what is your flavor?

[oldfred]

fred@focal-z97:~$ echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
gnome-flashback-metacity

Gnome-panel or flashback/fallback is like the old gnome2 that Ubuntu had before Unity but based on gnome3, now.
It also is lighter weight as it works on my 2006 laptop with 1.5GB of RAM.

Prefer top & bottom panels as my Asus system has 4:3 monitor & panels on side used valuable space.
And I like Icons in top panel to launch the few main apps and open apps in bottom panel to go back & forth.

[kansasnoob]

fred@focal-z97:~$ echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
gnome-flashback-metacity

Gnome-panel or flashback/fallback is like the old gnome2 that Ubuntu had before Unity but based on gnome3, now.
It also is lighter weight as it works on my 2006 laptop with 1.5GB of RAM.

Prefer top & bottom panels as my Asus system has 4:3 monitor & panels on side used valuable space.
And I like Icons in top panel to launch the few main apps and open apps in bottom panel to go back & forth.

Do you still keep Nautilus as file manager? It seems to me as if everything GNOME is headed downhill.

[oldfred]

I still have Nautilus.Have not really tried others.

Have not yet tried some of the other similar flavors. Just so used to flashback/fallback, change becomes an issue.
I do change editors. like RPN calculators, so change that, use k3b which pulls in a lot, and a few other apps.

[Perfect Storm]

kubuntu (20.04)

Nothing more to add other than it feels lightweight, that is first time I experienced that with KDE.

[CatKiller]

Have not yet tried some of the other similar flavors. Just so used to flashback/fallback, change becomes an issue.

I was using a similar setup for a long time: gnome-flashback/Compiz, but I switched to KDE. I get the panels-and-menus workflow that I'm used to (plus wobbly windows and the desktop cube), and I have a lot more confidence that any changes the KDE team make will please me rather than horrify me than those from the Gnome team.

I'd say it's worth you giving it a try. At a certain point it becomes less change to switch to a different DE than to undo Gnome's shenanigans.

[exploder]

I had been away from Linux for a year due to circumstances beyond my control. I had two desktops in the closet, a 15 year old HP 7800 SFF and an HP 8200 Elite USDT, both had Windows 10 installed. Over public WiFi it took hours to attempt to update them and on top of that the updates would never install. I knew I wanted the plasma desktop because it looked streamlined and modern. At first I tried KDE Neon but it would not install grub 2 on the older machine and I screwed up the other system trying out the newer unstable release.

I downloaded Kubuntu 20.04 at a family members house, it installed fine on the older machine. My 11 year old son talked me into giving it to him to game on. He installed Steam, grabbed some games and he loves it! Both computers have SSD's, 8 GB of RAM and the older one has a older add in AMD graphics card. I was really surprised at the type of games my son was able to run! It got me to thinking, this is a really solid release! It would be nice to have the latest, greatest KDE software but was it really that big a deal when it came to my everyday use?

I ended up installing Kubuntu on my desktop, used the minimal install and added all my favorite apps. I did some minor customization, icons only task manager, alternate menu, wallpaper and changed the theme to a light one I thought made it look a little more streamlined. Of course I tweaked the settings here and there because I can't leave well enough alone, lol. The end result was a system that looks just as flashy as Windows 10, light on resources, and is really easy to keep updated. I did add Ublock Origin and KDE integration to Firefox, it makes using public WiFi so much better!

I am that guy that thinks he wants the latest software but under current circumstances stability is really more important. Higher version numbers don't necessarily mean that much when you are still doing the same things you did with the previous version. I certainly like the improvements in the newer plasma release and the one coming up! I realized though that the version I have is going to be basically the same for my daily use though. All my installed apps look consistent with the system and they all work perfectly!

The Kubuntu community are a great bunch of people too! I had used Linux for 16 years or so and it's great to be back!

[zerubbabel]

Budgie, and I've never been happier with a desktop in 30-something years of using *nix and Linux.

[uninvolved]

Lubuntu. I have modern hardware, but I like the simplicity and versatility.

[makitso]

Ubuntu Budgie, it's light, clean, and modern. And, the developers are accessible.

[poorguy]

Lubuntu. I have modern hardware, but I like the simplicity and versatility.

I like Lubuntu 20.04 for the same reason and it works great once I learned the LXQT how to.

I have 10 year old computers (Frankenstein builds) but hey most Linux distros work great on them.