If you have to pick only one Desktop Environment and use it till your computer breaks, what would you choose?
If you have to pick only one Desktop Environment and use it till your computer breaks, what would you choose?
I know Gnome is the default on popular distros: Fedora, Ubuntu, Rhel, Pop OS (it's Cosmic Desktop yes but it is still based on Gnome)...etc. But Gnome just doesnt work for me. I would pick XFCE - stable and no BS.
Before Manjaro and their cetificate shenanigan, I used to use their XFCE version. At the time, it was marketed as the "Flagship Manjaro version". I went 4 years without any problems and I did tinker a lot, just couldnt get their XFCE to break.
After a tough Arch or Gentoo installs, I just want to put XFCE on and call it a day.
What about you guys?
XFCE
KDE plasma. Coming from 30 years of running exclusively windows it's just the most comfortable and easy for me to use (way more than Gnome). Easily configurable, works. Can't ask for more.
This isn't even hard. KDE without a second thought.
I regularly try other desktops, and I regularly come back to the only desktop with any sort of reasonable thought put into it.
KDE for sure. The modern versions look exactly like how I want a desktop environment to look out of the box, and they keep the full range of customizability that a desktop should, IMO, allow it's users to have. Which is something Windows just kept slowly getting rid of over the years.
I also prefer to have a taskbar that is ever present with a traditional start menu that's cleanly organized by category rather than the current full screen pop up "activities" search thing gnome does nowadays.
Cinnamon for 2 reasons
-
KDE is missing a lot of features which still only works in Gnome. Like the taskbar Calendar app syncing events with services like Google Calendar
-
cinnamon is extremely stable and doesn’t move your icons around when you connect to an external display with your laptop and the display has a different resolution.
-
KDE the customization is off the charts
KDE Plasma for ease of use if using Nvidia Otherwise Hyprland or exwm
MATE has been on most of my machines, except the BSD ones.
But past year or so, I have grown a fondness towards ctwm, and gradually migrated my machines to it, Linux and BSD alike.
It is not a DE, but the fact that I have to assemble my suite of software myself on my machines, makes the point of using DEs moot.
I keep coming back to KDE time and time again. It's so easy to mess with, I can set it up exactly how I like it without much effort, and it always looks good because someone else did all the work making themes and widgets I use.
That said, I love XFCE, I'm just trash with CSS so it takes me forever to get it how I like, and on my Surface I can't get the scaling to work so everything is beyond tiny.
KDE plasma, unless it's on a tablet, then Gnome
Probably Plasma because it's familiar and you're able to customize it extensively over time.
KDE.
I'm a cog in the machine and use KDE, but xfce is awesome, I would use xfce if I couldn't use KDE.
Switched from i3 to sway to hyland. I like the virtual desktop setup and noiseless facing interaction.
The amount of not KDE answers here surprises me. Y'all a bunch of nerds [endearing]
Mint
True people only use i3 or the-other-i3-for-wayland
/s, of course. But still my personal choice
Xfce
Sway for a laptop, Plasma for desktop.
Had you have asked me a few weeks ago, I probably would have said Sway for both,.or maybe Gnome for the desktop... But I decided to check out KDE again for the first time in like 20 years, and while it's still kind of a hot mess it has come a long way.
Herbstluftwm with dmenu. Just a windows manager. I've gotten used to using the command line for things I used to rely on a DE for.
Had To scroll way too far to find Cinnamon so here's back to the top.
I've only tried KDE and i'm pretty happy with it. I dunno why I'd want a creepy foot gnome on my computer, and I don't really know of any others by name yet so.... I'mma pick KDE
KDE
GNOME because it works out of the box like GNOME
KDE Plasma.
It has been great for gaming, adopting Wayland protocols at a faster rate than other DEs due in part thanks to Valve's contributions.
I freaking love GNOME & Adwaita, but I'll switch back when I deem it better than Plasma.
KDE
My computer doesn't really break, I'm Ship of Theseus-ing it regularly.
Apart from that, the only one among the normal window based ones that has felt like it respects my will to configure stuff in ways that feel right to me has been KDE Plasma.
Definitely Gnome here. Though I have a long list of notes, it mostly just works exactly like I expect with little friction or guessing. I donate $100/year to both Gnome and KDE since they are both good pieces of software, and I love that I get to chose mine. Further, I think KDE is the logical choice for something like the SteamDeck where it's going to have a lot of gamers that expect computers to work like Windows. (even if I don't like it, >_<)
KDE - I love to tinker and own my DE. 😎
Cinnamon by and far.
I've used so many distros and DEs I don't even know where to begin, but Cinnamon got me hooked for the long run. It's legitimately the most polished and "ready to run" DE I've ever used, yet still allowing for far more customization than Windows ever offered.
Gnome.
If it has to be a DE then I'd go with XFCE, otherwise I'd probably go with openbox.
Gnome for me. I like it
gnome head all the way!!!
If it has to be a de, I'd pick gnome. Otherwise it's hyprland.
Plasma for the last decade. Then probably XFCE, then Cinnamon.
I try Gnome every year or so, but every time I get pissed off with it within a few minutes and wipe it off my machine.
KDE Plasma, I can't go back to SDR
I'd say Gnome, since I'm so used to it that I feel it doesn't get in the way of the things I'm doing.
Because that would be my aim: something that doesn't interfere with the work I am doing.LXQt or XFCE if I have to pick a DE. Fluxbox or openbox if I can get away with just a WM. ;)
Gnome
LXQT. Why? Because: It is lightweight, consumes little resources, is quite customizable, and has full Ukrainian localization.
Maybe I'll switch to XFCE/MATE, but not if there are a lot of things not translated, or if the translation is worse than even Google Translate.
Until my laptop dies or cannot support it, I'm sticking with KDE Plasma. Love how MX configured it (because I'm lazy) and absolutely will keep using it for as long as my laptop survived or can hold it.
Might try other ones in VMs (like ratpoison) in the future for other machines I might set up in the future, but for now KDE Plasma is my go-to that I'll probably be using for a long time.
Difficult. Paperwm/ Niri has the best workflow.
I am looking forward to set niri as compositor on cosmic.
LXQT or KDE I just like the QT look and feel.
GNOME is great in general but not for me, it is too much MacOS alike and too limited for my liking.
i'm already doing this with gnome lol.
if my computer was older, probably xfce.
Xfce, ol' reliable.
it's probably gonna be plasma6 by a hair over cinnamon on a rolling distribution. as much as people shit on manjaro here and on that other site, it has never broke on me--whether i update constantly or let it go 2-3 months between them.
but if the de and the underlying os are magically compatible, and those and programs kept up to date, never obsolete, and new ones appear for it as needed or desired... then sorry, it won't be linux... i'm going back to something like 95osr2, 98se or w2k.
I'm in either terminal or browser most of the time, DE is not an issue for me... KDE has an easy battery life optimization feature for laptops, so I guess I'll go KDE
I've been using spectrwm for over a decade https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm and have no plans to change
The one I'm using right now of course!
Well, it's gotta be a tiling system. And a good one. At this point I can't function in a non-tiling environment. Specifically a manual tiler with an auto-tile a la i3 w/ i3-alternating-layout or a dynamic tiler that still let's you break stuff (doesn't really exist).
It's just a better way to use a computer, and I can't go back. It's so much nicer. I would stop using a computer before I go back to dragging windows around.
And that rules out most DEs. It rules out Mac OS and Windows, as well, but at least on Windows I can almost get by with Fancy WM. It's "okay."
And speaking of just getting by, that's Polonium with KDE. KDE is pretty good as an "environment," but it doesn't have a tiler that meets my needs, or at least I thought it didn't until recently. Then I discovered Polonium. It works pretty well. Used it for several months (and still do on one machine). It's very bare bones tho, and is hard to configure the handful of floating windows I do want like popups. So KDE is just scraping by.
GNOME on the other hand has the excellent Pop Shell 2. But well, GNOME is GNOME. It's buggy when you try to use it a different way than intended. God forbid I want Qt, Gtk2, Gtk3, Gtk4, and libadwaita apps to all look nice on my system! It's clunky, but the tiling is excellent at least.
Now you mention XFCE. So what about that? You could use i3 as the WM for Xfce. I used i3 for years and years and years as my WM and know how to build a DE around it. Why not use Xfce + i3?
Well, the thing is X11 is as good as dead, and while XFCE now supports Wayland, you can't use a tiling system with the Wayland version of XFCE.
So what does that leave me?
Nothing. At least for a full on DE, which is what you asked.
There is not a single (pre-made) Desktop Environment that suits my needs. Not a one. Either it doesn't support good tiling, is too rigid, or hasn't switched to Wayland.
My only options are:
- Roll my own DE built around Hyprland/Sway, and since I'm on nvidia, those aren't fantastic options (albeit Hyprland works a lot better on Nvidia these days), and that's what I'm using.
- Deal with the slight annoyance of the under-implemented Polonium in KDE
Right now I'm on Hyprland. May go back to KDE bc multi monitor is being weird on Hyprland rn.
My one hope is that COSMIC polishes itself up and gets to its first real release.
Xfce, and Cinnamon. You can't force me to choose just one.
My current desktop is xmonad + xfce in no-desktop mode. Almost no configuration in xmonad, all the stuff like monitor layout and mouse props is handled by xfce. And yes my laptop that I used it on for 6-7 years is now broken (ish) so I've already unlocked this acheivement.
I do feel slightly guilty about not moving to wayland, but I'm not sure how that would improve my experience at all. I did hear xfce is almost there on wayland, so maybe I can move to sway + xfce on wayland at some point.
I've been daily driving Hyprland for 4 years now. Before that it was DWM, and before that Gnome. I was never a KDE fan, don't know why... I never disliked it, I just preferred Gnome.
Probably either KDE or NsCDE, I always seem to come back to those
I used Ratpoison for well over a decade, and only replaced it with sway once I had a new machine and figured it was time to try Wayland. Apparently that's some 4-5 years ago already.
I'm using PopOS Cosmic alpha (not based on Gnome) on my new laptop and like it a lot so far. It has a few rough edges, but nothing I'd switch to something else over. (In fact, I did use the Gnome version of Cosmic until my previous laptop broke.)
Call me basic, but mint xfce. It’s light, customizable, and so damn stable. That’s all I really want. I love messing with other distros but this one is my baby
Not a DE, but I've been using sway for around 5 years now, and I have no intention of moving away from it unless something really bad happens. I love using it, and it's been behaving perfectly all tgis time.
I’d probably pick KDE. I use Gnome on almost every machine, but Gnome makes weird decisions, and I assume one day I won’t like one of them. KDE always seems to get better and add more options. I can make KDE work like practically any other DE, including Gnome.
Cinnamon, that's what I'm used to
KDE since 2002. KDE 4 lyfe.
Flip a coin between cinnamon and plasma
I've been using Cinnamon for most of the last decade, but switched to Gnome3 recently, heavily customized to work like Cinnamon. Basically because Wayland is finally stable enough to use.
If Cinnamon gets Wayland support working well, that's my choice. Otherwise I've got some Gnome3 configs that make it work pretty well, and I'd happily run it into the ground too.
Fedora Gnome. In my head it’s Linux.
LXQt
i3
I'll stay on XFCE until I die ... or until my Hyprland config is finished. Whichever comes first.
fvwm :)
Ran KDE then Gnome a long time ago. Now it's openbox wm.
Well, for me it would be the setup i am now using since about 15 years:
WM: flwm Filemanager: ROX-Filer Background: feh
... and a ton of tools i accumulated over the yesrs
Twm, I'll extend it as needed.
I just don't like KDE and am not a big fan of stock Gnome either but the PopOS version with COSMIC features plus the Dash to Panel extension make it pretty useable
I have literally been using the same build of dwm as my desktop env since 2007.
Gnome. It looks so much more modern, but I would like a layout like Plasmas more than the gnome one
Fluxbox.
Technically, not a DE, but a WM...which makes me the DE, I guess....