What desktop enviroment do you use and why?

GNOME because of PaperWM

I currently use Gnome on my laptop, but I've toyed with returning to KDE for a while. I used KDE briefly back in the v3 and v4 days felt like it was a bit bloated compared to Gnome v1 and v2. Cinnamon is nice but a bit heavyweight on graphics. I should probably return to XFCE or Mate.

these days Hyprland but previously i3.

i basically live in the terminal unless i'm playing games or in the browser. these days i use most apps full screen and switch between desktops, and i launch apps using wofi/rofi. this has all become very specialized over the past decade, and it almost has a “security by obscurity” effect where it’s not obvious how to do anything on my machines unless you have my muscle memory.

not that i necessarily recommend this approach generally, but i find value in mostly using a keyboard to control my machines and minimizing visual clutter. i don’t even have desktop icons or a wallpaper.

KDE, because it has all the features I need and also because I love theming and while QT apps can be themed pretty easily, GTK theming is somewhere between being absolutely horrible and non-existance.

Plasma.

When I try Gnome, within a couple minutes I encounter the Save dialog that defaults the cursor to the Search field instead of the Filename field, and the top of my head goes spinning across the room, and I uninstall it.

I have an i3 and a hyprland installation.

I like tiling wms but Wayland still has some annoying issues so I like having the more stable i3 installation on my main computer.

xfce4. Stable as hell. X11. Can move windows around using just some keypresses.

KDE Plasma on all my computers and also as desktop mode on Steam Deck. because it supports the latest technologies especially when it comes to graphics (HDR, VRR) also has best support for Wayland and multi-monitors. It looks great out of the box and it has a lot of features out of the box and I do not need to battle with adding some extensions that break with almost every update. KDE Plasma is also the most flexible desktop and I can set the workflow really to fit my desires and I can actually set many options and settings. And despite all these built-in features and configurability it still uses very few system resources and is very fast and smooth. Oh and the KDE community is one of the most welcoming I have met in FOSS world, and they listen to their users instead of the our way or the high way mentality I have so often encountered in GNOME for example. So yeah TLDR KDE Plasma is the one I like the most of all in the industry, even when compared to proprietary closed alternatives.

Cinnamon. Desktop environment peaked in the Windows XP/Gnome 2 days and everything else is just change for the shake of change. :C

My only annoyance is lack of Wayland support. Tried out cosmic, but it doesn't have the Windows XP/Gnome 2 style window list.

Screenshot for anyone interested:

TDE. Functional, stays out of my way, but still reasonably full-featured. The development team is dedicated to adding useful features while keeping the original look and feel, so I don't have to go hunting for settings that have inexplicably moved or changed defaults every time I update. It doesn't support Wayland, but I'm Wayland-neutral (that is, I have nothing against it, but I have nothing against X either).

kde plasma, it's fast, it's pretty, it's handy, it has all the keyboard shortcuts.

Gnome. It just works out of the box and I can fly through it using the keyboard and touchpad without having to configure it first.
I've done the whole song and dance with tiling WMs, or going through all of KDE's settings until it was perfect, but I just can't be bothered anymore.

GNOME because it's the only good option that looks modern and has proper development. Excuses of KDE fanboys that GNOME team makes weird decisions are not accepted.

GNOME. Eagerly waiting for cosmic.

Currently, Plasma. But I have ADHD a bit, so I’ve gone back and forth between that and Gnome mostly. I do like Cinnamon and I really want to spend time with Xfce and maybe others just to see what feels most comfortable right now. I’m trying to go for keyboard comfort these days, so we’ll see where I land at some point!

Gnome on laptop, KDE on desktop. I go back and forth with those DEs.

Gnome 3 is pretty great

Xfce... Because I donno, been using it for many years

I recently made a new linux install (to replace my constantly breaking, likely due to my own doing Manjaro install). I went with Cinnamon initially, but in order to try out Wayland, I moved to KDE plasma.

I'm on NVidia, with two different resolution screens. Which causes occasional problems. But overall it's fine.

Anything I need to actually write code on, Gnome, because I'm addicted to mac-style gesture controls, but hate the holier than thou design philosophy Jony Ive bullshit; anything casual, KDE; but I am planning to try out Cosmic on something soon

KDE Plasma

It was what came on the steam deck lol

Budgie, because I like the way it looks.

Hyprland on my desktop

GNOME on my laptop

At the moment, my main machine is on KDE because it has very good Wayland support and isn't Gnome. I prefer Cinnamon

After trying mostly everything, I always come back to my "custom desktop": (openbox + xfce4-panel + thunar + xfce4-terminal + dunst) .. for the last 15 years or so. It doesn't get in the way, is fast AF, it takes very very little ram/cpu (4.5 Mb !!) and it has everything I need (even tiling via keyboard). It's VERY customizable and it does as I tell. No crashes, no weirdeness. It just works. I will probably move to labwc in a future, just because.. wayland. And now I'm about to use it on a steam deck... it's gonna be fun.

KDE Plasma because it's the one I like. If it disappeared tomorrow, I'd use Xfce.

Depends on the computer I run. On fast computers (more than 5,000 passmark cpu points), i use gnome on whatever distro. On mid-speed computers (1000 to 5000 points), I use linux mint with cinnamon. On very old computers (400-1000), I use debian with XFce.

Sway. Very customiseable and extremely snappy

KDE Plasma. I like having a familiar start menu and keyboard shortcuts

Am I the only one on here using Budgie. I just feel more comfortable with the workflow using Budgie.

I use Gnome, but I just wanted to say Cinnamon is fantastic (probably my first choice if I weren't on a laptop)

Gaming PC: GNOME (it works fine and I don't care about much else there)

Laptop: dwl (dwm for Wayland) and suckless tools. Ultra lightweight and comfy for browsing and watching videos. Usually at the same time.

KDE Plasma.

GNOME kind of looks nice but is too strict on customization.

Sway on a chromebook with 4gb ram, sway on thinkpad t430, xfce on my gf's laptop, and gnome on my gaming rig that will go soon either cosmic or just sway. For me sway is thewinner. Sway with me... Marimba... Lalala

Edit: also gnome on the kichen pc with touch. Gnome is the only one that works fully on touch.

I used enlightenment for something like a decade. When Gnome hit the big time I used Gnome because it looked Nice and was very flexible. I went back to Mac and Windows Land for a bit, when I came back I went Gnome again. I just screw around for a day looking and picking plugins and fighting with it to get it exactly how I wanted it. After fighting with one of the older plugins that mustn't doing what I wanted to do I saw somebody mentioned using KDE. I tried KDE and sure enough every single thing I was plugging the hell out of Gnome for was a default setting in KDE. I'm currently running Plasma. I must say that Cinnamon's not bad either.

I use hyprland with KDE as my fall back.

My hyprland config is 95% stable but some apps give me a hard time, so I'll just run them in KDE.

I find KDE just works. With a baby, things need to work more often than not.

Xfce. Partly because I've used it for a long time, but mostly because it does what I need it to do and little else.

XFCE as I like the look of the classic Windows layout. Might eventually try out KDE for Wayland support but there's something about the simplicity of XFCE which I love.

I'm old, I come from old X11R4 time, motif, mwm, twm, fvwm, things from previous century. In modern Linux I used mostly gnome, and Cinnamon for a few years and tried to love it but cannot, I finally went back to Xfce because it works, it's simple, neat, nice, I have no icon on my desktop, I have a kind of windows 3 setup: a startup menu (and some quick launches), the window bar, the notification area with time etc

I'm using MX Linux for maybe 8 years now with Xfce

updated screenshot:

GNOME. Love the simplicity!

I really love both esp after KDE 6. But I use Gnome, KDE treats multiple monitors as separate entities I find the bugs distracting and there's only so much customisation I need. I slap open bar on and get to work.

COSMIC. I was using Hyprland before but I wanted to try the alpha. I found it stable enough for my use-case so I stuck with it

I used Enlightment for the last few years, but switched this year to XFCE because i like the look more. I'm using old-as-fuck-hardware and both DEs work good on my machines.

Gnome.

With NoMachine to my Windows Host, hot keys go to the host as intended.

Rustdesk can't do it in any config and they don't care at this stage.

XFCE. it's dumb, simple, it gives you a panel to access your programs, your desktop icons, and nothing else. I just want my computer to let me do my things, not have a built-in 'brew a cup of coffee' button

Plasma, but I'll be moving to cosmic as soon as it enables auto power off of monitors on idle

Gnome on one machine, LXDE on another.

I use Gnome on my main laptop, a Thinkpad P50. I bought it with a dock thinking I'd use it at my desk and on the sofa but it's a bit of a beast so that stays on my desk and I use an L440 with LXDE on the sofa. Considering trying LCARS on the sofa machine.