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Desktop environments: performance vs modern look (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 weeks ago by pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Some DEs are focused on resource efficiency, but don't look fancy. Others are fancy, but require a fairly modern setup. I have KDE (Fedora) installed on my laptop, I love its look and options. But it is not always snappy, some little freezes occur as well, even in basic situations (opening Firefox and v2rayN simultaneously was one of the cases). The most problematic thing is almost every app taking around 2-3 secs to open its window.

Many people would just tell me to install Xfce, but I still want a fancy desktop, I believe it is something I can afford on my setup. First I thought of GNOME, but it is controversial: some sources report GNOME as well optimized even for low-end machines, other claim it is much heavier than KDE.

What it your experience with desktop environments and their performance? Perhaps you have compared various DEs within the same distro and setup? How performant GNOME actually is compared to KDE? What are the balanced options to explore?

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[-] pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

I have an SSD. And it used to be snappy on Windows 10. The browser I use is not that bloated, again, it used to open instantly on Windows.

[-] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I think Browsers on Windows sometimes do dirty tricks and already load on boot (in the background). So once you click to "open" the browser, it's already in memory and pops up instantly. That might be the reason why it's instand on Windows, and takes time on Linux.

Both my browsers on Linux also take 2-3s to open. Though I regularly don't notice. I'll just leave the browser open all day, because I need it all the time. I closed and re-opened it right now, and it definitely also takes a very few seconds on my machine with a GNOME desktop.

[-] pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

Why would a thing like Waterfox preload on boot? The boot by the way is also pretty slow, systemd loading 100500 services on start I guess. But now this is an idea - enabling browser loading in background at boot

this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2026
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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