Trinity Desktop
Shares rank 15 of 24 desktop environments by recommenders
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.
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.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 90%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Keeps KDE 3.5 updated
“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.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality” “Trinity Desktop is alive and kicking and is a fork of the 3.5.12 series.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “KDE at 30” “There's still Trinity DE if you want an updated KDE 3.5”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “XFCE Is Great” - Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Linux from Scratch Ends SysVinit Support”
- Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Preparing for KDE Plasma's Last X11-Supported Release”
Classic, nostalgic Windows-style look
“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.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality” “it's basically the same as the Windows 95-XP taskbar interface, and has no plans to change”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Are we stuck with the same Desktop UX forever? [video]” “it does give me a nice cozy feeling, like looking at old album photos”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “27-year-old Apple iBooks can connect to Wi-Fi and download official updates” Active community fork
“a bunch of people put on their big adult pants and forked Trinity Desktop”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “KDE and AI, and You, and Me” “Trinity Desktop is alive and kicking and is a fork of the 3.5.12 series.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “KDE at 30”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Pulls in many dependencies anyway
“It feels like it flies at first, but then the thing about pulling in the equivalent dependencies anyways comes into play again.”
Comment from 26 Jul 2026 in “Nothing works and everyone is euphoric”
Other desktop environments people recommend
The four most recommended other desktop environments, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KDE Plasma | 650 | 264 | 71% | 13 | 2 yrs79 owners | Approved |
| GNOME | 340 | 464 | 42% | 12 | 5 yrs29 owners | — |
| Xfce | 183 | 48 | 79% | 12 | 10 yrs29 owners | Approved |
| COSMIC desktop | 75 | 28 | 73% | 12 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| Trinity DesktopThis page | 9 | 1 | 90% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
12 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“a bunch of people put on their big adult pants and forked Trinity Desktop”
“It feels like it flies at first, but then the thing about pulling in the equivalent dependencies anyways comes into play again.”
“If you liked KDE3.5 you might like Trinity.”
“Plenty of evolutionary changes - because linux itself has changed.”
“Trinity Desktop is alive and kicking and is a fork of the 3.5.12 series.”
“you can try it under almost any distro (and BSD) with Trinity Desktop”
“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.”
“it does give me a nice cozy feeling, like looking at old album photos”
“I will just install Trinity (KDE3) and be done with it.”
“There's still Trinity DE if you want an updated KDE 3.5”
“it's basically the same as the Windows 95-XP taskbar interface, and has no plans to change”
“to the Trinity (TDE) desktop fork of KDE 3.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.