46 engineers on Hacker News describe using GNOME first-hand: 19 endorse it, 14 regret it, 1 are mixed.
“GNOME 3 may be the single biggest downgrade any desktop system I've ever used has been.”
regret · personal · jchw · 2026-10-16 · source ↗ · wrong label?“after about a day with gnome actually said it's the first desktop environment that he liked more than Windows 95.”
endorse · personal · freedomben · 2026-01-10 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I have been using gnome on Wayland for years and no problems what-so-ever.”
endorse · personal · criticalfault · 2025-12-25 · source ↗ · wrong label?“At work I have been using gnome with the wayland backend for years at this point and I can't really figure out anything that's missing.”
endorse · production · reppap · 2025-12-25 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using gnome with no issues whatsoever”
endorse · personal · IlPeach · 2024-12-04 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Gnome is frankly the most polished DE on Linux. ... Gnome is fine in my experience.”
endorse · personal · yoyohello13 · 2023-12-19 · source ↗ · wrong label?“that's after experiencing the significant downgrade to Gnome desktops due to Red Hat removing KDE”
regret · production · OPA100 · 2023-11-22 · source ↗ · wrong label?“It was also our first experience with GNOME Wayland and we don't regret it.”
endorse · personal · LoganDark · 2022-12-31 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using it for close to 5 years on Gnome / Ubuntu with a lot of success”
endorse · personal · 5 yr · xur17 · 2022-12-28 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Even GNOME that is not known for this can adapt to the user much better than Windows 11.”
endorse · personal · jug · 2022-12-25 · source ↗ · wrong label?“My (Arch) GNOME desktop broke much more frequently during that time.”
regret · personal · 7 yr · mananaysiempre · 2022-11-02 · source ↗ · wrong label?“No gnome for me, never again. It is a worthless project.”
regret · personal · the_biot · 2022-05-04 · source ↗ · wrong label?“right now I am sticking to Gnome... Sometimes it was annoying, I think a tiling WM is a better solution nowadays”
mixed · personal · Fnoord · 2021-12-14 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been very happy with my computing experience, both in terms of aesthetics and overall UX.”
endorse · personal · _qbjt · 2021-12-07 · source ↗ · wrong label?“It's buggy, half-baked, and crash. I can ditch GNOME, KDE, and XFCE”
regret · personal · runjake · 2021-11-08 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Any gnome extension I've installed I came to regret it without exception (on Ubuntu).”
regret · personal · bonoboTP · 2020-12-21 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Two years ago I tried Gnome. I was fed up with KDE screwing up with Wayland. And should I tell you? I love Gnome!”
endorse · personal · 2 yr · jhoechtl · 2020-12-20 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Gnome in general has always been rough for me on bluetooth; the bluetooth connection app still needs some love”
regret · personal · 4 yr · therealrootuser · 2020-12-14 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using unity since 18.10 because gnome always blackscreens on my 1070.”
regret · personal · useryman · 2019-11-27 · source ↗ · wrong label?“When Gnome and Canonical both went crazy (Gnome 2 -> 3 and Unity even existing, respectively) I stayed with Gnome 2 for a while”
regret · personal · ISV_Damocles · 2017-11-28 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using Gnome lately on my XPS13... and I hate it with a passion.”
regret · personal · lultimouomo · 2017-11-28 · source ↗ · wrong label?“So by the time I moved to Gnome I also doubled by RAM and swapped to a SSD. Those were the happiest days in my life.”
endorse · personal · rodolphoarruda · 2016-12-06 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using GNOME 3 on Debian Jessie for about a year now on my main work machine and I have to say that I'm very happy with it.”
endorse · production · 1 yr · masida · 2014-12-28 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I have been using GNOME for almost all of my computing years, and even till now.”
endorse · personal · vysakh0 · 2014-11-11 · source ↗ · wrong label?“My experience varies, depending on the sh*t they decide to push (like Gnome 3 or systemd).”
regret · personal · rogerthis · 2013-12-17 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using Gnome3 for years and am very happy with it.”
endorse · personal · VMG · 2012-12-08 · source ↗ · wrong label?“It's gotten to the point where we are afraid of what's going to happen when RHEL7 comes around and gnome3 is the default. We are paying customers and we don't want gnome3.”
regret · production · davvid · 2012-11-24 · source ↗ · wrong label?“the system's performance as a desktop machine is at least %25 better than Unity/Gnome 3/KDE”
regret · personal · rcb · 2012-11-11 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using gnome 3.6 for the past month... gnome 3 is a solid desktop.”
endorse · personal · egh · 2012-11-08 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I really like the dynamic virtual desktops, and the expose-style overview.”
endorse · personal · ominous_prime · 2011-12-22 · source ↗ · wrong label?“so I'm logging in with GNOME Classic now instead of Unity. ... I just gotta have that task bar.”
endorse · personal · fexl · 2011-12-22 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Gnome2 has got better and better and XFCE has barely moved.”
endorse · personal · jmoiron · 2011-11-12 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I have been using Linux since 1993 and GNOME since the end of 1998. Over that time I have had less than a handful of GNOME crashes”
endorse · personal · 13 yr · tankenmate · 2011-11-03 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I can't speak for Gnome3 since it doesn't like my hardware at all, and its 'classic' mode seems broken”
regret · personal · FuzzyDunlop · 2011-10-17 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I got over that and settled on bazzite with gnome”
neutral · personal · robador · 2024-12-26 · source ↗ · wrong label?“She used GNOME before she ever saw Windows.”
neutral · personal · JeremyNT · 2022-02-14 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I don't see a great overall difference in performance when compared to Gnome on Linux.”
neutral · personal · Delk · 2021-12-27 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using PopOS which is GNOME plus Pops Shell”
neutral · personal · zaptheimpaler · 2021-12-07 · source ↗ · wrong label?“switched from GNOME 3 because I was having terrible issues with the Nvidia drivers”
neutral · personal · jbboehr · 2020-12-15 · source ↗ · wrong label?“once GNOME 3 became the default, I switched to Xfce Desktop Environment.”
neutral · personal · susam · 2019-12-03 · source ↗ · wrong label?“So far, I have reported a small number of GNOME bugs and I hope to complain less and report/fix more in 2018.”
neutral · personal · microtonal · 2017-12-27 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using it since Unity and Gnome 3.”
neutral · personal · pmontra · 2017-11-28 · source ↗ · wrong label?“given how much I've used their software in the past.”
neutral · personal · jaaron · 2014-11-11 · source ↗ · wrong label?“First I've ditched it for Gnome Classic, then for Gnome Shell and finally for Cinnamon”
neutral · personal · BerislavLopac · 2012-12-03 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I gave up and went back to the GNOME fallback.”
neutral · personal · gsoltis · 2011-11-29 · source ↗ · wrong label?“On my slow machine, it would take a good 30 seconds or more for Gnome to restart”
neutral · personal · hollerith · 2011-11-02 · source ↗ · wrong label?