I’ve distro hopped quite a bit over the last few years. I’ve realized recently that I tend to gravitate toward KDE Plasma as a desktop environment, but I don’t take advantage of the customization as much as I could.

As I sit here looking through the KDE Plasma settings I’m curious to hear what are some favorite things to change in any DE. Please share what you like to do when you get a vanilla install. Do you have a favorite icon pack? Do you have a favorite theme? Any particular widgets that you would recommend?

I’m sure there is more out there than I can think of. Please share!

Edit: I can’t respond to everyone, but this is a great discussion. So many good suggestions and ideas. Keep them coming!

  • wallwood@lemmy.ml
    2·
    5 days ago

    I don’t fiddle with my KDE much, but with every fresh install I always set the dock to auto-hide and fit-content.

    • psilotop@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      7 days ago

      Oh awesome. Do Klassy and Kvantum overlap? Seems like they both modify the windows.

      You’re not the first person to mention wobbly Windows. I definitely have to give it a try, sounds fun!

      • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        7 days ago

        I’m not 100% sure, there might be a bit of overlap between them but I’ve never personally had any trouble running them side-by-side.

        And yeah I love wobbly windows. I’m so used to them now that if I have to use Windows or something with non-wobbly windows it feels wrong now lol.

        Oh yeah, another one I’ve recently discovered that looks interesting is Quickshell. I haven’t used it much yet though, I made a semi-functional panel with it and that’s as far as I got. But it looks like you can do a lot with it once you get the hang of it.

        • psilotop@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          7 days ago

          Quickshell looks interesting, basically building your own desktop environment. That’s probably the next step after I figure out what customization I want.

          Thanks for the input! Much appreciated

    • psilotop@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      6 days ago

      “Indulge in nostalgia with useless 3D effects.” Is all I needed to read on that page ❤️

  • flameleaf@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    7 days ago

    Papirus icons, Phinger cursors, $HOME/.config/xfce4 copied from previous install.

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
    1·
    6 days ago

    Window Rules and Custom Shortcuts from KDE Plasma, just earlier today I binded Meta+Ctrl+k to start Konsole in the directory of my latest modified prototype, open a per directory script which e.g. opens a browser tab, opens Vim in the file to edit, positions those windows properly, here browser on left half, console on top right corner.

    Window Rules with its window picker is very convenient to get conditions and properties to apply. Custom Shortcuts is just a list of shortcuts you can add to start anything from anywhere.

    Also I added my own wiki as a KRunner Web search, so if I type Alt+Space then PIM keyword it searches directly to my PIM from the center of my screen, also from anywhere.

  • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
    1·
    6 days ago

    I’ve only tried Ubuntu, Mint, and CachyOS.

    Didn’t like Ubuntu much, but probably because it was my first Linux attempt and I’d probably understand better now.

    Mint is cool, my laptop is running it, but the system settings being individual apps is frustrating, especially when you can’t remember the name of the one you want and there’s 2 display ones? Grrrrr

    I like Cachy a lot. I haven’t used it as much as I’ve only put it on a second laptop to use as a media centre in conjunction with Plasma Big Screen, but I’m thinking of switching my laptop over to it because it feels mostly the same in desktop mode, but the system settings are unified and a lot easier to deal with.

    (My desktop is still a Mac, I haven’t converted completely sorry)

    • Breadhax0r@lemmy.world
      2·
      6 days ago

      For ages I’ve had my task bar on the side of my secondary monitor. When I first had to start using win 11 at work and I found out they had disabled the ability to move it I got so irrationally angry lol. It was the straw that broke the camels back and I went home and started down the linux rabbit hole fueled by sheer spite.

  • JTskulk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    7 days ago

    I like to set up klipper actions to do automation on certain clipboard actions. I have them for sending certain URLs to special programs, converting credit card charge emails into a new item in a spreadsheet, doing 2 bandcamp things. I used to have some cool automation set up with starting and stopping activities, but they removed that functionality and now I have a worse one with the command output widget. I also love using window rules to customize my programs and where and how they appear.

    • psilotop@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      7 days ago

      The email to spreadsheet idea is fantastic! I have my credit card email me for every purchase so the format is uniform no matter where I buy…

      • JTskulk@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        Yeah it’s great. I click on the email, press ctrl-a to select all, ctrl-c to copy, win-r to run action on clipboard (there’s an option to do this one automatically). It then runs a script that parses that text to get the good bits and reformat it. I wrote it for Chase, not sure if it’s helpful if you want it.

  • rsky@lemmy.ml
    5·
    7 days ago

    I always install Guake. It’s a drop-down terminal emulator and it can be heavily configured with hotkeys. I have it pop open/close with one key and I can split the terminal horizontally or vertically as many times as I want with a couple other hotkeys.

    It’s so ridiculously efficient (as a developer) that I can’t stand to not have it installed at this point.

    • Matth@sh.itjust.works
      6·
      7 days ago

      What’s better with a drop down terminal vs a normal terminal invoked with global short key?

      It’s a genuine question, never heard about drop down terminal and looked it up. As I understand they are just normal terminal with a visual effect when they open. Am I missing something?

      • psilotop@lemmy.worldOP
        5·
        7 days ago

        I’ve used a drop down terminal before and I find the position convenient. I can never lose it among other windows and it’s always on top. If I want to see below, I just slide it back.

        Your point is correct, it is functionally nearly identical. Since the terminal is arguably the most important or most central piece of software, I do find it convenient to always have it in the same place and to give it priority over other windows.

        This is definitely a matter of opinion, I do admit

      • rsky@lemmy.ml
        3·
        7 days ago

        It really has nothing to do with the opening animation, in fact, I’m not even sure if Guake has an animation. It’s about having a self contained terminal “window” where all of your terminals live and you can quickly navigate between them. Then you can hide said window just as fast as it arrived and get back to what you were doing. Keep in mind, these drop down terminals are not treated as traditional windows and are always-on-top.

        The problem with traditional terminal windows is: let’s say that I have 4 terminals up for different tasks; it causes a little friction to my workflow when I have to deal with which window is which. That friction is just not present with a drop-down. Of course, you can have a traditional terminal emulator that supports tabs and splitting and set a hotkey to bring the one window into focus with an always-on-top flag; at that point though, you’ve just recreated another drop-down.

  • thingsiplay@lemmy.ml
    5·
    7 days ago

    In KDE my favorite is an extension to the window manager, for auto tiling: https://codeberg.org/anametologin/Krohnkite or install it from Settings > Window Management > KWin Scripts, then click “Get New” and search for “Krohnkite” by anametologin. Development is a bit slow at the moment, but it does the job well.

    I like that there are different layouts available, meaning different logic how a window should be placed and sized. I can switch between layouts on the fly. Every virtual desktop can have their own layout by standard, in example my fourth desktop is always untiled like a normal desktop. Exceptions to specific windows or applications to not tile them can be added too. So the usual stuff. It comes with some features not seen in other tiling window managers. In example I can convert any window into a “Dock”. A dock would then be always at the edge or screen, similar to the KDE bar; basically making the screen area to tile windows smaller. Super cool.

    Edit: Rephrased a bit to make it more clear and added some more info.

  • nyan@sh.itjust.works
    3·
    7 days ago

    The colour scheme. White screens are one of the things that trigger my migraines.

    This in turn leads to my modifying several other visual aspects of the desktop, because a lot of widget set themes come with scrollbars that don’t work well with really dark colours. I also turn animations and automagic snapping and desktop navigation facilities off, because I find them annoying. Kindly behave like it’s 1999 and don’t do anything I don’t explicitly tell you to do, Mr. Desktop.

    And then I embed a conky instance in the second desktop for general monitoring—CPU activity (composite and by thread), memory in use, disk space, network usage, temperatures, fan levels, and greediest processes all conveniently in a single view that doesn’t require me figuring out what I did with the window.

      • nyan@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        7 days ago

        I chose a slightly different way of achieving what that extension does, and long ago set my browser not to allow websites to choose their own colours. That does partially break a few sites that don’t handle their images properly, but overall it’s workable and gives me white on a slightly different dark colour for each browser profile.

        • digitalhippie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          7 days ago

          Interesting method, I didn’t even know that was possible. Would you mind sharing how you achieved that? I would be interested in comparing the two. Dark Reader does add some overhead which is noticeable on my older machines

          • nyan@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            6 days ago

            It’s a normal browser setting left over from the early days of the Internet, when most pages did little or no theming (or did it badly). My primary browser is Pale Moon, which exposes the setting as a dropdown under Preferences > Content > General > Colors. Firefox also exposed the setting on its settings page the last time I checked, although it may be a checkbox there. It’s also a boolean in about:config, browser.display.use_document_colors.

            Chrome-family browsers may not have such a setting, unfortunately. The only one I keep handy is Vivaldi, which doesn’t have it but does have a “Force a dark theme on all websites” checkbox (under Settings > Appearance > Website Appearance).

    • psilotop@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      7 days ago

      Totally agree on dark themes, my eyes can’t take bright white screens.

      The performance monitor is a nice touch, I think I’ll include that. Thanks!

  • StrawberryPigtails@discuss.tchncs.de
    3·
    8 days ago

    It’s been a while since I’ve done a clean install, but I think the only thing I do to KDE is install Yakuake and set up 4 virtual desktops. Very handy when I’m working on my more involved projects.

    • OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
      2·
      7 days ago

      Do the Desktops persist between reboots? As in each work space can become a running working space on its own or they reset and it’s just organization?

      • StrawberryPigtails@discuss.tchncs.de
        1·
        7 days ago

        It’s more an organization thing.

        The desktops themselves persist however I have it set to reset to empty desktops on boot. There is an option in KDE settings to automatically restore previously open applications when you boot up, but my workflow is never the same from project to project.

        I’m not sure anymore which is the default behavior. I think I remember having to change the setting at some point and that’s how I know it exists.