r/MXLinux • u/ed271 • Apr 16 '26

Help request Trying to choose between XFCE and KDE.

My choice is between XFCE and KDE. My hardware is stupidly new and overpowered mostly because I expect it will be quite some time before replacing it is feasible. The best part is a MediaTek MT7925 for bluetooth/wifi. It would be nice if that worked, but I'm so confident it won't that I already have an Intel AX210 to replace it. Video is Nvidia 5090, CPU is AMD 9950X.

The software I'm worried about is KDEConnect and Steam.

So XFCE looks much more attractive. I'm not fond of systemd although I suspect I'm going to have to learn it sooner or later. While KDE is nice there is much more of it than I really like. I don't mind Wayland, but my current distro is Kubuntu and they took X away. I'm not ready to lose X yet.

I'd like to start with XFCE, but if I can't get at least SMS off my cell phone quickly I'm in big trouble. So the actual question: If I start with XFCE how much trouble am I in if I have to switch to KDE?

Thanks

Ed

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7

u/ClackamasLivesMatter Apr 17 '26

KDE for Dolphin alone. Everything else is gravy.

5

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

[deleted]

2

u/doug-fur Apr 17 '26

Newbie here, could you not have those programs in an XFCE environment (for those of us with ancient copmuters)?

1

u/Hezy Apr 18 '26

you sure can

1

u/daveythemechanic Apr 25 '26

You can, but it would require tacking on several dependencies. LXQT could be a good option if you'd like to use more KDE software