Who is surprised?
2 points
*
Plasma needs a decent graphics card so that’s probably why. You can disable a lot of the effects in the control panel though but it may not help.
I guess the fastest desktop is xfce otherwise, it’s so fast that apps launches instantaneously. Reminds me of how fast computers can actually be without eye candy.
You can easily install and try it on arch to see if you like it. Good instructions in arch wiki as usual.
