poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Nightfox <=-

It works, I think the only problem is bloat - with needing libraries
for multiple desktop environments.

There's a new term now: "Getting Gnomed".

It's when you install one application but it "needs" nearly all the Gnome environment loaded to run, whether you use Gnome or not.


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Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: Dr. What to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Feb 05 2026 06:55 am

There's a new term now: "Getting Gnomed".

It's when you install one application but it "needs" nearly all the Gnome environment loaded to run, whether you use Gnome or not.

Yeah, I've noticed some Linux distros have packages for Gnome support libraries. There are also KDE support libraries as well.

And for UI themes, I've noticed that even if you aren't using Gnome, some of the installed applications might be using GTK (the Gnome toolkit); there are a lot of GTK UI themes that will get applied to those GTK applications, but naturally, applications not using GTK won't get that theme. So you'll have apps with one UI theme and other apps with a different UI theme.

Years ago, I used to like Gnome 2, and when running in Gnome, all applications would look consistent with the same theme. But that doesn't seem to be the case anymore with other desktop environments.

One thing I've noticed is that KDE Plasma uses Qt, which is a cross-platform GUI framework that I've heard is considered one of the best and most popular (and wxWidgets being another one). Qt is available for Windows too, so theoretically, a program written using the Qt GUI framework (probably especially with C++) would probably be able to be built and run for both Linux and Windows with few modifications. I've done some C++ development using wxWidgets and that was one of the advantages of wxWidgets as well.

Nightfox

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I *really* like running Debian like that. I'm running an SAP environment at

Yes, it runs pretty good like that. ;)

I *really* like running Debian like that. I'm running an SAP environment at work, and we had two choices of distro - RHEL or SuSe. I'm trying the latter for the first time in 25 years.

Which distro is SuSe based on? I am not as familiar with it.

Mike
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Which distro is SuSe based on? I am not as familiar with it.

IIRC it's and rpm based distro that uses Zypper as a front end for
package installation IIRC.

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MIKE POWELL wrote to POINDEXTER FORTRAN <=-

Which distro is SuSe based on? I am not as familiar with it.

They are their own distro, their own software/patch system - not an
offshoot of Debian like so many. Apparently, it's close to RHEL in
structure, which is why SAP supports it.



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Unfortunately I have the dread Nvidia GPU so I've never been able to get Kubuntu running stably on my desktop.

Fedora either (although from what I read Nvidia now officially supports Fedora so that's good I guess.

Lately I've been rocking CachyOS and LOVING it. The Arch experience is not for everyone, but I rather enjoy the constantly updated software and don't mind fixing things when they break every so often.

Interestingly, Cachy works great on Nvidia GPUs. I use KDE on the desktop. I tried and quite like lightweight envs like i3 or Sway but find that tools I need for work like Zoom don't play very nicely with the simpler WMs, at least in my experience.

And I really do appreciate how customizable KDE is.

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Which distro is SuSe based on? I am not as familiar with it.

IIRC it's and rpm based distro that uses Zypper as a front end for
package installation IIRC.

Thanks. I thought it was RH/rpm based but couldn't remember.

Mike
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Which distro is SuSe based on? I am not as familiar with it.

They are their own distro, their own software/patch system - not an
offshoot of Debian like so many. Apparently, it's close to RHEL in
structure, which is why SAP supports it.

Yeah, I did not think it was debian based but wasn't sure which one it was related/close to. Thanks!
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if you just wanted to borrow something like their calculator, or the neat little task manager, you would need to install almost the entire desktop environment. for one little program.

Ditto for Gnome - when I ran Lubuntu, loading a single nifty applet
would need a ton of supporting files and libraries. I don't recall if
the *second* applet was any lighter...

Looking at it from a different angle... there was a machine I bought with
linux pre-installed that was set to use gnome. This was before it got its "touchscreen" look and the way it was configured it worked well.

There were applications that, if you tried to remove them, they would
indicate that the whole of gnome would be removed with it... libraries and all. I always wondered why they were set up that way.

Mike
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Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: MIKE POWELL to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Thu Feb 05 2026 08:11 am

Which distro is SuSe based on? I am not as familiar with it.

SuSe is kinda almost not really but sort of similar to RedHat. It's more like Arch, though, in the way that it puts things in different places just to be different. It's not AS different as Arch, but same BS.

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Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: feoh to All on Fri Feb 06 2026 06:01 pm

Lately I've been rocking CachyOS and LOVING it. The Arch experience is not f everyone, but I rather enjoy the constantly updated software and don't mind

Arch is ok, but when I tried CachyOS on my laptop, something new broke every time there was a major update. After the third time, I said eff it.

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Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: phigan to MIKE POWELL on Mon Feb 09 2026 08:04 am

SuSe is kinda almost not really but sort of similar to RedHat. It's more like Arch, though, in the way that it puts things in different places just to be different. It's not AS different as Arch, but same BS.

What kind of BS? I used to use SuSE for a bit, around 1999-2001ish, and at the time I really liked it, as its included configuration tools (such as YaST) seemed to work better than other Linux distros' tools. I've tried OpenSuse and then OpenSuse Tumbleweed more recently but haven't looked into the recent versions too much.

Nightfox

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Arch is ok, but when I tried CachyOS on my laptop, something new broke every time there was a major update. After the third time, I said eff it.

I get it!

It broken one day after an update, and I had to pop onto IRC and ask for help. The fix was easy enough.

For a LOT of people, that diet of constant change is a turn-off. I'm strange I guess because I love it for a desktop.

Servers? No way! But on the deskop? Give me the very latest please and thank you, and I'm more than willing to minister to the occasional scrapes and bruises as they happen.

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Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: Nightfox to phigan on Mon Feb 09 2026 08:33 am

What kind of BS? I used to use SuSE for a bit, around 1999-2001ish, and at time I really liked it, as its included configuration tools (such as YaST)

Sure, there are GUI/TUI tools, but that doesn't really change anything. There's a reason for those tools :). AIX has Smitty. HP-UX has .. something that started with 't'.. It's been a minute.. I might even have those backwards. But anyway, prior to SuSE using NetworkManager, it put its network configuration files in some goofy nested /etc path. There were plenty of other differences with it. I'm used to the differences between Debian and RedHat, but SuSE and Arch just go beyond being different to annoying.

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Lately I've been rocking CachyOS and LOVING it. The Arch experience is not everyone, but I rather enjoy the constantly updated software and don't mind

Arch is ok, but when I tried CachyOS on my laptop, something new broke every time there was a major update. After the third time, I said eff it.

Sounds like my experience with ubuntu.


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Could that complicate things on Linux distros that use a package manager? If you get the source and build it, the package manager would be unaware that tha
software is installed, so if you upgrade your OS to a newer version, that software might no longer work as there may now be different versions of libraries installed that it's incompatible with, etc.. Also I imagine you coul
also (perhaps accidentally) install the same packages from the package manager
and cause issues, maybe? And I'm not sure if there would be a clean way to remove it if you wanted to.

I mean, many of us are running synchronet (a non-package manager
program) on a linux distro that normally uses a package manage. I suspect
that any of us running on linux are in that boat.

The worst thing that normally happens is that you have to recompile the program(s) in question.


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Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: Dumas Walker to NIGHTFOX on Tue Feb 10 2026 09:02 am

Could that complicate things on Linux distros that use a package manager?
If

I mean, many of us are running synchronet (a non-package manager program) on a linux distro that normally uses a package manage. I suspect that any of us running on linux are in that boat.

The worst thing that normally happens is that you have to recompile the program(s) in question.

Yeah, but I don't copy Synchronet to any of the standard Linux diretories (like /usr/bin, etc.).. I build & run Synchronet from a specific directory, which I think is fine.

Nightfox

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Arch is ok, but when I tried CachyOS on my laptop, something new broke eve
time there was a major update. After the third time, I said eff

it.

Sounds like my experience with Cachy

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Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: Nightfox to Dr. What on Thu Feb 05 2026 01:37 pm

Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: Dr. What to poindexter FORTRAN > Thu Feb 05 2026 06:55 am

There's a new term now: "Getti > DW> Gnomed".

It's when you install one
application but it "needs" near > DW> all the Gnome environment loade > DW> to run, whether you use Gnome o > DW> not.

Yeah, I've noticed some Linux distro > have packages for Gnome support libraries. There are also KDE suppor > libraries as well.

And for UI themes, I've noticed that > even if you aren't using Gnome, some > the installed applications might be
using GTK (the Gnome toolkit); there > are a lot of GTK UI themes that will > get applied to those GTK application > but naturally, applications not usin > GTK won't get that theme. So you'll > have apps with one UI theme and othe > apps with a different UI theme.

Years ago, I used to like Gnome 2, a > when running in Gnome, all applicati > would look consistent with the same
theme. But that doesn't seem to be > case anymore with other desktop environments.

One thing I've noticed is that KDE
Plasma uses Qt, which is a
cross-platform GUI framework that I' > heard is considered one of the best > most popular (and wxWidgets being
another one). Qt is available for
Windows too, so theoretically, a
program written using the Qt GUI
framework (probably especially with
C++) would probably be able to be bu > and run for both Linux and Windows w > few modifications. I've done some C > development using wxWidgets and that > was one of the advantages of wxWidge > as well.

Nightfox

I prefer XFCE4 to KDE or Gnome. I use
Slackware and Gnome seems to be a lot
slower.

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Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: Lumni1968 to Nightfox on Sun Mar 08 2026 04:29 pm

I prefer XFCE4 to KDE or Gnome. I use
Slackware and Gnome seems to be a lot
slower.

I like XFCE, though if you have a high-resolution monitor (maybe 1440p or 4K), it seems XFCE's scaling isn't the greatest. I don't think it offers fractional scaling (you could do 2x scaling with it, but then everything could look too big). I gave XFCE a try on my main PC, but I found that Cinnamon looked better, and I think KDE Plasma looks even better. Also, it seems KDE Plasma is able to scale some applications that still looked small & hard to read in Cinnamon, such as Zoom (for online video meetings). At least, it seems that way in my experience.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: Nightfox to Lumni1968 on Sun Mar 08 2026 05:18 pm

Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: Lumni1968 to Nightfox on Sun M > 08 2026 04:29 pm

I prefer XFCE4 to KDE or Gnome. > Lu> use
Slackware and Gnome seems to be > Lu> lot
slower.

I like XFCE, though if you have a
high-resolution monitor (maybe 1440p > 4K), it seems XFCE's scaling isn't t > greatest. I don't think it offers
fractional scaling (you could do 2x
scaling with it, but then everything > could look too big). I gave XFCE a > on my main PC, but I found that
Cinnamon looked better, and I think > Plasma looks even better. Also, it seems KDE Plasma is able to scale so > applications that still looked small > hard to read in Cinnamon, such as Zo > (for online video meetings). At lea > it seems that way in my experience.

Nightfox

I keep mine at 2560x1080. It works
pretty well. I used to use KDE4, but Iwanted something that ran faster (I'm still using an I920 at 2.67Ghz and 16GBof ram).

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Re: Re: Kde Plasma Desktop Vs
By: Lumni1968 to Nightfox on Sun Mar 08 2026 04:29 pm

I prefer XFCE4 to KDE or Gnome. I use Slackware and Gnome seems to be a lot slower.

if you ever want super light, try something like openbox.

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