Share your favorite Linux Desktop Environment

KDE sets a really high bar with all the packages and extensibility. Almost everything (not including the lesser known and used packages) is feature-packed and just works. I really don't know any other software that constantly amazes me like KDE.
- Came to say KDE/Plasma. Glad it was already on top
- In addition to that, they make nice FOSS apps that are great for any DE (see Krita, Kdenlive)
  Also it looks like Windows, and that to me is a huge plus for anyone using my computer.
- I'm fine in general with most of them but I'm settled on KDE. I agree the software is great, I love apps like Okular and there are these little goodies hidden everywhere, like typing "fish://user@server" in the file manager url/path area and I get a folder open of the remote file system, I can even add it to "Locations".
- KDE Plasma 5.27 is incredible. Such a stable and customizable experience! 😍

XFCE, tried cinnamon a couple times it was okay but I just prefer the simplicity and stability of xfce

Seems like I'm the outlier here that prefers Gnome over KDE. Gnome feels more polished than KDE for me. Granted KDE comes with more features out of the box, but I don't find anything lacking in Gnome for me.
Tried KDE long time ago to compare it to Gnome 3, went back to Gnome. Tried KDE again a few months ago to compare to Gnome 42, came back to Gnome again.
I also can't stand having all my programs' name starting with K.
- I also can't stand having all my programs' name starting with K.
  Like Okular, Spectacle, Dolphin, .....
  
  Maybe I shouldn't have said all, but it's annoying to me when the they put a "k" in the name in a very awkward way just because it's an KDE app.
  
  to be fair okular does have a k in it
- I like Gnome the best too. In my experience, it's the desktop environment that focuses the most on making sure that no little bugs slip in. Like normally when you're using a desktop environment, it will be good except for a few bugs here and there where you have to remember weird things like not backing out of the settings menu in a certain way in order to not trigger a bug. Gnome seems to have the least amount of weird little bugs like that.
  It's not very configurable out of the box, but I prefer that too. I'm getting a bit old and set in my ways, and don't really want to mess around with too much configuration anymore.
- KDE has a lot of customization and plenty of neat features, but it suffers a death of a thousand papercuts. There's just so many small "non-severe" issues that adds up to making it end up feeling clunky and unpolished compared to GNOME's general polish.
- Both take great benefits from the improvements of the other.
- I’m in the same boat. I use mostly stock gnome to avoid experiencing bugs. I used KDE for a bit and loved it but never really loved how many options the settings gave me. I would also constantly run into issues with the docks disappearing when unplugging monitors. In contrast docks on gnome just work. I really only use the Ubuntu dock extension on gnome
- KDE was the first one I used after getting more comfortable with Linux and leaving Unity behind. KDE was very customizable and extensible, but when you actually started customizing it quickly became unreliable. I stuck with it for a few years then I tried Elementary next and it was pretty polished but it was limited to a specific distribution. After that I went to GNOME and I've been using it for 7 years now. It does need a few extensions, but otherwise I've found that it works quite well. I think I've also changed, I'm not as interested in things like wobbly windows anymore. I just want the desktop environment to stay out of my way, but I also don't want it to be too bare bones.

GNOME, for sure. It works out of the box, and it's kind of pretty out of the box.
I also tried it on a touch screen PX and it works surprisingly well.

xfce for a very long time. I really like tiling WMs but always come back to xfce
- Xfce is the best!
  
  See I don't really get the appeal of xfce, I kinda see it as the minimal DE you use if you've got low powered hardware or if you need a DE on a system that isn't a personal computer and just need the bare minimum to run a graphical application or two

Vanilla Gnome. It's simple/boring, and I like that. It seems like most people that like Gnome don't care that it's not a poweruser DE, and aren't excited to talk about it either.

KDE. Because it's mostly a complete package and has tons of knobs and dials to tune for anyone's needs edited
- Not even mentioning the DE, what a Chad move
  
  I meant KDE. Was replying to OP

I'm a simple person. I see KDE, I upvote.

I use gnome, but it's basically the worst DE, except all of the other ones that have been tried
It has the least features, so by default the least bugs.

KDE forever!

Love me some Cinnamon. Specifically what comes out of default Linux Mint. It isn't trying to do more than it already is. As cool as tech is I wish I didn't need to care about Wayland or X11. I just want it to launch applications, feel like the windows I used as a kid, and stay out of my way. Cinnamon does this all for me. And since freaking high school mint has been there trying to do that.
- I use KDE now, but Cinnamon was my first and made the transition beautiful. It's a great DE.

KDE is love, KDE is life

I've been using Cinnamon for years. It's stable, fairly lightweight, and pleasing to the eye.

i3. I mean, it's fast, customizable, and you can make it look good. That's all i need.

Absolutely KDE Plasma.

KDE Plasma on desktop
Cinnamon on (older lower spec) laptop

i3 / Sway with Albert or dmenu or rofi
I just love keeping my hands on the keyboard

Mine is MATE:
It's still GNOME 2, but I see no problem with that, it works and I'm used to it and I like traditional desktops. I don't need (or care about) round borders or those on/off switches of modern desktops, that make them look like phone screens turned 90°.
- Nice, impressive.
- Please share that wallpaper, looks awesome!
  
  If you want, I also got a Makima (character from the same series, Chainsaw Man) wallpaper roughly in the same style:

I like Gnome with Pop OS's tiling

Gnome with pop_os tiling window manager

Xfce, i just like it.

Gotta be KDE for a full featured DE.
But using Sway for now.

No DE just DWM

GNOME, with a little bit of extension customisability!

Cinnamon is the best
- This is my go to

I avoided GNOME3 for the longest time, but I decided to try it on a new install of Debian on a whim and actually ended up really liking it. Needed to enable a couple of extensions, but once you get used to it the workflow isn't at all that bad.

Cinnamon. Stupidly simple and elegant looking.

XFCE and/or AwesomeWM

Hyprland ftw!

Sway or GNOME (Wayland) with Pop shell extension.

For aesthetics: Budgie, with Cinnamon a close second For simplicity and speed: XFCE

I've got used to XFCE.

Kde because it has a really useful and functional out of the box tools, being dolphin and connect the most useful ones for me.
Never had an issue since last year, but yeah, was buggy as hell.
Mate if I want more juice from a not so good pc, and xfce for the low end ones.

I used to only use KDE or KDE plasma with i3 but after using fedora I've fallen hard for Gnome and the design philosophy of the project.

- It's KDE for me too, but I don't really get the buggy part. Sure kwin crashes sometimes, but that happened to me like 2 or 3 times during my 2 and half years on openSUSE. Other than that I can't think of something really bugged? Maybe I'm too tolerant, having to work with Windows XP and DOS at work...

It's between XFCE for it's simplicity and KDE for it's Wayland support for me

KDE

Vanilla Gnome

i use i3 + kde its really cool

Pop! _OS's Cosmic Version of GNOME (regular GNOME kinda stinks) but KDE is also pretty great. Can't wait for COSMIC DE. I'm sure that one will rock itself up to the number 1 spot really quickly.

Sway and dmenu when in a keyboard productivity sorta mood, KDE otherwise.

Although I use sway, I used KDE for a long time and XFCE prior. They're both phenomenal. I'd love to see XFCE make its way to wayland in the future.
As an aside, I feel like Wayland has a market ripe for the introduction of lightweight DEs. Sure, it has the very lightweight (hyprland, sway, river, dwl) and heavyweight (KDE, Gnome) but nothing between like XFCE, LXDE or MATE
- Also a fan of sway! Plenty configurable, and swaymsg+jq bash scripts can go a long way. Hoping we'll see more development in lightweight DEs as well- Wayland is pretty great, and sway could use with some more features. also nice username :D

Not a DE but AwesomeWM. I like its default aesthetic and it's highly extensible using Lua which gives a lot of power to the user.

BSPWM and Polybar because I am too lazy to figure out eww and I use KDE as a backup in case anything breaks lol
- Me exactly. I'm totally definitely for sure going to try out all the more complicated DEs and widget tools (eww, maybe AwesomeWM if I'm willing to learn Lua or Hyprland if I'm willing to try Wayland)... Someday
  In the meantime, my BSPWM + Polybar setup is there and works while I procrastinate on trying anything else.

KDE + Latte dock is what I use. Very simple and minimalistic setup with no widgets.

KDE - using it with Manjaro now, but also used it on Mint before that.

Budgie is cool

i3wm at work and at home
- @lemsolm @fugepe
  I use i3wm at school since I don't bring my mouse with my laptop to school, so I just use my keyboard to do everything.

I'm not huge into customising desktop environments, so when I've tried window managers like i3, I typically only get it functional to my likings and then realise how boring I am compared to how others use it.
So typically I use gnome or kde, but I like cinnamon and xfce as well. I don't really have a favourite, they're all good. At the minute I am trying to adopt wayland and have been using gnome while I do that.

I like Gnome. It is very usable out of the box and requires the least amount of work to get it to my liking. I am current running pop_os' cosmic version of gnome though I also enjoyed vanilla-ish(that is with 2-3 extensions) version of gnome with fedora. If only mutter starts officially supporting vrr when using wayland

@fugepe I can live with KDE, Cinnamon, Xfce, Gnome, Lxqt., Mate... I am using KDE right now but I like Xfce more than others...

Xfce, Gnome or just a WM like Sway.

Xfce overall, but I like MATE a lot as well. Just give me a traditional desktop experience, I don't need mobile-like options on a desktop.
I actually switched to MATE primarily because I like its suite of software a bit more (calculator, file manager, file archiver) than Xfce's, though I use some of MATE's stuff (Caja mainly) on Xfce on my laptop.