i'm already doing this with gnome lol.

if my computer was older, probably xfce.

Xfce, ol' reliable.

KDE.

Probably Plasma because it's familiar and you're able to customize it extensively over time.

it's probably gonna be plasma6 by a hair over cinnamon on a rolling distribution. as much as people shit on manjaro here and on that other site, it has never broke on me--whether i update constantly or let it go 2-3 months between them.

but if the de and the underlying os are magically compatible, and those and programs kept up to date, never obsolete, and new ones appear for it as needed or desired... then sorry, it won't be linux... i'm going back to something like 95osr2, 98se or w2k.

I'm a cog in the machine and use KDE, but xfce is awesome, I would use xfce if I couldn't use KDE.

I use XFCE. If their Wayland support isn't ready when openSUSE Tumbleweed eliminates support for x11, I'm not sure what I'll go to.

The one I'm using right now of course!

KDE Plasma for ease of use if using Nvidia Otherwise Hyprland or exwm

Well, it's gotta be a tiling system. And a good one. At this point I can't function in a non-tiling environment. Specifically a manual tiler with an auto-tile a la i3 w/ i3-alternating-layout or a dynamic tiler that still let's you break stuff (doesn't really exist).

It's just a better way to use a computer, and I can't go back. It's so much nicer. I would stop using a computer before I go back to dragging windows around.

And that rules out most DEs. It rules out Mac OS and Windows, as well, but at least on Windows I can almost get by with Fancy WM. It's "okay."

And speaking of just getting by, that's Polonium with KDE. KDE is pretty good as an "environment," but it doesn't have a tiler that meets my needs, or at least I thought it didn't until recently. Then I discovered Polonium. It works pretty well. Used it for several months (and still do on one machine). It's very bare bones tho, and is hard to configure the handful of floating windows I do want like popups. So KDE is just scraping by.

GNOME on the other hand has the excellent Pop Shell 2. But well, GNOME is GNOME. It's buggy when you try to use it a different way than intended. God forbid I want Qt, Gtk2, Gtk3, Gtk4, and libadwaita apps to all look nice on my system! It's clunky, but the tiling is excellent at least.

Now you mention XFCE. So what about that? You could use i3 as the WM for Xfce. I used i3 for years and years and years as my WM and know how to build a DE around it. Why not use Xfce + i3?

Well, the thing is X11 is as good as dead, and while XFCE now supports Wayland, you can't use a tiling system with the Wayland version of XFCE.

So what does that leave me?

Nothing. At least for a full on DE, which is what you asked.

There is not a single (pre-made) Desktop Environment that suits my needs. Not a one. Either it doesn't support good tiling, is too rigid, or hasn't switched to Wayland.

My only options are:

• Roll my own DE built around Hyprland/Sway, and since I'm on nvidia, those aren't fantastic options (albeit Hyprland works a lot better on Nvidia these days), and that's what I'm using.
• Deal with the slight annoyance of the under-implemented Polonium in KDE

Right now I'm on Hyprland. May go back to KDE bc multi monitor is being weird on Hyprland rn.

My one hope is that COSMIC polishes itself up and gets to its first real release.

I'm in either terminal or browser most of the time, DE is not an issue for me... KDE has an easy battery life optimization feature for laptops, so I guess I'll go KDE

MATE has been on most of my machines, except the BSD ones.

But past year or so, I have grown a fondness towards ctwm, and gradually migrated my machines to it, Linux and BSD alike.

It is not a DE, but the fact that I have to assemble my suite of software myself on my machines, makes the point of using DEs moot.

I've been using spectrwm for over a decade https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm and have no plans to change

I thought KDE was the popular choice to be honest. I feel like all the toolp newish OS are using KDE and the top old OS are using Gnome.

I'm using PopOS Cosmic alpha (not based on Gnome) on my new laptop and like it a lot so far. It has a few rough edges, but nothing I'd switch to something else over. (In fact, I did use the Gnome version of Cosmic until my previous laptop broke.)

I used Ratpoison for well over a decade, and only replaced it with sway once I had a new machine and figured it was time to try Wayland. Apparently that's some 4-5 years ago already.

DK (similar to BSPWM or i3/sway). I have zero interest in "DE's" like KDE or Gnome, or anything heavily reliant on using a mouse.

Xfce, and Cinnamon. You can't force me to choose just one.

KDE plasma, unless it's on a tablet, then Gnome

XFCE. It's lightweight, easy to tweak and looks great. I run it on my 6 y.o. potato laptop

I've been daily driving Hyprland for 4 years now. Before that it was DWM, and before that Gnome. I was never a KDE fan, don't know why... I never disliked it, I just preferred Gnome.

Probably either KDE or NsCDE, I always seem to come back to those

Call me basic, but mint xfce. It’s light, customizable, and so damn stable. That’s all I really want. I love messing with other distros but this one is my baby

My current desktop is xmonad + xfce in no-desktop mode. Almost no configuration in xmonad, all the stuff like monitor layout and mouse props is handled by xfce. And yes my laptop that I used it on for 6-7 years is now broken (ish) so I've already unlocked this acheivement.

I do feel slightly guilty about not moving to wayland, but I'm not sure how that would improve my experience at all. I did hear xfce is almost there on wayland, so maybe I can move to sway + xfce on wayland at some point.

I've been using Cinnamon for most of the last decade, but switched to Gnome3 recently, heavily customized to work like Cinnamon. Basically because Wayland is finally stable enough to use.

If Cinnamon gets Wayland support working well, that's my choice. Otherwise I've got some Gnome3 configs that make it work pretty well, and I'd happily run it into the ground too.

i3

LXQt

Fedora Gnome. In my head it’s Linux.

Flip a coin between cinnamon and plasma

KDE since 2002. KDE 4 lyfe.

Cinnamon, that's what I'm used to

I’d probably pick KDE. I use Gnome on almost every machine, but Gnome makes weird decisions, and I assume one day I won’t like one of them. KDE always seems to get better and add more options. I can make KDE work like practically any other DE, including Gnome.

I'll stay on XFCE until I die ... or until my Hyprland config is finished. Whichever comes first.

Mint

Not a DE, but I've been using sway for around 5 years now, and I have no intention of moving away from it unless something really bad happens. I love using it, and it's been behaving perfectly all tgis time.