Or use XFCE, get none of it, stop playing with your DE, and get back to work :)

Yes yes yes. A friend used to call compiz the “dancing balogney” of Linux. I agree.

XFCE is a true productivity DE. Gives you a few simple basic apps, and does a damn good job of managing windows. I so wish I could use it at work..

I don't get why KDE isn't considered a productive DE.

The dolphin file manager has an integrated terminal that automatically changes folder to match the one you've browsed to.

There's a ton of these small useful things that a light desktop like XFCE or LXDE wouldn't implement but are still useful.

KDE has too many options. That's the problem, there's too much desire to tweak just one more thing. By then you've blown a week of time. I've personally also had bad luck running KDE. I love the look however it's always run dog slow for me on any computer I've used it on when compared to other DEs. To each their own though, that's the beauty of GNU/linux.

>KDE has too many options. This a user problem, maybe some personality or mental issue that makes you waste time or get scared when you see options.

How you should approach this is to use KDE, then if you wonder ,"hi would be nice if I could put the notifications on left side since my right eye is bad -> then you go and find the option and move the notifications ,

Installing KDE and trolling to all options is a insane thing to do, do you also install Firefox and go into about:config and set all this options as you prefer ? Or you use Ff then ask , hey would be cool if Ff won't do this annoying thing , then you search the option and hope to find it

You're right, there's a desktop environment for everyone! And the good thing is that it isn't the wild west anymore. Almost all the DEs out there follow the common standards that make every app behave well, no matter what DE you're running.

I'd recommend you to try KDE again. I run Arch Linux and KDE in my main work computer and I find the default config is awesome, there's no need to tweak anything, and it runs real fast (on the other hand I remember Kubuntu being slow). Of course, there are lots of advanced config settings, but there's no need to dig in. The default config is perfectly usable. Plus, the apps suite is where KDE really shines.

Whoa, that's awesome. I've used Plasma for a year now and I'm still doing Actions->Open Terminal Here like a dummy. Any other crazy feature tips?

Plasma is great by the way. I think KDE's general busy look and poor performance over the years have really hurt its reputation - I tried it on a fast machine a few years back and it was just confusing and slow. But right now, in 2018, Plasma is easily the best desktop environment for ergonomics, features, and polish. It's really amazing what they've done with it. I encourage anyone who's written off KDE, like I did for many years, to give it another shot.

I use the Zoom effect in KDE for accessibility reasons not for playing around, compositing gives you more then fire and magic lamp effects, like it can invert colors, dim inactive windows, some animation can improve UX.

I find MATE a similar "back-to-basics" DE that I rather enjoy.