For Linux users, what is your favorite Desktop environment, and Distro?

[Blumlein 88]

So myself, I prefer KDE (Kool Desktop Environment). They were on KDE v2.x something when I first encountered it.

A close second would be the Cinnamon desktop for Mint.

As for distros, I've of course dabbled with many, and used various for special purposes. The very first one I used was Knoppix on a LiveCD. The ones I have used long term for my primary computers were mainly PCLinuxOS early on, Mandriva for a couple years, then for a few years Mint, and the last few years Manjaro. I'm not sure now when I first used linux, but it was around 2002 or 2003. I spent a couple years just experimenting part time with different distros until I felt comfortable using it as my primary OS. It seemed too good to be true for something free, and in a way still does.

 

[MRC01]

I've used most of them over the years. My favorite is XFCE (XUbuntu) because it has a light RAM and CPU footprint, which leaves more for applications. It's simple and efficient to use. It's not pretty but I don't care what it looks like.

PS: for distro it's Ubuntu. I just simply works on a variety of hardware from desktops to laptops. They adopt kernels early which means good support for power management, bluetooth, and other features. And their repos are fairly complete and up-to-date which means drivers for a variety of hardware. NVidia graphics cars particularly well supported on Ubuntu.

But I don't like Ubuntu's default desktop. So Ubuntu + XFCE = XUbuntu

 

[dc655321]

Almost anything Debian flavored is appealing to me. I use Ubuntu on my Dell XPS for work and play (also use a MacBook for work).

I have a love/hate relationship with Gnome 3. Not a fan of KDE at all - mostly the aesthetics.

 

[xaviescacs]

I use Ubuntu - Gnome for work and time squander in general since... I don't know

Only used to switch to Windows to play games, when I had time for it.

I've tried KDE about 15 years ago because there was a good LaTeX editor but simply didn't like it, I prefer Gnome's simplicity.

 

[Sal1950]

I started with Mandrake back around 2000.
I was then working with Texstar to build the latest packages since Mandrake
was a bit slow getting updates out. Same as Blumlein 88 this was on the old KDE 2.x
and we wanted the KDE 3 beta build, etc. As the years went by we forked Mandrake
into PCLinuxOS and I've been with that distro ever since, I left the development
team about 12 years ago. Around 3 or 4 years ago I started to find KDE a bit bloated
as a DE and have switched to Mate which is where I'm at now.
Running Linux can be a bit of a PITA do to the software incompatibility issues and what-nots,
but the safety I feel behind the Linux wall has always made it worth any hassles to me.

 

[JeffS7444]

Funny to think that I once bought Red Hat and SuSE as physical, shrinkwrapped product.

Right now, it would be Raspberry Pi OS in it's 32-bit flavor. 32-bit because the Pi-Top people built support for their laptop hardware (battery, prototype board etc) using 32-bit libraries, so my 8 GB Pi4 is underutilized.

Also built a Pi-based Docker + Adguard appliance using a spare Pi3. Wow that works great at blocking crap, at least once IPv6 networking is switched off.

 

[Sal1950]

Funny to think that I once bought Red Hat and SuSE as physical, shrinkwrapped product.

LOL, that was a long time ago. I did the same with a couple of them.

 

[MRC01]

Almost anything Debian flavored is appealing to me. I use Ubuntu on my Dell XPS for work and play (also use a MacBook for work).

I have a love/hate relationship with Gnome 3. Not a fan of KDE at all - mostly the aesthetics.

Do you have the Dell OEM Ubuntu image, or did you install it yourself?
I had an XPS-13 a few years ago. Its Broadcom bluetooth card didn't work with Ubuntu well, so I swapped it for the Intel 7265 which was seamless/flawless.
Ubuntu also runs seamlessly on the Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon X1, among other models. A hassle-free plug and play experience.

 

[NiagaraPete]

I testing Mint for my PC but I've tried most. Ubuntu is my normal.

 

[Tom C]

Ubuntu here, mainly because I’m a rank beginner. I like the available online support, tutorials and man pages.
Can’t say I’m always thrilled with Gnome.

 

[bluefuzz]

I've been very happy with Manjaro KDE for the last couple of years. I could easily live with Manjaro XFCE except it's not as nice on hirez displays and KDE has the edge on sexiness. But I have to admit I mostly use MacOS cos I'm lazy. It has all the UNIXy goodness I really need without the hassle. Not that Manjaro is much hassle at all if you keep it updated but still ...

I ran CrunchBang for a while simply for the name. But they changed it for something boring.

I tried to like I3WM but found it too limiting in the end. Both KDE and MacOS can do tiling if you want it without the straightjacket of a tiling-only WM.

Debian/Ubuntu for headless servers and the like.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

ChromeOS

 

[KSTR]

Mint Xfce is my preferred choice. Best desktop (fast and not resource-heavy, and quite Windows-like). I'm restricted to Ubuntu based distros as all of my company's stuff depends on that. I mostly use it remote-operated (text shells but X11 sessions as well... fast enough with direct Gigabit network connection).

My biggest issues with Linux is that simple things are often quite tedious while complex stuff is (relatively) easy.

Best example: Linux, to this day, does not fully support the keyboard the way Windows does and did for decades (since DOS times). With Num-Lock off, Shift Numpad cursor keys don't work (like Shift-End to mark to end of line, etc). I've spent hours and hours to try to fix that, and with some programs/editors it works but with most it doesn't.

Or on-the-fly editing a file inside a nested zipped .tar archive. On windows, with 7-zip easy as cake, on Linux I haven't found a tool that does it but maybe I just haven't searched enough.

 

[Tom C]

ChromeOS

Chrome or Chromium?

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

ChromeOS has a Debian linux container. Runs Linux apps like Spotify alongside Android apps. Been running it for years.

 

[Morla]

Fedora/Gnome since I left Debian Woody back in 2007. Everything is so nicely integrated. Maybe more IT afficionado centered. Let the others use a mac or something hehe..

Also crostini within chromeos is nice. It's basically lxd system containers (one is default and called penguin). You can even do rootless, podman container on that system container using

lxc config set penguin security.nesting true

so thumbs up for ChromeOS

 

[Ricardus]

I'm actually not married to any one distro or desktop. I just usually went with ubuntu because I'm lazy. The Ubuntu Studio distro has a lower latency kernel which is a plus for me. But in a recent update they busted the USB somehow with my Focusrite 2i2. Now the output is distorted.

 

[Loathecliff]

For 2.0 audio (& visual) on a fanless mini pc, currently back on Manjaro xfce with Audacious.
Had a brief flirtation with Hefftor as it has Brave Browser built in, but vlc kept corrupting.
Still use win7 for things that I can't be bothered trying to figure out on Manjaro.
You might think that as my working life started in telecoms in the early pcm days that I might have more of a basic grasp by now... but not so

 

[captainbeefheart]

I have grub for many different versions but mainly use the latest Ubuntu LTS OS due to the long term support aspect and all the updates. There are different advantages to each distro, too much to get into in a simple post but typically it depends on your hardware capabilities and some older computers a lightweight OS will run better vs a more modern OS.

I am totally happy that people still use Microsoft OS's, I have an abundant supply of desktop computers do to people I know just getting frustrated with software related issues and just go out and purchase a new computer. I just wipe the disk and install linux and either give it away to someone that cannot afford a computer or keep for a backup.

Microsoft has a ton of junk coding to bog down your computer and make it run slow making you think you need to upgrade to a faster and better computer, it's an endless loop of predatory behavior taking your money and running all the way to the bank.

 

[_thelaughingman]

Some reason I've kept coming back to Ubuntu for ease of use, but i do like Debian and Manjaro when I was play around in Linux.