Well, you might feel more comfortable with KDE if you're more used to
Windows or if (like me) you like the absolute crazy amount of
customization options. But the beauty of things is that you don't have
to be in the "this thing and none else" group.
You can have Gnome, KDE, XFCE, etc. all installed and get a feel for the
one you like. KDE will run Gnome, and XFCE apps, and verse visa, etc.
You have to try 'em (at least enough to have a good idea).
For Distros, sometimes its what will install on your desktop and drive
all the devices. I just got a new Lenovo Legion Pro 7, and Fedora and
Kubuntu would run, but only Kubuntu really drove most all things (had to
remove the wifi7 MEDIATEK adapter 'cause of no kernel support, found an
intel AX210 and swapped 'em out). I run OpenSUSE and Fedora 43 as VDIs
but at work we use RHEL, Ubuntu, and SLES. I have a POC Proxmox cluster
I'm liking a lot that uses Debian 13 and my laptop is 25.10 (Kubuntu
'cause I like KDE). (I keep the SUSE VDI to build custom RPMs for a
tool we use via podman containers)
So, if you have a spare partition to dual boot with install various
distros, see which really drive all your devices well, and then commit.
I think RIGHT NOW, Fedora has a good thing going, Ubuntu would be next
Or Debian if you want more stable than new, I'm fed up with OpenSUSE
their Leap installer for v16 is a pile of dog crap (no I won't apologize
'cause it's true you can't re-use an existing partition scheme or even
/home file system). And OpenSUSE tumbleweed wouldn't even boot because
of secure boot. But I don't have any experience with any of the BSDs.
I tried Zorin, but their full OS is behind a paywall (might be worth it
but I'm cheap).
So, basically my suggestion is to try 'em all. (or go with Linux Mint
and use their desktop, a kind of modified Gnome which I cannot now
remember the name for).
On 3/5/26 18:32, Drew wrote:
Hello,
It's been a long time since I messed with Linux, specifically. I have
some more recent experience with BSD, but not recently enough to
affect my choices for a "modern" desktop. I have an older laptop I
have decided I want to install Debian on, mainly for the purposes of
running ham radio related software that won't run on MacOS, which is
my main desktop. I pulled live images for Gnome and KDE, and have
verified that everything on the laptop seems to work with the live image.
My real, burning question is, are there compelling reasons to choose
Gnome vs KDE, and is there something obvious I'm overlooking? I think
the last desktop I ran on BSD was XFCE, but at the time I think that
was specifically because it was fairly light weight and allowed easy
virtual desktop changing. It might have been 20 years ago (and my last
linux distro might have been Slackware) so I am confident things have
changed. Any advice or shortcuts to sorting out which might ultimately
work best for me would be appreciated.
Drew
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