KDE sets a really high bar with all the packages and extensibility. Almost everything (not including the lesser known and used packages) is feature-packed and just works. I really don't know any other software that constantly amazes me like KDE.
Came to say KDE/Plasma. Glad it was already on top
In addition to that, they make nice FOSS apps that are great for any DE (see Krita, Kdenlive)
Also it looks like Windows, and that to me is a huge plus for anyone using my computer.
I'm fine in general with most of them but I'm settled on KDE. I agree the software is great, I love apps like Okular and there are these little goodies hidden everywhere, like typing "fish://user@server" in the file manager url/path area and I get a folder open of the remote file system, I can even add it to "Locations".
KDE Plasma 5.27 is incredible. Such a stable and customizable experience! 😍
XFCE, tried cinnamon a couple times it was okay but I just prefer the simplicity and stability of xfce
xfce for a very long time. I really like tiling WMs but always come back to xfce
Xfce is the best!
See I don't really get the appeal of xfce, I kinda see it as the minimal DE you use if you've got low powered hardware or if you need a DE on a system that isn't a personal computer and just need the bare minimum to run a graphical application or two
it's the quickest fully featured de, and as an added bonus, it's the least buggy of them all, it's also very simple in it's functioning, fairly close to a diy desktop + wm config, so tweaking random stuff like the compositor is easy to do and doesn't break everything
Seems like I'm the outlier here that prefers Gnome over KDE. Gnome feels more polished than KDE for me. Granted KDE comes with more features out of the box, but I don't find anything lacking in Gnome for me.
Tried KDE long time ago to compare it to Gnome 3, went back to Gnome. Tried KDE again a few months ago to compare to Gnome 42, came back to Gnome again.
I also can't stand having all my programs' name starting with K.
I also can't stand having all my programs' name starting with K.
Like Okular, Spectacle, Dolphin, .....
Maybe I shouldn't have said all, but it's annoying to me when the they put a "k" in the name in a very awkward way just because it's an KDE app.
to be fair okular does have a k in it
I like Gnome the best too. In my experience, it's the desktop environment that focuses the most on making sure that no little bugs slip in. Like normally when you're using a desktop environment, it will be good except for a few bugs here and there where you have to remember weird things like not backing out of the settings menu in a certain way in order to not trigger a bug. Gnome seems to have the least amount of weird little bugs like that.
It's not very configurable out of the box, but I prefer that too. I'm getting a bit old and set in my ways, and don't really want to mess around with too much configuration anymore.
I’m in the same boat. I use mostly stock gnome to avoid experiencing bugs. I used KDE for a bit and loved it but never really loved how many options the settings gave me. I would also constantly run into issues with the docks disappearing when unplugging monitors. In contrast docks on gnome just work. I really only use the Ubuntu dock extension on gnome
KDE was the first one I used after getting more comfortable with Linux and leaving Unity behind. KDE was very customizable and extensible, but when you actually started customizing it quickly became unreliable. I stuck with it for a few years then I tried Elementary next and it was pretty polished but it was limited to a specific distribution. After that I went to GNOME and I've been using it for 7 years now. It does need a few extensions, but otherwise I've found that it works quite well. I think I've also changed, I'm not as interested in things like wobbly windows anymore. I just want the desktop environment to stay out of my way, but I also don't want it to be too bare bones.
Both take great benefits from the improvements of the other.
KDE. Because it's mostly a complete package and has tons of knobs and dials to tune for anyone's needs
edited
Not even mentioning the DE, what a Chad move
I meant KDE. Was replying to OP
They might be referencing the fact that technically the DE's name is Plasma, not KDE.
Vanilla Gnome. It's simple/boring, and I like that. It seems like most people that like Gnome don't care that it's not a poweruser DE, and aren't excited to talk about it either.
I use gnome, but it's basically the worst DE, except all of the other ones that have been tried
It has the least features, so by default the least bugs.
I'm a simple person. I see KDE, I upvote.
GNOME, for sure. It works out of the box, and it's kind of pretty out of the box.
I also tried it on a touch screen PX and it works surprisingly well.
KDE forever!
Default GNOME (Wayland), it just works
Absolutely KDE Plasma.
i3. I mean, it's fast, customizable, and you can make it look good. That's all i need.
KDE is love, KDE is life
Love me some Cinnamon. Specifically what comes out of default Linux Mint. It isn't trying to do more than it already is. As cool as tech is I wish I didn't need to care about Wayland or X11. I just want it to launch applications, feel like the windows I used as a kid, and stay out of my way. Cinnamon does this all for me. And since freaking high school mint has been there trying to do that.
I use KDE now, but Cinnamon was my first and made the transition beautiful. It's a great DE.
KDE Plasma on desktop
Cinnamon on (older lower spec) laptop
Gnome with pop_os tiling window manager
Xfce, i just like it.
Mine is MATE:
It's still GNOME 2, but I see no problem with that, it works and I'm used to it and I like traditional desktops. I don't need (or care about) round borders or those on/off switches of modern desktops, that make them look like phone screens turned 90°.
Nice, impressive.
Please share that wallpaper, looks awesome!
If you want, I also got a Makima (character from the same series, Chainsaw Man) wallpaper roughly in the same style:
Thank you so much!
I've been using Cinnamon for years. It's stable, fairly lightweight, and pleasing to the eye.
GNOME, with a little bit of extension customisability!
Cinnamon. Stupidly simple and elegant looking.
Sway or GNOME (Wayland) with Pop shell extension.
Gotta be KDE for a full featured DE.
But using Sway for now.
XFCE and/or AwesomeWM
I avoided GNOME3 for the longest time, but I decided to try it on a new install of Debian on a whim and actually ended up really liking it. Needed to enable a couple of extensions, but once you get used to it the workflow isn't at all that bad.
I am enjoying GNOME at the moment. But I think I may switch to Cosmic DE when that gets released.
For aesthetics: Budgie, with Cinnamon a close second
For simplicity and speed: XFCE
Sway and dmenu when in a keyboard productivity sorta mood, KDE otherwise.
I used to only use KDE or KDE plasma with i3 but after using fedora I've fallen hard for Gnome and the design philosophy of the project.
Pop! _OS's Cosmic Version of GNOME (regular GNOME kinda stinks) but KDE is also pretty great. Can't wait for COSMIC DE. I'm sure that one will rock itself up to the number 1 spot really quickly.
KDE
I've got used to XFCE.
It's between XFCE for it's simplicity and KDE for it's Wayland support for me
i use i3 + kde its really cool
Vanilla Gnome
Although I use sway, I used KDE for a long time and XFCE prior. They're both phenomenal. I'd love to see XFCE make its way to wayland in the future.
As an aside, I feel like Wayland has a market ripe for the introduction of lightweight DEs. Sure, it has the very lightweight (hyprland, sway, river, dwl) and heavyweight (KDE, Gnome) but nothing between like XFCE, LXDE or MATE
Also a fan of sway! Plenty configurable, and swaymsg+jq bash scripts can go a long way. Hoping we'll see more development in lightweight DEs as well- Wayland is pretty great, and sway could use with some more features. also nice username :D
KDE if it was less buggy.
It's KDE for me too, but I don't really get the buggy part. Sure kwin crashes sometimes, but that happened to me like 2 or 3 times during my 2 and half years on openSUSE. Other than that I can't think of something really bugged? Maybe I'm too tolerant, having to work with Windows XP and DOS at work...
Maybe, I had so many frickin kwin crashes every time I tried it, and there is a known bug with fractional scaling in some resolutions which affected me that drove me insane, if you care enough I could try to track it down on the bugtracker and link it.
But yeah, loved it, except for the bugs. I like gnome less, but it's less buggy, so I'm using that.
I wonder if KDE stability is related to i18n/l10n. I am running desktops in German and KDE crashes for me all the time on freshly installed machines before I even could touch settings. (I tried a lot of KDE versions over the years, from stable/mainstream distributions like Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu). Besides the constant crashing I missed a mail client on the level of Evolution or Thunderbird when I tried KDE.
Hyprland ftw!
i3wm at work and at home
@lemsolm@fugepe
I use i3wm at school since I don't bring my mouse with my laptop to school, so I just use my keyboard to do everything.
Kde because it has a really useful and functional out of the box tools, being dolphin and connect the most useful ones for me.
Never had an issue since last year, but yeah, was buggy as hell.
Mate if I want more juice from a not so good pc, and xfce for the low end ones.
@fugepe I can live with KDE, Cinnamon, Xfce, Gnome, Lxqt., Mate... I am using KDE right now but I like Xfce more than others...
BSPWM and Polybar because I am too lazy to figure out eww and I use KDE as a backup in case anything breaks lol
Me exactly. I'm totally definitely for sure going to try out all the more complicated DEs and widget tools (eww, maybe AwesomeWM if I'm willing to learn Lua or Hyprland if I'm willing to try Wayland)... Someday
In the meantime, my BSPWM + Polybar setup is there and works while I procrastinate on trying anything else.
I like Gnome. It is very usable out of the box and requires the least amount of work to get it to my liking. I am current running pop_os' cosmic version of gnome though I also enjoyed vanilla-ish(that is with 2-3 extensions) version of gnome with fedora. If only mutter starts officially supporting vrr when using wayland
I don't think It will be useless even if KDE add basic tiling, there are layout and shortcuts that will be useful anyway.
Thank you for polonium! I will check it out!
Cool, I was wondering when someone would create a successor to bismuth. KDE Plasma + Bismuth was my daily driver for a long time until 5.27.
I keep wanting to try out vanillaOS and everytime I liveboot it, I immediately regret my decision. I cannot stand Gnome.
I love KDE, I love it for how versatile, intuitive and customizable it is.
Bot to mention, I rarely experience any bugs. It just works.
I'm not huge into customising desktop environments, so when I've tried window managers like i3, I typically only get it functional to my likings and then realise how boring I am compared to how others use it.
So typically I use gnome or kde, but I like cinnamon and xfce as well. I don't really have a favourite, they're all good. At the minute I am trying to adopt wayland and have been using gnome while I do that.
KDE - using it with Manjaro now, but also used it on Mint before that.
Xfce overall, but I like MATE a lot as well. Just give me a traditional desktop experience, I don't need mobile-like options on a desktop.
I actually switched to MATE primarily because I like its suite of software a bit more (calculator, file manager, file archiver) than Xfce's, though I use some of MATE's stuff (Caja mainly) on Xfce on my laptop.
KDE + Latte dock is what I use.
Very simple and minimalistic setup with no widgets.
Not a DE but AwesomeWM. I like its default aesthetic and it's highly extensible using Lua which gives a lot of power to the user.
xfce if i had to run a desktop environment, but i usually stick with dwm and haven't got around to trying wayland yet
Enlightenment
KDE for my main and XFCE for my lower powered systems or VM's
This is what I do too. I've been considering switching to XFCE everywhere, because why use more resources, when XFCE does the job insert The Office "why waste time say lot words ..."-gif
Boring old X11 Gnome for me, it looks pretty, it's reliable and it has all the stuff I'd expect out of a desktop environment
Wayland doesn't play nice with my GPU and I've heard it's not great for gaming anyway
I've heard it's not great for gaming anyway
Gaming on wayland now has more or less the same performance as on x11. Some things like vrr (atleast on plasma) is even better/easier on wayland than on x11
Vrr? Did you mean vr?
Also maybe I should try it on my PC then, haven't tested it there though can't really see any need for it as my monitors are similar resolution there
I meant variable refresh rate by vrr.
though can't really see any need for it as my monitors are similar resolution there
Well wayland may help if the refresh rates of the monitor is different. Also Wayland will be the only one supported in the future as if I understand correctly, X11 is no longer supported
One has 144hz 1440p and one is 60hz1080p, I've got one of them running on 170hz on x11 afaik, what's normally the problem with differing refresh rates?
Variable refresh rate changes the refresh rate of your screen dynamically according to in-game fps. Think Freesync and G-Sync.
What's the advantage of doing that? Surely just leaving the refresh rate at 170 and running at 60fps would be fine?
It's for eliminating tearing.
Can't say I've ever experienced any tearing but fair enough
Gaming has been pretty good for me on GNOME Wayland.
SwayFX (Sway with a bit more eye candy effects)
This actually seems really cool, will give it a shot
Been a gnome guy for the past ~13 years with a bit of unity thrown in back when it was relevant! I've tried to love KDE repeatedly over the years but it's never quite clicked with me - the customisation is great, but using it just feels kinda wrong personally!
XFCE, while it doesn't have all the fancy animations and such it is incredibly customizable while still being super light weight.
Hyprland + bemenu. Minimalistic, very little overhead, but still a pretty boi.
KDE. It's pretty good these days. I used it in 1999 when it was new. I used it in 2009 when it was messy. I didn't use it for about a decade, opting instead for tiling window managers and plain cwm(1) on OpenBSD.
I finally installed it again in 2021 and it's been fine. Solid desktop, does what I need it to, but requires a lot of configuration up front to not be annoying. I want simple and consistent, with double click to open things and single click to highlight, and I don't want a popup dialog box in the corner every time my Konsole bell rings. I want animations and transparency, but I don't want to wait a half a second for my window to minimize. I don't want workspaces, just like I didn't want a cashew in the corner of my screen 15 years ago. If I tell my dock to be floating, it needs to stay floating and not change its shape and size when I maximize my window.
KDE requires some tweaking out of the box so that it stays out of the way. But once set up, it's nice.
3.5.10 was the best KDE ever, but I'm on 5.27 and I don't have any complaints.
I have been using cinnamon for many years. For the last 2 y it is xfce for me.
Simple, reliable and stable, low in resources, does the work well.
I have a hard time recommending it, but I ran Deepin on Arch a few years and was blown away by it. There were some weird limitations to how much you can customize, and I prefer window managers in general, so I eventually stopped using it. But that was the best time I had with a DE in Linux overall.
The best I can actually recommend is KDE.
I'm a Gnome user, with a few extensions but mostly vanilla.
River, not a DE but close enough. I could configure it in fennel without much problem.
I usually use WindowMaker or FVWM but as a desktop environment... CDE
Kde for the win!
sway + bemenu for building my own utilities
btw what distro are my fellow sway users on? i'm loving the control i get over what i install with gentoo
how is everyone interacting with audio, networking, bluetooth?
Arch for me; pulsemixer, iwctl, bluetoothctl
I personally like Mate, especially with i3 as the window manager.
xfce
Pop_OS underneath with Regolith (basically a pre-configured i3) on top.
Xfce, didn't try KDE yet, using gnome currently.
I don't have a favorite. I use Cinnamon because it disappoints me the least.
Yeah i literally just run whatever the default in Linux Mint is. It's got everything where i expect it to be and has no friction, and that's good enough for me.
For me efficiency and less eye strain is important. I want my eyes to be at the center of the screen for the majority of my session. Gnome is my goto for that reason but any tiling windows manager would do as welll.
KDE and the windows start bar lookalikes constantly have your eyes going to the corner or sides to open and find apps.
My very first WM was Blackbox, back in 2000, and I imprinted on it like a baby duck, so today I still mostly use Fluxbox. It's abandoned and unmaintained, but still works (for now). It's very minimalist and lightweight. When it finally dies completely I guess I'll finally learn how to use a tiling WM.
(I use Gnome on a laptop with a HiDPI screen, because that was too annoying to configure correctly on Fluxbox. It's... fine. I added a bunch of customisations and it mostly stays out of my way, which is what I want in an environment.)
No matter what WM/DE I use, I always add a dropdown / "quakelike" terminal application -- I previously used Yakuake, but switched to Guake. It uses a hotkey to show / hide a terminal (and you can use multiple tabs, and multiplexers inside the tabs). I can't live without this, and I highly recommend it if you often find yourself hunting around for your terminal window.
I'm super torn on desktop environments. There simply are too many great choices! I like XFCE, KDE Plasma and the most recent Gnome versions - for different reasons. KDE is the perfect choice when you want the full shiny, modern, bling desktop and if you love to customize it in all kinds of ways that are possible out of the box. When I spend time with KDE, over the course of weeks, I keep constantly changing my wallpapers, themes, cursors, icons, colors, etc. - just for the sake of variety. With KDE, the desktop never gets boring.
BUT... I also love minimalism (to a tasteful, practical extent) and classic retro computing, as well as efficiency. That's why XFCE is very comfy to me. It only has the features you need, but still to the extent of a nice and fully featured desktop environment. Doesn't eat too many system resources, still can look very pretty with themes, does what it's supposed to. Very stable, too. There are times when KDE just feels cluttered and ... too much for me, then I retreat to XFCE.
I'm running Fedora Silverblue for quite a while now and although I always had my gripes about modern Gnome... after using it for a while, it really grew on me. Since version 42, modern Gnome really is going the right direction. It's nicely clean and readable, modern, performant, and once you get used to it, its different approach to the workflow really makes sense. The apps are lovely, they do one thing and do it well, and they're beautifully integrated in the same design language. There's a wonderful collection of apps called Gnome Circle, these are not developed directly by the Gnome team, but endorsed by them, as they're useful and integrate perfectly into the UI design language. There's some amazing tools in there! It all feels very unified, and with the Blur-my-shell extension, you don't need much else for a pretty look.
The only downside is that this clean look sometimes is achieved by cutting poweruser features, which can be frustrating when you bump into something you need to do, but the UI doesn't account for. For example, I have multiple bluetooth adapters in this PC and can't select which one to use. Still, great desktop.
I've used gnome for years, about a month ago I decided to give KDE a try on my old spare laptop. Two days later it was on my desktop and work laptop. I am loving KDE.
@fugepe XFCE is the best in my opinion. It's lightweight, full customizable & easy to set up....
TDE (for those who haven't encountered it before, the Trinity Desktop Environment forked from KDE3 more than a decade ago). It might not be the flashiest or the newest, but it has a decent selection of features and applications, and presents a traditional desktop environment whose interface doesn't get changed for the sake of change. In other words, it stays out of the way and lets me get things done.
(If I'd liked Gnome 2 better than KDE 3 rather than vice-versa, I probably would have gone for MATE instead.)
Correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't TDE depend on the undermaintained qt3?
The TDE crew have also taken on responsibility for maintaining TQT (formerly QT3). If you're aware of any open bugs, go ahead and file them to the TQT3 repo on TDE's Gitea and someone will have a look.
kde
Vanilla Gnome Shell. I know it's heresy, but I've been using it since beta and I actually enjoy the work flow.
FVWM.
Um....none.
For me it was Enlightenment DR16 (discontinued). you could make themes with shaped borders (transparent regions, buttons and titles anywhere, even overlapping into the window a bit), have it remember window positions, change border style for a window (e.g. drawer, so it can be collapsed sideways) and it would not steal focus. it had really good effects and features. I miss it a lot in Wayland. Check the web for some screenshots, if you want to be inspired.
I cannot but mention xmonad wm with my own configurations
i3 on my laptop, gnome on my gaming rig (cuz wayland)
barless dwl, love the simplicity
A while back I was into KDE Plasma but for whatever reason had this bug that would cause my system to run at 100 percent at all times. When I looked into it, many stated it was a bug that related to how kde searches for stuff on the system. Dont remember much else but that had me look elsewhere.
Been on gnome for awhile now and havent had any issues.
i3 counts, right?
I have always been a keyboard oriented user and a big part of what drove me from Windows is them breaking or changing the hotkeys I used regularly.
To me it is the perfect "you have control, this is your device, it works and looks how you want." wm
Mine is a combination of Sway + i3bar. Stick with it since I downlosded Pop!_OS
bspwm + sxhkd, for years. Based on the Manjaro config at first, today it's my own setup. Even convinced may family. The best!
dwm, I got too much used to "it just works" and never ever breaks afrer an update.
@fugepe Wow, not a lot of replies are saying Gnome, but there's a lot more XFCE than I thought I'd see
XFCE? always that shit is fast and the memory management is better than KDE and Gnome
It may be a sort of shy Tory effect. People don't volunteer that they run Gnome because it's seen as the default mainstream option, but if someone uses xmonad, they're going to tell you about it.
@fugepe I use a mostly vanilla Gnome, with the exception of the Blur My Shell and Vitals extensions
I am on pop is for my home desktop. I like the built in tiling manager. Ubuntu for work. Might give nix or kde a go next.
I've been using QTile for probably a year now. It's not perfect, but I like the tiled windowing and I know python.
EXWM (Emacs X windows manager)
all it lacks is a good editor
(j/k, I've settled on Cosmic on Pop for the last few years, and now I'm so lazy, I barely update it)
KDE if I have performance to spare. XFCE if I am running this in a container on my phone.
I like Gnome a little more than KDE.
Debian/KDE
is anyone used herbsluftwm for low powered CPU here?
Xfce on work desktop, gnome works well with gestures at home on my laptop. Will be changing to kde when I get a new machine at work!
@fugepe I use Ubuntu but, is KDE easy to pick up? Just getting into Linux my self.
There are several DE. The two big ones are KDE and Gnome. If you want to switch I recommend trying a live image of Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu but with KDE.
My favourite so far is Windows as my DE and WSL for my Linux
@ryncewynd@fugepe the question is "best DE"... not "most annoying DE"...
Your desktop environment needs to update. It will reboot three times and the whole process will take about an hour.
KDE sets a really high bar with all the packages and extensibility. Almost everything (not including the lesser known and used packages) is feature-packed and
just works. I really don't know any other software that constantly amazes me like KDE.Came to say KDE/Plasma. Glad it was already on top
In addition to that, they make nice FOSS apps that are great for any DE (see Krita, Kdenlive)
Also it looks like Windows, and that to me is a huge plus for anyone using my computer.
I'm fine in general with most of them but I'm settled on KDE. I agree the software is great, I love apps like Okular and there are these little goodies hidden everywhere, like typing "fish://user@server" in the file manager url/path area and I get a folder open of the remote file system, I can even add it to "Locations".
KDE Plasma 5.27 is incredible. Such a stable and customizable experience! 😍
XFCE, tried cinnamon a couple times it was okay but I just prefer the simplicity and stability of xfce
xfce for a very long time. I really like tiling WMs but always come back to xfce
Xfce is the best!
See I don't really get the appeal of xfce, I kinda see it as the minimal DE you use if you've got low powered hardware or if you need a DE on a system that isn't a personal computer and just need the bare minimum to run a graphical application or two
it's the quickest fully featured de, and as an added bonus, it's the least buggy of them all, it's also very simple in it's functioning, fairly close to a diy desktop + wm config, so tweaking random stuff like the compositor is easy to do and doesn't break everything
Seems like I'm the outlier here that prefers Gnome over KDE. Gnome feels more polished than KDE for me. Granted KDE comes with more features out of the box, but I don't find anything lacking in Gnome for me.
Tried KDE long time ago to compare it to Gnome 3, went back to Gnome. Tried KDE again a few months ago to compare to Gnome 42, came back to Gnome again.
I also can't stand having all my programs' name starting with K.
Like Okular, Spectacle, Dolphin, .....
Maybe I shouldn't have said all, but it's annoying to me when the they put a "k" in the name in a very awkward way just because it's an KDE app.
to be fair okular does have a k in it
I like Gnome the best too. In my experience, it's the desktop environment that focuses the most on making sure that no little bugs slip in. Like normally when you're using a desktop environment, it will be good except for a few bugs here and there where you have to remember weird things like not backing out of the settings menu in a certain way in order to not trigger a bug. Gnome seems to have the least amount of weird little bugs like that.
It's not very configurable out of the box, but I prefer that too. I'm getting a bit old and set in my ways, and don't really want to mess around with too much configuration anymore.
I’m in the same boat. I use mostly stock gnome to avoid experiencing bugs. I used KDE for a bit and loved it but never really loved how many options the settings gave me. I would also constantly run into issues with the docks disappearing when unplugging monitors. In contrast docks on gnome just work. I really only use the Ubuntu dock extension on gnome
KDE was the first one I used after getting more comfortable with Linux and leaving Unity behind. KDE was very customizable and extensible, but when you actually started customizing it quickly became unreliable. I stuck with it for a few years then I tried Elementary next and it was pretty polished but it was limited to a specific distribution. After that I went to GNOME and I've been using it for 7 years now. It does need a few extensions, but otherwise I've found that it works quite well. I think I've also changed, I'm not as interested in things like wobbly windows anymore. I just want the desktop environment to stay out of my way, but I also don't want it to be too bare bones.
Both take great benefits from the improvements of the other.
KDE. Because it's mostly a complete package and has tons of knobs and dials to tune for anyone's needs edited
Not even mentioning the DE, what a Chad move
I meant KDE. Was replying to OP
They might be referencing the fact that technically the DE's name is Plasma, not KDE.
Vanilla Gnome. It's simple/boring, and I like that. It seems like most people that like Gnome don't care that it's not a poweruser DE, and aren't excited to talk about it either.
I use gnome, but it's basically the worst DE, except all of the other ones that have been tried
It has the least features, so by default the least bugs.
I'm a simple person. I see KDE, I upvote.
GNOME, for sure. It works out of the box, and it's kind of pretty out of the box.
I also tried it on a touch screen PX and it works surprisingly well.
KDE forever!
Default GNOME (Wayland), it just works
Absolutely KDE Plasma.
i3. I mean, it's fast, customizable, and you can make it look good. That's all i need.
KDE is love, KDE is life
Love me some Cinnamon. Specifically what comes out of default Linux Mint. It isn't trying to do more than it already is. As cool as tech is I wish I didn't need to care about Wayland or X11. I just want it to launch applications, feel like the windows I used as a kid, and stay out of my way. Cinnamon does this all for me. And since freaking high school mint has been there trying to do that.
I use KDE now, but Cinnamon was my first and made the transition beautiful. It's a great DE.
KDE Plasma on desktop
Cinnamon on (older lower spec) laptop
Gnome with pop_os tiling window manager
Xfce, i just like it.
Mine is MATE:
It's still GNOME 2, but I see no problem with that, it works and I'm used to it and I like traditional desktops. I don't need (or care about) round borders or those on/off switches of modern desktops, that make them look like phone screens turned 90°.
Nice, impressive.
Please share that wallpaper, looks awesome!
If you want, I also got a Makima (character from the same series, Chainsaw Man) wallpaper roughly in the same style:
Thank you so much!
I've been using Cinnamon for years. It's stable, fairly lightweight, and pleasing to the eye.
I like Gnome with Pop OS's tiling
No DE just DWM
Cinnamon is the best
GNOME, with a little bit of extension customisability!
Cinnamon. Stupidly simple and elegant looking.
Sway or GNOME (Wayland) with Pop shell extension.
Gotta be KDE for a full featured DE.
But using Sway for now.
XFCE and/or AwesomeWM
I avoided GNOME3 for the longest time, but I decided to try it on a new install of Debian on a whim and actually ended up really liking it. Needed to enable a couple of extensions, but once you get used to it the workflow isn't at all that bad.
I am enjoying GNOME at the moment. But I think I may switch to Cosmic DE when that gets released.
For aesthetics: Budgie, with Cinnamon a close second For simplicity and speed: XFCE
Sway and dmenu when in a keyboard productivity sorta mood, KDE otherwise.
I used to only use KDE or KDE plasma with i3 but after using fedora I've fallen hard for Gnome and the design philosophy of the project.
Pop! _OS's Cosmic Version of GNOME (regular GNOME kinda stinks) but KDE is also pretty great. Can't wait for COSMIC DE. I'm sure that one will rock itself up to the number 1 spot really quickly.
KDE
I've got used to XFCE.
It's between XFCE for it's simplicity and KDE for it's Wayland support for me
i use i3 + kde its really cool
Vanilla Gnome
Although I use sway, I used KDE for a long time and XFCE prior. They're both phenomenal. I'd love to see XFCE make its way to wayland in the future.
As an aside, I feel like Wayland has a market ripe for the introduction of lightweight DEs. Sure, it has the very lightweight (hyprland, sway, river, dwl) and heavyweight (KDE, Gnome) but nothing between like XFCE, LXDE or MATE
Also a fan of sway! Plenty configurable, and swaymsg+jq bash scripts can go a long way. Hoping we'll see more development in lightweight DEs as well- Wayland is pretty great, and sway could use with some more features. also nice username :D
KDE if it was less buggy.
It's KDE for me too, but I don't really get the buggy part. Sure kwin crashes sometimes, but that happened to me like 2 or 3 times during my 2 and half years on openSUSE. Other than that I can't think of something really bugged? Maybe I'm too tolerant, having to work with Windows XP and DOS at work...
Maybe, I had so many frickin kwin crashes every time I tried it, and there is a known bug with fractional scaling in some resolutions which affected me that drove me insane, if you care enough I could try to track it down on the bugtracker and link it.
But yeah, loved it, except for the bugs. I like gnome less, but it's less buggy, so I'm using that.
I wonder if KDE stability is related to i18n/l10n. I am running desktops in German and KDE crashes for me all the time on freshly installed machines before I even could touch settings. (I tried a lot of KDE versions over the years, from stable/mainstream distributions like Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu). Besides the constant crashing I missed a mail client on the level of Evolution or Thunderbird when I tried KDE.
Hyprland ftw!
i3wm at work and at home
@lemsolm @fugepe
I use i3wm at school since I don't bring my mouse with my laptop to school, so I just use my keyboard to do everything.
Kde because it has a really useful and functional out of the box tools, being dolphin and connect the most useful ones for me.
Never had an issue since last year, but yeah, was buggy as hell.
Mate if I want more juice from a not so good pc, and xfce for the low end ones.
@fugepe I can live with KDE, Cinnamon, Xfce, Gnome, Lxqt., Mate... I am using KDE right now but I like Xfce more than others...
BSPWM and Polybar because I am too lazy to figure out eww and I use KDE as a backup in case anything breaks lol
Me exactly. I'm totally definitely for sure going to try out all the more complicated DEs and widget tools (eww, maybe AwesomeWM if I'm willing to learn Lua or Hyprland if I'm willing to try Wayland)... Someday
In the meantime, my BSPWM + Polybar setup is there and works while I procrastinate on trying anything else.
I like Gnome. It is very usable out of the box and requires the least amount of work to get it to my liking. I am current running pop_os' cosmic version of gnome though I also enjoyed vanilla-ish(that is with 2-3 extensions) version of gnome with fedora. If only mutter starts officially supporting vrr when using wayland
Budgie is cool
Xfce, Gnome or just a WM like Sway.
KDE + bismuth
Oh, nice! Does this work regardless of X/Wayland?
Heads up though, might be headed towards extinction with the manual tiling added in 5.27 https://github.com/Bismuth-Forge/bismuth/issues/471#issuecomment-1410969462
Polonium seems to be a possible successor: https://github.com/zeroxoneafour/polonium
I use it with X, I think I will have to rework the stack when i will switch to Wayland.
Here is my config: https://github.com/simone-viozzi/my-dot-files#tiling
I don't think It will be useless even if KDE add basic tiling, there are layout and shortcuts that will be useful anyway.
Thank you for polonium! I will check it out!
Cool, I was wondering when someone would create a successor to bismuth. KDE Plasma + Bismuth was my daily driver for a long time until 5.27.
I keep wanting to try out vanillaOS and everytime I liveboot it, I immediately regret my decision. I cannot stand Gnome.
I love KDE, I love it for how versatile, intuitive and customizable it is.
Bot to mention, I rarely experience any bugs. It just works.
I'm not huge into customising desktop environments, so when I've tried window managers like i3, I typically only get it functional to my likings and then realise how boring I am compared to how others use it.
So typically I use gnome or kde, but I like cinnamon and xfce as well. I don't really have a favourite, they're all good. At the minute I am trying to adopt wayland and have been using gnome while I do that.
KDE - using it with Manjaro now, but also used it on Mint before that.
Xfce overall, but I like MATE a lot as well. Just give me a traditional desktop experience, I don't need mobile-like options on a desktop.
I actually switched to MATE primarily because I like its suite of software a bit more (calculator, file manager, file archiver) than Xfce's, though I use some of MATE's stuff (Caja mainly) on Xfce on my laptop.
KDE + Latte dock is what I use. Very simple and minimalistic setup with no widgets.
Not a DE but AwesomeWM. I like its default aesthetic and it's highly extensible using Lua which gives a lot of power to the user.
xfce if i had to run a desktop environment, but i usually stick with dwm and haven't got around to trying wayland yet
Enlightenment
KDE for my main and XFCE for my lower powered systems or VM's
This is what I do too. I've been considering switching to XFCE everywhere, because why use more resources, when XFCE does the job insert The Office "why waste time say lot words ..."-gif
@fugepe Gnome
Boring old X11 Gnome for me, it looks pretty, it's reliable and it has all the stuff I'd expect out of a desktop environment
Wayland doesn't play nice with my GPU and I've heard it's not great for gaming anyway
Gaming on wayland now has more or less the same performance as on x11. Some things like vrr (atleast on plasma) is even better/easier on wayland than on x11
Vrr? Did you mean vr?
Also maybe I should try it on my PC then, haven't tested it there though can't really see any need for it as my monitors are similar resolution there
I meant variable refresh rate by vrr.
Well wayland may help if the refresh rates of the monitor is different. Also Wayland will be the only one supported in the future as if I understand correctly, X11 is no longer supported
One has 144hz 1440p and one is 60hz1080p, I've got one of them running on 170hz on x11 afaik, what's normally the problem with differing refresh rates?
Variable refresh rate changes the refresh rate of your screen dynamically according to in-game fps. Think Freesync and G-Sync.
What's the advantage of doing that? Surely just leaving the refresh rate at 170 and running at 60fps would be fine?
It's for eliminating tearing.
Can't say I've ever experienced any tearing but fair enough
Gaming has been pretty good for me on GNOME Wayland.
SwayFX (Sway with a bit more eye candy effects)
This actually seems really cool, will give it a shot
Been a gnome guy for the past ~13 years with a bit of unity thrown in back when it was relevant! I've tried to love KDE repeatedly over the years but it's never quite clicked with me - the customisation is great, but using it just feels kinda wrong personally!
XFCE, while it doesn't have all the fancy animations and such it is incredibly customizable while still being super light weight.
Hyprland + bemenu. Minimalistic, very little overhead, but still a pretty boi.
KDE. It's pretty good these days. I used it in 1999 when it was new. I used it in 2009 when it was messy. I didn't use it for about a decade, opting instead for tiling window managers and plain cwm(1) on OpenBSD.
I finally installed it again in 2021 and it's been fine. Solid desktop, does what I need it to, but requires a lot of configuration up front to not be annoying. I want simple and consistent, with double click to open things and single click to highlight, and I don't want a popup dialog box in the corner every time my Konsole bell rings. I want animations and transparency, but I don't want to wait a half a second for my window to minimize. I don't want workspaces, just like I didn't want a cashew in the corner of my screen 15 years ago. If I tell my dock to be floating, it needs to stay floating and not change its shape and size when I maximize my window.
KDE requires some tweaking out of the box so that it stays out of the way. But once set up, it's nice.
3.5.10 was the best KDE ever, but I'm on 5.27 and I don't have any complaints.
I have been using cinnamon for many years. For the last 2 y it is xfce for me.
Simple, reliable and stable, low in resources, does the work well.
I have a hard time recommending it, but I ran Deepin on Arch a few years and was blown away by it. There were some weird limitations to how much you can customize, and I prefer window managers in general, so I eventually stopped using it. But that was the best time I had with a DE in Linux overall.
The best I can actually recommend is KDE.
I'm a Gnome user, with a few extensions but mostly vanilla.
River, not a DE but close enough. I could configure it in fennel without much problem.
I usually use WindowMaker or FVWM but as a desktop environment... CDE
Kde for the win!
sway + bemenu for building my own utilities
btw what distro are my fellow sway users on? i'm loving the control i get over what i install with gentoo
how is everyone interacting with audio, networking, bluetooth?
Arch for me; pulsemixer, iwctl, bluetoothctl
I personally like Mate, especially with i3 as the window manager.
xfce
Pop_OS underneath with Regolith (basically a pre-configured i3) on top.
Xfce, didn't try KDE yet, using gnome currently.
I don't have a favorite. I use Cinnamon because it disappoints me the least.
Yeah i literally just run whatever the default in Linux Mint is. It's got everything where i expect it to be and has no friction, and that's good enough for me.
For me efficiency and less eye strain is important. I want my eyes to be at the center of the screen for the majority of my session. Gnome is my goto for that reason but any tiling windows manager would do as welll.
KDE and the windows start bar lookalikes constantly have your eyes going to the corner or sides to open and find apps.
My very first WM was Blackbox, back in 2000, and I imprinted on it like a baby duck, so today I still mostly use Fluxbox. It's abandoned and unmaintained, but still works (for now). It's very minimalist and lightweight. When it finally dies completely I guess I'll finally learn how to use a tiling WM.
(I use Gnome on a laptop with a HiDPI screen, because that was too annoying to configure correctly on Fluxbox. It's... fine. I added a bunch of customisations and it mostly stays out of my way, which is what I want in an environment.)
No matter what WM/DE I use, I always add a dropdown / "quakelike" terminal application -- I previously used Yakuake, but switched to Guake. It uses a hotkey to show / hide a terminal (and you can use multiple tabs, and multiplexers inside the tabs). I can't live without this, and I highly recommend it if you often find yourself hunting around for your terminal window.
I'm super torn on desktop environments. There simply are too many great choices! I like XFCE, KDE Plasma and the most recent Gnome versions - for different reasons. KDE is the perfect choice when you want the full shiny, modern, bling desktop and if you love to customize it in all kinds of ways that are possible out of the box. When I spend time with KDE, over the course of weeks, I keep constantly changing my wallpapers, themes, cursors, icons, colors, etc. - just for the sake of variety. With KDE, the desktop never gets boring.
BUT... I also love minimalism (to a tasteful, practical extent) and classic retro computing, as well as efficiency. That's why XFCE is very comfy to me. It only has the features you need, but still to the extent of a nice and fully featured desktop environment. Doesn't eat too many system resources, still can look very pretty with themes, does what it's supposed to. Very stable, too. There are times when KDE just feels cluttered and ... too much for me, then I retreat to XFCE.
I'm running Fedora Silverblue for quite a while now and although I always had my gripes about modern Gnome... after using it for a while, it really grew on me. Since version 42, modern Gnome really is going the right direction. It's nicely clean and readable, modern, performant, and once you get used to it, its different approach to the workflow really makes sense. The apps are lovely, they do one thing and do it well, and they're beautifully integrated in the same design language. There's a wonderful collection of apps called Gnome Circle, these are not developed directly by the Gnome team, but endorsed by them, as they're useful and integrate perfectly into the UI design language. There's some amazing tools in there! It all feels very unified, and with the Blur-my-shell extension, you don't need much else for a pretty look. The only downside is that this clean look sometimes is achieved by cutting poweruser features, which can be frustrating when you bump into something you need to do, but the UI doesn't account for. For example, I have multiple bluetooth adapters in this PC and can't select which one to use. Still, great desktop.
I've used gnome for years, about a month ago I decided to give KDE a try on my old spare laptop. Two days later it was on my desktop and work laptop. I am loving KDE.
@fugepe XFCE is the best in my opinion. It's lightweight, full customizable & easy to set up....
TDE (for those who haven't encountered it before, the Trinity Desktop Environment forked from KDE3 more than a decade ago). It might not be the flashiest or the newest, but it has a decent selection of features and applications, and presents a traditional desktop environment whose interface doesn't get changed for the sake of change. In other words, it stays out of the way and lets me get things done.
(If I'd liked Gnome 2 better than KDE 3 rather than vice-versa, I probably would have gone for MATE instead.)
Correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't TDE depend on the undermaintained qt3?
The TDE crew have also taken on responsibility for maintaining TQT (formerly QT3). If you're aware of any open bugs, go ahead and file them to the TQT3 repo on TDE's Gitea and someone will have a look.
kde
Vanilla Gnome Shell. I know it's heresy, but I've been using it since beta and I actually enjoy the work flow.
FVWM.
Um....none.
For me it was Enlightenment DR16 (discontinued). you could make themes with shaped borders (transparent regions, buttons and titles anywhere, even overlapping into the window a bit), have it remember window positions, change border style for a window (e.g. drawer, so it can be collapsed sideways) and it would not steal focus. it had really good effects and features. I miss it a lot in Wayland. Check the web for some screenshots, if you want to be inspired.
I cannot but mention xmonad wm with my own configurations
i3 on my laptop, gnome on my gaming rig (cuz wayland)
barless dwl, love the simplicity
A while back I was into KDE Plasma but for whatever reason had this bug that would cause my system to run at 100 percent at all times. When I looked into it, many stated it was a bug that related to how kde searches for stuff on the system. Dont remember much else but that had me look elsewhere.
Been on gnome for awhile now and havent had any issues.
i3 counts, right? I have always been a keyboard oriented user and a big part of what drove me from Windows is them breaking or changing the hotkeys I used regularly. To me it is the perfect "you have control, this is your device, it works and looks how you want." wm
Mine is a combination of Sway + i3bar. Stick with it since I downlosded Pop!_OS
bspwm + sxhkd, for years. Based on the Manjaro config at first, today it's my own setup. Even convinced may family. The best!
dwm, I got too much used to "it just works" and never ever breaks afrer an update.
@fugepe Wow, not a lot of replies are saying Gnome, but there's a lot more XFCE than I thought I'd see
XFCE? always that shit is fast and the memory management is better than KDE and Gnome
It may be a sort of shy Tory effect. People don't volunteer that they run Gnome because it's seen as the default mainstream option, but if someone uses xmonad, they're going to tell you about it.
@fugepe I use a mostly vanilla Gnome, with the exception of the Blur My Shell and Vitals extensions
I am on pop is for my home desktop. I like the built in tiling manager. Ubuntu for work. Might give nix or kde a go next.
I've been using QTile for probably a year now. It's not perfect, but I like the tiled windowing and I know python.
EXWM (Emacs X windows manager)
all it lacks is a good editor
(j/k, I've settled on Cosmic on Pop for the last few years, and now I'm so lazy, I barely update it)
KDE if I have performance to spare. XFCE if I am running this in a container on my phone.
I like Gnome a little more than KDE.
Debian/KDE
is anyone used herbsluftwm for low powered CPU here?
Xfce on work desktop, gnome works well with gestures at home on my laptop. Will be changing to kde when I get a new machine at work!
@fugepe I use Ubuntu but, is KDE easy to pick up? Just getting into Linux my self.
There are several DE. The two big ones are KDE and Gnome. If you want to switch I recommend trying a live image of Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu but with KDE.
My favourite so far is Windows as my DE and WSL for my Linux
@ryncewynd @fugepe the question is "best DE"... not "most annoying DE"...
Your desktop environment needs to update. It will reboot three times and the whole process will take about an hour.