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?
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 use KDE Plasma, btw.
I3. No desktop. Just me and the bash.
Expected it
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
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.
Bash
I really love gnome but my friends keep pushing me for KDE and I really just don’t like the windows style of desktop.
Waiting for a tiling window manager with nice animations
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Not sarcastic, animations add greatly to the understandability of what’s going on which is helpful anyway and especially if you fat finger something.
But yeah I don’t especially want to put loads of time in either heh
I like gnomes features but not gnome itself. Cinnamon is good, but has its faults. Plasma is better but is missing online features (calendar for example can’t be used to create events or sync with your cloud accounts). Really would like to see how Comic a desktop turns out when it’s ready.
Weirdly, my Arch System has a bog-standard absolutely uncustomized kde plasma install.
Its the Debian system which has been customized to hell and back with i3 and lxqt. I’d like to switch to sway but my gpu does NOT like wayland.
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KDE, beautiful and flexible
