The difference between GNOME and KDE Plasma and choosing the best one for Linux desktops

The GNOME and KDE Plasma desktop environments are two of the most prominent options available to Linux users. Each offers a unique experience, both in terms of design and performance. If you're considering switching between desktop environments or searching for the right option for you, this article provides a detailed comparison of GNOME and KDE Plasma, so you can make the best decision based on your needs and preferences.

Summary

• GNOME favors simplicity with an emphasis on virtual desktops, while KDE Plasma offers a traditional, feature-rich Windows-like experience.
• GNOME requires additional customization tools with limited customization capabilities, while KDE Plasma has extensive built-in customization options.
• GNOME is more suitable for laptops, while KDE Plasma caters to the needs of heavy desktop users.

While GNOME and KDE Plasma are two of the most popular Linux desktop environments, they are very different. Let's compare their desktop experience, customizability, and performance to give you a better idea of what each offers.

Desktop Approach

The biggest difference between GNOME and KDE Plasma is how the desktop is handled. While KDE Plasma offers a more traditional experience by default with plenty of features, GNOME takes a different approach, aiming to reinvent the desktop with an emphasis on simplicity.

GNOME: Simple and Unconventional

GNOME focuses on simplicity, minimalist design, and streamlined workflow, resulting in a unique desktop experience. Unlike traditional desktops, GNOME removes common elements like the bottom taskbar (or dock), desktop icons, folders, and widgets by default. Instead, you get a clean desktop designed to contain only active windows.

There's a thin top bar, somewhat similar to the menu bar in macOS, where you'll find System Settings on the right, the date and time indicator in the middle (which opens the notification area when you click on it), and the Activities button on the left.

Open button Activities The Activities Overview acts as a central hub for GNOME. It takes the desktop apart to provide a quick view of all active windows, a global search bar at the top, and a dock at the bottom for installed and running applications.

You can access the Activities Overview by pressing the Super (Windows) key once. Or you can double-click the Super key to open the Apps Overview, which features a virtual desktop switcher and a drawer containing all your installed apps. You can drag and drop apps from the tray or dock to virtual desktops, making it super-fast to open multiple apps in an organized way.

As you can see, this approach represents a complete departure from the traditional desktop experience you may be used to on macOS or Windows operating systems.

There are clear benefits to this approach. First, you can gain more screen space by eliminating the active taskbar or dock at the bottom. The absence of a taskbar also discourages workflows that minimize and maximize multitasking. Instead, GNOME encourages the setup of multiple virtual desktops, each housing different applications, to keep everything better organized.

I should also highlight that GNOME has excellent touchpad support, which complements this design philosophy. Instead of using an activity overview, you can swipe left or right with three fingers to switch between virtual desktops. This feature set makes GNOME ideal for laptops with built-in touchpads and smaller displays, where multitasking with multiple window setups can be extremely unproductive.

KDE Plasma: Familiar and Powerful

KDE Plasma comes with a traditional Windows desktop model, which you're sure to love if you're a fan of Windows 7 or XP. You'll get a bottom taskbar with an application launcher on the left (similar to the Start menu), a dedicated section for pinned and running applications in the middle, and a quick settings area on the right. Additionally, you have complete control over your desktop, allowing you to fill it with folders, application shortcuts, and even widgets.

It also boasts powerful window management features, including a built-in window manager that lets you link windows to specific areas of the desktop. The virtual desktop experience is top-notch, with a clear overview area—similar to Windows 11—from which you can easily switch between virtual desktops or create new ones.

Additionally, KDE Plasma provides access to KDE Activities, which function like virtual desktops but on a larger scale. They allow you to create custom workspaces, each with its own set of desktop shortcuts, wallpapers, widgets, and panels.

The best part is that you can switch between these activities as seamlessly as switching virtual desktops, making it a boon for heavy multitaskers.

Customization Possibility

While you can customize both GNOME and KDE Plasma, the overall scope and accessibility differ significantly. GNOME favors a more restricted, beginner-friendly environment, but advanced users can unlock additional customization options with additional tools. KDE Plasma, on the other hand, adds everything—including the kitchen sink—making it incredibly powerful but can be overwhelming for beginners.

GNOME: Additional setup required

By default, GNOME's customization options are limited to changing the wallpaper, accent colors, and a few basic settings. To unlock its full potential, you need to install two additional applications: GNOME Tweaks and GNOME Extensions.

GNOME Extensions act as an add-on system, allowing you to install new extensions to add more features or gain enhanced customization control. GNOME Tweaks, on the other hand, allow you to adjust system fonts, icons, and cursor styles, and install various themes to change the appearance of your desktop. With these tools, you can dramatically change the appearance and functionality of GNOME—even make it resemble Windows 11 or macOS.

However, recent changes to the GNOME architecture—Especially with GTK4 and Libadwaita For system applications—it has made theme customization more difficult. While you can find plenty of custom themes for GNOME, most of them won't affect these newer system applications. The good news is that Libadwaita's apps look clean and polished by default, and we may see even better theme customization solutions in the future as the ecosystem adapts.

KDE Plasma: Designed for Tuning

KDE Plasma is the most customizable desktop environment. The freedom to customize it is virtually limitless, and unlike GNOME, everything you need comes built-in. The System Settings Center serves as a central configuration hub, providing easy access to downloading and installing various themes, window decorations, fonts, icon packs, wallpapers, and more. Two notable features are Desktop Effects and KWin Scripts, which give you enhanced control over your desktop and its windows.

Even the dashboard—the taskbar at the bottom—is highly customizable. For example, you're not limited to just one dashboard. You can add multiple dashboards and place them wherever you like.

You can also adjust its height and width and fill it with various widgets to enhance its functionality. For example, you can have a full-width panel at the top for various system settings and a smaller panel at the bottom, in the middle, to house installed and running applications. This approach is what Garuda Linux uses to recreate the macOS desktop experience.

Performance and Resource Utilization

To get a fair assessment of resource usage between GNOME and KDE Plasma, I tested both desktop environments on Fedora, which comes with a relatively standard setup for both environments. This ensures platform stability, with the desktop environment being the primary variable.

Now, after a fresh install and clean boot, it consumes Fedora Workstation running GNOME Approximately 2 GB of RAM is idle, with 1-2% CPU usage distributed across cores. The total storage space occupied by the system is approximately 4 GB.

In contrast, it consumes Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop Just over 2GB of RAM is idle after the reboot, with CPU usage at 5-6%. Total system storage is around 5GB.

However, there is an important caveat to keep in mind—GNOME is the default desktop environment for Fedora, while Plasma is an alternative. Therefore, you might expect better optimization for GNOME over Fedora. To illustrate this, I also tested KDE Neon—the main distribution for KDE Plasma—and found that it used only 1.4GB of RAM and minimal CPU resources in idle mode after a fresh boot.

This diversity highlights how the underlying distribution significantly impacts performance metrics, making it difficult to categorize one desktop environment as more resource-intensive than another. However, we can conclude that both GNOME and KDE Plasma are remarkably resource-efficient, despite the slight differences between them, especially when compared to Windows.

Whether you choose GNOME's simple workflow or KDE Plasma's feature-rich flexibility ultimately depends on your needs. In my opinion, GNOME excels for laptop use with its touchpad-friendly design, while KDE Plasma offers unparalleled customization for power users who want complete control over their desktop experience.