Linus Torvalds Moves from GNOME to Xfce

It may not matter too much in the grand scheme of things, but as an avid Linux user, how could I not be just a little interested in what the creator of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds, uses as his preferred desktop environment? Throughout the years, I’ve agreed with him on desktop-related issues more often than not, especially with regards to GNOME 2’s design back in the day.

I didn’t realize it until today, but apparently when KDE 4 came out, Linus jumped ship and bit the bullet to make GNOME his home. I admit I almost went the same route, but once KDE 4.3 came out, fixing up a ton of issues that the earlier releases faced, I was finally able to upgrade from 3.5 and have been happy ever since. Linus, like many others, still don’t believe that KDE 4 is as good as it should be.

It’s not much of a surprise, but Linus, like most other Linux users, doesn’t care for GNOME 3 either. In fact, he hates it, stating that it makes doing simple things more difficult and doesn’t improve anyone’s workflow. While I enjoyed using GNOME 3 for the most when when reviewing Fedora 15, it’s far from perfect, and that’s the reason I’m still faithfully sticking to KDE 4.3. So with GNOME 3 not to his tastes, did Linus go back to KDE?

Nope. Rather, he went to Xfce, a desktop environment based on the same libraries as GNOME 2, but is much lighter overall. He admitted this change in the comment thread of Dave Jones at Google+, a Red Hat employee involved with Fedora, where he asked them to fork GNOME 2 to help make Fedora usable again, dissing GNOME 3 in the process:

“Here’s an example of “the crazy”: you want a new terminal window. So you go to “activities” and press the “terminal” thing that you’ve made part of your normal desktop thing (but why can’t I just have it on the desktop, instead of in that insane “activities” mode?). What happens? Nothing. It brings your existing terminal to the forefront.“

He also readily admitted that Xfce is not better than GNOME 2, but that it’s a “huge” step up from GNOME 3. His reasons for leaving GNOME for Xfce, as well as his concerns for disliking GNOME 3, are echoed by many people. At the same time, many people still don’t enjoy KDE 4, though I’d have to say that where things stand today, it’s a truly powerful and feature-rich option.

This is where one of Linux’s greatest strengths lie, though. Don’t like a desktop environment? Use a different one! It’s still unfortunate that this is sometimes forced given that many developers don’t seem to listen to the regular users who have called their desktop environment home.