Most customizable desktop environment?
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What makes Linux appealing to me is the extent of customizability, but I didn't find many answers when looking up with desktop environment is them most customizable. Some say KDE is most customizable than say, Gnome, but doesn't Gnome support CSS customization while KDE doesn't?
They're all exactly as customizable as you are willing to alter them.
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They're all exactly as customizable as you are willing to alter them.
Some make it easier, though.
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Some make it easier, though.
Subjective. If you're talking about functionality, then GNOME wins. If you're talking about UI, then KDE might have the upper hand.
If you want to fundamentally change the way something operates, then it's neither of those.
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What makes Linux appealing to me is the extent of customizability, but I didn't find many answers when looking up with desktop environment is them most customizable. Some say KDE is most customizable than say, Gnome, but doesn't Gnome support CSS customization while KDE doesn't?
KDE has the most options out of the box. You can make it look like Gnome, or act like a tiling window manager, or like Windows 7, 10 or 11, just with the options it contains from the start.
Gnome comes with almost no options. If you add extensions, or know enough to make your own, the sky is the limit. But I wouldn't call that "customizable", you can write your own themes for Plasma, too.
Xfce is another one that's very flexible. But it's very hard to get it to look and feel modern, it will always be an old school desktop, no matter what theming and added docks you throw at it. -
Subjective. If you're talking about functionality, then GNOME wins. If you're talking about UI, then KDE might have the upper hand.
If you want to fundamentally change the way something operates, then it's neither of those.
If you don't mind me asking, what makes gnome more adaptable in terms of functionality than KDE?
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If you don't mind me asking, what makes gnome more adaptable in terms of functionality than KDE?
Gnome is very functional, it's just meant to function one very specific way.
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What makes Linux appealing to me is the extent of customizability, but I didn't find many answers when looking up with desktop environment is them most customizable. Some say KDE is most customizable than say, Gnome, but doesn't Gnome support CSS customization while KDE doesn't?
KDE fs
Or roll your own via a compositor and various tools a la Hyprland
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KDE fs
Or roll your own via a compositor and various tools a la Hyprland
Yeah, I second this. You may want to look in to DEs/WMs like DWM (C), Xmonad (Haskell), and AwesomeWM (lua) that let you customize them through programming.
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If you don't mind me asking, what makes gnome more adaptable in terms of functionality than KDE?
Gnome makes it easier to make you adapt imo. KDE gives you so much options that it's scary and overwhelming to learn and configure when you just want to use something in the way it's intended to be used immediately.
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KDE has the most options out of the box. You can make it look like Gnome, or act like a tiling window manager, or like Windows 7, 10 or 11, just with the options it contains from the start.
Gnome comes with almost no options. If you add extensions, or know enough to make your own, the sky is the limit. But I wouldn't call that "customizable", you can write your own themes for Plasma, too.
Xfce is another one that's very flexible. But it's very hard to get it to look and feel modern, it will always be an old school desktop, no matter what theming and added docks you throw at it.KDE if you want to just configure stuff. Gnome if you want to code or manually style stuff.
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What makes Linux appealing to me is the extent of customizability, but I didn't find many answers when looking up with desktop environment is them most customizable. Some say KDE is most customizable than say, Gnome, but doesn't Gnome support CSS customization while KDE doesn't?
KDE if you want to just configure stuff. Gnome if you want to code or manually style stuff.
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What makes Linux appealing to me is the extent of customizability, but I didn't find many answers when looking up with desktop environment is them most customizable. Some say KDE is most customizable than say, Gnome, but doesn't Gnome support CSS customization while KDE doesn't?
Probably Emacs. /j
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What makes Linux appealing to me is the extent of customizability, but I didn't find many answers when looking up with desktop environment is them most customizable. Some say KDE is most customizable than say, Gnome, but doesn't Gnome support CSS customization while KDE doesn't?
I customised Xfce a lot, only with menu settings.
I removed the window shortcuts from the status bar, the focused window title is written on the status bar. The window manager was removed for bspwm. The result is an optimized screen space while keeping the convenience of a DE. -
I customised Xfce a lot, only with menu settings.
I removed the window shortcuts from the status bar, the focused window title is written on the status bar. The window manager was removed for bspwm. The result is an optimized screen space while keeping the convenience of a DE.xfce indeed.
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KDE has the most options out of the box. You can make it look like Gnome, or act like a tiling window manager, or like Windows 7, 10 or 11, just with the options it contains from the start.
Gnome comes with almost no options. If you add extensions, or know enough to make your own, the sky is the limit. But I wouldn't call that "customizable", you can write your own themes for Plasma, too.
Xfce is another one that's very flexible. But it's very hard to get it to look and feel modern, it will always be an old school desktop, no matter what theming and added docks you throw at it.EndeavourOS's default XFCE theme looks very modern to me ! I mean sure it looks more like old school windows era, but that doesn't bother me at all. I like simplicity and customizability.
What's cool about XFCE, its only about config files to customize your whole DE.
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What makes Linux appealing to me is the extent of customizability, but I didn't find many answers when looking up with desktop environment is them most customizable. Some say KDE is most customizable than say, Gnome, but doesn't Gnome support CSS customization while KDE doesn't?
If infinite customization is what you're after you shouldn't use a DE. A WM like i3 och hyprland is much better suited for that
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What makes Linux appealing to me is the extent of customizability, but I didn't find many answers when looking up with desktop environment is them most customizable. Some say KDE is most customizable than say, Gnome, but doesn't Gnome support CSS customization while KDE doesn't?
I would say XFCE and Cinnamon; no two XFCE's look alike and Cinnamon can easily be molded into something very different as well.
I see a lot of people recommending KDE and Gnome; I've found those surprisingly rigid, although there are more guides on how to “rice” KDE into the most non-KDE things so there's that.
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Probably Emacs. /j
Great operating system, that. Shame it lacks a text editor.
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KDE if you want to just configure stuff. Gnome if you want to code or manually style stuff.
This. Or a window manager to code the whole thing.
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If infinite customization is what you're after you shouldn't use a DE. A WM like i3 och hyprland is much better suited for that
Agreed, but use sway instead of i3 for Wayland support.
