hyprland currently but maybe switching to awesomewm or qtile. it takes effort to configure/learn them so idk if you are open to try them at the beginning. or if you prefer a conventional environment like gnome, kde, xfce...

MATE as is or Xfce with some MATE software (swapping Thunar for Caja, swapping the XFCE calculator program for MATE's calculator, using Engrampa instead of whatever Xfce uses for a file archive manager, etc.). I like things simple and following roughly the same paradigm that I've used for years.

And for the love of god, PLEASE KEEP MENU BARS AS THEY WERE IN THE PAST! Stop removing menu bars from programs in favor of "hamburger buttons" or whatever nonsense modern programs like to use! That's honestly one of my biggest gripes with "modern" software, they keep changing the paradigm to something that I haven't used and I can't be bothered to relearn everything.

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.

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)

Xmonad!!! (And in 25 years, Waymonad!)

sway - stable and productive. Hyprland - beautiful, but performance is worse. i3 - same as sway, but sometimes better for legacy X11 stuff or applications that are still buggy at Wayland

Cinnamon. It's comfy.

I use i3, I love it

I recently switched back to GNOME after a few years on KDE, mostly because of Wayland support. I honestly don't care much about the DE, provided it gets out of my way. I used to use a Tiling WM, so I may give a Wayland tiling WM a shot.

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.

kde with bismuth for tiling

Gnome. It looks simple and elegant, is easy and intuitive to use, and everything I need is either built in or available as an extension.

The one caveat is that you probably shouldn't update it right on day one of a new version release, because usually some extension devs need a few more days to update their stuff. My distro (Fedora) always releases new versions a few months after Gnome does, so this works out perfectly.

Cinnamon! Although I want to give KDE another chance to become my default DE.

KDE and Budgie

GNOME. I currently use it without any extensions, but sometimes use “Blur my shell” for the visual effect.

GNOME “just works” and looks extremely polished and consistent. It gives the application the maximum amount of screen real estate. The keyboard shortcuts are great. It’s very power-user friendly IMO.

I would say try Gnome. If you don't like it, use KDE. Those are the 2 big ones right now so they'll be the most reliable. Gnome is either love it or hate it, KDE is very vanilla. I personally use Gnome, because I love the workflow.

Hyprland. Fast, wayland, tiling, animated. Checks off all the boxes and just works(TM).

I like Budgie. It looks nice, lightweight, and doesn’t get in the way. There’s a few missing features but I like that it’s a smaller community project.

I found GNOME in my early days, Cinnamon and Budgie after GNOME went "convergence," and KDE ever since. A nice thing about Linux is we have some variety so you can pick something that will let you work/play your way.

There are other great options like XFCE and MATE.

Cinnamon. It just works and I can make it look how I like. i3 on laptops, because hackor.

sway on wayland (the only WM that doesn't crash even though it lacks a lot of features), awesomewm on xorg (fast and very customizable, but has quirks)

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

Well for DE its KDE for me but in general DWM

@governorkeagan My preferred Desktop environment is Cinnamon. I used to prefer swaywm but it's not a complete DE.

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!

Gnome. But I use 3 extensions (dash to dock, desktop icons and appindicators) and the adw-gtk3 theme so GTK3 apps looks the same as GTK4/libadwaita apps.

For me, from most to least favorite, it goes:

Cinnamon

Mate

KDE

xfce

Bash-only; no GUI

doing my math homework by counting on my toes

Losing three fingers in a table saw accident

GNOME

Edit to add: I love the "one newline in the editor is no newlines in the published comment." The internet isn't getting worse by the minute at all.

Sway is really impressively stable if you're willing to learn it and set it up. It's a tiling WM.

I've been running the same arch install with roughly the same sway config for 3 years. My computer has never been so boring!

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.