NsCDE on several OSes.
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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Cinnamon. Desktop UI peaked in the Gnome 2/Windows XP era and anything after that is bloat for the sake of bloat.
Might try kde plasma though, if I can make it behave the same.
I'm with you on Cinnamon, but I'm anxious for the Wayland support.
KDE like a real grown up
KDE on Arch, aesthetically pleasing and mostly functional out of the box. There are some startup quirks, but that's likely due to my LUKS setup which I will change with the next re-install. Already tried to fix multiple times, it's too much of a hassle to keep trying to fix an <5 minutes per day issue.
Been on i3wm for 3 4 years now I guess. Also work with sway on some systems.
you can actually see and use my config
fvwm3 on most systems, wmaker on a few, recently trying out kde for potential wayland migration
Plasma 6.8 dev
Sway, me like simple.
Stock GNOME. No extensions.
I would almost agree to this response. But there is one single Extension that I think is crucial: Appindicator. Without this things like Nextcloud or Synology Drive cannot be used propperly.
I was leaning to also include copyous. But it is not absolutely mandatory.
Niri
Arch linux + niti + dms, amazing!
KDE Plasma. It's the most feature rich "just works" DE there is. GNOME doesn't even have fucking maximize and minimize buttons by default without adding them via GNOME Tweaks.
I used to be a Cinnamon/Linux Mint lover, but their slow implementation of Wayland, Window Scaling, and certain other annoyances like their split NetworkManager GUI between GNOME's UI and the native NetworkManager UI made me switch.
WM: i3, sway, also playing around with dwm
DE: Xfce
I just need basic functionality, and most tiling WMs are fairly similar. i3 vs. Sway is basically the Xorg vs. Wayland question. I like dwm for its absolute minimalism and the fact that you configure it by editing or patching C and recompiling.
KDE Plasma all the way, on the desktop, the laptops and the two set top boxes.
Plasma, with the taskbar on the side, and 15 virtual desktops.
KDE. I don't even do much to customize it. I think it looks pretty good out of the box.
The only thing I customize is to turn off the floating panel, I just can't stand the small gap on the bottom and the sides. It just looks off to me.
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Using kde rn because its easy to use.
I will spend some time to get a tiling wm eventually. Minimal resource efficiency as well as brain efficiency is very apealing to me.
Sway
For fun? Niri + Noctalia.
For actually using the computer efficiently? KDE Plasma.
I've actually gotten so used to the workflow I think I'm more productive on Niri+Nocalia now (especially on my laptop with a smaller screen). That said, when I'm using programs which assume I'm using a traditional window manager (usually games tbh, but sometimes electron apps as well), I do consider that it may be easier to just give in an use Plasma.
Niri + Noctalia shell. I find the scrolling tiles to be excellent for my workflow, and the desktop shell feels nice and polished. Plus, Niri supports the Wayland zwlr_layer_shell, which means I can finally use Wallpaper Engine; there's even a Noctalia plugin for it.
Niri has been great for gaming and streaming, so be sure to check it out if you haven't.
I would be hesitant to use anything but KWin with Plasma. They were designed together as a set (like Mutter and Gnome), and I suspect replacing the WM would be no small task.
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GNOME
Cinnamon. I tried KDE but I didn't like it. I saw a video where someone customised Cinnamon through settings and extensions so I've done a bit of that.
Enlightenment DE
Very underrated IMO. It has been a while since I last used it but I recall it was super light and snappy - even compared to other more well-known lightweight alternatives. It was definitely a pleasant experience. Happy to see it still going strong.
I use KDE. I like how easy it is to customize pretty much everything. Like, if I want everything to be green, I can make everything green and no one can stop me.
i3
With alacritty, qutebrowser, neovim and LibreWolf. I use my custom dmenu-based utilities for things like launching apps, locking (with slock), controlling (ie. postponing :D) redshift and music player and opening bookmarks, links and searches. Thunar is the most DE-like app I use but being comfortable with Bash i use Thunar just for certain tasks like organizing files like photos. For quick text edits, I sometimes prefer Mousepad. For screenshots it's slop+maim.
I don't "rice", I just set some color schemes years ago and use simple wallpaper (which I rarely see.) And keep everything as minimal and out of way as possible.
(I don't care about Wayland unless I'm somehow forced to. I mean, some of my utils depend on X11 for things like clipboard access but I suppose it could be fixed easily nowadays. However X11 works fine for me so if it ain't broken...)
Sway and Gnome
The latter is mostly for other family members. But I like both.
MangoWM (MangoWC formerly) ... started using it when Hyprland didn't have side scrolling like Niri, and Niri only as a scrolling manager and couldn't do the master stack. Mango being the best of both worlds, I riced it really well and stuck with it.
i grew up with gnome, switched to plasma because i used a steam deck as my main computer for a few years. im just so used to the workflow in plasma, and while i would really love to switch to hyprland, its just too big of a hassle to set it up and learn everything. luckily i found out about krohnkite, so i can at least have some tiling in plasma, but not in the way hyprland does it. i would love it, if it split the focused window
KDE Plasma. It's clean, fast, and just works.
hyprland
KDE Plasma, as it’s most Windows-like and it has lots of cool widgets to add to your desktop Windows 7-style.
I’ve also tried Gnome, but I found it confusing and honestly a bit annoying. Not being able to properly minimise like I’m used to just really throws me off. I do think it looks pretty, though.
I’ve tried Cinnamon as well. I thought it looked a bit too cheap for my taste, at least by default on Mint.
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sway. I tried hyprland, but it was unable to switch between different maximized windows (monocle layout). There was a way, but it triggered a resize on every window switch, which was slow and annoying. I don't know if it's perhaps been fixed since then.
I am currently using two on two different distros on two different computers. Cinnamon and KDE Plasma.
I use Cinnamon, it’s not much, but it just works.
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