The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Right Desktop Environment
I hadn’t expected such a response to my article about choosing the right desktop environment when I was writing it, but as most commenters noted, it was a really quick write-up, a kind of a brainstorming session about desktop environments where I indicated the pros and cons. Well this time, I tried improving it. More info, more research and more work are contained in this post. Enjoy, and favorite it if you like in the case you’re in a dilemma with you Linux install.
There will be a follow-up post about Window managers, so if you’re interested in that, subscribe to my feed and you’ll be updated when it’s published!
Note these are my personal impressions, so feel free to post your opinion on the article but please keep it friendly, no flame wars/accusations/RMS eats babies etc.
We’ll start with the more popular projects.
1. GNOME
You will find GNOME available in most popular distributions such as Fedora, Ubuntu and Mint. The GNOME project must be doing something right! Choose GNOME if you want a robust, polished, simple and customizable environment. GNOME has everything a standard desktop user would need. I especially like GNOME’s configuration tools and stock apps – simple straight to the point.
If you like innovation though, I don’t believe GNOME is necessarily the way to go: it’s a big project with cool people working on it, but I’m not sure if they already know what the next step is going to be. GNOME still remains a default choice for most people and is the leading desktop environment, which makes getting support easier. There is also a multitude of sites on the Net with themes and add-ons for GNOME.
What I’d suggest is that they build an experimental fork of GNOME for people to try out new things. Stock GNOME became really boring in the past years. We don’t need Cheese, we need something NEW!
2. KDE 4
To most KDE 3 users, KDE 4 came as quite a shock: while it retains the KDE philosophy, which is ultimate configurability, some changes are so radical that it looks more like a fork than the next version of the second most popular desktop environment for Linux. That is why I can’t say whether I feel KDE 4 really is a step forward – but here’s the cool stuff: it looks great (Qt4 did the trick there), supports Plasma widgets, is pretty configurable (though not as much as its predecessor).The thing that I don’t like with KDE 4 is that it still has an overwhelming beta feeling to it. It doesn’t give you the impression of being production-ready, because it crashes a lot and still has some issues with GNOME apps and lots of other inner workings which I’m not really knowledgeable about. The only stable, polished and usable version is probably the openSuSe KDE 4 desktop. If you want to experiment and see something cool, then sure, why not. KDE 4 certainly has vision, but is more or less still a thing to play, not to work with.
3. KDE 3
My first KDE experience was when I booted the Knoppix Live-CD. I liked it a lot, but it was so filled with options and icons I was a bit overwhelmed. That’s really the main difference between KDE and GNOME. You can do a lot with GNOME, but KDE really lets you customize everything. No, sorry, more than everything. It’s not really something for the new user – in my school ,where I set up a Knoppix machine, I erased and removed lots of icons and options, so nobody would be confused. It takes a while to get used to KDE. An ironic thing is that there is also a huge pile of themes and add-ons for KDE, but only the default theme looked nice to me. The cosmetics department will prefer KDE 4. In conclusion, whatever I say that bothers me about KDE 3 isn’t really credible, because most of it can be changed in the KDE control center. The only cons I can really think of is KDE’s mediocre speed and simply too many colors (inconsistent icons, especially in the tray).
4. XFCE
Home users might consider switching to XFCE if they think GNOME is a bit too slow or their computers. XFCE won’t be a huge performance improver, but it’s got all the basic stuff GNOME has, and provides excellent GTK+ integration, so your GNOME apps won’t look weird. XFCE also provides tools for configuration, though there is not an abundance of options. Most people that choose XFCE by themselves love it. For me personally, XFCE was a cute environment and I hear it is still in very active development. You should check XFCE out if you want to have a good-looking desktop that isn’t just a window manager, but still brings you some speed and simplicity.
There are two versions of Enlightenment. DR17 is the new Enlightenment, completely rewritten. What sets Enlightenment DR17 apart from other desktop environments is that it is focused on eye-candy while not (ab)using your computers resources as much as other DE’s tend to. Enlightenment is pretty popular these days, I know a few people who simply love it. When you install DR17, you’ll be able to decide… it’s gonna be a radical change for most of you, because of the approach that DR17 takes. You may find it beautiful, or kitschy. I belong to the latter, but maybe you’ll like it. You can use Enlightenment only or in conjuction with other environments, like GNOME. DR17 enables you to choose which modules of Enlightenment you want to use. There is also a Ubuntu version with a custom Enligtenment desktop avaliable. Try it out if you want and write your impressions in the comments section.
Well, that’s it, I haven’t had any experience with other complete desktop environments. If you do, please comment and tell us about it, I’d be glad to learn more about DE’s, and so would other readers.
What is your desktop environment of choice?
Dobro to.
Nice article. There’s a typo in the title: ‘enviroment’ instead of ‘environment’.
Thanks man, I really missed a big one there
I’m glad you didnt just talk about XFCE being for old hardware and nothing else. I use XFCE on a fast computer because I hate the clunky way Gnome looks in comparison. XFCE does everything gnome does, but the way most people talk about it you would think that its a lesser desktop only worth considering if your hardware isnt up to gnome.
I agree very much with your comments about KDE. I’m going to be very sad if I decide to go with Kubuntu 8.10 and have to give up my KDE3 desktop. KDE4 doesn’t prove even half as configurable as KDE3 and the plasma widget in the upper right corner…annoying and unfortunately, permanent, as I never figured out a way to get rid of it.
Not a bad article, but it’s kinda obvious that you are a kde fan an so you haven’t really looked at other desktop environments fairly. but still not a bad article.
Arash: I use Openbox and GNOME
[...] permalink Saw this posted on the Ubuntu forums, don’t think it’s that "ultimate" The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Right Desktop Environment Linux, open source and me at Internetli… [...]
[...] We’ll start with the more popular projects. Read more at http://www.internetling.com/ [...]
Thanks for the article, but you might want to do some research on some of the “low end” DEs as well, such as Fluxbox and Blackbox. I believe there is even a version of ubuntu called Fluxbuntu at http://fluxbuntu.org/explain.html.
I put “low-end” in quotes because a person’s evaluation of a DE will depend a lot on his philosophy of what his DE should do for him. (For example, maybe he just wants a simple windows manager without resource-hogging animations and without a bunch of pre-installed programs and services that he won’t use.)
If you ever write another revision of this article, you might want to look at this issue from a bit more of the technical side. Personal impressions are good, but users making a decision will sometimes want more precise details (such as, exactly what can be customized, and the specific resource requirements of the DE). You are presenting this as “the _ultimate_ guide” to DEs.
Thank you for your comment Christopher. While I agree with you on the fact that people may deem Fluxbox and its modules a ‘complete’ desktop environment I have a strong feeling that the *Boxes and similar software should, in the Linux community, still be described as Window managers. And as the blog post says, I’ll be making a separate writeup on this. Again, thanks, well next time I’ll be more careful with the ‘ultimate’ adjective
Okay. I’ll be looking forward to that windows managers post.
I just found this blog, and it looks helpful. I think I’ll subscribe to your RSS feed.
Note: I use GNU/Linux only at home, so I’m always on the look out for cool Linux applications. Please continue to put up info to new applications you find and enjoy, as you did a few posts ago.
I’ll do my best, thanks
Perhaps one of these days I’ll be able to accept GNOME’s “the user is an idiot” paradigm. And don’t say it’s configurable when you’ll spend entire days looking for just what sub menu of what SDI window might just provide the configuration option you just might, perhaps, be looking for. So sue me for agreeing with Linus Torvalds about GNOME.
It’s also pug ugly with a colour scheme that reminds me of nothing so much as Windows 3.0.
KDE 4.0.x was never intended as a desktop replacement so why you’re repeating that it’s one is beyond me. SUSE’s 4.0.x implementation was good though I’d argue that it’s far from stable. And it has a beta feel to it because that’s what it really is/was.
4.1 looks and works better though I’ll hold off on whether or not it can be used daily till the final comes out in late July.
KDE 3.5.10 is due out in the fall so KDE 3.5.x fans can breathe easier that it it still being worked on, updated and improved.
Not to mention easily and, if you’re obsessive, easily and nearly endlessly configured.
It’s not hard to guess that I’m a KDE user, 3.5.9 for daily use and 4.1 as experimental.
And one of these days I really do have to look in on E17 or is it E18 now?
All in all a fairly complete roundup even though it’s not hard to tell you’re a GNOME fan
You left out IceWM which is the only option for really old boxes or, in my experience, seriously borked ones.
I’m looking forward to your followup.
Consider yourself bookmarked!
My quick thoughts on what to choose – start off with GNOME, and get used to what it’s like and also the broad range of forum support available. Most people use GNOME, so best to learn there. After a while (weeks or months), switch over to another DE if you want.
Personally, I switched over to Xfce (Xubuntu), and I absolutely love it. It’s sleeker, more ‘basic’, and snappier. My PC is no slouch (Ahtlon 64 x2 4000 with 2G RAM), so it’s not like Xfce made it run N times faster, but I frankly prefer the function-over-form approach that Xfce provides.
Only downside I see is that overall forum support for Xfce-specific issues is quite a bit smaller – but then again, that’s why it’s better to learn the basics on GNOME.
[...] As promised, today we’ll take a look at the various interesting window managers for the X Window System which aren’t (necessarily) a part of a certain desktop environment (that means Enlightenment DR 17 doesn’t count here people, sorry, please take a look at the desktop environment guide). [...]
You might want to check out Equinox Desktop Environment at http://equinox-project.org/ . It’s lightweight and very fast.
When people start calling you a KDE fan in one comment and a GNOME fan in another you’ve pretty much succeeded in an objective article. Congractulations! (Nice article too, thanks.)
[...] a few small differences, KHTML vs Webkit) as Apple’s Safari. The new version of Konqueror for KDE 4 still makes it a valuable part of the KDE desktop. The rendering engine is pretty slick – I had no [...]
Xfce is a wonderful environment with wonderful people involved providing a ‘Dare-I-Say-It-?’ Wonderful experience.
Bar none it is cleaner, cuter, and more functional than GNOME. It can run any GNOME, GTK+, GTK+Ruby, pyGTK+, Desktop-Agnostic-GTK+, or Xfce applications.
As one of those “found it by themselves” folks I can reccomend personally personal experiences with the Xfce Desktop Environment (which I might add is Very freedesktop.org standards compliant)
To get the most out of Xfce you could try a Zenwalk, Wolvix, or Xubuntu LiveCD/DVD… Decide if you like it, then bite the bullet and install one of the distros listed below:
I would reccomend trying:
Zenwalk, or Wolvix, (very Xfce oriented distributions),
Xubuntu (for an easier Xfce-oriented, slightly GNOMEish 64-bit installation from binaries),
Gentoo (for great 64-bit installations, if you don’t mind learning real, from source, Linux-in-a-Metadistribution),
or try a source-based distribution many of the developers of Xfce live on, as do the Xfce Servers: Lunar Linux)
I can say that my resonably large-ram, big-disk, fast dualcore system screams along doing daily things like having 80+ tabs open in a browser, doing a CD burn while browsing, and in the background transcoding audio for instance. Xfce allows low-overhead for a full-featured Desktop Environment, and plenty of left-over horsepower for a heavy A/V tasks. I absolutely luvz that lil mouse.
fluxbox is my personal favorite, it’s lightwheight and really easy to configure
No love for LXDE?
lxde and fvwm-crystal are more minimalistic
and doing the same thing as KDE and Gnome