I’ve used both pretty extensively (years daily driving each) but these days I just use stock KDE, with maybe a couple little adjustments to the taskbar. I like both. I can adapt to different desktop workflows, GNOME’s is good, but I found myself always using plugins to make it work more like a windows desktop. I generally like the KDE suite of default applications a lot more than GNOME’s, like Dolphin is just a better file manager than nautilus. And if I’m going to use KDE applications and a windows-styled desktop layout, at that point I might as well just use KDE.

One adapts to me.

The other requires me to adapt to it.

GNOME expects the user to adapt to the workflow its developers have in mind. It’s the desktop environment that should adapt to me, not the other way around.

Plus, I love customization and theming. But GTK app developers create angry websites where they try to shame me for it.

I like gnome, but, switched back to kde because the extensions I needed broke last fedora update.

I love cosmic, but the keyboard focus doesn’t always follow into the correct tab, which was also a deal breaker

The only real issue I have with kde, is Google drive integration isn’t baked in at the moment

GNOME. It’s clean, I like it, and I don’t feel the need to customize it.

Typically I’ll stick with Plasma till they bork it, then switch to GNOME til I get bored and see what’s up with Plasma these days. I’ll sometimes try some others out, but typically it’s those two.

When I got back to Linux some years back, I tried using GNOME because I had had good experiences with GNOME 2. Modern GNOME is awful, terribly opinionated and - in my view - has actual usability issues. Every interaction with the DE felt like pulling teeth and I didn’t enjoy it one bit. GNOME Classic was better, but even that never felt quite right. At the time I wanted to use Wayland and therefore had limited options, so for the first time ever I tried Plasma, and I immediately found it to my liking. With only a few small cosmetic tweaks it felt like home. Things made sense to me and everything was where it should be - more or less; nothing’s perfect. Since then I’ve looked at other options, but Plasma usually has one feature or another that alternative desktops lack or struggle with. So for now I’m sticking with Plasma, and I have no real reason to look elsewhere.

To be sure, I don’t hate on anyone who prefers GNOME, it’s just not my cup of tea. Not by a long shot. Use what works for your use case.

Gnome always felt too basic and minimalist. KDE feels powerful and like I can do anything I want. On KDE I don’t ask myself “can i do this?”, I ask myself “how do I do this?”

Gnome lost a lot of functions when streamlining, just compare Dolphin to Nautilus, and instead of fighting their vision I went for a DE that works the way I want.
I love information density and easily get hooked on spreadsheet games, I feel as if that is the exact opposite of the Gnome vision.

edit: I prefer Gnome for touch only devices like Microsoft Surface Pro 7 without physical kbm.

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Gnome 2 was the default when I switched. I stay mostly because of familiarity and inertia. There has to be a really good reason to switch. Maybe soon. KDE implemented workspaces-per-screen. That could be a killer feature that would get me to switch. I loved that when I was running AwesomeWM.

The lizard is cute

A couple of years ago, I used both of them briefly and GNOME simply provided the more polished experience back then.

In time, I came to dislike the look/design of KDE apps.

So when the time came I wanted to ditch GNOME because I was sick of its extensions ecosystem, I didn’t even consider KDE Plasma. Instead, I tried out Sway and eventually settled on COSMIC.

I like KDE because it is super customisable out of the box, and I personally prefer the more contrasty, colourful look of KDE over the more minimal and padded GNOME.

However, if you like GNOME, that’s perfectly fine! With GNOME Extensions, you can also customise a lot, far more than Windows or MacOS lets you without sketchy third-party tools. And of course, Cinnamon, XFCE, Cosmic, etc. are all great too.

I like Gnome because it doesn’t have a Desktop that I can crowd with Icons and random files. The few times I tried KDE I just didn’t really jive with it because the text and icons were super small by default and the whole handling was just…idk, too click-y? Yeah, it can all be adjusted and stuff, but default Gnome is just closer to my preferences than default KDE.