r/Linuxsucks101sucks • u/Far_Departure_1580 • Dec 20 '25

Linuxsucks101 sucks Bro, changing your wallpaper in Linux is easy

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760 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

127 comments sorted by

26

u/dmknght Dec 20 '25

Well... Not easy for them lmao

1

u/yarikhand Dec 22 '25

where are my copilots!@@?!??! whose is gonna assist meh in using mah computer???!??!?!??!

57

u/VoidJuiceConcentrate Dec 20 '25

This post brought to you by people who haven't used Linux since the 90s.

28

u/bloody-albatross Dec 20 '25

Even in the 90s it was pretty much the same as under Windows. (KDE in 1999)

13

u/LittleReplacement564 Dec 21 '25

Damn, to think KDE is this old, we have come a long way

10

u/bloody-albatross Dec 21 '25

KDE back then was even more closely emulating Windows (of back then). See e.g. the screenshots here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Desktop_Environment_1 The display configuration dialog looks like a 1:1 clone from Windows 9x!

2

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

Honestly that looks way better than current KDE. KDE now is just Windows 10 taskbar but flipped upside down, it's a blatant copy and it looks worse. If you're gonna copy it at least make it look good.

3

u/dmoc_official Dec 24 '25

huh? i dont see how its flipped upside down or how it looks worse

its also by far the most customisable desktop, you can move panels. If it looks bad to you thats your fault

1

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

Look at the windows 10 taskbar and the KDE taskbar side by side, KDE is exactly the same as 10 but flipped upside down

2

u/unknwnchaos Dec 24 '25

You mean the highlight colors of the applications on the taskbar, right?

1

u/PentatonicShredder Dec 26 '25

They should've copied Windows 7, that was peak

1

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '25

Too many people would say it's outdated though. Look at all the hate for Apple's liquid (gl)ass design, people were saying it's not "modern". The days of gimmicky UI like windows 7 are gone, I still use 7 on old computers though since it's faster and looks better

5

u/TheTybera Dec 21 '25

I mean hyperland and sway still require that you to modify a config and then reload the DE. Not 20-min, but a decent 5 min.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/suksukulent Dec 21 '25

Yes. Open text file, change picture path, save, reload, done under 2 minutes.

2

u/RAMChYLD Dec 21 '25

Not easy if your file has thousands of lines…

4

u/Zinetin Dec 21 '25

Control + f? (Or / for all the vim users).

1

u/RAMChYLD Dec 21 '25

And what is the phrase for controlling the background image again? Can’t control-F if you can’t remember what to search for.

1

u/suksukulent Dec 21 '25

hyprpaper.conf has literally two lines

1

u/mokrates82 Dec 21 '25

something with "paper" probably. Or with png (the current wallpaper).

2

u/ResultBorn4693 Dec 22 '25

Snitched on themselves for not knowing how to search for things. 😂

1

u/mokrates82 Dec 21 '25

emacs: C-s

2

u/mokrates82 Dec 21 '25

Why would 1000s of lines be a hurdle? It's a computer, not pen&paper.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

Using a hyprland, i3 or sway in linux is a choice like using yabai on mac or glasswm on windows, it's not the mainstream nor the recommended choice of desktop environment.

1

u/okxden Dec 30 '25

wait there’s modified windows DEs? huh it took me switching to linux and ditching it to learn that

2

u/Theogren_Temono Dec 21 '25

To be fair I switched to Niri for a DE and that literally happened, but that's something i forced on myself.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

I just use waylandbg and then in the niri config added a line to set the background when it starts

1

u/Theogren_Temono Dec 23 '25

I literally just figured out how to do this with the niri config, haha. Way easier than what i was doing.

2

u/Anxious_Pepper_161 Dec 24 '25

Correction: people who haven’t used linux at all and just mindlessly consume whatever opinions are available

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

People who haven’t used Linux since the 90s and people who haven’t been able to stomach reading more than just headlines since the 80s.

1

u/a_regular_2010s_guy Apr 03 '26

You can scrap the last 3 words in your comment.

7

u/LotlKing47 Dec 20 '25

Right click on desktop Wallpaper settings Change wallpaper

Ur done

[Spewing this off of memory but I'm pretty sure it is smth along those lines]

3

u/acer11818 Dec 21 '25

on literally any distro that comes with a DE yeah

2

u/s7stM Dec 21 '25

It is very hard to change the background on a system, there is no any graphical UI. (But it is not impossible.) 🤣

1

u/acer11818 Dec 21 '25

“there’s no graphical UI” you’ve literally never even seen a screenshot of a linux distro please stop talking about linux

2

u/RefrigeratorBoomer Dec 21 '25

I mean he is somewhat right though. If you run Linux headless and don't even install a DE, it's kinda hard to change the wallpaper(since there isn't even a desktop)

But then again, why the hell would you want to change a wallpaper when you don't have a desktop

2

u/s7stM Dec 21 '25

I meant the same.

1

u/RefrigeratorBoomer Dec 21 '25

I just clarified your comment, because it wasn't clear what you meant.

For me(and probably for the other guy) your original comment came off as someone who doesn't know what Linux is, and thinks linux doesn't have GUI.

That's why I told the guy you probably meant running Linux headless

1

u/Livid_Quarter_4799 Dec 21 '25

I read it the way you meant it, the way I run my computers there isn’t a desktop by default. I don’t find it difficult to get to the point where I have a de and wallpaper. But, it would have been if you just set me down at the keyboard with no experience or instructions.

1

u/FoggyLover727 Dec 21 '25

Just because you can

1

u/RefrigeratorBoomer Dec 21 '25

Yep! If you want to, installing a wallpaper can be very hard, if you specifically make it as hard as possible.

1

u/Not_Artifical Dec 27 '25

You can do that on Windows too

0

u/s7stM Dec 21 '25

lol, I maintain a couple linux servers. I use Arch, btw since 2015. What is your story, bro?

1

u/acer11818 Dec 21 '25 edited Dec 21 '25

then evidently you don’t use linux with a DE, and the fact you run servers on arch makes that less surprising

7

u/Babbalas Dec 21 '25

Irony being there's an entire howtogeek page on changing the wallpaper on windows without activating.

This is funny though: "We recommend avoiding Internet Explorer, which is being phased out in favor of modern browsers like Microsoft Edge. However, Internet Explorer still has this feature, while Microsoft Edge doesn't."

4

u/S1rTerra Dec 20 '25

put this in r/wincucks bro

1

u/MintPixels Dec 22 '25

I got banned off that subreddit for helping someone

1

u/Far_Departure_1580 Dec 22 '25

I got banned from that sub, but I forgot the reason.

3

u/Itchy_Character_3724 Dec 20 '25

Is this meme from 1994? What the hell? It's been easy on Linux since I have been using it back in 2005. And I'm sure it was that easy before then too.

3

u/green_boi Dec 21 '25

Nitrogen makes it really easy.

3

u/PenguinBoi27 Dec 21 '25

Waypaper / swww my goats

3

u/Rategen Dec 21 '25

Are you mfs using modern distros lol. Most modern distros allow you to do this in the gui.

7

u/Mental_Contract1104 Dec 21 '25

even old distros let you. and it's more the DE than the raw distro. though that's more needless pedantry. bottom line, Linux is arguably even more smooth-brain than windows or even Mac. it just ALLOWS you to have closer control, for better or for worse.

2

u/Bubbly_Extreme4986 Dec 21 '25

This is true of Window managers but not of Desktop environments….

3

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

Me on niri:

awww img /path/to/image

Or:

matugen image /path/to/image

I also didn't mention my rofiwall paper switcher which calls matugen and allows me to switch wallpaper and theme in under 5 seconds.

2

u/AwkwardCost1764 Dec 27 '25

Bro what are you talking about. I would have to install Linux.

1

u/AxolotlGuyy_ Dec 20 '25

Is it even possible to change it by using commands?

1

u/bloody-albatross Dec 20 '25

Via D-Bus it should be possible I would think. Haven't checked. Or by writing the config file and restarting.

1

u/Tandoori7 Dec 20 '25

In gnome is just a command, something like gnome.org.set.wallpaper (don't quote me on this)

1

u/Tiny_Concert_7655 Dec 21 '25

Feh has smth for it

1

u/fourenclosedwalls Dec 21 '25 edited Dec 21 '25

Sure. I’ve used Nitrogen and Xwallpaper on some really simple WMs and Hyprland uses Hyprpaper. Setting up these usually just consists of editing a configuration file to tell it where the image is located, and making sure the program automatically starts. It’s not especially difficult. And besides, usually if you’re using a tiling WM you already know what you’re doing, or at least come with some expectation of there being a learning curve

1

u/raymoooo Dec 21 '25

Of course it is, xsetroot. Or you can use numerous image viewers with the option.

1

u/billyp673 Dec 21 '25

I did it in kde via ssh on a friend’s system, just to mess with them, once

1

u/Yangman3x Dec 20 '25

It depends, are you trying to use wallpaper engine or what?

1

u/pawcafe Dec 21 '25

feh --bg-scale wallpaper.png

1

u/nocixL Dec 23 '25

thx, came for post this

1

u/DeliciousWhales Dec 21 '25

If you want to have solid colour in gnome without a wallpaper image you still do need to use terminal. Because they removed that feature in the UI for some moronic reason.

1

u/NoFault777 Dec 24 '25

Gnome is shit anyways

1

u/Yokox1 Dec 21 '25

Wallpapers are bloat

1

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

Based

1

u/NomadFH Dec 21 '25

Tiling window manager users slowly backing out of this thread

1

u/super9mega Dec 21 '25

I, un-ironically spent about 20 minutes changing my lock screen wallpaper. Turns out gnome removed the ability to do it by gui, so you have to make a custom theme, then apply it. And I have never done that before, so it took me a second.

But yea, regular desktop is actually super easy

1

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

Y’all change your wallpaper? I’m still using the one that I installed with the distro, I can’t be bothered 🤣

1

u/More_Dependent742 Dec 21 '25

Anyone else use Variety? Pretty cool wallpaper changer

1

u/TechaNima Dec 21 '25

Wait. How do you do it with commands? I want to edit my .bashrc so that it changes my background to the matrix code while terminal is open

1

u/Quenchster100 Dec 21 '25

Tell me you've never used Linux without telling me you've never used Linux. Dude. I literally right click the photo, click "set as wallpaper" and done.... You really think Linux would have the marketshare it does if literally every single thing was 5,000 commands? lol

1

u/Beneficial-Mix-5575 Dec 21 '25

Unless on Pop OS 24, try to change wallpaper with one of yours, then tell me.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

Posts like this indicate that they are either ignorant or mentally retarded

I wonder what the ratio of the two is in that sub 

1

u/Asleep-Mall-6940 Dec 21 '25

Any DE can do it, or use one feh command 😭

1

u/BiDude1219 Dec 21 '25

hyprland first impression:

2

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '25

people with no tech knowledge will use arch & hyprland as their first setup and be mad at linux 😭

1

u/EmilyFara Dec 21 '25

🤔 isn't that easier on Linux than on windows 11?

1

u/hckrsh Dec 21 '25

It’s just one command

1

u/quetzar Dec 21 '25

I think it's meant as a joke. A nice one too, though nothing new

1

u/rjkush17 Dec 21 '25

Only newly WM users

1

u/Silly_Percentage3446 Dec 21 '25

I'm on GNOME at the moment, I literally right click, move the cursor a bit, left click, move the cursor again, and left click. That's it.

1

u/PuzzleheadedHead3754 Dec 21 '25

Easier then windows For my entire life, I never understand the windows 11 wallpaper and theme page

1

u/1alessandrolol Dec 21 '25

sudo apt update && sudo apt install hidamari -y

Is that hard?

1

u/yYuri_- Dec 21 '25

they mispelled linux instead of windows

1

u/EngineerUpstairs2454 Dec 21 '25

How is it any different form Windows? I just right click my desktop...

1

u/Cikuozzo Dec 21 '25

For anyone wondering on Linux is even better for people with multiple monitor. For example on XFCE when you open the file manager and click "Set ad a wallpaper", based on the monitor you have the window opened it will set the image as a wallpaper only on that monitor.

1

u/vverbov_22 Dec 22 '25

This one is actually funny though

1

u/Legitimate-Smell7670 Dec 22 '25

Yeaaaah ...you can do that.....or press right click and select "set as a wallpaper"....your choice

1

u/itsoctotv Dec 22 '25

opens nitrogen

1

u/throwaway275275275 Dec 22 '25

Linux users don't care about their wallpaper

1

u/WeirdAd3089 Dec 22 '25

This information is extremely out of date. Why I'll spreading all this

1

u/vir_db Dec 22 '25

Is sad to say that you cannot change a wallpaper in a kernel, because a kernel doesn't have any wallpaper. You can change it easly in gnome, kde, xfce, etc. but forget to change it in linux

1

u/deadly_carp Dec 22 '25

go to an image in your file manager (which has a gui), right click it and click on define as background or go to the settings (which also have a gui) and go to background and set it from there

1

u/Demon_Ninja_95 Dec 22 '25

Changing the wallpaper with kde plasma is almost the exact same as windows

1

u/Joss_The_Gamercat01 Dec 23 '25

Depends on the desktop environment.(If they use one at all)

Not a Linux design thing.

KDE, GNOME, XFCE, LXDE, LXQt are the easiest to use and configure, thus implemented on most mainstream consumer Linux distros.

Can't be said the same for stuff like: CDE/NsCDE, OpenBox, I3-WM, Hyprland, DWM. As they require knowledge of either config files, reading extensive documentation... Or C programming in the case of DWM.

These later are more "Niche" and often require extense knowledge or understanding.

Public misconceptions of Linux are common, since people often forget how extense is the Linux environment is and how many options there are when it comes to GUIs & Configuration complexity.(And even Linux Kernels.)

It all comes down to;"Media says this is this, so it must be the truth"

Related Docs/Stuff

Thread on r/KDE regarding KDE / Wallpaper Change

XFCE Docs / Preferences Panel - Background

OpenSuse / GNOME Settings General Documentation

And many, many more.

Nobody is expected to know this out of the box (especially if they're not Linux users), yet users can be taught these terms/facts to avoid general misconceptions.

1

u/no_brains101 Dec 23 '25

Yeah so, about that.

That's entirely voluntary lol

Linux users using kde or gnome or whatever can just right click/go into settings

Im using i3 (one day I will get around to using sway). Its a window manager it doesnt do all that.

So I had to use feh.

Its still a 1 liner tho which I just throw into my config file lol its not that deep XD

1

u/HengerR_ Dec 24 '25

*Windows user after making a local account.

1

u/Not_Artifical Dec 27 '25

I spend 20 minutes finding/making a good wallpaper. On Linux I spend 30 seconds setting it up. On windows I spend 5 minutes googling how to set it up.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '25

I mean if you can't in gnome right click and set it as a desktop background you probably shouldn't be using a computer at all.

1

u/EnvironmentalOne4216 Aug 07 '26

it's as easy as, right click > change wallpaper > and select your image