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Comment by mikece | Hacker News Reader

Is it really still an either/or choice between KDE and Gnome? I'm not a Linux expert but I thought there were more options than just these two. The article seems like it presents a false dichotomy.

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1) They're usually the best-supported by major distros,,

2) Most other solutions don't present as much system-config stuff as well as they (or Windows, or macOS) do in the GUI, so you're in for more mucking about in config files, writing scripts, et c. with any of the many window managers (not "desktop environments" like Gnome or MATE or KDE)

They're still the two biggest DEs on Linux, and also the flagships for Qt and GTK respectively.

Besides KDE and GNOME (and some GNOME forks like Cinnamon), none of the other choices are particularly close to a decent full desktop experience. They are generally either limited in nature or require you to be one of those people that likes to dig around for hours cobbling together scripts and adjusting the minutiae of scattered, poorly documented config files exactly to their specification. I have certainly done all those things, but of all the people I know nobody else actually wants to basically fight with their machine like that. They would rather want a useful suite of easily discoverable applications that they can use right now, and a couple ways to personalize their machine in a cosmetic manner.

This is not true. Ubuntu MATE works ootb. Linux Mint Cinnamon works ootb. Both have GUI to install apps. Just like KDE and GNOME.

Depends on the definition of "works ootb". For the most part I would say yes but a few little things here and there not, IMHO. It also depends on the distro but "ALt-Tab" through windows across workspaces (virtual desktops) often requires an install of dconf and setting it yourself. Just as a minor example. But that perhaps admittedly is nitpicking. Overall Mate works perfectly fine of course.

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