Arch Linux’s pkgstats data provides one of the few large-scale, opt-in snapshots of how real users configure their systems. While not a perfect census (participation is voluntary), the long-running dataset offers a clear picture of how desktop environment and window managers’ preferences have shifted across more than a decade.
At the same time, the data (to some extent) also reflects a broader trend for one key reason: as you know, a default Arch installation gives you only a base system, and you build everything else according to your own needs and tastes. In other words, there’s no predefined desktop environment that users are locked into, unlike most other distributions.
That means these statistics give us a very accurate look at which desktop environments and window managers Arch users actually choose to install and use. But enough talk, let’s move on to the data.
the KDE Plasma desktop at 38.36%, nearly doubling the share of GNOME, which sits at 19.84%
Then xfce at ~11% and cinnamon, mate, etc. to round it out.
That feels about right. I know that when I go to set up a desktop system anymore, KDE is usually my default go to. It just works and doesn’t tell me no for the few customizations that I want to make. XFCE and the others are absolutely vital for lower power systems. But if you want a low-friction daily driver with plenty nice to haves and easily replicable, it’s hard to beat KDE.
Xfce is very replicable. Moving my install to a new system usually involves little more than copying the config files between home directories.
Does XFCE do Wayland yet?
Sort of.
Everything is Wayland compatible but there is no XFWM for Wayland. So, you use a Wayland compositor like LabWC with the rest of XFCE running on top of it. This is the default XFCE config on SUSE Leap for example.
XFCE is not quite as far along on portal support as GNOME or KDE though. Depending on your use case, you may still prefer running on Xorg.
You can run the XFCE apps on any Wayland desktop.
Oh absolutely, it’s just missing some of the integration and features that KDE provides. I was speaking more of KDE in terms of hyperland or sway. Granted, it’s just copying over configuration files after you’ve futzed around getting things exactly how you want. Though that’s a bit much for me. Typically with KDE, I just set it to dark mode and that’s largely it.
KDE has too much going on for me. I like Cinnamon for everyday use.
You mean like whiz bang zoom distractions or just a lot of stuff to download if you do a full install whether or not you’re going to use all the different KDE apps.
Yeah. All of the stuff i don’t use but sits there.
Fair enough. Though if you are comfortable in Linux. I can recommend Garuda’s KDE lite iso. Plasma, SSDM, and just enough other bits to get to the desktop. Missing a lot of other bits some would consider necessary. But it’s all just a pacman or yay away. No discover or most of the other KDE apps unless you ask for them. Definitely not for the terminal fearing crowd. But a bit less friction than vanilla arch.
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I really love gnome but my friends keep pushing me for KDE and I really just don’t like the windows style of desktop.
You should use what you like.
COSMIC may offer a middle ground if you did want to try something else though.
And KDE is very configurable. It does not have to look like Windows.
I use KDE Plasma, btw.
Arch users: “Well now I’m definitely not using KDE”
Did you check the wiki to see which one it says to use??
KDE works and Arch is easy to install.
KDE because it was recommended with cachy os, and i don’t really know enough or care enough to use something else 😅
Does this count steamOS instances? Because that would really tip the scales in KDE’s favor.
I3. No desktop. Just me and the bash.
Expected it
Niri. I know it’s not a DE, but it’s currently my fav.
I am also loving Niri
from my limited time using it I found niri to be actually so good. will switch over from hyprland eventually i think.
Do you happen to know how it is with a multi-monitor setup?
I finished setting up Hyprland 2years ago, then learned about the shit community literally the day after being “ah, finally done!” and haven’t found the energy to switch since.
I use Niri on triple screens with different sizes and refresh rates, it’s all seamless. Plus per-monitor scroll up/down left/right. I have an Nvidia GPU, they seem to have worked out all the problems with Wayland support.
I’m not really fussed about the community as long as the tool is good, which Hyprland is there’s no question about that.
Like I said I have very limited usage using niri after seeing a bunch of youtube videos praising it I decided to give it a try but I haven’t had time to fully configure it and move over just yet. On my dual monitor setup it worked fine. Really loved how you can expose all open windows with a simple multi finger swipe and how each monitor has its own space.
I was the opposite. I stopped using hyprland because I found it utterly broken (Ctrl-X rant here). Didn’t find out about the community until after I left. User of i3, sway, and niri. Thanks to Lemmy for first mentioning niri to me. :)
yup. I was tempted to give Hyprland a try but noped out for political reasons.
political reasons?
Most projects have codes of conduct, even if it’s something as simple as Wheaton’s Law.
The original creator of hyprland behaved in a way that made people leave the project (the “political” part comes from the creator’s discrimination). It was basically a good example for why projects should have codes of conduct.
There’s Hypr, which is the X11 version of it (of which I tested a bit on my own time).
Hypr Hypr How much is the fish?
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KDE, beautiful and flexible
They should do this for Mint. I want to know how many of us weirdos using KDE on Mint there are.
Never tried Cinnamon(?) but to be honest, if I was forcred to use Mint, I probably would install KDE Plasma on the device.
Mint is said to be the perfect beginner friendly distribution. I am not sure, why. Robust and easy to understand package/update manager? If some of my f&f would ask to install them Mint, it absolutely would come with Plasma!
Robust and easy to understand package/update manager?
Honestly if it still has 2 gui package managers like when I last tried it that’s not true neither.
Ouch. That doesn’t sound good.
I did that before just getting Arch.
Also, I wonder if KDE on Ubuntu stuff still includes that FUCKASS FONTCONFIG FILE THAT MAKES EVERYTHING LOOK SHIT I SPENT 4 HOURS LOOKING FOR
Sway. Though I graduated from Arch to NixOS, sway remains as one of the core tenets of my personhood.
Upvote for sway, but the word graduate there feels out of place, though to be honest I havent given NIX an earnest shot.
Bash
I’d use Gnome if it had tray application icon support. I just cannot do without my tray icons for Dropbox.
The premise of the question is wrong, since it assumes a general preference.
If you’re asking 👉 this 👈 Arch user, the answer is “NONE”.
EDIT: The majority of users, especially experienced ones, don’t enable pkgstats. So such stats always end up in some form of self-selection (biased towards users who would use a DE in this case).
The majority of users, especially experienced ones don’t enable pkgstats.
Why would an experienced user not enable pkgstats? Anyways the biggest bias here is that arch inherently caters to power users which are going to have very different needs and likes than regular people.
experienced user not enable pkgstats?
well I’ve never heard of it and I’ve been using Arch for well over a decade. I see it’s actually a package of its own, rather than just a feature of pacman that you can enable.
Wouldn’t that mean the opposite - that you are actually not very experienced, or knowledgeable at least about arch? I’ve been using arch for a couple of years and “heard” of it just fine.
Ok bit of a smarmy response. Congratulations are what you’re looking for? In any case, I think it’s just an entirely optional package that is not of interest to many Arch users.
Congratulations
Thanks. But in all seriousness i was trying to convey that your initial argument - experienced users not enabling pkgstats didn’t make much sense. It’s just funny in this case because you’ve been using arch for a decade and yet don’t know this basic thing.
Not knowing about opt-in telemetry doesn’t convey lack of experience, or lack of (relevant) knowledgeability. Especially considering the fact that Arch purposefully keeps the existence of it low-key to avoid the possibility of pissing off anyone.
I was already an Arch user when that opt-in telemetry was introduced. And only heard about it because I was relatively active in Arch communities back then (relatively young, relatively new to Arch). If pkgstats were introduced two years later, I would have never heard of them. Because believe it or not, Arch is just a reliable OS, where you don’t have to interact with anything other than reading the odd announcement every other year. It’s not a “community”, or a “way of life”, or anything in that bracket.
