Linux

I don't fiddle with my KDE much, but with every fresh install I always set the dock to auto-hide and fit-content.

Kitty mouse cursor

Wobbly windows!

Spinning cube and wobbly windows is all I need (on top of 100% pure gnome).

Kind of a small thing, but I use an Ultrawide monitor with Sway, so I wrote a oneliner to swap to a higher or lower display scale depending on the workspace I'm on. I like to game in full rez while I'd write code or read with a HiDPI resolution that's easier to squint at. Also adding hotkeys to change scaling on demand is nice

I’m super boring and really like vanilla gnome but without fail I always install Blur My Shell. It’s so pretty and it doesn’t mess with the paradigm at all. On my laptop I also have found Bluetooth Battery Meter to be super helpful since I use more wireless devices with it.

I have a bunch in my KDE:

• Karousel for arranging windows

• Klassy for window decorations/general theming

• Panel Colorizer for customizing the panel/dock

• Kvantum for general theming

• And then a few general things like Wobbly Windows etc.

Mouse Tiler is nice

Kde made double click default, it used to be single click.

Put it back to single click. So much better.

Adjust focus stealing to your liking.

Adjust the color and width of the shadow to make active windows obvious in a dark theme.

Wobbly windows: but set higher than default.

I miss window shade. Hopefully it gets worked out and returns.

I always install Guake. It's a drop-down terminal emulator and it can be heavily configured with hotkeys. I have it pop open/close with one key and I can split the terminal horizontally or vertically as many times as I want with a couple other hotkeys.

It's so ridiculously efficient (as a developer) that I can't stand to not have it installed at this point.

Papirus icons, Phinger cursors, $HOME/.config/xfce4 copied from previous install.

Taskbar on the left edge of the screen

E: also trackball instead of mouse.

So, one thing that Windows 11 did that I think was half good was moving the taskbar stuff to the middle.

I hated it at first (have to use it at work, and still some at home for specific things), but then I used Start11 for a little bit to try to get rid of the shitty start menu changes and noticed an option to keep the icons in the middle but move the start button itself back to the left. And honestly... I think that's perfect. Puts the programs that are open front and center while keeping the start button in a fixed location next to a corner border so it's easy to move the mouse to it without hardly even looking.

Anyway, while I didn't keep Start11 (I never do... Like the program but it's always been buggy as hell going back at least as far as Start), I did make my Cinnamon, and later my KDE Plasma, taskbar look like that.

Also moved the sys tray next to the start button instead of next to the clock, and with a couple other monitors on the clock side (CPU and memory usage), the taskbar on my system is pretty balanced.

Maybe not as flashy or interesting as what you're looking for, but it's a layout I've really come to like

(ETA: the centralizing of the taskbar in Windows I think was bad only because it made the one part that should be in a fixed and easy to hit location, the start button, move around based on how many programs are open... I think if they'd gone with centralized programs and left side start button, it would have been much better received overall... But, this is just my opinion so do with that what you will)

Capslock as control is life changing

In KDE my favorite is an extension to the window manager, for auto tiling: https://codeberg.org/anametologin/Krohnkite or install it from Settings > Window Management > KWin Scripts, then click "Get New" and search for "Krohnkite" by anametologin. Development is a bit slow at the moment, but it does the job well.

I like that there are different layouts available, meaning different logic how a window should be placed and sized. I can switch between layouts on the fly. Every virtual desktop can have their own layout by standard, in example my fourth desktop is always untiled like a normal desktop. Exceptions to specific windows or applications to not tile them can be added too. So the usual stuff. It comes with some features not seen in other tiling window managers. In example I can convert any window into a "Dock". A dock would then be always at the edge or screen, similar to the KDE bar; basically making the screen area to tile windows smaller. Super cool.

Edit: Rephrased a bit to make it more clear and added some more info.

KDE here.

Icons: Candy; Plasma Style Sweet; Window decs : sweet-dark; Autohide Icons-only task manager at the bottom (RIP Latte :( ), always on top panel for my secondary monitor, autohide top panel on the primary.

I actually use and like Activities, I have General, Game, Code, System, Work all with their own workflows and pinned apps etc.

I lean pretty heavily on mouse gestures using logid with a MxMaster 3. Switch activities, control music, switch apps etc.

I have the gesture button pop up Kando which can do ALL sorts of things, basically I can do 90+% of things super fast without touching the keyboard. Not that I dislike the keyboard, using it now, but sometimes I don't want to bother.

Top centre of panel has a command output widget with cat CurrentShort.txt which pulls local temp/humidity from a couple of sensors via HomeAssistant. Hover has weather scraped from Aus BoM and a bunch of other informative stuff and if I click it it runs a script with

kdialog --geometry 1024x1024 --textbox /dev/stdin <<< $(cat CurrentInfo.txt)

which pops up a dialog with a weeks forecast among other things. I also use the command output widget for cpu/gpu temps and fan speeds to the left of the status bar, which is on the right.

The Wunderground widget is pretty cool too, find local weather stations and pop them in a panel.

Haven't had a vanilla install since KDE 5 came out, but the biggest thing I use far from the default install is Karousel

Window Rules and Custom Shortcuts from KDE Plasma, just earlier today I binded Meta+Ctrl+k to start Konsole in the directory of my latest modified prototype, open a per directory script which e.g. opens a browser tab, opens Vim in the file to edit, positions those windows properly, here browser on left half, console on top right corner.

Window Rules with its window picker is very convenient to get conditions and properties to apply. Custom Shortcuts is just a list of shortcuts you can add to start anything from anywhere.

Also I added my own wiki as a KRunner Web search, so if I type Alt+Space then PIM keyword it searches directly to my PIM from the center of my screen, also from anywhere.