6 ms·

Poll: Linux users, what desktop environment do you use?

29 points by purple_ducks 7y ago

For those of you that use linux, what is your main desktop environment?

antepodius 7y ago
I use dwm. Has everything I need.
jzemeocala 7y ago
RatPoison (I'm a masochist)
jmpman 7y ago
The existence of this survey is evidence that Linux on the desktop is flawed. There should be one answer. Instead, Linux desktop users are using Linux on the desktop because they can’t be satisfied by Windows or OSX. So then they try Linux on the desktop, and aren’t satisfied with GNOME, so they then need to fork and create another desktop manager. This new desktop manager doesn’t suit someone, so instead of working to improve it, they work on another desktop manager. Linux on the desktop is a sign of someone who doesn’t recognize that a solution is good enough and accept it. It’s a pathology and says more about the people who are using it than the actual technology.
- bediger4000 7y ago
  That seems a bit... arrogant. I mean, I'm Windows all the way, but surely there's a wide variety of people in the world. We don't have just two or three kinds of auto, for example.
  - jmpman 7y ago
    Have you worked with people who willingly (not forced by their employer) use Linux on the desktop as their primary desktop?
    - abjKT26nO8 7y ago
      I have. And I have friends I made while studying mathematics that wouldn't go near Windows and Mac, but are just fine with Linux.
    - detaro 7y ago
      Sure. Why wouldn't they? In my experience, all three desktop OSes get usage if you let techy people pick freely and there isn't requirements forcing otherwise (e.g. for a job requiring Adobe software using Linux is probably not a good idea)
- jraph 7y ago
  I mainly use GNU/Linux by principle. It just so happens to be the best operating system too, but that is mostly a nice coincidence ;-) My point is, you cannot draw any conclusion on Linux users because they use it for different reasons and I certainly didn't start using it because I was not satisfied with Windows: I was mostly curious I guess, and liked the little games that came with Mandrake 9 (I was a child). Most Linux users don't make their own desktop anyway. And you cannot blame people who write their own desktop manager for fun and let express their creativity in their free time, or to implement their vision, or to fit their need. They possibly wouldn't have contributed to any existing solution anyway. What's more, you don't seem to have done much research before this heavy, misguided critic. Speaking for the two big desktops, first we had KDE. But the FSF was disatisfied with the fact that Qt was non-free. They started three projects: - a free reimplementation of Qt. - lobbying for Qt to be freed. - an alternative, free desktop: GNOME. The second and third projects succeeded so the first was dropped. But by the time the second project succeded, the third was already well advanced. That is why we have Gnome besides KDE. For ideological reasons, not because someone was not satisfied by KDE and decided to create GNOME instead of contributing to KDE. The reality is more complicated than what you say. I am sorry that you were annoyed by colleagues using Linux but your perception of them is not an accurate representation of the world. And I can see that KDE (or Gnome indeed) is a good solution, thank you very much.
  - jmpman 7y ago
    I get the free software principle issue. But that’s like people who won’t use Uber/Lyft and still use Taxis because Taxis have the legal right to sell transportation and Uber/Lyft are/were operating against the law (if not the letter, at least the spirit). I applaud those people, but it’s a sign of their inflexibility. I also get the people who can’t afford a legal software lic for Windows and instead of pirating, they use Linux. Also, upstanding humans who I applaud, but they’re inflexible in their ethics. Good? Bad? Certainly different. I’m just pointing out that using Linux on the desktop is impractical, driven by reasons that aren’t objectively “better”, and the people attracted to it are doing it for reasons which reflect more on their personality (inflexible) than the underlying technology, and the reason for the fracture in Linux desktop managers is due to the users personality traits. And for the record, I’m right on the borderline of using Linux on the desktop, but each time I start down that path, I question - why am I really doing this?
- rvz 7y ago
  This is spot on. The problematic nature of the Linux desktop is due to the inability to have a standardised and integrated desktop experience but instead its community goes for an ecosystem of having alternatives of alternative subsystems competing with themselves rather than improving upon each other. I don't want to spend hours googling and customising different settings all for it to suddenly break and then reseting the whole OS to fix it. There is only one version of macOS and Windows to test against but thousands of Linux distros that behave differently with many DEs, Window Managers, audio subsystems, packaging formats and the list goes on. As a software developer I can imagine that it is harder to test a GUI app on several Linux distros than it is on macOS and Windows since tracking down the fault of the issue may involve switch/upgrading either GNOME, KDE, GTK, Wayland, X11, libDRM or even Linux itself. This is just too much work. > There should be one answer. The closest answer to having a 'consistent Linux desktop' is ChromeOS.
  - Yaa101 7y ago
    You mean one that spies on you? Don't you think that defies what Linux et al. is all about? Besides, The main function of the Linux world is developing computational solutions, not bring people desktops for money. Linux is used to make money much different than that, ask the users of supercomputers, or people that develop communication systems.
- zzzcpan 7y ago
  > instead of working to improve it, they work on another desktop manager If only it was that simple. Turns out nobody wants your improvements and can't even understand and be convinced they are improvements, unless you follow their vision and policies and try to change your use cases to adopt to that and work on their idea of improvements. And then there are corporations, like Red Hat, that want to control linux desktop and are spreading this bullshit how linux desktop is bad because there is choice and not a single desktop environment they control. > Linux on the desktop is a sign of someone who doesn’t recognize that a solution is good enough and accept it. It's the other way around. You really have to be able to recognize and accept good enough to switch to linux desktop, because this is what you will always be after when using it.
- lazylizard 7y ago
  I find linux much more user friendly than Windows n slightly moreso than osx. >90% of the computers i interact with are linux so i use a linux desktop. I also use a imac. And i have a nanopi n a Windows pc at home(DirectX!). I really dont care what desktop.
- rkeene2 7y ago
  I use the desktop environment I use for reasons that predate macOS/Mac OS X and are largely divorced from Microsoft Windows. I used to use the standard UNIX desktop environment, but then when I switched to Linux (since most UNIX software is closed) I had to find something similar. I tried fvwm/fvwm2+themes at first then found XFCE3 which had really similar goals to the standard UNIX desktop environment at the time. So I stuck with it as it became XFCE4. So, there is an explanation about why Linux desktop users use different desktop environments that is completely unaccounted for by your macOS/Windows-centric theory. It also helps explain why there might always be more than one option. Also, for what it's worth, the Common Desktop Environment was never that popular with Linux users but did become open source relatively recently.
- likeclockwork 7y ago
  Maybe we value choice? On Windows and MacOS you have no choice on desktop environment. Where choice is available sometimes people want radically different things from each other.
beatgammit 7y ago
GNOME and KDE. I used to use other stuff, but GNOME and KDE are "good enough" and I can make most of it disappear with extensions. I've tried tiling window managers (XMonad, Awesome, i3) and a few other DEs, and honestly, I find myself fiddling with them a lot, which isn't very productive. I use KDE on openSUSE because it's the default and works reasonably well and GNOME on Arch because it has worked reasonably well out of the box. So yeah, I'm tired of fiddling with stuff and I trust both major DEs to properly implement Wayland and other tech without impacting my user experience much.
zozbot234 7y ago
GNOME if using a touchscreen-enabled device, LXDE (mind you, not LxQt) / Xfce otherwise. It would be nice to have a lightweight but genuinely full-featured environment under Wayland - maybe someone should pick up https://github.com/raspberrypi/maynard https://github.com/raspberrypi/maynard ?
- bsg75 7y ago
  Particular reasons for LXDE over LXQt ?
aphextron 7y ago
I recently spent a significant amount of time searching for a Debian DE that I could stomach replacing Windows 10 as a daily driver, and GNOME was the only really comparable choice. Anything else feels straight out of 2002. There are better choices for resource constrained devices, but for a modern linux desktop it's the only real choice IMO.
- zeroc8 7y ago
  I just switched from GNOME to KDE. Both are great desktops but KDE and especially Dolphin do so much more out of the box.
cjbprime 7y ago
Combination of i3 (for window management) and KDE Plasma (docks etc).
jenscow 7y ago
Cinnamon (on Mint). The defaults are, by far, the closest to my needs. Also, more importantly, I've been using the "traditional" desktop for 2 decades and I just can't change my way - the taskbar+menu is my crutch. On lower end machines, it's xfce.
5580 7y ago
MATE was my go-to until I found Budgie
ajflores1604 7y ago
KDE for the past couple years. Love the consistent updates and small thoughtful features I keep finding. Also KDE Connect has been a godsend.
wizzerking 7y ago
Cinnamon Linux Mint
bwidlar 7y ago
bspwm https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm

29 points by purple_ducks 7y ago

For those of you that use linux, what is your main desktop environment?

antepodius 7y ago

I use dwm. Has everything I need.

jzemeocala 7y ago

RatPoison (I'm a masochist)

jmpman 7y ago

The existence of this survey is evidence that Linux on the desktop is flawed. There should be one answer. Instead, Linux desktop users are using Linux on the desktop because they can’t be satisfied by Windows or OSX. So then they try Linux on the desktop, and aren’t satisfied with GNOME, so they then need to fork and create another desktop manager. This new desktop manager doesn’t suit someone, so instead of working to improve it, they work on another desktop manager. Linux on the desktop is a sign of someone who doesn’t recognize that a solution is good enough and accept it. It’s a pathology and says more about the people who are using it than the actual technology.

bediger4000 7y ago
That seems a bit... arrogant. I mean, I'm Windows all the way, but surely there's a wide variety of people in the world. We don't have just two or three kinds of auto, for example.
- jmpman 7y ago
  Have you worked with people who willingly (not forced by their employer) use Linux on the desktop as their primary desktop?
  - abjKT26nO8 7y ago
    I have. And I have friends I made while studying mathematics that wouldn't go near Windows and Mac, but are just fine with Linux.
  - detaro 7y ago
    Sure. Why wouldn't they? In my experience, all three desktop OSes get usage if you let techy people pick freely and there isn't requirements forcing otherwise (e.g. for a job requiring Adobe software using Linux is probably not a good idea)
jraph 7y ago
I mainly use GNU/Linux by principle. It just so happens to be the best operating system too, but that is mostly a nice coincidence ;-) My point is, you cannot draw any conclusion on Linux users because they use it for different reasons and I certainly didn't start using it because I was not satisfied with Windows: I was mostly curious I guess, and liked the little games that came with Mandrake 9 (I was a child). Most Linux users don't make their own desktop anyway. And you cannot blame people who write their own desktop manager for fun and let express their creativity in their free time, or to implement their vision, or to fit their need. They possibly wouldn't have contributed to any existing solution anyway. What's more, you don't seem to have done much research before this heavy, misguided critic. Speaking for the two big desktops, first we had KDE. But the FSF was disatisfied with the fact that Qt was non-free. They started three projects: - a free reimplementation of Qt. - lobbying for Qt to be freed. - an alternative, free desktop: GNOME. The second and third projects succeeded so the first was dropped. But by the time the second project succeded, the third was already well advanced. That is why we have Gnome besides KDE. For ideological reasons, not because someone was not satisfied by KDE and decided to create GNOME instead of contributing to KDE. The reality is more complicated than what you say. I am sorry that you were annoyed by colleagues using Linux but your perception of them is not an accurate representation of the world. And I can see that KDE (or Gnome indeed) is a good solution, thank you very much.
- jmpman 7y ago
  I get the free software principle issue. But that’s like people who won’t use Uber/Lyft and still use Taxis because Taxis have the legal right to sell transportation and Uber/Lyft are/were operating against the law (if not the letter, at least the spirit). I applaud those people, but it’s a sign of their inflexibility. I also get the people who can’t afford a legal software lic for Windows and instead of pirating, they use Linux. Also, upstanding humans who I applaud, but they’re inflexible in their ethics. Good? Bad? Certainly different. I’m just pointing out that using Linux on the desktop is impractical, driven by reasons that aren’t objectively “better”, and the people attracted to it are doing it for reasons which reflect more on their personality (inflexible) than the underlying technology, and the reason for the fracture in Linux desktop managers is due to the users personality traits. And for the record, I’m right on the borderline of using Linux on the desktop, but each time I start down that path, I question - why am I really doing this?
rvz 7y ago
This is spot on. The problematic nature of the Linux desktop is due to the inability to have a standardised and integrated desktop experience but instead its community goes for an ecosystem of having alternatives of alternative subsystems competing with themselves rather than improving upon each other. I don't want to spend hours googling and customising different settings all for it to suddenly break and then reseting the whole OS to fix it. There is only one version of macOS and Windows to test against but thousands of Linux distros that behave differently with many DEs, Window Managers, audio subsystems, packaging formats and the list goes on. As a software developer I can imagine that it is harder to test a GUI app on several Linux distros than it is on macOS and Windows since tracking down the fault of the issue may involve switch/upgrading either GNOME, KDE, GTK, Wayland, X11, libDRM or even Linux itself. This is just too much work. > There should be one answer. The closest answer to having a 'consistent Linux desktop' is ChromeOS.
- Yaa101 7y ago
  You mean one that spies on you? Don't you think that defies what Linux et al. is all about? Besides, The main function of the Linux world is developing computational solutions, not bring people desktops for money. Linux is used to make money much different than that, ask the users of supercomputers, or people that develop communication systems.
zzzcpan 7y ago
> instead of working to improve it, they work on another desktop manager If only it was that simple. Turns out nobody wants your improvements and can't even understand and be convinced they are improvements, unless you follow their vision and policies and try to change your use cases to adopt to that and work on their idea of improvements. And then there are corporations, like Red Hat, that want to control linux desktop and are spreading this bullshit how linux desktop is bad because there is choice and not a single desktop environment they control. > Linux on the desktop is a sign of someone who doesn’t recognize that a solution is good enough and accept it. It's the other way around. You really have to be able to recognize and accept good enough to switch to linux desktop, because this is what you will always be after when using it.
lazylizard 7y ago
I find linux much more user friendly than Windows n slightly moreso than osx. >90% of the computers i interact with are linux so i use a linux desktop. I also use a imac. And i have a nanopi n a Windows pc at home(DirectX!). I really dont care what desktop.
rkeene2 7y ago
I use the desktop environment I use for reasons that predate macOS/Mac OS X and are largely divorced from Microsoft Windows. I used to use the standard UNIX desktop environment, but then when I switched to Linux (since most UNIX software is closed) I had to find something similar. I tried fvwm/fvwm2+themes at first then found XFCE3 which had really similar goals to the standard UNIX desktop environment at the time. So I stuck with it as it became XFCE4. So, there is an explanation about why Linux desktop users use different desktop environments that is completely unaccounted for by your macOS/Windows-centric theory. It also helps explain why there might always be more than one option. Also, for what it's worth, the Common Desktop Environment was never that popular with Linux users but did become open source relatively recently.
likeclockwork 7y ago
Maybe we value choice? On Windows and MacOS you have no choice on desktop environment. Where choice is available sometimes people want radically different things from each other.

beatgammit 7y ago

GNOME and KDE. I used to use other stuff, but GNOME and KDE are "good enough" and I can make most of it disappear with extensions. I've tried tiling window managers (XMonad, Awesome, i3) and a few other DEs, and honestly, I find myself fiddling with them a lot, which isn't very productive. I use KDE on openSUSE because it's the default and works reasonably well and GNOME on Arch because it has worked reasonably well out of the box. So yeah, I'm tired of fiddling with stuff and I trust both major DEs to properly implement Wayland and other tech without impacting my user experience much.

zozbot234 7y ago

GNOME if using a touchscreen-enabled device, LXDE (mind you, not LxQt) / Xfce otherwise. It would be nice to have a lightweight but genuinely full-featured environment under Wayland - maybe someone should pick up https://github.com/raspberrypi/maynard https://github.com/raspberrypi/maynard ?

bsg75 7y ago
Particular reasons for LXDE over LXQt ?

aphextron 7y ago

I recently spent a significant amount of time searching for a Debian DE that I could stomach replacing Windows 10 as a daily driver, and GNOME was the only really comparable choice. Anything else feels straight out of 2002. There are better choices for resource constrained devices, but for a modern linux desktop it's the only real choice IMO.

zeroc8 7y ago
I just switched from GNOME to KDE. Both are great desktops but KDE and especially Dolphin do so much more out of the box.

cjbprime 7y ago

Combination of i3 (for window management) and KDE Plasma (docks etc).

jenscow 7y ago

Cinnamon (on Mint). The defaults are, by far, the closest to my needs. Also, more importantly, I've been using the "traditional" desktop for 2 decades and I just can't change my way - the taskbar+menu is my crutch. On lower end machines, it's xfce.

5580 7y ago

MATE was my go-to until I found Budgie

ajflores1604 7y ago

KDE for the past couple years. Love the consistent updates and small thoughtful features I keep finding. Also KDE Connect has been a godsend.

wizzerking 7y ago

Cinnamon Linux Mint

bwidlar 7y ago

bspwm https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm