I've been primarily a Windows user for many years, though I've also used Linux for quite a while too, for work and sometimes at home. My favorite Linux distro lately has been Linux Mint, as it usually "just works". I've had my main PC at home set up to dual-boot Windows and Linux Mint for a few years, though I had mainly still been using Windows on it.

I recently started primarily using Linux on my main PC, as there are some things about Windows that have been bugging me: Some personalization chagnes reverting back to stock, and auto-rebooting overnight to install Windows updates if I leave the PC on (I'm pretty sure you can configure Windows to wait to install updates though).

I have a 4K monitor that I use on my main PC, and although Mint's Cinnamon desktop environment looks fairly good on it, I still thought it could look better. Also, Cinnamon's fractional scaling (although working) is still experimental. I use the factional scaling to scale things up a bit but not too big.

I did some research on what Linux desktop environments look best on a 4Kq monitor. I kept seeing KDE Plasma recommended, particularly with Wayland (which is a modern replacement for X11, which is designed to perform better and handle modern features better, such as fractional scaling).

Since I've been used to using Linux Mint lately, I gave KUbuntu a try (Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, and KUbuntu is basically Ubuntu with KDE Plasma). I first installed KUbuntu 25.10 alongside Linux Mint to try them both; I ended up really liking how things look overall with KDE Plasma in KUbuntu, so I decided to fully replace my Linux Mint setup on my main desktop with KUbuntu. So far I'm enjoying it.

I've heard there are some reasons why people don't really like Snap in Ubuntu; I saw there's a way to disable Snap, which I've done, as well as enabled Flatpak in its software configuration, so that part is basically set up like Linux Mint. But I feel like it might not really matter much in the end.

As far as running Windows software, I still have my PC set to dual-boot with Windows, so I can still use Windows when needed for certain software. But I've also set up a Windows 11 virtual machine in the Linux setup, and I've installed Wine too, which is able to directly run some Windows software in Linux. There are also other options for making it easier to run Windows software, such as Bottles (which I haven't used much yet) and WinBoat (which looks like it runs a separate Windows instance like a VM but makes it a bit more seamless with Linux).

Some PC games I like to play even have native Linux ports; also, Steam has made it easy to run some Windows games in Linux.

Nightfox
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I dig kde plasma. It's what I use on all my linux boxes (work and personal). It's really polished and fully featured, and it has updates ship frequently.
It reminds me of what Windows /could/ have been if they just focused on a consistent user experience instead of trying to pack more features into the
OS. It's really wonderful IMO.

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esc wrote to Nightfox <=-

I dig kde plasma. It's what I use on all my linux boxes (work and personal). It's really polished and fully featured, and it has updates ship frequently. It reminds me of what Windows /could/ have been if
they just focused on a consistent user experience instead of trying to pack more features into the OS. It's really wonderful IMO.

I think this is exactly why I've never liked KDE. It reminds me too
much of ... Windows. I'm using Linux because I don't like Windows, so
why would I want my Linux to look like Windows? ;-)

Xfce for me.



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I think this is exactly why I've never liked KDE. It reminds me too
much of ... Windows. I'm using Linux because I don't like Windows, so why would I want my Linux to look like Windows? ;-)

Xfce for me.

Agree with this statement.

I find KDE has to many customization. For me, it drives my OCD a little crazy.

I'm using XFCE myself too.

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I think this is exactly why I've never liked KDE. It reminds me too
much of ... Windows. I'm using Linux because I don't like Windows, so
why would I want my Linux to look like Windows? ;-)

Man, I love me some Windows XP. To me, that's the pinnacle of a user
interface, I really dig it. I hear you, though.

I also dig MacOS. I have that on my daily driver. It just feels 'complete' if that makes sense.

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Man, I love me some Windows XP. To me, that's the pinnacle of a user interface, I really dig it. I hear you, though.

Gross. :> I used to work at a job for an ISP and was always fixing XP issues.. I just hate it, for that matter I dislike most windows GUI's.....

I much prefer mac or a customize linux install.

I also dig MacOS. I have that on my daily driver. It just feels
'complete' if that makes sense.

Agree.

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Re: KDE Plasma desktop vs. Cinnamon (KUbuntu vs. Linux Mint)
By: esc to Nightfox on Fri Jan 30 2026 07:09 am

I dig kde plasma. It's what I use on all my linux boxes (work and personal). It's really polished and fully featured, and it has updates ship frequently.

Don't the updates depend on the distribution (at least in part) - basically, what updates they decide to make available and when? In many distros I've seen, it seems the software packages aren't always the latest versions.

Also, recently I heard KDE themselves are working on making their own Linux distro (it's currently available for testing at your own risk). That would probably always include the latest KDE changes right away, which would be interseting.

It reminds me of what Windows /could/ have been if they
just focused on a consistent user experience instead of trying to pack more features into the OS. It's really wonderful IMO.

I don't mind Windows so much, but one thing I don't like about OS user interfaces across the board in the industry is that they've become fairly flat and (IMO) boring since about 2012. I like that the theming engines in the various Linux desktop environments is more pervasive (compared to Windows) and lets you customize the look and feel of everything (window decorations, buttons, checkboxes, sliders, everything) with themes.

Windows has themes, but it's mainly about colors, desktop background, and maybe a couple other things. Stardock has their WindowBlinds to change the other elements of Windows software, but since windows 8 (or 10?), it doesn't change everything anymore because there's a newer UI engine in Windows that a lot of software is now using, which WindowBlinds apparently is unable to theme. I've noticed a similar thing in Linux too (though less of a problem) where different programs use different toolkits for their UI (such as GTK, Qt, etc.) and there are different themes for each - so you might have some apps with one theme and other apps with a different theme.

Nightfox
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Re: Re: KDE Plasma desktop vs. Cinnamon (KUbuntu vs. Linux Mint)
By: Gamgee to esc on Fri Jan 30 2026 08:03 am

I think this is exactly why I've never liked KDE. It reminds me too much of ... Windows. I'm using Linux because I don't like Windows, so why would I want my Linux to look like Windows? ;-)

Back in my earlier days of using Linux (around 1999-2000 or so), I had read that KDE was meant to be like Windows so that Windows users would have an easier time switching to Linux. I don't think that's really the case anymore.. I feel like KDE Plasma doesn't really resemble Windows anymore in how it's oreganized, or even how it looks.

The Cinnamon environment (mainly included with Linux Mint) seems to be the one that's meant to be Windows-like these days (I think they even say that in their design philosophy for Cinnamon). That said, I do really like Linux Mint, as it tends to "just work". I've been using Linux Mint for over 10 years now on my secondary PC (though with its Xfce environment, as it was regarded as more lightweight) and haven't really had any significant issues with it at all. I had also dual-booted my main PC with Mint for a little while. I appreciate something that tends to just work without a lot of ahssle.

Nightfox
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Re: Re: KDE Plasma desktop vs. Cinnamon (KUbuntu vs. Linux Mint)
By: Gamgee to esc on Fri Jan 30 2026 08:03 am

Xfce for me.

Also, I like Xfce as well. I like that Xfce seems to have more retro themes that are fairly easy to set up - On my secondary PC, I have a few OS/2 themes, a BeOS/Haiku theme, a Mac OS 9 Platinum theme, and a Mac OS Aqua theme that I cycle through sometimes.

If you have a 4K monitor though, you may find that you want to use fractional scaling to make text & things a bit bigger so they're easier to read. I believe Xfce can do integer scaling but doesn't have a fractional scaling feature. If you don't scale things up a bit on a 4K monitor, I think things tend to look a bit too small, but even 2x scaling can look a bit too big.

Nightfox
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On 30 Jan 2026, Gamgee said the following...

I think this is exactly why I've never liked KDE. It reminds me too
much of ... Windows. I'm using Linux because I don't like Windows, so why would I want my Linux to look like Windows? ;-)

Xfce for me.

Agree with Gamgee, Xfce for me too, I first started using Xfce because it was lightweight, but the more I played with it and customized it to my liking, the more it became a part of my life and when I moved from Windows to Debian now just about 2 years ago, I never went back to Windows.


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Re: Re: KDE Plasma desktop vs. Cinnamon (KUbuntu vs. Linux Mint)
By: Bucko to All on Fri Jan 30 2026 06:26 pm

Agree with Gamgee, Xfce for me too, I first started using Xfce because it was lightweight, but the more I played with it and customized it to my liking, the more it became a part of my life and when I moved from Windows to Debian now just about 2 years ago, I never went back to Windows.

After using Xfce on my secondary PC, I got used to it and started to prefer it. When I started using Xfce on my main PC (with my 4K monitor) though, I found I was able to get it looking okay, but it seems Xfce isn't quite as good as Cinnamon or KDE for screens where you might want to use fractional scaling to increase the size of things a bit (i.e., on screens higher than 1920x1080).

Nightfox
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On 30 Jan 2026, Nightfox said the following...

Re: Re: KDE Plasma desktop vs. Cinnamon (KUbuntu vs. Linux Mint)
By: Gamgee to esc on Fri Jan 30 2026 08:03 am

Xfce for me.

Also, I like Xfce as well. I like that Xfce seems to have more retro themes that are fairly easy to set up - On my secondary PC, I have a few OS/2 themes, a BeOS/Haiku theme, a Mac OS 9 Platinum theme, and a Mac OS Aqua theme that I cycle through sometimes.

xfce is a cool one.. with a decent bit of history. these two cousins, chock full of IBM UI paradigms:

https://www.landley.net/history/mirror/os2/history/os2warp/webex.gif https://sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopenv/screenshot/CDE-3.png

and xfce, which looked like this during it's earlier days:

https://www.linux-community.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/xfce.png1.jpg


some of that older stuff is nice, if a little weird/different. i prefer windows minimize onto the desktop still and have that turned on in IceWM :)

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I think this is exactly why I've never liked KDE. It reminds me too
much of ... Windows. I'm using Linux because I don't like Windows, so why would I want my Linux to look like Windows? ;-)

KDE can be configured to be quite unlike Windows, but they don't make it obvious. I think they should include some kind of "onboarding" helper that provides some other patterns than just windows.

Personally, I have the panels laid out in a way that resembles Ubuntu's Unity desktop (RIP), but it can easily be set up to behave like MacOS or Gnome or Windowmaker... or even, for masochists, as a tiling WM, but with all the niceties of a fully fleshed out desktop manager.

Not trying to preach the KDE gospel here, XFCE is great, but trying to point out that there's a lot more to Plasma than meets the eye and lament that the devs do a fairly bad job of communicating to users that it's not just a windows clone.

To each their own. :D

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On 30 Jan 2026, Nightfox said the following...

After using Xfce on my secondary PC, I got used to it and started to prefer it. When I started using Xfce on my main PC (with my 4K monitor) though, I found I was able to get it looking okay, but it seems Xfce
isn't quite as good as Cinnamon or KDE for screens where you might want
to use fractional scaling to increase the size of things a bit (i.e., on screens higher than 1920x1080).

Well now you are forcing me to buy a new monitor!! LOL I will have to keep that in mind when I replace my 3 monitor setup and go with a 4k bigger monitor.. Thanks.


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Hey Fusion!

On Fri, Jan 30 2026 19:27:01 -0600, you wrote:

xfce is a cool one.. with a decent bit of history. these two
cousins, chock full of IBM UI paradigms:

https://www.landley.net/history/mirror/os2/history/os2warp/webex.gif https://sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopenv/screenshot/CDE-3.png

and xfce, which looked like this during it's earlier days:

https://www.linux-community.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/
xfce.png1.jpg

Very cool that there's old pictures kept in the archives. These desktop environments have definitely come a long way over the years!

Seems to have some similarities of Win2000/2kPro and XP (Classic mode), as well. They all had to start somewhere, I suppose.

I don't remember timeframes on this stuff whatsoever, but did Apple have GUI "desktop environments" before Microsoft? I vaguely remember using an Apple Macintosh in grade school before using a PC (which started with DOS, and before my parents bought and installed Windows 3.x, so I don't even remember if there were any Windows /before/ 3.x, or what they looked like).

Regards,
Nick

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Re: Re: KDE Plasma desktop vs. Cinnamon (KUbuntu vs. Linux Mint)
By: Accession to fusion on Sat Jan 31 2026 08:11:55

...I don't even remember if there were any Windows /before/ 3.x, or what they looked like).

There was Windows 1.0 and 2.0. You can find images of each on Google Images. --- SBBSecho 3.35-Linux
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esc wrote to Gamgee <=-

Man, I love me some Windows XP. To me, that's the pinnacle of a user interface, I really dig it. I hear you, though.

I played with WindowBlinds recently, resurrected the blue taskbar,
bliss wallpaper - it felt like coming home. :)





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Bucko wrote to Nightfox <=-

Well now you are forcing me to buy a new monitor!! LOL I will have to
keep that in mind when I replace my 3 monitor setup and go with a 4k bigger monitor.. Thanks.

I bought a 32" ultrawide monitor, the only misgiving is that I can't go
full screen without borders in DOSBOX-X. with a 16:9 monitor, I could
go full screen, stretch the fonts, and get a nice looking full screen
session for BBSing - ditto for NetRunner connecting natively in
Windows.

I also had a 4:3 monitor that I'd use to RDP into the BBS from. Nice
setup, but I don't miss the clutter.



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Accession wrote to fusion <=-

I don't remember timeframes on this stuff whatsoever, but did Apple
have GUI "desktop environments" before Microsoft?

Yes - MacOS had the "finder", which was basically the same GUI Apple
used in the old 68K days -- context-sensitive task/menu bar at the top
with an applications menu, trash can and drive icons on the desktop.

LisaOS had a similar GUI in 1983.

https://computerhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Lisa-desktop-screen.jpg



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Re: Re: KDE Plasma desktop vs. Cinnamon (KUbuntu vs. Linux Mint)
By: Accession to fusion on Sat Jan 31 2026 08:11 am

I don't remember timeframes on this stuff whatsoever, but did Apple have GUI "desktop environments" before Microsoft?

Yes, Apple's Lisa (which used a GUI with a desktop, and pre-dated the Macintosh) came out in 1983 but generally failed in part because it was very expensive. The Mac came out in 1984, and Bill Gates had probably seen one and wanted to make a GUI environment for the PC.

I vaguely remember using an
Apple Macintosh in grade school before using a PC (which started with DOS, and before my parents bought and installed Windows 3.x, so I don't even remember if there were any Windows /before/ 3.x, or what they looked like).

Yeah, there were versions of Windows before 3.x. Windows 1.0 came out in 1985, and then 2.0 in 1987. The first version of Windows I used was 3.0, so I don't have experience with those early versions, but it's interesting to see.

This page has some information on old Windows versions and it looks like there are meant to be multiple screenshots, but for me, only the Windows 1.01 screenshot is loading:

https://www.cnet.com/pictures/microsoft-windows-1-0-where-it-all-began-pictures

And Windows 2.03:

https://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/win203

There was a lawsuit between Apple and Microsoft in the 1980s where Apple tried to claim Microsoft was copying GUI concepts from Apple (which was ironic, because Apple got their GUI ideas from Xerox when Xerox allowed Steve Jobs & a couple others from Apple to visit them, and Xerox showed them their Palo Alto Research Center).

There's a movie that came out in 1999 called Pirates of Silicon Valley that's all about the rise of Apple and Microsoft, and if you're interested in this stuff, I think that was an interesting movie. I've heard they got some of the details slightly wrong, but overall it's an interesting movie.

Nightfox
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Re: Re: KDE Plasma desktop vs. Cinnamon (KUbuntu vs. Linux Mint)
By: poindexter FORTRAN to esc on Sat Jan 31 2026 08:35 am

I played with WindowBlinds recently, resurrected the blue taskbar, bliss wallpaper - it felt like coming home. :)

I've been using WindowBlinds for a while. But one thing I think is disappointing is that since Windows 8 (or Windows 10?), Windows has included a new GUI engine for software, and WindowBlinds is apparently unable to skin that. A lot of Windows software is using that newer GUI engine these days (and some that have their own drawing engine, such as the popular web browsers), so WindowBlinds is unable to skin a lot of Windows software these days.

Also, for the apps WindowBlinds does work with, I feel like it's hard to find WindowBlinds skins that work well and look good overall with Windows 10 & 11.

Nightfox
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