Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Beta released with GNOME 50, Linux kernel 7.0, Mesa 26

Yep, and... As I'm aware, there flat-out NO X11 desktop, AT ALL, strictly Wayland only... But for people using older apps or PC configurations that for some reason are working fine ONLY on X11 but NOT with Wayland, what they'll supposed to do? 🤔

Gnome 50 has a serious regression in graphics performance, so stay away from Ubuntu 26.04 until it's fixed.

https://www.phoronix.com/review/nvidia-595-kde-gnome

Quoting: sarmadGnome 50 has a serious regression in graphics performance, so stay away from Ubuntu 26.04 until it's fixed.
https://www.phoronix.com/review/nvidia-595-kde-gnome

It wasn't clear from the article whether it's a regression, some major improvement in KDE, or something else. Would be nice if he compared with GNOME 49 and/or some other desktop environments to give a better idea. If it *is* a regression, hopefully they can track it down quickly. The differences were pretty large in some cases.

Quoting: Vladimir-DimovYep, and... As I'm aware, there flat-out NO X11 desktop, AT ALL, strictly Wayland only... But for people using older apps or PC configurations that for some reason are working fine ONLY on X11 but NOT with Wayland, what they'll supposed to do? 🤔

Use Xubuntu, Lubuntu, or Ubuntu-MATE (which really should be called Mubuntu)?

As I'm aware, Gnome and KDE are most widely used Linux desktops, apparently. Also KDE itself seem to be most ahead desktop when coming especially to accessibility and monitor fraction scaling, while majority of others desktop environments (LXQt, LXDE, Mate, Fluxbox, Unity, Budgie), except of maybe XFCE are somewhat more obscure and way less used. Only Cinnamon seems more widely used but as I'm aware it's mainly Linux Mint exclusive.

Last edited by Vladimir-Dimov on 29 Mar 2026 at 6:21 pm UTC

Quoting: Vladimir-DimovAs I'm aware, Gnome and KDE are most widely used Linux desktops, apparently. Also KDE seem to be most ahead desktop when coming especially to accessibility and monitor fraction scaling, while majority of others desktop environments (LXQt, LXDE, Mate, Fluxbox, Unity, Budgie), except of maybe XFCE are somewhat more obscure and way less used. Only Cinnamon seems more widely used but as I'm aware it's mainly Linux Mint exclusive.

I agree that Gnome and KDE Plasma are certainly the top players. Mate is a lot more common than you think (we have active Mate users on this forum). XFCE is widely available on almost every distro, usually offered as a third option to Gnome or Plasma. I use it myself.

As to Cinnamon, it is not restricted just to Linux Mint. There is an Ubuntu flavor. It's available both on LMDE and mainline Debian itself. I'm pretty sure I have seen a few GoL members who have mentioned that they're running the Cinnamon desktop on Arch and Fedora as well.

Quoting: Phlebiac

Quoting: sarmadGnome 50 has a serious regression in graphics performance, so stay away from Ubuntu 26.04 until it's fixed.
https://www.phoronix.com/review/nvidia-595-kde-gnome

It wasn't clear from the article whether it's a regression, some major improvement in KDE, or something else. Would be nice if he compared with GNOME 49 and/or some other desktop environments to give a better idea. If it *is* a regression, hopefully they can track it down quickly. The differences were pretty large in some cases.

Yes, not clear from that article, but this other article compares PopOS to Ubuntu 24.04 and Ubuntu 26.04, which shows the regression clearly in some of the benchmarks, like the Xonotic one, where Ubuntu 24.04 is almost double the performance of Ubuntu 26.04.
https://www.phoronix.com/review/popos-2404-ubuntu-2604

Quoting: CaldathrasMate is a lot more common than you think (we have active Mate users on this forum).

Hi!

Quoting: sarmadGnome 50 has a serious regression in graphics performance, so stay away from Ubuntu 26.04 until it's fixed.

https://www.phoronix.com/review/nvidia-595-kde-gnome

I think KDE has reached a state where you can fall back to it as the most reliable option. Especially since on wayland everything has its own implementation of everything so it's more likely to run into differences and issues depending on the desktop. I moved from a window manager to KDE while playing Death Stranding 2 and I think it actually improved performance, maybe because it seems that Plasma has a proper support for exclusive fullscreen mode unlike the WM I used, although I could be wrong and it's some random coincidence, but I still kept using plasma for now as it also fixed some other random issues I've had recently