I use a Linux distro with kde, so I have a lot of customization available. I like trying other distros in VMs, but stuff like windows (no need to copy really kde is similar by default) and Mac is a pain in the ass to use that way. so, I want to know what your os does that you think I should copy using kde’s customization. I’m looking for Mac in particular (bc I haven’t used it before) but any OS or desktop environment is fair game.
Minimalism.
kde kinda just comes like that, taskbar and important apps (system stuff, browser, etc.) only. I’ve added some stuff but only things I use or anticipate using.
I meant more like not taking up shit tons of hard drive space, memory, or CPU, not having a billion dependencies, starting instantaneously, low cognitive load, etc.
It was kindof a sarcastic dig at KDE. I deserve downvotes.
KDE Frameworks used to be a single package (I think with KDE 4?) that people complained about because it contained unnecessary features for the software they want to use. They split it into different packages because of that, so software could only depend on the part of Frameworks that it actually used. And now people complain that KDE software has “a billion dependencies”. Unbelievable.
in my experience plasma 6 and gnome (idk what the newest one is but I’ve tried the newest in the last couple days on a couple distros) both boot just as quick and use about the same amount of resources.
Yeah, Gnome is far to bulky for my taste as well. I use Sway. It’s one single process. And it’s a Wayland compositor, so I don’t have any separate process for the X server. And Sway is currently using less than 90MB of RAM on my computer. With nothing else running but a minimal terminal emulator, htop, SystemD, and various daemons, my whole system is using less than 480MB of RAM.
And that all makes me happy, of course, but just seeing small numbers isn’t really the point either. Aside from resource usage, I spend less time fixing, fighting with, upgrading, configuring, and otherwise maintaining Sway than I would KDE or Gnome or XFCE, and more time using my computer for the stuff I want to do on it. (As an aside, Sway’s tiling model is absolutely baller. I rarely have to think about where I want my windows, and when I do have to think about that, I don’t have to go to the mouse to position/resize them.)
KDE and Gnome are two different varieties of seven(-hundred?)-layer bean dips of dependencies atop dependencies. I like that my entire graphical system is one process with comparatively few dependencies that I can wrap my head around pretty easily. (And, honestly, Sway is a step up in bulkiness/heaviness/complexity from dwm, which is what I used previously.)
fair enough
I feel the sentiment though, my daily driver is built off of ubuntu-server headless. I find it’s just the right amount of “has searchable solutions for near everything” and “is properly minimal” to base my workstation off of. I run X11, pulse, awesomewm, firefox, lxterm… fairly standard stuff but without gdm, gnome/kde even installed it’s pretty lightweight. The entire os uses ~780mb of ram (+23gb for firefox tabs lmao). It gets the job done, keeps my skills relevant maintaining the automation that builds it, is dead simple to troubleshoot, and has very few black boxes.
this kind of angst is valuable; I had considered looking into KDE until I read your comment and now I’ll pass on it
I’d still recommend trying kde. on my system it idles at around 3.7 GB of ram without steam and discord running, and 6-7 GB with them. gnome people like to pretend other things don’t run very well but the truth is that their lack of certain features does not make them any faster, the setup of a particular system does.
Funny thing is that KDE actually takes up remarkably little resources. You don’t have to install all the apps that come with it and the memory footprint is surprisingly small.