You are right, I just remember it as using 2.8 for an extended period of time. But looking it up, 2.8 was a milestone from 2004, and 2.32 was the final release.

I switched to Linux as my main OS in 2005. So I probably started on 2.8.

WTF is KCD?

Gnome lost a lot of popularity with Gnome shell, and for good reason. Gnome made the same mistake Microsoft did with Windows 8, which was also universally hated. By the same mistake I mean they changed EVERYTHING!

This must be about Gnome 2.8 when Gnome indeed was by far the most popular desktop environment on Linux.
And then Gnome 2.8 was deprecated and no longer maintained, and for years after Gnome Shell was complete and utter shit.
IMO it still is, because they have changed fundamentals like how virtual desktops work, that disrupt my workflow.

I agree Gnome is more elegant, but that’s irrelevant when key fundamentals simply don’t work anymore.

So to get the desktop I like to actually use, I use KDE instead.

Edit: Final release was 2.32 as u/esc correctly writes below.

Nvidia drivers do not always play nice with the kernel, and can disrupt high end audio use. If you use Linux you should use an AMD or Intel GPU.
My wife used to use Nvidia, because it worked better for some games, but she finally ended up getting pissed with the proprietary Nvidia drivers, and switched to AMD about a year ago. And now all her games that used to work with Nvidia drivers also work with AMD.
AFAIK Debian support Nvidia proprietary drivers reasonably well today, but for older Nvidia cards you may be out of luck, they can be a real shitshow to get to work if you want to use the proprietary driver.
Best option is to just stop using Nvidia on Linux!

Personally I prefer an Arch derivative, and neither of us can convince the other. 😋
However we both see the merits of “the other side”, we just have different preferences. But we also have some fun with it if some times. 😎

My wife uses Debian and is very happy with it.
She uses it both for gaming and studio recordings with Ardour.

Debian has for decades been among the most respected distros in the Linux world, and it still is.
If you want something solid, Debian should be your first choice.

Edit PS:
She also uses it for programming occasionally. Debian is an excellent platform for “coding” with its huge repositories.
But most Linux distros are very good for programming, and will have all the common necessary tools readily available.

It was a joke. 😋

Yes, that’s how it’s pronounced after you drink it.

Snaps is something you drink.
AFAIK only users who have it shoved down their throat by Ubuntu use snap packages.

Even the average tech person doesn’t know what it means.
The term was coined by Christine Peterson of the Free software movement, and is defined to specify software that is free and open source (FOSS).
This was after problems with the term “free software” because it was a bad term, that was hijacked to also include software free of cost but closed and proprietary, so far from open source. And free was not generally understood as free as in libre.
After the Free software movement coined the term. The Free Software Foundation also adopted it, and to distinguish they called it FLOSS, for “Free as in Libre and Open Source Software”, where the libre means that the code is protected from being “jailed” because it has a so called strong copyleft license, like for instance GPL. So MIT, BSD and public domain are not FLOSS but they are FOSS.

https://opensource.com/article/18/2/coining-term-open-source-software

/Nothing in this life is simple.

Historically KDE is a desktop environment.

The meaning of words are ultimately defined by how they are used. Like Hoover is a vacuum cleaner, even though originally it was a specific brand of vacuum cleaner.

The KDE organization can decide they want to call their desktop environment Lolita Doll. I will never call it that. It is and always were KDE.

For the organization to call itself KDE is stupid, because the DE in KDE stands for desktop Environment.
So the organization is calling itself a desktop environment, which IMO is moronic.

The display manager is separate from KDE/Plasma, and can easily be changed to something else.

KDE is not a DM it’s a DE.

AFAIK KDE is not a display manager.
But if your desktop goes completely dark when tuning the light slider all the way down, you wouldn’t be able to see anything, and how then would you turn it up again? If you don’t have an alternative way to regulate than the slider KDE provides.
Seems like a decent precaution to me, if you really want it all black there are other ways, like turning off your monitor, or just use powersaving, or use a black screensaver. Alternatively you can make an app in a few seconds in for instance Lazarus, that goes full screen black. And would be easy to close again when you want the picture back.

The brightness on a TV or monitor doesn’t go to all black either. IDK if it’s a coincidence, but my monitor adjustment, and adjustment in KDE look identical when I have one at 100% and the other all the way down.

IDK performance on Linux is amazing IMO.
My current favorite is Windrose, and it has an official requirement of a Radeon 6800XT or better, I’m playing it on Linux with a 2 levels lower Radeon 6600XT and has even increased graphics settings from the defaults, and it plays perfectly.

IDK if this is better or worse on Windows, but it seems to me that performance is for sure no longer a serious problem on Linux, even on games that run on the proton compatibility layer. And this is even on an early access game that isn’t fully optimized.

Imagine opening a pizza box just to find an old potato. 😋

OK I read it as Linux won’t cut it if we are forced to use Microsoft.
Microsoft will of course do everything possible to create that situation, as they’ve been doing very successfully since the 80’s.

How the fuck is Linux a trap compared to the shenanigans of Microsoft?
Microsoft and other proprietary vendors are the trap, and Linux is the way to avoid it.

Yes I do, it seems to me Linux is beginning to grow a bit faster than it used to.
Desktop use is of course declining, so it will be a larger share of a smaller market.
But enthusiasts have seen Linux as the better options for decades now, and gamers are coming over too, and use cases that require optimal security, and even some workstation tasks are done better on Linux because Linux has a superior kernel for multi threading.

But it will take some time, probably at least 10 years.

Chrome OS is a surveillance tool for Google and authorities, and should be illegal to give to minors.
It’s actually illegal in EU, except for some reason EU is giving it a pass.