10 Most Popular Linux Desktop Environments of All Time

One fascinating feature of Linux, in contrast to Windows and Mac OS X, is its support for a variety of desktop environments. This allows desktop users to select the most suitable and fitting desktop environment based on their computing requirements.

A desktop environment is essentially an implementation of the desktop metaphor, consisting of various user and system programs that operate on top of an operating system and share a common GUI (Graphical User Interface), often referred to as a graphical shell.

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In this article, we will explore and detail some of the premier desktop environments available for Linux, highlighting their notable features and components. It's important to note that the list is presented without any specific ranking.

Let's proceed with the list of desktop environments.

1. GNOME 3 Desktop

The GNOME desktop is widely recognized as one of the most favored desktop environments for Linux systems. It is celebrated for its sleek, minimalistic, and user-friendly design, which is particularly appealing to beginners in Linux or users transitioning from Mac and Windows.

Beyond its simplicity, GNOME provides a suite of ready-to-use applications, including pre-installed software like the Thunderbird email client, Firefox browser, Evince document reader, an image viewer, and audio and video players.

While the default configuration is straightforward and intuitive enough for beginners, GNOME is highly customizable, allowing users to adjust nearly every aspect, including the desktop background, wallpapers, icon size and appearance, and widgets.

Many contemporary Linux distributions offer GNOME as a downloadable option, while others like Ubuntu and Fedora include it as their default desktop environment.

At the time of writing this guide, the most recent release is GNOME 46, featured in Ubuntu 24.04 and Fedora 40. It introduces several enhancements and improvements, such as:

• New desktop backgrounds and wallpapers.
• Enhanced Software App.
• Improved Files App.
• Revamped Settings App with better navigation.
• Remote login capabilities via RDP.
• Enhanced mouse and touchpad settings.
• A dynamic workspace indicator in place of the **Activities** tab.
• Extensive UI refinements and modernizations.

2. KDE Plasma

KDE Plasma is another extensively used desktop environment, renowned for its elegance and vast customization options. It is built on Qt, a C framework that includes a set of modularized C library classes and is equipped with numerous APIs.

The KDE Plasma desktop closely resembles Windows 10. It is designed to be user-friendly, making it an excellent choice for beginners. Similar to Windows, KDE offers a selection of elegant desktop backgrounds, wallpapers, a launcher, and a system tray, which are characteristic of a Windows system.

The launcher not only allows quick and easy application launches but also enables convenient tasks like searching for documents by typing their names, navigating to common folders, and bookmarking applications. It also retains a history of opened files or recently launched apps for an enhanced user experience.

The system tray, similar to Windows, provides access to system settings, allowing adjustments to volume, WiFi connections, multimedia apps, Bluetooth device connections, and more.

Customization is central to KDE Plasma. Whether it's changing fonts, selecting new desktop backgrounds, choosing different color schemes, or adding custom widgets to the desktop, KDE Plasma offers extensive flexibility.

The current release is KDE Plasma 6.1, which includes the following key features:

• Greater focus on visual customizations.
• Synchronization of LED colors on keys to match the desktop's accent color.
• Persistent Apps.
• Ability to start a remote desktop session from the System Settings app.
• Support for Input Capture portal.
• Enhancements in power and battery management.
• An option to disable the screen locking password, turning it into a screensaver.

3. Cinnamon Desktop

A derivative of the GNOME3 desktop environment, Cinnamon is a user-friendly and straightforward desktop environment, free from clutter and unnecessary add-ons.

The Cinnamon desktop is designed for simplicity and ease of use, featuring an app launcher that closely mimics Windows 10. Its lack of clutter and unnecessary features makes it particularly appealing to new Linux users.

Cinnamon is generally more lightweight and resource-efficient compared to GNOME and KDE Plasma, making it an ideal choice for systems with lower hardware specifications.

It is known for its speed and stability, with quick login times. Cinnamon is the default desktop environment for Linux Mint.

While not as customizable as KDE Plasma, Cinnamon still offers a fair amount of customization options. Users can adjust the desktop background, icons, themes, and other visual elements to suit their preferences.

Cinnamon comes with Nemo File Manager (a fork of Nautilus), which provides a clean and sharp look, integrating well with the Cinnamon environment.

The latest release, Cinnamon 6.2, is ahead of Linux Mint 22 and includes the following notable improvements:

• Greeter badges for Cinnamon sessions.
• Enhanced support for Flatpak apps.
• New screen lock delay options for 5 and 10 seconds.
• Display of battery charging states in Power Management.
• Default display of the search bar in the app chooser dialog.
• Improved support for NVIDIA.

4. MATE Desktop

MATE is a modern and lightweight desktop environment that offers a neat and simple UI. It is significantly lighter than Cinnamon and KDE Plasma, making it an excellent choice for older PCs.

MATE inherits from GNOME 2 and aims to provide a smooth user experience with its simple, intuitive, and clutter-free interface.

Like most desktop environments, MATE includes several pre-installed applications:

• LibreOffice suite – Office Suite.
• Caja – File manager.
• Firefox – web browser.
• Atril – document viewer.
• Pluma – text editor.
• Rhythmbox – audio player.
• Evolution – email client, and more.
• MATE Terminal and many more.

The latest release, MATE 1.28, introduces numerous updates and features to enhance performance, address security issues, and ensure stability:

• Improvements in Caja File Manager, including desktop icon management and background changes in Wayland.
• A new Quickhighlight Plugin in Pluma text editor.
• Meson build system support for MATE Terminal and Eye of MATE image viewer.
• Atril now uses libarchive for handling comics, supports webkitgtk 4.2.1, and has documented its EPUB support.
• The control center now works in both Wayland and X11 sessions, supports the Meson build system, and includes several UI and memory leak fixes.

5. XFCE Desktop

For those seeking a lightweight, resource-friendly desktop environment with aesthetic appeal, XFCE is an excellent choice.

The XFCE desktop is a modern, fast, and lightweight environment for Linux and other UNIX-like systems. It is well-known for its low resource utilization, making it ideal for low-spec hardware and older systems that struggle with heavier environments like GNOME.

XFCE provides the following components:

• Thunar File Manager.
• Xfwm4 Window Manager.
• Settings Manager.
• User session manager for handling logins, power management, and more.
• Applications manager, and more.

The latest stable release, XFCE 4.18, released in December 2022, includes several enhancements and features:

• Improvements in Thunar File Manager.
• Customizable in-app keyboard shortcuts.
• A new 'Recent' sidebar entry.
• A revamped bookmark menu that allows adding folders to the sidebar.
• New thumbnail loading preferences.
• Improved status bar information layout.
• Ability to restore tabs on startup.
• Option to display the full directory path in the tab title.

6. LXQt Desktop

Another popular lightweight desktop environment is LXQt, which is a free and open-source environment resulting from the merger of LXDE and Razor-qt projects.

Like XFCE, LXQt is designed for low resource usage, making it an excellent choice for older systems and machines with low CPU and RAM specifications. It offers a simple and neat appearance with a touch of elegance.

Due to its low resource requirements, LXQt ensures a smooth experience for browsing, using Office tools, or gaming. If XFCE is not your preference, LXQt serves as a great alternative.

Notable components include:

• pcmanfm-qt file manager, a Qt port for PCManFM and libfm.
• lxsession session manager.
• lxterminal, a terminal emulator.
• lxqt-runner, a quick application launcher.
• Support for multiple international languages.
• A simple and beautiful user interface.
• An integrated energy-saving component.
• Numerous keyboard shortcuts, and more.

The latest release, LXQt 2.0.0, introduces a range of new features and improvements, including:

• Wayland support, compatible with compositors like Sway, Hyprland, Wayfire, and LabWC.
• Updated MIME types in LXQt Archiver and Arqiver within LibFM-Qt.
• LXQt Panel now includes a new default application menu called Fancy Menu, with an improved Search field, "All Applications" and "Favorite" sections.
• LXQt Panel now supports Wayland positioning using layer shell.
• Full Wayland support for LXQt Runner and LXQt Desktop Notifications.

7. Pantheon Desktop

Pantheon is a simple and well-designed desktop environment for Elementary OS, a Linux distribution that resembles Windows and MacOS X.

Developed using Vala and GTK-3, Pantheon offers users a clean and organized desktop experience. Its simplicity means it has fewer visually observable features compared to other popular desktop environments.

Nonetheless, it is highly effective for new Linux users transitioning from Windows or Mac OS X.

8. Deepin Desktop

The Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) is one of the most elegant and visually appealing desktop environments. It is the default for the Deepin Linux distribution.

DDE provides a beautiful UI that is user-friendly, stable, and reliable, delivering an immersive user experience. Every element of the UI is designed to enhance user engagement.

It comes with a suite of pre-installed tools, including:

• Deepin File Manager.
• Deepin Graphic Manager.
• Deepin Movie.
• Deepin Music.
• Deepin Screenshot.
• Deepin System Monitor.
• Deepin Terminal.
• And many more.

The latest version, Deepin 23, includes numerous improvements tailored for RISC-V architecture chips.

9. Enlightenment Desktop

Known simply as E, Enlightenment is a minimal desktop, compositor, and Windows Manager for the x11 system.

It has evolved to encompass a full desktop environment, mobile, wearables, and TV user interface platforms. Additionally, the developers have created several useful libraries during the project's development.

Like other lightweight desktop environments, Enlightenment is known for its low resource usage, modularity, and stylish appearance, though this may not suit everyone's taste.

The latest release, Enlightenment 0.26, offers the following features:

• Larger task previews.
• Minor bug fixes.
• Added support for logind’s lock/unlock dbus apis.
• Added parameters to mixer actions to allow setting amount up/down.
• Support for action desktop files in EFM to add file actions.
• Added org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver inhibits support.
• Added an option for input settings for flat accel hires scrolling.

10. Budgie Desktop

Budgie Desktop is a modern and stylish environment, initially developed by the Solus project, focusing on simplicity and efficiency for an intuitive user experience.

The latest release, Budgie 10.9.2, introduces several enhancements, including improved Wayland support, refined notifications, and an enhanced system tray. Additionally, Budgie now features a more responsive Raven sidebar and new applet options, providing users with greater customization.

With its seamless integration with GNOME technologies, Budgie remains a popular choice for those seeking a sleek and efficient desktop environment.

Which of these desktop environments do you prefer? Share your Linux desktop computing experiences with us in the feedback section below, and let us know about other lesser-known, yet powerful and exciting desktop environments not covered here.

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