As a developer with an i5 6500 and 8GB of RAM, I've been experiencing some sluggishness with Gnome, especially when using Chromium and Codium, which sometimes leads to freezing during development. I used to run XFCE, but I find its appearance lacking and I'm considering switching to KDE. Will KDE offer a similar resource usage, or is it lighter on older hardware?
5 Answers
Before making any swaps, check which apps are consuming your resources. You might be surprised by what you find. Sometimes it's just a specific application taking too much power!
I run KDE on a similar setup, and my resource usage didn't significantly change when I switched from XFCE. I use Firefox instead of Chromium and Codium for my 3D printing setups. Occasionally it freezes, but that's more about me maxing out my RAM. You might actually find KDE to be quite manageable!
You won't break anything by trying KDE, so why not go for it? If it doesn’t work out, you can always return to XFCE. Just a heads up, though—Chromium is notoriously heavy on resources, regardless of your desktop environment.
I switched from Fedora KDE to CachyOS KDE, and my experience has improved significantly. I used to crash Firefox, Discord, and Godot on Fedora, but with CachyOS, I can run them all simultaneously without issues. My setup isn't state-of-the-art either, so I think KDE could work well for you too!
Honestly, for your hardware specs, XFCE is probably the lightest option. If you're not a fan of its looks, it's pretty easy to customize. But if you want to experiment, give KDE a shot!
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