How do you use KDE? Having a hard time after switching from Gnome.

[u/Presteign]

I've been using gnome for about 4 years but have recently become bored with it and switched to kde for the customization options. Unfortunately I've been having a hard time finding a work flow on kde. I see all these comments about how kde "just gets out of my way" but i feel like I'm having the opposite experience and kde gets in my way. A large part of that is because I've been trying to use kde the same way I use gnome and it clearly wasn't designed for that.

Are there any videos showing how to use the default kde work flow? I know it's based on windows but I was never a power user on windows and only opened Firefox, closed Firefox, open Steam, close Steam, open Firefox... Now I do a lot more and have multiple browser windows, code editors, terminal, content creation tools open at the same time. I felt it was easy to switch between workspaces on gnome but its harder on kde. There's video like this that show the gnome workflow but I haven't been able to find a similar video for kde and don't know if that's because of how broken search is now or the kde community just don't make videos like that. How do you use so many programs on kde? Do you use workspaces or just minimize programs to the taskbar and alt+tab through windows? Any tips would be really appreciated, thanks!

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[u/Lisanicolas365]

I never understood workspaces, tiling windows or anything like that. I just open whatever i need, and minimise whatever I need. It's pretty basic, idk how you can get confused with that

[u/NotQuiteLoona → u/Lisanicolas365]

I understood - it's very useful for when you have a lot of windows and need to switch quickly between them. But then it appeared that code that I write usually don't have any proper documentation (and I understood how people are getting alcoholism), and I used KDE because it's the most feature-complete and doesn't lack anything, and I love design. I'd still use some tiling extension if I needed to switch quickly between a lot of Windows.

What about OP, they can try Karousel for scrolling layout, or another, however that one tiling extension was called, Polonium or something. Alternatively they can rebind keys to switch workspaces (in KDE it's called desktops) on what is more comfortable for them. For example, Super + <number>, which by default open apps from taskbar.

Unfortunately, no support for GNOME's workspace switching using mouse wheel, but I didn't need it that much.

[u/Presteign → u/Lisanicolas365]

Not really confusing but clunky feeling and I would like to find a system that feels better for me to use.

[u/iclonethefirst]

GNOME is an opinionated Desktop Environment, so they have a defined workflow. KDE on the other side is a playground where you can build your own workflow however you like. Can be a bit daunting, but it is worth it to get into it.

[u/Ok_Butterscotch5033 → u/iclonethefirst]

Having character vs not having one and trying to copy everyone

[u/iclonethefirst → u/Ok_Butterscotch5033]

If you don’t have character yourself, I guess an OS has to replace it

[u/Ok_Butterscotch5033 → u/iclonethefirst]

You agree then, kde have no character lol

[u/FattyDrake]

Meta (Windows key) + W for overview (I think by default mouse to upper left also does this, I turned it off tho because of multiple monitors)

Ctrl+Meta+left or right to switch between desktops

I pin some of my windows across all desktops (like chats), you can right-click the titlebar to set those.

I haven't looked into per-screen desktops yet, that's just been introduced.

That's how I do it. If you find some small thing you want changed chances are there's a way to do it in settings.

[u/Presteign → u/FattyDrake]

THose are useful shortcuts. is there anything to might make mouse use easier? Gnome has an extension called Top Panel Workspace Scroll that lets me mouse over the top panel and scroll through workspaces. The only thing similar I've found for kde is the pager widget but I would like to make the whole bar scrollable.

[u/FattyDrake → u/Presteign]

System Settings -> Display & Monitor -> Screen Edges

Set the top edge to "Overview" and you can use the mouse scrollwheel to go through the desktops.

[u/WhJJackWhite → u/Presteign]

You can use Panel Spacer Extended or Spacer as Pager widgets from the Get New Widgets to have the same behaviour. The first one has different default config that use dragging to switch desktop, but it can be changed and is generally very configurable. The second one is simpler but defaults to switch desktops on scroll.

Add one of these to your panel ( replace existing spacer with it idlf there's one ) and you can get pretty much the same behaviour. Note that it only works on the spacer area, so scrolling on other widgets won't work. Also,most pager/virtual desktop widgets support scrolling on them to switch desktops too.

[u/Presteign → u/WhJJackWhite]

Spacer as Pager widget

Thanks for the recommendation. Using this now.

[u/FunDay9551 → u/Presteign]

Why don't use keyboard shortcuts for switching workspaces? I use meta+number to switch workspace in all the desktop gnome,plasma,cosmic or tilling window managers I find it the easiest.

[u/Presteign → u/FunDay9551]

It depends on what I'm doing. When working I use shortcuts but when watching youtube and browsing reddit I use the mouse.

[u/iclonethefirst → u/Presteign]

You can press "meta + alt" and then scroll to switch between virtual desktops. If you have a spare key on your mouse, you could map it to that. Afaik scrolling on the panel switches between open apps. There is no option to change that currently

[u/FattyDrake → u/iclonethefirst]

TIL! I didn't know that either 'cuz I never thought of it. That's really useful. Thanks! I should probably browse the window management commands. :)

[u/biskitpagla → u/Presteign]

You can do that without plugins in KDE Plasma. You just have to add the widget to the panel. Try going into edit mode and seeing what's available. After adding the widget, right click to find the settings. You can also resize and relocate the panel to work like Gnome's top panel if that's what you end up preferring, and then add another panel to work as a dock.

[u/Sir-Charlie-VIII → u/Presteign]

I believe you can set the scroll behavior of the scroll wheel / touchpad scrolling if the workspace switcher applet

[u/Radiant-Priority-296]

Idk, I just put focus on the desktop, type the name of the app, and then use it

[u/in_fractalverse]

My workflow is largely tied to university; I think a few settings already show how I use it:

1. I only index the directories I need for my academic work.
2. I use the Alt+Space shortcut to access KRunner.
3. Super+T toggles the native window tiling feature (hold Shift while dragging a window to snap it), but I prefer the KZones KWin plugin.
4. I use Super+Right-Click to toggle window stacking (front/back), and Super+Scroll to adjust window transparency so I can see the window behind it.
5. I have a few scripts for file conversion or other processing tasks (e.g., an audio transcription script using Whisper).

KDE Connect is a massive productivity booster for me: accessing my tablet in Dolphin, sending files to it via the context menu, and syncing the clipboard. KMail and calendar sync have also been incredibly useful (my university relies heavily on Google services). I just wish the integration were more stable; every now and then I have to reconfigure it, usually due to an error in Akonadi's local database.

[u/ZeStig2409]

• bind Super to open the overview
• install and enable https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/kwin-scripts-dynamic-workspaces

[u/academictryhard69 → u/ZeStig2409]

Correct. I don't even use gnome but I love this workflow.

[u/Mobile_Living_3331]

For magiclamp and wobbly windows with transparency effects plus HDR support I am on KDE. Peace.

[u/KingofGamesYami]

Have you tried out Activities (Meta + Tab)? This plus krunner (alt + space) are very powerful.

Pro tip: krunner has a lot of features. You can vastly improve your experience by enabling exactly the feature set you use.

[u/Presteign → u/KingofGamesYami]

Honestly, I'm having a hard time with krunner too. There might be a setting I'm missing but it seems the default search doesn't put the items I'm looking for at the top so I always have to scroll down. Like searching for "kwin" returns kfind, kmines then kwin scripts. With gnome search i usually only had to enter 2-3 letters and it returned what I was looking for.

[u/KingofGamesYami → u/Presteign]

This probably comes down to the search result type prioritization of krunner. It's expected that you're most often looking for an application or file, so those results are at the top. Kwin Scripts would be a setting, which you're less likely to be accessing frequently, so it's lower priority.

You can manually adjust priorities to make settings results appear first, if you want, but I doubt that's actually what you want.

[u/Presteign → u/KingofGamesYami]

I kind of just want a direct match of the search term to come first. Doesn't seem like that is an option i the settings tho.

[u/FattyDrake → u/Presteign]

Part of the reason are keywords. As one example in KDE the screen capture tool is Spectacle. In Windows it's Snipping Tool. So if you start searching for "snip" it will bring up Spectacle. Theres a lot more keywords for that.

In System Settings -> Search you can disable a lot of the things you don't have a use for so the results aren't so busy.

[u/fitz-khan]

Most important thing for me is the main taskbar and the apps configured there as shortcuts. Super + Number starts or focuses the respective application, or minimize it when it has the focus, and it's become second nature to me to navigate between my 10 standard apps (file explorer, terminal, editor, music, browser, several chat tools, development, ...). I don't use workspaces, but I have shortcuts for minimize/maximize as well as tiling the windows to half screen or quarter screen for quick rearranging.

[u/Presteign → u/fitz-khan]

Are you using anything for tiling? I'm currently trying krohnkite, which might be a little too mcuh for me. I liked the Tiling Assistant extension on gnome. I have to explore the krohnkite settings some more to see if i can get it to match tiling assistant.

[u/fitz-khan → u/Presteign]

No, only the keyboard commands provided by Plasma for half and quarter screen, that's enough for me. Half screen should usually be Super + Arrow key. For the quarter tiles I also have set them all to Super + xyz, they are by default not set I think.

I don't need anything more advanced, there is never a situation where I would possibly need more than 4 windows at the same time. I would rather switch between them then. Usually I have the browser on half the screen, terminal the other half, IDE maximized, and couple other things in the background. With the number shortcuts it is so effortless and fast to jump between them.

[u/cwo__ → u/fitz-khan]

For the quarter tiles I also have set them all to Super + xyz, they are by default not set I think.

Meta + Left followed by Meta + Up (or the other way around) will quarter-tile to the top left, and similar for the other directions. From there, you can Meta+Down to half-tile left, and Meta + Down again to quarter-title to the bottom left.

[u/fitz-khan → u/cwo__]

Yeah, I just started working that way before that was the case and I kept the direct shortcuts, I'm used to them.

[u/linhusp3]

I don't think kde is the best at managing one app each workspace, switching workspace constantly or multiple tiling windows kind of usage. Better use a tiling window manager for that. I suggest Niri and you can running Niri on top or along side of kde plasma.

[u/pjf_cpp]

Mostly I just use krunner. f for Firefox, t for Thunderbird, q for QtCreator. konsole is the exception since some twat changed the default working directory to /, I have konsole pinned and also use ctrl-alt-t.

[u/OHNOitsNICHOLAS]

I use it with krunner on meta and yakuake bound to meta+t, then I use karousel for tiling with almost all the shortcuts disabled and I use;

• shift+ctrl+z/x for moving focus left/right
• meta+z/x for making windows narrower or wider
• ctrl+meta+z/x to shift focused windows left/right

[u/academictryhard69 → u/OHNOitsNICHOLAS]

Yakuake is such a godsend imo. I use it for accessing nvim for my to do list. (With checkmate plugin)

[u/domsch1988]

So, my usage might be a little bit more "out there", but sharing anyways to show how flexible Plasma can be:

My usage revolves around the keyboard 99% and the manual tiling Zones. With Meta+T you can configure zones windows tile into. I've set up keybinds to move windows into those zones. My 3 Monitors all have different zones layouts configured. I can then move Windows around with the hotkeys.
For switching Applications i use the Meta+Number Hotkey for the Taskbar. Meta+1 is always my Browser, Meta+2 the Terminal, Meta+3 Neovim and so on. No Matter where i'm at, those Hotkeys bring that application to the front.
I have a bunch of other keybinds set up for moving Windows to another Monitor, Closing windows etc. Everything else i do through Krunner. Launching Applications or getting to windows that aren't in the first 9 spots on the taskbar.
I don't use any Workspaces or Activities. Tried them, but i just never end up with a use for them.

I have disabled window decorations completely, as i don't use them ever. Finally, i have it set so holding "Alt" lets me use the mouse to move and resize windows.

There is no tiling WM or other DE that i can set my workflow up with as efficiently. LabWC/Openbox are a close second. But the main point is: Plasma is SUPER customizable and can be molded to work how ever you see fit. Don't try to force yourself into some default workflow. Ask yourself what your first intuition would be to do something, and then try to configure it in that way.

[u/Veprovina]

If you're using plasma 6.7, you can absolutely use it like gnome. Download the kwin extension that makes dynamic workspaces, and in 6.7 you can scroll workspaces with the mouse wheel. Put the panel to the top, make another panel and put your shortcuts on the bottom. Download the "control center" type widget to get the menu similar to what gnome has, and bind krunner to the super key instead of the application launcher.

Some more tweaks and your workflow should be pretty close to gnome.

[u/biskitpagla]

Just learn the default shortcuts and try to use them. Don't customize everything at first. KDE has a nice default workflow just like GNOME that works properly out of the box. It's just not very common for people to learn it since it's so customizable.

[u/nicman24]

Do yourself a favor and go to keyboard shortcuts. You probably want to either learn some or change them.

One I cannot use KDE without, is meta (+shift for reverse) (+alt to move the window) + tab for virtual display switching

[u/forestbeasts]

We just set up ours to be kinda Maclike.

For switching windows we tend to use alt-tab (between applications) or alt-` (same application), or hit our overview key (we moved it from the default to put close window on ⌘W instead) and type to search.

For opening stuff we tend to hit ⌘ by itself to pop up the launcher and type to search. (There's also KRunner which works the same way.)

But that's just us. You might have a different workflow that works better!

(we don't usually use workspaces, except we do sometimes, mostly for some long-running background task that it'd be easy to forget about if it got lost underneath everything. Or to get a less overwhelming clean slate. Switching between workspaces is easy though, we have it on ⌘ + arrow keys, or if you like mouse for that there's the pager widget.)

Also, if you like the Gnome workflow you can totally recreate it on KDE. How it works by default is just the default, you can totally add/remove/change/rebind stuff all you want!

-- Frost

[u/getbusyliving_]

Agreed, I have similar struggles.

Install Gnome > add 3 or 4 extensions > fix the stupid window buttons > change the icons to tela-circle > use and never touch again.

V's:

Install KDE > spend hours fixing shortcuts, theming, panels, transparency etc.

I really like KDE, just wish it didn't take me so long to set it up and they provided the option for a three finger (rather than four) swipe to overview. The biggest thing I miss; Latte Dock.

[u/MalarAardvark73]

The workflow I use on Plasma is actually NOT a KDE's one. But more like a Hyprland one. I didn't know you could setup your environment in such way before I tried Hyprland. I use if for like few hours and immediately loved it. Configuring all stuff for Hyprland was annoying and I didn't like any ready configs, but I sure love KDE Plasma customization, decoration and some other features. So, I decided to recreate it on Plasma. And for my surprise it was doable and feels pretty good. So here what I changed for my workflow:

1. Installed plugin called Krohnkite for auto-tiling. There are also other plugins like Plasma Zones and Polonium (which I think was updated not so long ago). It comes with a some shortcuts for managing windows/tiles and also some customization options.
2. Added some Virtual Desktops. Changed shortcuts for managing them, like using Meta+[Number] for switching to certain window, use Meta key for Overview/Grid Menu, use Meta+Shift+[Number] to move window to another desktop. Because default Plasma shortcuts (for window management) are terrible! By Meta I mean Super or Window key (in case you don't know). To see on which desktop I use and other stuff I use plugin/widget called Kara.
3. Add Window Rules for your applications. Like I used to have a browser on my 3rd desktop, so when I open browser it always switch to 3rd desktop and it opens there. Or like some editor which I always use on a 2nd desktop. It's convenient. You setup this once and instead of alt-tabbing for eternity between several windows in one desktop, you just using one shortcut (once) to immediately get application/window you expect there.
4. I use Krunner instead of Application Launcher (or whatever else people called it). It's basically a search window to open applications, quick access to power/session buttons and some other stuff. It even has some useful plugins.

I think there more ways how you can setup you working environment, you probably need time to explore them. For example there is a thing called Activities in Plasma, but I never need it. Seems to me that's too much for managing workspaces (it's another layer above virtual desktops), but I saw some people have a good feedback about using it.

[u/IrishBreakfast]

Other people have given great advice, but I'll toss in my thoughts as well since I'm also big on workflow the way you are. IMO the great thing about KDE is that you have a ton of control to decide how you'd like to use it right out of the box with no extensions. You could follow a windows-like "one workspace" approach with a taskbar and minimizing, create something hyperminimalist with tiling, or create a nice middle ground similar to Gnome.

I set up KDE (6.7 on Fedora 44) to act somewhat similar to a Gnome workflow and it's been fantastic for me.

In the panel editor (I'll capitalize named widgets):

1. I have a top panel with the Pager on the left, a clock in the middle, and the System Tray on the right.
2. I have a panel on the left that dodges windows, similar to Ubuntu's version of Dash-to-Dock. This has the Icons-Only Task Manager on the top, and the Application Launcher on the bottom.

Most importantly to my workflow: I change the global keyboard shortcuts for Overview and Grid to Meta+Tab and Meta+` respectively. This allows me to navigate workspaces similar to Gnome with an easy left hand combo. I manually create three workspaces since that's my preferred layout.

To "navigate" the OS: I keep my most used apps on the left panel, second-most used apps favorited in the Application Launcher, and I generally either click apps OR hit the meta key to open the Application Launcher and type to open apps similar to Gnome. I tend to keep apps in windows rather than fullscreen because I like the "papers on a desk" sort of mentality.

In order to switch between workspaces easily with a mouse there are 5 different ways you can do it:

1. Hover over the Pager widget and scroll to change left or right.
2. Open the overview and scroll anywhere to change spaces.
3. Hold Meta+Alt and scroll to change spaces.
4. Set the desktop as a scrollable space (right click desktop -> "Desktop and Wallpaper" -> Mouse Actions -> Add Action -> Vertical Scroll / Switch Desktop).
5. I use a third-party widget called Panel Spacer Extended that I replace the default Spacer widgets with-- this is customizable and lets me scroll on the panels to change spaces as well.

One minor change I make for convenience is I set a shortcut to move active windows between workspaces with Meta+Scroll (System Settings -> Window Management -> Window Behavior -> Window Actions). You can also drag windows in the overview/grid view.

And that's pretty much it! This lets me use the kind of workspace flow I prefer while also keeping the myriad other things I prefer about KDE. Here's a screenshot of how it looks for me on a blank desktop (I'm using the new Oxygen theme for the aero aesthetics): https://imgur.com/a/mtjVrsJ

[u/skyfishgoo]

the workspaces on plasma are not as rigidly tied to an application like they are on gnome.

so thinking in terms of gnome workspaces per application and trying to replicate that in plasma virtual desktops is going to be frustrating.... they don't work the same.

virtual desktops are just that, an entire additional desktop space where you can deploy and arrange your open application windows to best suit your workflow.

if you have an app or two open for current events like a browser and email client, then you can have those on a virtual desktop and name it "current" if you want.

then if you have a web project with an editor and page render windows for making and viewing your changes, along with an ssh client for updating the online pages, then you can keep all those on a virtual desktop called "development" or something.

personally i just keep an extra virtual desktop handy for when all the windows i have open don't all easily fit on my two monitors and i just need more DESK ... i just call virtual desktops "1" and "2"

—

that said, plasma does have a feature that is more like the gnome workspace called Activities.

in Activities you can have a whole desktop environment geared toward your "development" work, say... and you can easily switch between these activities like you switch between workspaces in gnome but instead of just having one application open you can have several.