Hey everyone! I've been diving into the Linux world and trying out various distros over the past month. I'm curious about why some desktop environments (DEs) seem to have more bugs than others. Personally, I've had a mixed bag of experiences. I started with Ubuntu and switched from GNOME to KDE Plasma, which led to random crashes and weird visual glitches, like my browser only loading the top half of the screen. After that, I tried Budgie and found it even buggier. When I switched to Garuda with KDE Plasma, I had fewer issues, but there were still some random crashes. Then, I moved to EndeavourOS with GNOME, which was smooth, but switching back to KDE Plasma revealed some minor problems again. Right now, I'm back on Ubuntu with GNOME and everything's running great, but I wonder what causes these inconsistencies. Could it be related to hardware compatibility, or issues with Wayland? What's behind these differences?
4 Answers
When I first started using KDE, it was actually pretty stable. After they shifted to Plasma, things changed significantly with new features added, many of which felt half-baked. Meanwhile, GNOME has been rock solid for my workflow. Sometimes it just comes down to whether the features are worth the bugs—there's a lot of clutter in KDE that might not be necessary.
The stability of desktop environments can vary due to how they're developed. Different teams have different priorities, budgets, and testing processes. KDE is generally considered medium-stable, but issues can stem from your hardware or the specific use case. It’s possible some problems were related to Wayland, as it tends to be a bit less stable than X11 in some cases. The beauty of Linux is that you can keep experimenting with different setups until you find one that clicks!
KDE is known for its customization options, which also makes it a bit more prone to bugs compared to something like GNOME. It's always had that 'bleeding edge' reputation, which means it can introduce new features that might not be fully stable. People have had gripes about both KDE and GNOME over the years, but it seems like KDE has been evolving too. If it's not stable now, it might be due to some neglected applications rather than the DE itself.
Have you tried using a non-NVIDIA GPU? Some users have reported better stability with integrated graphics instead of NVIDIA drivers, especially with certain DEs.
That’s true! KDE is very customizable, and while it looks great, I've definitely run into my share of bugs and visual issues. Just yesterday I was considering switching back because of that!