Linux

Cinnamon. It's comfy.

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

@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.

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 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.

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

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)

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.

kde with bismuth for tiling

Ubuntu 23.04 and GNOME.

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.

@governorkeagan Hyprland

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 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.

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’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.

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.

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

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

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

KDE if you want a customizable DE, Gnome if you like simplicity and XFCE if you are on less than 4GB. Anything else is mental illness mixed with boomer nostalgia.

@governorkeagan gnome, comes cause it doesnt look like windows

I love gnome but too used to kde to switch.

Nowadays KDE.

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.

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.

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

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!