Software Alternatives & Reviews

KDE VS LXDE

Compare KDE VS LXDE and see what are their differences

KDE logo KDE

The KDE® Community is a free software community dedicated to creating an open and user-friendly computing experience, offering an advanced graphical desktop, a wide variety of applications for communication, work, education and entertainment and …

LXDE logo LXDE

Why will you like it? Less resource needs. You can use it on your less-pricey embedded board or salvaged computer. Component-based design. Don't want something in LXDE, or you don't want to use LXDE but only part of it?
  • KDE Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-23
  • LXDE Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-20

KDE

Categories
  • Linux
  • Desktop Environments
  • Operating Systems
  • Window Manager
Website kde.org

LXDE

Categories
  • Linux
  • Desktop Environments
  • Operating Systems
  • Window Manager
Website lxde.org

KDE videos

KDE Plasma 5 Deep Dive (Late 2019) | Linux Desktop Reviews

More videos:

  • Review - Review - Manjaro KDE
  • Review - Debian 10 KDE review

LXDE videos

Desktop December - LXDE Review

More videos:

  • Review - Lubuntu 18.04 LTS Review - Perhaps the last with LXDE

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to KDE and LXDE)
Linux
56 56%
44% 44
Operating Systems
55 55%
45% 45
Desktop Environments
49 49%
51% 51
Window Manager
39 39%
61% 61

User comments

Share your experience with using KDE and LXDE. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare KDE and LXDE

KDE Reviews

6 Best Linux Desktop Environments to Try in 2022
KDE is also popular as the Plasma desktop. KDE is a very lightweight desktop and highly customizable. Now you can connect your phone with the computer via KDE Connect. KDE’s browser integration connects your phone to your browser to establish a smooth communication fast.
Top 10 Best Desktop Environments in 2020
I call it the super DE for a reason. If you compare KDE with a group of people, KDE is the richest and the heaviest one. In terms of UI customization, KDE has it all. From transparent windows to blurred backgrounds, glass-look, to animations, and much more.
The 12 Best Linux Desktop Environments
KDE Plasma is one of the best Linux desktop environments for those who want to play with their system’s interface. KDE offers various features, but some users always complain that it is not stable enough, and it is also a bit heavier. Apart from it, all on-screen components work as a widget, which is movable and resizable.
Source: linuxhint.com
The Best Desktop Environments For Linux (We Tested Them So That You Don’t Have To)
Some Linux distros using KDE as the default are openSUSE, Kubuntu and KDE Neon. You may also refer to one of our tutorials to install KDE on Ubuntu, if that’s what you want.
Source: itsfoss.com

LXDE Reviews

9 Best Linux Desktop Environments to Use in 2023
Another elegant and portable desktop environment is LXDE. LXDE stands for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment. It uses minimal RAM compared to other desktop environments since it uses so few resources. LXDE is better suited to cloud workstations with older specifications, such as netbooks or outdated hardware.
Source: geekflare.com
Top 10 Best Desktop Environments in 2020
Lightweight and Low-resource can be considered the same, but in this case, there’s a difference. XFCE is a lightweight desktop environment even with a whole lot of built-in customizations and UI perks. LXDE, on the other hand, is a DE that is built to be as low-resource as possible. You certainly can add animations, but they need to be downloaded separately.
The 12 Best Linux Desktop Environments
LXDE is a user-friendly, energy-efficient, and lightweight Linux desktop environment. It is based on the GTK+, so LXDE can be a good alternative to Xfce if it runs slower on your system. It proves that LXDE is supported for all distros. Therefore it can be supported on older machines too.
Source: linuxhint.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, KDE seems to be a lot more popular than LXDE. While we know about 77 links to KDE, we've tracked only 1 mention of LXDE. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

KDE mentions (77)

  • Anyone using the KDE webchat?
    I am trying to use the KDE webchat on element at https://webchat.kde.org/#/login. I made an account at identity.kde.org, but it does not let me log in to the chat client. Create an account does not work and asks me to create an account at kde.org. Does anyone know how this is supposed to work? Thanks. Source: 6 months ago
  • Looking for user-friendly personal computing oriented distro
    This is a hard one, but after giving it a decent amount of thought I've narrowed it down to openSUSE Tumbleweed with either GNOME or KDE as the desktop environment. Source: 10 months ago
  • KDE/XMonad work laptop
    You need to be running xorg, not wayland, first of all. You can follow the tutorial at kde.org: https://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials/Using_Other_Window_Managers_with_Plasma. Source: 10 months ago
  • Should i switch?
    I'm glad to hear that you use Krita (and I may assume you use Blender for animations). Both are free and open source software that is available on Linux (even better, Krita is made by the KDE project, makers of all sorts of open source projects, including Plasma, one of the most complete user interfaces for Linux out there). Source: 11 months ago
  • KDE publishes the new "KDE for developers" page, where you can find advice on and links to tools, frameworks and libraries that will help you build powerful and cool-looking apps using KDE technologies
    I like the concept of these "KDE for ..." pages, I think the whole https://kde.org/for/ collection should be promoted way more prominently on the front page https://kde.org/. Also, a lot of regionalized "/for" pages lists only 3 (out of 4) subpages, and some even list only a single one, this seems like a major oversight (at least list them in English if their entries weren't translated to other languages). Source: 11 months ago
View more

LXDE mentions (1)

  • Touchpad Settings on Qtile with GUI App
    That said, you can look into lxinput https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Openbox#GUI_configuration https://lxde.org or... I don't know if kde-config-touchpad is still valid. Source: over 1 year ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing KDE and LXDE, you can also consider the following products

Xfce - Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.

GNOME - An easy and elegant way to use your computer, GNOME is designed to put you in control and get things done.

LXQt - The LXQt team is proud to announce the release of qtermwidget and qterminal, both in version 0. 8. 0. Read more..

KDE Plasma Desktop - Plasma Workspaces is the umbrella term for all graphical environments provided by KDE.

i3 - A dynamic tiling window manager designed for X11, inspired by wmii, and written in C.

MATE - The MATE Desktop Environment is the continuation of GNOME 2. It provides an intuitive and attractive desktop environment using traditional metaphors for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.