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Comment by jacobush | Hacker News Reader

I have been a interested onlooker for > 10 years. As a programmer, KDE always seemed and still seems awesome and ahead of GNOME, API wise.

As a user, KDE always felt like an annoying blinkenlight kitchensink where everything could be modified. Gnome started out a little bit like that (with config files) but settled into a mediocre but unsurprising and thus stable and useful environment.

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This has been true for me as well. KDE always looks awesome from afar. For a long time, I would get pretty excited about the fanfare for its next release, thinking this will be the one that hooks me, for sure.

Then I actually use it, and its a giant, sloppy mess. I always appreciate the gnome team's drive to simplify and reduce, after I try KDE (though I agree with many, in that they go too far sometimes).

Exactly my experience.

How do you feel about Plasma? I used to feel this way prior but now I feel like Plasma is just way ahead in default UX.

I fell to the dark side. (Mac.) Haven't tried it all.

You should give KDE Neon a go. It's Ubuntu LTS with the latest KDE, so you've got a stable base with a current UI on top. KDE4 drove me over to Cinnamon (Linux Mint) for a while, but I'm back on KDE5/Plasma, and I've realized I should have gone back earlier.

It's tight, streamlined and has a pleasantly small base install that doesn't get in your way with badly chosen default apps.

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