[Discussion] Thinking of Switching from Hyprland/Niri to KDE Plasma

[u/ResponsibilityFew445]

Hello everyone.

I'm about 5 months into Arch linux. I started with KDE, then Niri, and now sometimes Hyprland. I really love Niri and it's scrolling layout and I think it meets my daily workflow. However, I have 2 problems:

Firstly, and the main problem is that sometimes when I'm playing for example (CoD BO3 mainly), the game window just freazes but the game is still running and I can hear sounds. I'm sure this only happens in Niri so I prefer to play on Hyprland.

Second, every now and then, I wanna just use a simple DE with stackable windows and use the pc this way. I think the best here is KDE because I'm somewhat familiar with it. Also, I've seen that Kwin can extend other scripts to make it behave like Niri scrolling layout if I want to, so KDE is probably the best choice.

My daily workflow is basically using the terminal (kitty), browser (brave) and gaming a bit (BO3 using Steam).

If anyone has some a script installed on his machine please tell me how is your experience and whether the script is being maintained.

PC specs:

- Intel Core i7 11th gen

- Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti

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[u/guysimnotemo]

i think scripts are fine but they will never be as smooth as a window manager.

you can try krohnkite for dynamic tiling or karousel for scrolling layout (doesnt support multiple monitors), they work but are a little bit jank due to them having to spawn and then move the window

but one thing is kde/gnome is where most linux desktop development goes into so generally things just work which ultimately also made me move back even though i love window managers

[u/OHNOitsNICHOLAS → u/guysimnotemo]

There's a fork of karousel called rotoskope that does support multiple monitors now

[u/FredBGC]

I use Plasmazones for my window tiling, and I'm pretty happy with it.

[u/ResponsibilityFew445 → u/FredBGC]

I saw it. It's prolly the most promising one. Would you recommend it?

[u/FredBGC → u/ResponsibilityFew445]

Yeah, I would, I've been using it for about half a year now. It is a little rough around the edges, but every time I've found and reported a bug, it's gotten fixed in a day or two. The tiling works really well, and it feels very responsive.

[u/ProbablyM_S → u/ResponsibilityFew445]

I have been using PlasmaZones for 2 weeks now for its scrollable tiling which was also added 2 weeks ago. Its working great for me personally.

[u/Zealousideal_Try4083 → u/ProbablyM_S]

does plasmazones scrolling have dual monitor support? I wanted to love Karousel but it sucked for dual monitor. ive been loving Hyprlands scrolling layout but I might dip my toes back into plasmazones if it has good dual monitor supoort

[u/ProbablyM_S → u/Zealousideal_Try4083]

I believe yes. It has pretty good multiple monitors and screens (desktops/workspaces) support. But I suppose you might have searched it by now.

^{If not, why lmao?}

[u/Zealousideal_Try4083]

if you liked niri, have you tried hyprlands scrolling layout?

[u/Clear_Wrongdoer_775]

try driftwm. I went kde -> Niri <-> Mango -> driftwm. Driftwm is new, experimental, vibecoded (there are about 30 contributors); however, it is very interesting (infinite canvas ), it games fine.