy choice to try things other than Gnome.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "GNOME 50 completes the migration to Wayland, dropping X11 backend code"}, {"id": 745365026, "item_id": 46585314, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46585314", "by": "Daunk", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I have to tweak GNOME so much to make it usable", "excerpt": "I've been using XFCE for a long time now. I often give GNOME and KDE Plasma a try, but I have to tweak GNOME so much to make it usable, and KDE Plasma keeps crashing and has weird issues (Steam friends list being delayed for example), which just got worse when they switched to Wayland. I really do feel like XFCE on x11 is the logical choice, it \"just works\" and every app runs well (Discord has broken hotkeys on Wayla", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "XFCE Is Great"}, {"id": 737620193, "item_id": 46101262, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46101262", "by": "Ciantic", "date": "2025-11-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "First, I installed GNOME based Fedora 43, that was a mistake.", "excerpt": "I switched to Linux in the past month. First, I installed GNOME based Fedora 43, that was a mistake. I got it working \"somewhat\" like Windows, with Dash to Panel etc. widgets, but stability was not there after all the hacks. Then I figured I try KDE Plasma, and this is so close to Windows that I made the switch permanent. Even little things like double-clicking on top, or bottom resize handle vertically maximizes the", "context": "developer who switched to Linux from Windows in the past month", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "People keep flocking to Linux, not just to escape Windows"}]}, {"label": "Stability issues", "summary": "Some report session crashes or breakage, notably on Fedora and with Nvidia GPUs.", "quotes": [{"id": 777225073, "item_id": 48576567, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48576567", "by": "em-bee", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "i thought GNOME had become unstable on fedora 42", "excerpt": "i switched from GNOME to KDE just a few weeks ago. the main reason was that i thought GNOME had become unstable on fedora 42 because my session started crashing rather frequently. since i was already using some KDE applications i thought i'd give it a try. the switch cost me a week of productivity until i had it configured the way i liked it. (which was mostly to make it similar to GNOME/Mac with a main bar at the to", "context": "Fedora user", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "KDE Plasma 6.7 Released"}, {"id": 777094369, "item_id": 48568398, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48568398", "by": "BatteryMountain", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it doesn't break itself like gnome does", "excerpt": "I don't have historic use of kde but I switched to it about a year ago, after a big release, and its been awesome. Very stable for me, allows custom dpi's for each of my monitors, it doesn't break itself like gnome does. I haven't bothered with other DE's since I tried it, not even xfce (old favourite of mine for tablet & low spec pc), kde performs even well on low specs. And highly configurable out of the box. Its t", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "KDE Plasma 6.7 Released"}, {"id": 800549649, "item_id": 50034353, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50034353", "by": "chausen", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I setup a new main PC (Nvidia GPU) with Arch and GNOME a couple of years ago and had quite a few problems. I switched to KDE and have had almost 0 problems for day-to-day work and gaming. Every once in a while I\u2019ll run into an issue with running a game that I can usually resolve pretty easily with AI. It seems the work Valve has done with KDE and Proton has really added a lot of polish to the experience; I\u2019ve always ", "context": "Nvidia GPU user on Arch", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}]}, {"label": "Display rendering", "summary": "Complaints include blurry font rendering, HiDPI settings, and weaker VRR and fractional scaling.", "quotes": [{"id": 745337632, "item_id": 46583602, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46583602", "by": "talentedcoin", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it could actually be a GNOME/GTK issue. Some questionable (?) font rendering decisions were made that for me caused all text in GNOME to be blurry.", "excerpt": "If you\u2019re unlucky in the same way I was, it could actually be a GNOME/GTK issue. Some questionable (?) font rendering decisions were made that for me caused all text in GNOME to be blurry. I hated it so much I switched to KDE but soon realized GTK apps had the same issue. Eventually I found a fix that worked and now I\u2019m happy. So, next time you can try this. In the file: ~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini You can add: [S", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe"}, {"id": 779309362, "item_id": 48706835, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706835", "by": "adrian_b", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "those are not caused by X11, but by a bad Gnome UI for desktop settings.", "excerpt": "I have used only HiDPI monitors with X11 on Linux for about a dozen years and it has always worked perfectly. However I use XFCE, where you can set directly the DPI values of the monitors, so that everything will work fine. I have heard Gnome users complaining about problems with HiDPI, but those are not caused by X11, but by a bad Gnome UI for desktop settings. So HiDPI is not something at which Wayland is better th", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Enhancing X11 Application Security with LXC"}, {"id": 773765617, "item_id": 48360351, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48360351", "by": "trostaft", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I like the more opinionated visual design of GNOME", "excerpt": "Truthfully, I like the more opinionated visual design of GNOME, but I moved to KDE long ago for VRR and better fractional scaling support. They just got it right and working. Huge props to the team, I know that's very difficult. EDIT: On a side note, is anyone informed about the state of VRR + fractional scaling + general gaming on GNOME? Has it gotten better?", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "KDE at 30"}]}, {"label": "Community attitude", "summary": "Some commenters say criticism of GNOME is met with hostility from the project and its defenders.", "quotes": [{"id": 789260241, "item_id": 49328765, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49328765", "by": "kushalpandya", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "any time you'd constructively criticize it on places like their Issue tracker or r/gnome, their defenders would come with pitchforks at you.", "excerpt": "The attitude partly affects GNOME too, any time you'd constructively criticize it on places like their Issue tracker or r/gnome, their defenders would come with pitchforks at you. Glad I moved to KDE nearly a decade ago.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "GIMP Development Update"}, {"id": 795293408, "item_id": 49705838, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49705838", "by": "qu4z-2", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome devs hate their users for some reason and want them to suffer", "excerpt": "> \"I don't care what you had it at before, now you are getting a full screen window or something random I made up\". Claude tells me this is an intentional design decision on their part... Yeah, Gnome devs hate their users for some reason and want them to suffer (although some people are into it, I guess). I recommend trying KDE or XFCE instead.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft patches Windows and Excel \u2013 breaks audio, remote access, and paste"}]}], "who": [{"by": "moses-palmer", "context": "long-time Linux user, on macOS at work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50018120", "date": "2026-10-09"}, {"by": "Andrex", "context": "started on Windows", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49803701", "date": "2026-09-22"}, {"by": "fedeb95", "context": "long-time Android fan, 7 years on iPhone", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802133", "date": "2026-09-22"}, {"by": "yesnomaybe", "context": "M1 Pro MacBook Pro owner and Linux desktop user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49447186", "date": "2026-08-26"}, {"by": "martinald", "context": "recently switched to desktop Linux", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49418914", "date": "2026-08-24"}, {"by": "exiguus", "context": "GNOME user for 15+ years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48861991", "date": "2026-07-10"}, {"by": "abenga", "context": "Linux desktop user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48860956", "date": "2026-07-10"}, {"by": "FrostViper8", "context": "42, uses HiDPI monitor", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46731410", "date": "2026-01-23"}, {"by": "gtest", "context": "Linux user with few DE requirements", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46596954", "date": "2026-01-12"}, {"by": "ku1ik", "context": "Linux desktop user for over 20 years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46478677", "date": "2026-01-03"}, {"by": "sandreas", "context": "Long time Linux Desktop user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46473149", "date": "2026-01-02"}, {"by": "kop316", "context": "Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46143927", "date": "2025-12-03"}], "tags": ["for Mac switchers", "for keyboard-driven workflows", "for Wayland users", "for older hardware", "for non-Nvidia GPUs"], "use_cases": ["desktop environment", "linux desktop environment", "default nixos desktop", "primary desktop environment", "desktop with tiling-like workspace keys", "tv desktop environment"], "compared": [{"slug": "kde", "name": "KDE", "co": 32, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 7}, {"slug": "kde-plasma", "name": "KDE Plasma", "co": 12, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 5}, {"slug": "xfce", "name": "Xfce", "co": 17, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "macos", "name": "macOS", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "mate", "name": "MATE", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "fedora", "name": "Fedora", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "windows", "name": "Windows", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "wayland", "name": "Wayland", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49825642", "title": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46584173", "title": "XFCE Is Great", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49801939", "title": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49478340", "title": "Get your Windows license refund", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48858121", "title": "Good Tools Are Invisible", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46513010", "title": "Gnome and Mozilla Discuss Proposal to Disable Middle Mouse Paste on Linux", "mentions": 2}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 2, "recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"warn": 7, "recommend": 5, "neutral": 2}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-05": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {"compare": 1, "warn": 3, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 4, "warn": 1, "neutral": 2}, "2026-09": {"warn": 11, "recommend": 5}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 2, "warn": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 802818833, "item_id": 50176177, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50176177", "by": "dlivingston", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The default is a bare-bones GNOME desktop manger", "excerpt": "The default is a bare-bones GNOME desktop manger (think Ubuntu if you're not familiar). But of course you could customize it to look like any distro or even something totally new; I use hyprland with a pretty unique setup.", "context": "", "use_case": "default NixOS desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "NixOS is making me less afraid"}, {"id": 800549649, "item_id": 50034353, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50034353", "by": "chausen", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I setup a new main PC (Nvidia GPU) with Arch and GNOME a couple of years ago and had quite a few problems. I switched to KDE and have had almost 0 problems for day-to-day work and gaming. Every once in a while I\u2019ll run into an issue with running a game that I can usually resolve pretty easily with AI. It seems the work Valve has done with KDE and Proton has really added a lot of polish to the experience; I\u2019ve always ", "context": "Nvidia GPU user on Arch", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800289920, "item_id": 50018120, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50018120", "by": "moses-palmer", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been using Linux / GNOME as my primary environment for the last 20 years", "excerpt": "I have been using Linux / GNOME as my primary environment for the last 20 years, but at my current job, that was not an option, so I'm on macOS. I tried for a week to get used to the unfamiliar key bindings for text input, but then I gave up\u2014I'm a vim user after all!\u2014and found a system setting to use the bindings I am more familiar with. This was picked up by many applications, but notably _not_ by the Microsoft suit", "context": "long-time Linux user, on macOS at work", "use_case": "primary desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Keyboard differences between Windows and Macs"}, {"id": 798556114, "item_id": 49909757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49909757", "by": "simion314", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I hate GNOME philosophy so KDE was always my love.", "excerpt": "I used lots of distros including Debian Sid, Arch, SUSE but Kubuntu was my first love and eventually I ended up with Kubuntu LTS , i no longer enjoy optimzing my kernel, bootspeed or other stuff, I hate GNOME philosophy so KDE was always my love. I run LTS since I do not want to run the latest bugs.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Upgrade your desktop: Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS is now available"}, {"id": 797451505, "item_id": 49840719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49840719", "by": "rustcleaner", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "GNOME did it back with GNOME 3 and it has been trash in my book ever since!", "excerpt": "I love Neo Store, because in my book complex > simple. Simplicity of interface = process handcuffs most of the time (IMO). Complexity done right permits so much diversity in composability. I would never ever want a 'simpler' After Effects or GIMP or Blender or Siemens NX. GNOME did it back with GNOME 3 and it has been trash in my book ever since! vomitface.gif Sometim... err more times than not... there should be a \"", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "F-Droid 2.0"}, {"id": 797418801, "item_id": 49838675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49838675", "by": "johnea", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "don't want, what I consider to be toys, comprising  the bling features of gnome and KDE", "excerpt": "I liked the rotating 3D menuing system. It was dismissed as a toy, but I found it very productive. I use a fluxbox desktop, and don't want, what I consider to be toys, comprising the bling features of gnome and KDE. I just want a user, text, configurable menu system, with no automatic anything. To me these calls that \"it works don't fix it\", just demonstrate how people have almost exclusively used typical M$ and appl", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797293456, "item_id": 49830841, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49830841", "by": "Telaneo", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome isn't and doesn't have any, going by the times I've tried to use it", "excerpt": "> You can have as many windows maximized as you want. There's not upper limit to maximized windows. I phrased that wrongly. Sorry about that. I constantly maximise windows, and I often minimise them too. I use the buttons for that. Sometimes i double click the title bar, and sometimes I just drag to the top. Neither of the latter two, or any other way to maximise or minimise windows, implie that the buttons shouldn't", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797288560, "item_id": 49830535, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49830535", "by": "Roark66", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Eventually I settled on Gnome", "excerpt": "I too am in the \"it's done, it works well, don't mess with it\" camp. I've tested everything. Xfce, tiling window managers, kde. Eventually I settled on Gnome, but I incorporate few \"tiling features\". Such as keystroke changing workspaces on one monitor and the second monitor always showing the same few \"always on\" apps. I always have my terminal with tmux full screen on workspace 1. My Web browser on no 2. My IDE on ", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop with tiling-like workspace keys", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797271024, "item_id": 49829439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49829439", "by": "Oxodao", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It's the gnome ecosystem in general that took this approach", "excerpt": "No but I never claimed that the shell itself was the main issue (though the app drawer is definetly part of it). It's the gnome ecosystem in general that took this approach. Of course I can use a different app each time one changes the way they do stuff but that's the point I shouldn't have to learn a new app because an update broke what I used to use", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797266784, "item_id": 49829174, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49829174", "by": "Telaneo", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Ergo Gnome does not 'just' work.", "excerpt": "> Well, it doesn't have a tray per se, so what would minimize actually do? That's not good criticism that it's different from win XP ergo bad. It doesn't fit with workflows I have. Ergo Gnome does not 'just' work. > For maximize, it's double click on the top bar, or super+up. Very discoverable. > It has a huge target for the mouse and it's super intuitive. No, it's not intuitive. I use it, but only because I read abo", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 797237344, "item_id": 49827334, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827334", "by": "TonyStr", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This is why I love GNOME.", "excerpt": ">I very much miss the days of consistent UX This is why I love GNOME. The community is doing a great job with creating GTK4 native applications. I'll often pick a GTK app over a more featured app, because they usually do enough. It's very satisfying to be able to use the same shortcuts in most applications.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts"}, {"id": 797232784, "item_id": 49827049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827049", "by": "t_mahmood", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love my silly simple Gnome desk", "excerpt": "Last thing I would want AI running on my desk and doing unpredictable things. I love my silly simple Gnome desk or barebones i3 with everything mapped to my preference. I can search and enter my search, and expect same results everytime, so muscle memory friendly. Gnome's search does calculation in search just fine, or search files, no need of any models. And app can provide their own search endpoint that gnome uses,", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop"}, {"id": 796863764, "item_id": 49803985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49803985", "by": "cturner", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Don't try to get KDE or Gnome going.", "excerpt": "If you try again, be less ambitious. Don't try to get KDE or Gnome going. Do a minimal install. Add just enough packages to get X working. Configure a simple window manager like openbox or dwm. I uninstall the networking managers. I wrote a simple bash menu program. In one terminal I used that to launch wpa_supplicant for the current network. In another window, I run dhcp. I have a workspace just for that. When I sta", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I said no and Apple said yes"}, {"id": 796859216, "item_id": 49803701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49803701", "by": "Andrex", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The first time I used GNOME, it was a breeze.", "excerpt": "> I have tried a recent Mac, and the system isn't intuitive at all. The first time I used GNOME, it was a breeze. Not the same with the MacBook system. I thought I was the only one. Maybe it's because I started on Windows and Gnome \"feels\" closer? Hard to quantify. Like they're US and Britain, while macOS is China.", "context": "started on Windows", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 796848896, "item_id": 49803056, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49803056", "by": "some-guy", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The decision made to remove these buttons absolutely perplexed me beyond belief.", "excerpt": "> Why don't windows have maximize and minimize buttons? Having had issues with KDE I decided to give GNOME a try recently. The decision made to remove these buttons absolutely perplexed me beyond belief.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 796842128, "item_id": 49802633, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802633", "by": "ndiddy", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Why do the extensions I installed to work around some of the above problems", "excerpt": "> I have tried a recent Mac, and the system isn't intuitive at all. The first time I used GNOME, it was a breeze. Not the same with the MacBook system. I guess it depends on what you're used to? The last time I tried using GNOME, I found it very unintuitive. I ran into stuff like: - Why don't windows have maximize and minimize buttons? - Why do I have to go to a separate screen to un-minimize a window? - Why does lau", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 796834128, "item_id": 49802133, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802133", "by": "fedeb95", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The first time I used GNOME, it was a breeze.", "excerpt": "I have been a long time Android fan because of the tinkering you could do more easily than Apple. Then I started appreciating some of the design decisions behind especially iPhone, and it's been almost 7 years of iPhone usage. Recently I am starting to question some of the design decisions. Most native apps are bloated with functionalities, most of the time useless. Ads pop up everywhere, even before persistence; iCl", "context": "long-time Android fan, 7 years on iPhone", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 795358035, "item_id": 49709877, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49709877", "by": "noir_lord", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome hasn't since v2", "excerpt": "Still supports a proper taskbar, one per screen with windows from only that screen on that screens taskbar (that's just how I've done it since the 90's but it's a must have because I think in terms of screen relations to where stuff is, it's my mental model) and virtual desktops (Cinnamon and XFCE both do this as do others) and it supports Wayland (which is why I'm not still on Cinnamon which I really liked as it's j", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cpak \u2013 OCI application package format for Linux desktops, servers and devices"}, {"id": 795293408, "item_id": 49705838, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49705838", "by": "qu4z-2", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome devs hate their users for some reason and want them to suffer", "excerpt": "> \"I don't care what you had it at before, now you are getting a full screen window or something random I made up\". Claude tells me this is an intentional design decision on their part... Yeah, Gnome devs hate their users for some reason and want them to suffer (although some people are into it, I guess). I recommend trying KDE or XFCE instead.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft patches Windows and Excel \u2013 breaks audio, remote access, and paste"}, {"id": 792373107, "item_id": 49523319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49523319", "by": "davsti4", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome's philosophy of unconfigurable defaults is disappointing", "excerpt": "That was about the time of the Redhat 9 to Fedora shift and I felt the pain too. I was using RH9 for the stability, but then switched to Fedora like everyone was supposed to. Well, that was a big bag of something left on the doorstep. I had to spend countless evenings messing with configs to get the system useable; then upgrades would break things. Finally found stability with Ubuntu after a few years, and still use ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Get your Windows license refund"}, {"id": 792062896, "item_id": 49503931, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49503931", "by": "moojacob", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Personally I love GNOME because it\u2019s extremely productive and works out of the box.", "excerpt": "That\u2019s awesome! Everyone has different tastes. Personally I love GNOME because it\u2019s extremely productive and works out of the box.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root"}, {"id": 791731137, "item_id": 49483196, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49483196", "by": "Decabytes", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I genuinely miss Gnome and Native GTK apps.", "excerpt": "I moved to KDE from Gnome for a variety of reasons, but I genuinely miss Gnome and Native GTK apps. They weren't as customizable, but the features you did get work so well. One of my main issues with KDE is that the default keybindings for desktop operations feel like they were designed by people who don't navigate their desktop with a keyboard. Then there are little things like in Gnome the screenshot implicitly cop", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven"}, {"id": 791671473, "item_id": 49479467, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49479467", "by": "dimgl", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Switched to Arch Linux with GNOME.", "excerpt": "Switched to Arch Linux with GNOME. Whenever an issue comes up, I have an AI agent look into it and it gets done. Worth it to get off of Windows.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Get your Windows license refund"}, {"id": 791154977, "item_id": 49447186, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49447186", "by": "yesnomaybe", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "am in love with fedora Workstation and Gnome", "excerpt": "M1 Pro here 32GB 1TB good machine but slowing down so much that I really hate it. I had Asahi on it 2 years ago but in the end had almost bricked it when I tried to reinstall. I'm running a Linux desktop well spec and am quite happy with it. But on the road and in the office I use the MBP. I'm thinking, now that I fully gotten used to and am in love with fedora Workstation and Gnome I should give it another try maybe", "context": "M1 Pro MacBook Pro owner and Linux desktop user", "use_case": "Linux desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra"}, {"id": 790702624, "item_id": 49418914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49418914", "by": "martinald", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I also had it set GNOME up the way I like it", "excerpt": "I don't think that's true. I only finally switched to desktop linux when coding agents could fix the endless small problems I came across. For example, there is a bug in the logitech mouse driver (combined with a specific AMD USB chipset) that occasionally does not restart properly after suspend. Coding agent fixed it (two lines of code) with a kernel module that automatically rebuilds after kernel upgrades. Another ", "context": "recently switched to desktop Linux", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Omacom Foundation funding hits $10M"}, {"id": 789260241, "item_id": 49328765, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49328765", "by": "kushalpandya", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "any time you'd constructively criticize it on places like their Issue tracker or r/gnome, their defenders would come with pitchforks at you.", "excerpt": "The attitude partly affects GNOME too, any time you'd constructively criticize it on places like their Issue tracker or r/gnome, their defenders would come with pitchforks at you. Glad I moved to KDE nearly a decade ago.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "GIMP Development Update"}, {"id": 786916080, "item_id": 49182255, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49182255", "by": "floriankarsten", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use gnome on two machines and don't touch it. The font antialiasing seems fine?", "excerpt": "You can't change font antialiasing on macos either. It might be the case that majority people wouldn't even touch whats in gnome tweaks. I use gnome on two machines and don't touch it. The font antialiasing seems fine?", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "\"Gravity is worth asking about.\""}, {"id": 785926290, "item_id": 49120393, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49120393", "by": "PufPufPuf", "date": "2026-07-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "You can use GNOME with scaled up UI or KDE Bigscreen (recently resurrected) for the DE.", "excerpt": "I use the VacuumTube app (https://flathub.org/en/apps/rocks.shy.VacuumTube), which has ad block, sponsor block, and some more advanced settings! You can use GNOME with scaled up UI or KDE Bigscreen (recently resurrected) for the DE.", "context": "", "use_case": "TV desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Read This Before You Buy That TV Streaming Stick"}, {"id": 781791857, "item_id": 48861991, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48861991", "by": "exiguus", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "After using GNOME for over 15 years", "excerpt": "I had a similar experience with macOS a few years ago. After using GNOME for over 15 years, I had to switch to a Mac for work for about two years; and I never fully adapted. Windows, on the other hand, I've never been able to take seriously; every time I use it, the interface feels completely different. The same goes for tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I prefer Markdown for creating presentations and document", "context": "GNOME user for 15+ years", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Good Tools Are Invisible"}, {"id": 781775297, "item_id": 48860956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48860956", "by": "abenga", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I install Debian and the packages I use, I open Gnome, I open the software I'm using, I do my work.", "excerpt": "I really don't understand what everyone does that gets in their way on Linux desktop. I install Debian and the packages I use, I open Gnome, I open the software I'm using, I do my work.", "context": "Linux desktop user", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Good Tools Are Invisible"}, {"id": 779309362, "item_id": 48706835, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706835", "by": "adrian_b", "date": "2026-06-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "those are not caused by X11, but by a bad Gnome UI for desktop settings.", "excerpt": "I have used only HiDPI monitors with X11 on Linux for about a dozen years and it has always worked perfectly. However I use XFCE, where you can set directly the DPI values of the monitors, so that everything will work fine. I have heard Gnome users complaining about problems with HiDPI, but those are not caused by X11, but by a bad Gnome UI for desktop settings. So HiDPI is not something at which Wayland is better th", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Enhancing X11 Application Security with LXC"}, {"id": 779145537, "item_id": 48696596, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48696596", "by": "littlecranky67", "date": "2026-06-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It runs superbly with Gnome3.", "excerpt": "I use Pop_OS! on my old 2014 Macbook Pro (16 GB LPDDR3, i5-4278U with 4 cores). It runs superbly with Gnome3. Given that it is 12 years old now and the latest supported macOS version with opencore legacy patcher was stuttering and unusably slow, there is a second life now for the machine. I mostly use it as a headless home server, the built in battery serves as UPS, keyboard and trackpad make it easier to setup and d", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide"}, {"id": 777225073, "item_id": 48576567, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48576567", "by": "em-bee", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "i thought GNOME had become unstable on fedora 42", "excerpt": "i switched from GNOME to KDE just a few weeks ago. the main reason was that i thought GNOME had become unstable on fedora 42 because my session started crashing rather frequently. since i was already using some KDE applications i thought i'd give it a try. the switch cost me a week of productivity until i had it configured the way i liked it. (which was mostly to make it similar to GNOME/Mac with a main bar at the to", "context": "Fedora user", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "KDE Plasma 6.7 Released"}, {"id": 777094369, "item_id": 48568398, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48568398", "by": "BatteryMountain", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it doesn't break itself like gnome does", "excerpt": "I don't have historic use of kde but I switched to it about a year ago, after a big release, and its been awesome. Very stable for me, allows custom dpi's for each of my monitors, it doesn't break itself like gnome does. I haven't bothered with other DE's since I tried it, not even xfce (old favourite of mine for tablet & low spec pc), kde performs even well on low specs. And highly configurable out of the box. Its t", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "KDE Plasma 6.7 Released"}, {"id": 773765617, "item_id": 48360351, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48360351", "by": "trostaft", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I like the more opinionated visual design of GNOME", "excerpt": "Truthfully, I like the more opinionated visual design of GNOME, but I moved to KDE long ago for VRR and better fractional scaling support. They just got it right and working. Huge props to the team, I know that's very difficult. EDIT: On a side note, is anyone informed about the state of VRR + fractional scaling + general gaming on GNOME? Has it gotten better?", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "KDE at 30"}, {"id": 773279618, "item_id": 48329976, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48329976", "by": "ntnsndr", "date": "2026-05-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "keeping GNOME for the handful of things Cosmic glitches out on", "excerpt": "I recently got a FW12 and, for a random data point, my kids love it: the color, the ability to do art on the touchscreen, the foldability. And I love all those things too, in addition to getting to play with various flavors of Linux on it. (Now running Fedora with Cosmic, but keeping GNOME for the handful of things Cosmic glitches out on.) It is just a fun computer, and I appreciate that playfulness about it every da", "context": "", "use_case": "fallback desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12"}, {"id": 769700626, "item_id": 48106289, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48106289", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "KDE and GNOME are IMO just pointless eyecandy these days.", "excerpt": "GEM Desktop 1.2 looks sooooooo like the ancient Apple operating systems. I first saw this on a friends' parents computer and was quite astonished why computers may look like that. I was very used to Windows/DOS back then. I am also glad to have switched to Linux in 2004 already. Once you have been using Linux for a while, whenever I use windows I am annoyed at how slow it is. Just file copy operations alone and then ", "context": "uses the command line mostly", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Screenshots of Old Desktop OSes"}, {"id": 766244656, "item_id": 47890291, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47890291", "by": "4l3x4f1sh3r", "date": "2026-04-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Linux / Gnome, Firefox, Immich, Paperless NGX, GIMP", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are your top open source apps/software?"}, {"id": 764421105, "item_id": 47776319, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47776319", "by": "wvh", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "At some point Gnome turned hostile on power users", "excerpt": "This is a flash from an almost forgotten past. I'm happy people are still using and even improving Enlightenment. I used to run Enlightenment in the late nineties and early 2000s, first by itself, then with Gnome bar. At some point Gnome turned hostile on power users and I switched to KDE, leaving also Enlightenment behind, as well as any extensive customization of my desktop. At that time, the ubiquitous themes.org ", "context": "power user", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fixing a 20-year-old bug in Enlightenment E16"}, {"id": 763363634, "item_id": 47710227, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47710227", "by": "Cider9986", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am enjoying Asahi Remix with Gnome and it has sensicle window management.", "excerpt": "I switched to Fedora Asahi Remix[1] after being affected by this bug[2] after 5 releases of MacOS Tahoe. I am enjoying Asahi Remix with Gnome and it has sensicle window management. [1] https://asahilinux.org/fedora/ [2] https://youtube.com/watch?v=JjptYWKGVc4", "context": "", "use_case": "window management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Native Instant Space Switching on macOS"}, {"id": 745376354, "item_id": 46586022, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46586022", "by": "liotier", "date": "2026-01-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome went in directions I found insane", "excerpt": "I used to love Xfce, when KDE felt clunky to me and Gnome went in directions I found insane. Since then Gnome remains Gnome, but KDE has matured to a stage where most of the defaults feel like they were designed for me - and any that doesn't can be easily changed. After a period of using more and more K* applications, I realized I might as well switch desktop... Xfce is now a fond memory, and the times have moved on.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "XFCE Is Great"}, {"id": 745365026, "item_id": 46585314, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46585314", "by": "Daunk", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I have to tweak GNOME so much to make it usable", "excerpt": "I've been using XFCE for a long time now. I often give GNOME and KDE Plasma a try, but I have to tweak GNOME so much to make it usable, and KDE Plasma keeps crashing and has weird issues (Steam friends list being delayed for example), which just got worse when they switched to Wayland. I really do feel like XFCE on x11 is the logical choice, it \"just works\" and every app runs well (Discord has broken hotkeys on Wayla", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "XFCE Is Great"}, {"id": 744227969, "item_id": 46514248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46514248", "by": "probably_wrong", "date": "2026-01-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Gnome's \"we know better than you\" attitude is why I switched to Mate years ago.", "excerpt": "I'm with the Mozilla commenter who suggests \"If the feature should be deprecated, the first place for such a change would be the platform toolkits\". I sometimes use apps where Ctrl-V doesn't paste, and they drive me crazy. I would also argue that they should leave middle click alone - \"some users are confused\" doesn't strike me as a good enough reason for removing a 30-years-old Linux feature (someone will always be ", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gnome and Mozilla Discuss Proposal to Disable Middle Mouse Paste on Linux"}, {"id": 735249904, "item_id": 45953119, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45953119", "by": "aki237", "date": "2025-11-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use vanilla gnome for my work and personal use case", "excerpt": "I have no idea what issues folks are talking about. I use vanilla gnome for my work and personal use case (given with well supported GPUs, read: no Nvidia). All the features work. Zoom/screen share/obs etc., Multi touch gestures work on laptops as smoothly as they were on a mac. HDR has started working recently even in my browser. VRR has been working for almost a couple of years. It doesn't break, most mem leaks tha", "context": "uses well supported non-Nvidia GPUs", "use_case": "work and personal desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "GNOME 50 completes the migration to Wayland, dropping X11 backend code"}, {"id": 734822192, "item_id": 45926387, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45926387", "by": "killerstorm", "date": "2025-11-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've been using Gnome for years, but, honestly, it just isn't good: seems like it's optimized for very basic use.", "excerpt": "I've been using Gnome for years, but, honestly, it just isn't good: seems like it's optimized for very basic use. Something as simple as adding launcher to a panel now requires an extension. Also Wayland has some problem on my system (Thinkpad / Intel Xe) where it randomly just goes slow, this makes it an easy choice to try things other than Gnome.", "context": "", "use_case": "desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "GNOME 50 completes the migration to Wayland, dropping X11 backend code"}]}