Valve Is Funding Improvements To KDE's KWin & More Work On X.Org

[cynical]

They both can be made into wonderful desktops and each has their respective pros and cons.

I just do not care for the GTK3 headerbar style or how many plugins are needed to make Gnome equal in features to Plasma. Just because I don't care for it doesn't make it a crappy product. I wish more of us were more open-minded in that regard.

With a few plugins, I'm perfectly comfortable on Gnome...but I can do all of that OOTB on Plasma and 29 years on a computer has taught me not to rely on plugins for long term support which is why I'd use Plasma, XFCE, or, oddly enough, Enlightenment. Enlightenment really has some potential and it sucks that it isn't targeted as a primary desktop or even at all these days.

I agree. The funny thing is that I feel exactly the same about KDE. I think it is clearly a high quality desktop environment and very impressive, but Gnome better fits my usage, and I can use it out of the box without having to tweak things. It wasn't that way at the start; I had to give their usage pattern a real shot before finding out that I liked it. Fortunately my experience with Unity (going from hating it to loving it) made me open to trying new paradigms of computing.

[Wojcian]

They should support KDE since beginning. The only sane major desktop currently.

[leech]

Hummm I do almost everything you mentioned with KDE... I'm not getting the difference.

I have to change a bunch of settings, move things around etc to get things out of the way in KDE. Also, Evolution works with exchange / office365. Haven't been able to get kmail working with that yet. I do think they finally included the meta key to open the launcher menu in KDE at least. Gotten too used to it in Gnome. But yeah, every time I feel I want something flashier, I try out KDE, but it only lasts for like an hour, then I go back to Gnome.
KDE is a little too like Windows to me (well now the other way, since Windows 7 basically stole it's look). But I've tested versions of KDE since right before 1.0 came out, and it just always felt a little too close to Windows, which I wanted to get away from.
All personal preference of course, was just saying that's why I like Gnome, it stays out of my way and I can get my shit done. The only plugins I use are things like having a cpu speed/temp in the corner, the icon tray (Would be awesome if gnome/KDE got together and created a dock/system tray hybrid where you could just right click on the icon in the dock to get the menu that would normally be in the system tray. Steam already does this on Gnome!) and I have a stock ticker and the weather.

When I install Ubuntu, I have to remove a bunch of the plugins, like that dash to dock that leaves the dock open all the time... I don't need that crap, it takes a bunch of screen space! Minimize that crap :P

[Iiari]

I have to change a bunch of settings, move things around etc to get things out of the way in KDE.....(lots more deleted)

Wow, there's just so much here that's... off... Don't know where to even start, so I won't....

Back on topic, while I'm thrilled Valve is doing all this work with Steam Play, drivers, now kwin, etc, does anyone have a sense of what their endgame is? Sure, it's terrific for the Linux ecosystem, but what is Valve as a company's bigger play here?

[leech]

Wow, there's just so much here that's... off... Don't know where to even start, so I won't....

Back on topic, while I'm thrilled Valve is doing all this work with Steam Play, drivers, now kwin, etc, does anyone have a sense of what their endgame is? Sure, it's terrific for the Linux ecosystem, but what is Valve as a company's bigger play here?

Ha, to each their own, as I said...
Anyhow, I think their end goal is to make Steam work great no matter where you use it. And for this topic that means making it work better with KWin, as I'm guessing that they already put in decent work into getting it working with mutter, and most of the other window managers don't use compositing, so don't do funky things to performance.

[asasione]

That's funny, I feel the exact opposite, that gnome stays out of my way and lets me launch applications, which let's face it, do you USE your desktop? Or do you use the applications that it launches? Okay, with AmigaOS, I like using the desktop and playing around with it, but on my Linux machine I actually need to get work done. Could I get the same work done with KDE? Sure. I just prefer no docks being on the screen to take up space where I could slide another terminal and watch output, or a chat program under the windows to see when someone replies to a message (have to turn popups off, they're horrible to pop up on the screen when you're sharing it during a video conference).

But everyone's workflow is different, I just like the gnome one better than any other desktop I've used.

Gnome is ok if you like having zero control over your desktop and have a simple workflow, for everything else KDE is better. I really can't get over the fact that I have to install a tonne of extensions to get similar functionality to KDE and worse yet I don't get power management features without using some random scripts and no HiDPI scaling. I have a QHD display and its really messed up that only 2 desktops environments (KDE and Deepin) give me autonomy with scaling.

[Prescience500]

I love that they are working on KDE. KDE needs a lot more love from the major companies that like throw all their resources at GNOME and pretend like KDE barely exists. It's perfect for my uses and pretty much anyone I know except for how everything freezes occasionally...forcing me to do a hold the power button to get my computer off and back on and working again.

[pal666]

They should support KDE since beginning. The only sane major desktop currently.

the only sane decision is to support default desktop of supported distro

[Raka555]

I am glad they are backing KDE.
I swiched to KDE after Ubuntu dropped Unity. Took a few days to "tame" it a bit, but never looked back.
I lost faith in gnome after they started with their CSD crap.

[Baguy]

Wow, there's just so much here that's... off... Don't know where to even start, so I won't....

Back on topic, while I'm thrilled Valve is doing all this work with Steam Play, drivers, now kwin, etc, does anyone have a sense of what their endgame is? Sure, it's terrific for the Linux ecosystem, but what is Valve as a company's bigger play here?

They have a long-term plan of improving the Linux gaming ecosystem to make it a more attractive (free) alternative to windows. And guess what the most popular Linux gaming client is right now? Steam. So while they might not see any payoff for a while, they will most likely see some benefit later.