I'm pretty noviceand will certainly offend someone with this statement but I thought KDE was Windows-like (task bar, start menu, etc) and Gnome was Mac-like (permanent menu bar across top, dock).
The screen shot seems to remind me of Gnome rather than KDE. What are the benefits of configuring KDE to look like Gnome?
Well understandable , since thats the default look. But KDE is one of the most customizable DE, you could make it look like anything you want.
I run Gnome (Ubuntu currently) and have minor stability issues. I also just... kinda don't like it. Previously I was running Fedora and liked it more but again, stability issues (which was what I was hoping to solve moving to Ubuntu).
Do you have any suggestions for a novice friendly distro that has (or can easily be set up to have) a dock and hot corner window switching like gnome under KDE?
In Fedora, constant messages that something has gone wrong and would I like to report it.
Ubuntu seems to kernal panic too often for me.
A framework laptop, first generation. It's pretty decent, unlikely that specs will be an issue. But the hardware might be related to the stability.
Maybe try arch based distro like garuda and endeavouros since those would be the most easiest to fix if any problems.
KDE is for those who love customization. You can create an alien like Desktop that isn't Mac nor Windows similar. Its more about being able to change everything or most things.
Gnome should be more stable... because you can't change it into a buggy custom setup (except you use Extensions)
I think the people who likes the macos aesthetic are using KDE more than GNOME.