# Trinity Desktop

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Trinity Desktop and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A fork of KDE 3.5 that keeps the classic Windows 95 to XP style desktop alive and updated for Linux. Critics note it still pulls in many dependencies.

## Why people recommend it

- Keeps KDE 3.5 updated (5 comments): "It's basically KDE 3 kept up to date and has a more or less similar look and feel to Windows from the 98/XP days." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47461843)) "Trinity Desktop is alive and kicking and is a fork of the 3.5.12 series." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361857)) "There's still Trinity DE if you want an updated KDE 3.5" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46587997))
- Classic, nostalgic Windows-style look (3 comments): "It's basically KDE 3 kept up to date and has a more or less similar look and feel to Windows from the 98/XP days." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47461843)) "it's basically the same as the Windows 95-XP taskbar interface, and has no plans to change" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46257860)) "it does give me a nice cozy feeling, like looking at old album photos" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47074681))
- Active community fork (2 comments): "a bunch of people put on their big adult pants and forked Trinity Desktop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822554)) "Trinity Desktop is alive and kicking and is a fork of the 3.5.12 series." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361857))

## What people warn about

- Pulls in many dependencies anyway (1 comments): "It feels like it flies at first, but then the thing about pulling in the equivalent dependencies anyways comes into play again." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49062780))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [KDE Plasma](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kde-plasma.md): 650 recommend
- [GNOME](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gnome.md): 340 recommend
- [Xfce](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xfce.md): 183 recommend
- [COSMIC desktop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cosmic-desktop-environment.md): 75 recommend
- [Cinnamon desktop environment](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cinnamon.md): 57 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Trinity Desktop", https://hackerapproved.com/p/trinity-desktop/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).