Vela desktop environment
Shares rank 23 of 24 desktop environments by recommenders
Linux desktop environment with a custom Wayland compositor, praised for careful pixel-level scaling, reported lower input latency, KDE app integration and looks.
Linux desktop environment with a custom Wayland compositor, praised for careful pixel-level scaling, reported lower input latency, KDE app integration and looks.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Careful engineering and automated testing
“Looks like you put in effort to get the scaling (drawing) at pixel level. Very nice work”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: Vela, a New Linux Desktop Environment” “Automated tests for "nasty" patterns, very cool.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Show HN: Vela, a New Linux Desktop Environment”
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 |
| Vela desktop environmentThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Thanks for the good work!”
“Automated tests for "nasty" patterns, very cool.”
“already found out Vela around 40% lower input-to-display latency in one of my tests”
“Vela integrates good with KDE Apps. I think you should give it a try”
“Looks like you put in effort to get the scaling (drawing) at pixel level. Very nice work”
“It's a beautiful desktop environment.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.