What's your preferred DE?

Gnome. Feels most polished and least cluttered to me.

Plasma definitely. Xfce is second.

Plasma. It’s the most customizable and you can dive in and shape it. It feels much more natural for me to jump into.

I put xfce on older hardware.

Distro wise I tend to go with Ubuntu flavors most because they seem to have better compatibility for various software and stuff I need, but I haven’t really shopped around too hard in years. Work is RHEL (and clones) and they make me sad.

KDE is what finally got me to switch from Windows.

Out of the box I found it a better user experience than Windows 10s desktop, but having it be stupid easy to customize and theme on top of that has made me never wanna go back.

KDE for me. As much as I hate windows, I like the floating windows, task bar and tray. KDE has that out of the box and lets me tweak all the little annoyances away.

Plasma, but only on Wayland (which is better anyway unbiased opinion).

Gnome 44. Simple, familiar and all my extensions work!

Xfce. It's lightweight and looks great with a little bit of customisation. For me it's the perfect balance between performance, usability and looks

KDE

It's like a swiss-army knife of DEs.

I try to make it look like Windows 7.

I use Debian with XFCE.Really lightweight and stable

Sway

KDE

Personally I've been on KDE for a few years, I love the way I can customize my workflow, from the default apps to the panels layout. The KDE team has made fantastic progress since I've started using it, and it's now very stable and feature rich. I'm very excited for the upcoming Plasma 6

And as a reminder to everybody, please donate if you can, no matter what software you use. Especially if you've been using that DE for a while. Open source projects like these are always in need of funding!

I love KDE Plasma, been using it for years. Cinnamon is very good too, especially for folks that like the Windows 7 style.

Cosmic is nice from the little I've used it, but I prefer a DE with more options.

Not a Gnome fan personally, I've tried it many times, just can't get into it, but objectively it's solid.

KDE. I tried gnome, xfce etc. but theyre either stripped down (xfce) or designed in a way that bothers me. (gnome)

KDE Plasma. Number 2 is Cinnamon

GNOME

XFCE. It's just so easy to click and drag things where I want them and edit icons to be uniform.

Have you tried testing out DE in a virtual machine? It's a big time saver versus installing it on actual hardware.

KDE and Cinnamon.

GNOME. A lot of people customize it to look and behave more like Windows or Macos, and I used to as well, but after giving the default configuration a chance and getting used to it, I prefer it over everything else. It's way more focused and organized, and I can navigate through my open windows quicker and easier. It's just a different workflow you need to adjust your brain to.

KDE, I've been using it since the late 90s. I've tried other DEs but nothing comes close IMO.

Hyprland

maybe this is a hot take but I just really like vanilla KDE. I don't even customize that much, I just think it looks and feels nice out of the box

Gnome

I like Xfce and Plasma, it's pretty hard to decide between the two

Kde Plasma. Customized so there are no visible panels, only an auto-hide panel at the top for wifi/bluetooth etc. I do app switching and opening new apps via the Overview effect.

Cinnamon LMDE

No DE. Just openbox + polybar + rofi

Gnome on laptop, gnome with extentions on one pc and kde on another.

I use Hyprland, but if not, then GNOME... It's just pretty and easy to use out of the box

I really like plain "boring" vanilla Gnome. It's straightforward, I like it's workflow, it does everything I need it too, and looks nice too. I'm not a fan of "power user" UIs as I feel like they have too many features I'll never use filling them up. You can always get more programs to do more things anyway. Like I use compilers and disassemblers all the time, but I'm not upset that Gnome doesn't ship with those features built in when I'm in some weird 1% of users that need them. On the other hand, I think KDE is important to the ecosystem too, and I donate $100 a year to both the Gnome and KDE projects.

I have to say KDE Plasma, but I look really forward toward Cosmic Rust.

KDE is simply so damn old and has weird quirks everywhere, it has features and basic things like

• functional apps: dolphin, spectacle, kate, kde connect, systemsettings, discover, ...
• SSD with hitboxes in the very corner (looking at you GNOME)
• wayland support
• a regular but modular bottom panel
• extensible everywhere

But it also just has too many features. Extensions are not tested or versioned so many simply dont work anymore, often some of the dozens of components has an issue. I cant imagine Cosmic reaching the level of features in like 3 years, but if it would do, this could be great. But in the end its up to the devs, so I have no idea at all.

I dont find GNOME usable really. At least in the default settings. The decorations make no sense on Desktops (they are perfect for tablets), the top bar makes you look down too much, the ubuntu way wastes space too. Everything is too thick, too little GUI settings and the standard apps could be from Android, the little features they have.

hyprland currently but maybe switching to awesomewm or qtile. it takes effort to configure/learn them so idk if you are open to try them at the beginning. or if you prefer a conventional environment like gnome, kde, xfce...

I like Vanilla GNOME the best atm.

Keep in mind I am insane and you shouldn't take this as a recommendation unless you are also weird in the ways I am, but I absolutely love NsCDE, it's an FVWM based modern clone of the old CDE desktop from old UNIXs and VMS and it is so so well executed and I love it.

I use i3, I love it

Cinnamon. It's comfy.

I recently switched back to GNOME after a few years on KDE, mostly because of Wayland support. I honestly don't care much about the DE, provided it gets out of my way. I used to use a Tiling WM, so I may give a Wayland tiling WM a shot.

I LOVE KDE. Seriously. But there is no proper Sliding TWM for it at the moment and it's soooooo good having a proper one. I tried Karousel but it was too glitchy, especially when streaming. Thus, I am on Gnome with PaperWM. A simply phenomenal experience! :)

xfce. For me, it strikes that perfect balance between lightweight and featureful, looks good but not too fancy, is customizable and usable. I set it up the way I like it and it never changes on me.

I much prefer Cinnamon.

LXQT followed by Plasma

Thanks for all your discussions. All your experiences are very helpful for me. Now here is my top list and reasons:

1. Cinnamon (most familiar and very stable for me)
2. XFCE (I like the responseness and lightweightness)
3. MATE (stable and reliable)
4. KDE (I like the configurability, but unfortunately I experienced a lot of instabilities and accidents)
5. Gnome (I don't like the new UI concept. When I tried it, it was laggy and non-responsive)

Out of this list:

• I3 (only head good things, but never tried it on my own installation)
• Cosmic (first time I heard about today)
• Budgie (first time I heard about today)

Cinnamon! Although I want to give KDE another chance to become my default DE.

Xmonad!!! (And in 25 years, Waymonad!)

I would say try Gnome. If you don't like it, use KDE. Those are the 2 big ones right now so they'll be the most reliable. Gnome is either love it or hate it, KDE is very vanilla. I personally use Gnome, because I love the workflow.

I'm running Plasma with Arch, but I like Gnome to, it's simple and easier to use, but I also think that plasma is more customizable.

I like Budgie. It looks nice, lightweight, and doesn’t get in the way. There’s a few missing features but I like that it’s a smaller community project.

In my (and my friend's) experience, KDE has been notoriously unreliable. We faced issues like the wifi icon just disappearing randomly, the time thingy disappearing, etc.

I have been using GNOME for around five years now (I temporarily switched to KDE 2 yrs back and reswitched to GNOME 3 months later). Till now, GNOME has been extremely stable for me. The only issue that I experienced was a memory (although that was fixed in subsequent updates).

Hence, based on this experience, if you're looking for stability, I would highly recommend GNOME. However, if u'r looking for more customization at the cost of less stability, KDE ain't bad.

My university Linux cluster was my first introduction to Linux in general, and they ran MATE of all things.

A few years later, when I decided I was done with Window's bullshit and wanted to jump my daily driver to Linux, I installed Ubuntu MATE so I'd have the best familiarity edge I could to minimize friction.

MATE is alright. Despite being rather barebones and dated (being a life support fork of GNOME 2, I understand that is indeed kind of the point), it served me well for about 5 years.

I got a real urge to switch, though, due to just how little support or documentation there is for anything in MATE. I was also getting fed up with Ubuntu's Snap crap as well. So I decided to dump both for something else.

I wanted to stay on Debian's architecture for now, but no longer had need for Ubuntu's handholding, so raw Debian it was. As for the DE, I personally like the rich, full-fat ones more than the lean ones, and I wanted something modern, popular, and with highly proliferous support resources. That basically meant GNOME 3 or KDE Plasma. And I guess maybe Cinnamon, but I always see it marketed as the "newly ex-Windows user training wheels" DE, and that isn't my need.

GNOME 3 strikes me as the "MacOS" of Linux DEs. It wants to swim against the current to introduce its own paradigm. Everything designed to work in its ecosystem is buttery smooth and sexy, yes, but since it's also a counterparadigm, that tends to relegate you to the pack-in software and a handful of big vendors. Most other software has to rely on clumsy shims to fit in. I'm not about it, tbh. I'm sure it's fine, I just don't think higher highs are worth the lower lows, and I generally wasn't in the mood for a drastic paradigm shift.

So, KDE Plasma for me. It was unfortunate I made the leap just as they decided, "Wayland is stable and supported enough for everyone now!" (it isn't, lol), so it's a bit rockier than I was hoping, but whatever. Stability and support can only improve with time. And I expect faster adoption of Wayland than I do the GNOME 3 paradigm since Wayland is currently the only ship of its kind in the water that isn't sinking.

Aaaaall that said, KDE treats me pretty well, minus the Wayland issues. Upgrading to it from MATE was like trading up from a cheap, dingy hostel to a clean 4-star hotel. Should've leapt years ago.

KDE and Budgie

That I use? Cinnamon, because lazy. That I prefer? Fluxbox, because fast af.

Gnome. It looks simple and elegant, is easy and intuitive to use, and everything I need is either built in or available as an extension.

The one caveat is that you probably shouldn't update it right on day one of a new version release, because usually some extension devs need a few more days to update their stuff. My distro (Fedora) always releases new versions a few months after Gnome does, so this works out perfectly.

@governorkeagan Xfce first and then Cinnamon. Xfce is more flexible than Cinnamon, which is solid.

Gnome, which looks so nice, requires too many extensions for my taste. So it is not for me.

I tried Plasma many times. It is a mess with all the options (I don't know if they are going to fix this in the next releases) and whenever I tried it there were always some small annoying little bugs. They are changing the release cycle, so maybe in the future these problems will become more rare.

MATE as is or Xfce with some MATE software (swapping Thunar for Caja, swapping the XFCE calculator program for MATE's calculator, using Engrampa instead of whatever Xfce uses for a file archive manager, etc.). I like things simple and following roughly the same paradigm that I've used for years.

And for the love of god, PLEASE KEEP MENU BARS AS THEY WERE IN THE PAST! Stop removing menu bars from programs in favor of "hamburger buttons" or whatever nonsense modern programs like to use! That's honestly one of my biggest gripes with "modern" software, they keep changing the paradigm to something that I haven't used and I can't be bothered to relearn everything.

For me, from most to least favorite, it goes:

Cinnamon

Mate

KDE

xfce

Bash-only; no GUI

doing my math homework by counting on my toes

Losing three fingers in a table saw accident

GNOME

Edit to add: I love the "one newline in the editor is no newlines in the published comment." The internet isn't getting worse by the minute at all.

Hyprland. Fast, wayland, tiling, animated. Checks off all the boxes and just works(TM).

I found GNOME in my early days, Cinnamon and Budgie after GNOME went "convergence," and KDE ever since. A nice thing about Linux is we have some variety so you can pick something that will let you work/play your way.

There are other great options like XFCE and MATE.

sway on wayland (the only WM that doesn't crash even though it lacks a lot of features), awesomewm on xorg (fast and very customizable, but has quirks)

Well for DE its KDE for me but in general DWM

kde with bismuth for tiling

Cinnamon. It just works and I can make it look how I like. i3 on laptops, because hackor.

I bounce between Xfce and Plasma. I used Xfce for... I don't know, 15 years? And only switched to plasma for a while because of getting a hidpi laptop before Xfce had support for it.

When I first switched from windows I loved KDE. Then I felt frisky and tried Gnome. Now I love them both

When I switched from Windows definitely Cinnamon but by now it's Gnome, it's a little odd at first but I absolutely love the workflow!

I got used to XFCE, but, with my new awesome Tuxedo laptop, I got KDE as a DE for a stock OS, and I could say it feels much more complete. But the performance drops, when opening a terminal, for example.

Gnome, KDE is also nice but the default doesn’t function in a way that makes sense to my brain anymore after using gnome

@governorkeagan Hyprland

I’ve been using Debian with Cinnamon desktop for a while. I tried XFCE but it didn’t click and I really disliked how you added an app launcher to the dock. Cinnamon gets out of my and just works for the little that I need.

Started with GNOME, then once I got more comfortable I jumped ship to hyprland

KDE or cinnamon are probably the closest ones to windows if you're looking for familiarity but I think gnome/tiling wms improve on that

Hyprland and other tiling wms are great but only if you're the kind of person who likes to tinker and fiddle constantly

plasma, xfce and sway/swayfx.

plasma and xfce are DEs, sway is a wlroots-based wayland compositor (tiling window manager).

I'm currently using KDE Plasma with i3. I like it fine. I love i3, and KDE works to tie everything together and add consistency for theming. Previously I was using i3 on XFCE, that was easier to set up. Plasma tends to require special configuration to make it play nice with i3, but once you're over that hump it makes for a pretty decent combination.

I'm now full time on sway

Productivity is through the roof!

@governorkeagan My preferred Desktop environment is Cinnamon. I used to prefer swaywm but it's not a complete DE.

Not technically a DE, but for productivity and full customization I use DWM (DWL is available for Wayland). It is super easy to use, keyboard centric and can be modified to behave exactly the way you want, as long as you patch it.

I've used Dwm for a long time, then switched to awesome, for the easier configuration! Loved both, really can't stand a floating wm no more

Gnome. On my laptop KDE and cinimon have given me a LOT of issues. I've had a lot of linux problems due to my hardware tho but finally found a fix and don't want to change

Nowadays KDE.

Ubuntu 23.04 and GNOME.

Gnome, but only with dash-to-panel. Otherwise XFCE.

I'm new to this but KDE basically has all of the aesthetics customization features and quality of life features I always wanted out of Windows + Rainmeter. Finally I can have my videos pinned on the top easily every time. Finally I can have my fancy widgets. I can have universal color themes and fonts beyond what Windows ever offered. So there is more abstract stuff out there, but for now I'm living the long lost dream.

I have used xfce and cinnamon without any problems, I think I like xfce a little more.

I love gnome but too used to kde to switch.

Started with XFCE but migrated away due to bugginess with my outdated system. Next was KDE. I was pleasantly surprised by how lightweight it ended up being after hearing otherwise. Now I'm on Sway, and it makes this old computer scream!

I love the swipey gesture workflow on gnome on the laptop

Ubuntu's GNOME.

I started with Zorin, then GNOME via Pop!OS, then KDE, vanilla GNOME, then KDE again.

Who knows cos they all have good features.

I use gnome as a primary, it feels really polished and doesn’t break or crash. Very modern, but if you want to have a super-customized experience, you’re gonna have a bad time. Extensions break every update and so do themes, so you either wait for the dev to port it or so it yourself. Annoying, so I only use vanilla for now.

Maybe I’ll try plasma, looks cool.

For VMs I use IceWM. I like MATE (Gnome 2.0 feel) for daily driving.

TDE. Does its job, doesn't mess with my workflow by changing stuff that worked perfectly well before, but still has plenty of built-in software and general stuff for the occasions that I need it. But then, I'm a weirdo by tech enthusiast standards.

GNOME 2. I tried 3 for a year or two and the task bar crashes or lack the very basic feature of swapping window position. It's an external plugin so I don't expect it to be fixed in any year soon. Then I realize GNOME 2 was perfect before they ruined it in 3 so now I've been on MATE desktop for 4 years now. I think the new team is too small to catch up on any modern changes (webp support is lacking, and no wayland) and nothing I could do can fix that (minor development work on build system, donation) but I'd still accept a perfect 2010 era desktop over 2023 desktop that doesn't feel right after a decade of development.

Gnome, sometimes XFCE on older hardware.

Blorp

Generally Plasma. I really like the look of Libadwaita applications, but the GNOME desktop is very much a "do it our way, or take a hike" - and some of the interactions that I've seen in the past between the GNOME group and others... well, lets just say whenever I see drama in the Linux community as of recently its always been either with GNOME or Wayland. That doesn't necessarily instill a lot of confidence in me using either of those.

Cinnamon at the moment because I'm running LMDE 6. After that it would be gnome however it does have a higher RAM usage. I find Gnome based DE's easier to read and understand.

Whereas KDE just confuses me with its illegible font, awful icons (especially in Libre Office) and the nonsensical horizontal blue lines in some settings.