Desktop Environments for Linux

In Linux, there are so many choices, and this includes the desktop environments and window managers. The most popular desktop environments in Linux are GNOME, Unity, Cinnamon, MATE, KDE, Xfce, and LXDE. All four offer sophisticated point-and-click graphical user interfaces (GUI) which are on par with the desktop environments found in Windows and Mac OS X. When you ask different people which of these four is best, you will likely get many different answers. So which is the best between GNOME, KDE, Xfce, and LXDE? Well..... it is largely a matter of opinion, and the capabilities of your computer hardware can also be important in deciding. For example, users with older computers will be better served to choose Xfce or especially LXDE, while users with newer hardware can get more desktop effects by choosing KDE or GNOME. Another consideration when choosing a desktop environment is your preference for customizing it. If you like to have a lot of options to customize and tweak your desktop, then KDE will by default give you the greatest flexibility to do this. Xfce comes next, and then LXDE, while Unity and the default GNOME 3.x shell offer relatively few options in the way of desktop customization. Personally, I like all of them, and if you have the time and are a bit adventurous, then I recommend you try each of the major desktop environments described below, as well as others such as Enlightenment and Razor-qt and decide which of them works best for you. GNOME, Unity, Cinnamon, MATE, KDE, Xfce, LXDE, Enlightenment, and Razor-qt are all excellent and are definitely worth consideration.