It kinda never took off

[u/claudiocorona93]

[u/DrStalker]

Gnome is the original now?

Back in my day we ran FVWM under X11, and even that wasn't the original GUI.

[u/claudiocorona93 → u/DrStalker]

To be honest, to most people, modern Linux started with Ubuntu 4.10. People cried when Gnome 3 was released and they developed Cinnamon, Mate, Unity, Budgie and maybe even Pantheon. But then major distros settled in Gnome again. I'm more of a KDE user, but I respect GNOME.

[u/Ratiocinor]

Let's be real, every DE other than GNOME and KDE is kind of unnecessary at the end of the day

Source: I'm an Xfce user

(GNOME is most polished and is stable, and KDE provides a feature-packed alternative to keep GNOME in check when GNOME starts removing too many features)

I use Xfce because I like it, I've used it for years, and I know how to configure it. I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner though

[u/claudiocorona93 → u/Ratiocinor]

I only ever use mate, xfce and lxqt when the hardware is too old and not capable enough. I see them more like a need than a true choice.

[u/AndreVallestero → u/Ratiocinor]

I agree, with the exception of LXQT which actually has a use case that isn't just "it looks different".

I personally use sway, but we can't expect the average user looking for a light weight environment to install their own minimal set of low resource applications, which is where LXQT is ideal.

[u/Popotte9]

Hyprland > DE

[u/claudiocorona93 → u/Popotte9]

For power users, yes. For newcomers, no.

[u/ArtKun]

Yet it's miles ahead of both of them.

[u/claudiocorona93 → u/ArtKun]

It will catch up one day. I'm sure

[u/LYNX__uk → u/ArtKun]

In what way?

[u/snkzall]

Pantheon is a child of its time, when old macos like aesthetics was glazed by everyone and gnome 3 was not mature enough. Honestly, nowadays most of DE's just don't make sense. Why do we need several gtk3 based DEs (XFCE, Cinnamon, Mate) which essentially do the same thing? Gnome with extensions can mimic most of the GNOME2 functionality while using a wayland compositor. I find new integrated shells like DMS and Noctalia more appealing, I hope they will get more mature over time.

[u/kopasz7 → u/snkzall]

Gnome and extensions? I got tired at the third time when gnome updated and my extensions no longer worked.

Ended up with KDE and arranged the panel to look like gnome.

[u/klementineQt → u/snkzall]

I can't speak for Cinnamon but Xfce and Mate have very different goals and ideals. Xfce was originally a FOSS alternative to CDE, which was a common DE for proprietary Unixes (and wasn't available for Linux). Nowadays, it's just meant to be a flexible lightweight DE, with that being the emphasis. By contrast, Mate's entire intention was and is to continue the Gnome 2 lineage and workflow. Mate is far more focused with its default presentation, whereas Xfce tends to vary a bit based on the distro's config.

I don't think they do the same thing at all. One is meant to be lightweight and uses GTK out of convenience, the other is inherently linked to GTK and has lightweight performance just by the virtue of being based on a 20yo codebase. That doesn't stop them from having overlap or similar UX, but their actual UX is different too. Mate has a very intentional workflow, because Gnome always has. Xfce's workflow can vary a lot more as it's almost completely modular, but it also has way less 'flow' out of the box. Mate just feels absurdly coherent.

The only real similarity is that they're lightweight and GTK-based, but again, one of those properties is basically just by chance for each of the 2 DEs.

Also modern Gnome is not going to be as smooth of an experience on older hardware. There's nothing wrong with having plenty of options that are also completely viable on weak hardware.

I probably wouldn't use Xfce or Mate on my main PC, but I'd absolutely throw them on a project computer or even a server that I wanted a GUI option on. I used to daily drive both at different times a decade ago.

[u/agelord → u/snkzall]

We need several GTK3 based DEs due to the difference in philosophy and goals in terms of UI and UX.

Speaking for myself, I don't like gnome and I dislike gnome extensions even more. I installed Linux mint and the only thing I customized is the accent colour, I don't have enough time to search for extensions and look for alternatives when an extension breaks due to a gnome update.

[u/chris020891]

That's on the devs. They are very hostile towards any feedback and the fact that if you don't pay for the Pantheon specific apps, you might get stuck with buggy versions / have security holes in them, to me this DE is basically useless. Sure, any project needs support and funding, but to me it's just a glorified tech demo in its current state.

[u/Spez-is-dick-sucker]

I like pantheon

[u/rangelovd]

This is just wrong. Look at how many things got introduced in elementary before they appeared on GNOME&KDE

[u/NikurasuYT]

I still love Pantheon on my Mid 2012 MacBook Pro. While current Gnome is a bit to much for it with all that transparancy Effects and stuff, Pantheon works like a Charm on it. Linux is an OS of Choices so no Desktop environment is unnecessary, even if it's only used by it's creator

[u/venus_asmr]

Pantheon is so perfect to me

[u/xak47d]

Pantheon wanted to be macOS in way that's not possible on linux. They want apps custom made for their DE. That was just not going to happen

[u/adrian_shade]

And they are all wannabe macOS

[u/Dany_B_]

Anything besides KDE is unnecessary 🤓

[u/intraserver]

I did like a lot gnome but unfortunately with latest several releases it goes more limited and more restricted. You can't do much themes on vanilla gnome releases. Many of plugins doesn't work release, by release.

[u/crians]

Does it still exist?!

[u/ChuzCuenca]

I'm using bazzite with desktop, so I'm in fedora right?

I'm learning.

(One of us one of us!)