I switched from GNOME to KDE Plasma 6 and I’m not going back to Ubuntu defaults
I switched from GNOME to KDE Plasma 6 and I’m not going back to Ubuntu defaults
https://www.makeuseof.com/switched-from-gnome-to-kde-plasma-6-not-going-back-to-ubuntu-defaults/
Publish Date: 2026-04-05 16:30:00
Source Domain: www.makeuseof.com
When I installed and booted into Ubuntu GNOME, I stuck to the defaults, and that was fine for a while. Even though GNOME is a clean, minimal, and modern setup, it was far from perfect. Certain extensions broke, and even something as basic as waking from sleep often felt sluggish.
I didn’t expect much better from KDE Plasma 6 when I switched. So it was really exciting to see defaults like panel customization, drag-and-drop that actually worked, and shell stability — features I had begged for in GNOME. KDE Plasma 6 was intuitive and, unexpectedly, fun. My experience with the desktop environment makes me feel that this is officially the year of the KDE Linux desktop.
GNOME forced me to rely on extensions
KDE Plasma 6 includes what GNOME makes you beg for
The GNOME desktop environment is simplistic. This means key features are missing by default, and the only workaround is to patch them with extensions. I started using Dash-to-Panel, DING, and Arc Menu to make it more functional, but each of these solutions is threatened by major and minor GNOME updates. I’ve experienced a few extensions stop working altogether, and in some cases, there are conflicts.
However, most of the features you add to GNOME via extensions are already defaults in Plasma 6. So you are getting native implementations for panel layouts, desktop icons, window behavior tweaks, notification customization, and window…
