The Desktop Environment Tier List 

Can you pin my comment reminding people to stay hydrated?

If KDE team spends a few rounds just fixing all the bugs and crap instead of shoving more features just for the sake of it, I believe it would beat everything else by far.

Can't wait for WM tierlist and another tierlist series from Mister Titus, I really like the way he explains why even he ranked it based on his personal experience

For me, GNOME is The Goat. Plus, you don't have to install extensions through the browser anymore, and can use the Extension Manager flatpak.

I love Mint you recommended for me. I am not doing a lot of stuff and it is really smooth. + I do not need to do a "lot" line commands. Makes me happy. For me the best OS is the one I do not have to think about. OS needs to be in background and let me do everything I need to with ease.

I don't think XFCE receives even remotely the amount of love it deserves. It does have its limitations and quirks. However, if you want a DE you can dress up nicely but you want it to stay out of the way of your workflow, then XFCE is the DE for you. Definitely my top tier DE.

its KDE Plasma for me. KDE has come a looooong way. so if the trend continues this could be the one.

I'm a brand new linux user fresh out of the water and I went with mint's XFCE right out of the gate. I've been messing around with different windows-like distros on virtual machines for about a month and mint XFCE just jived with me the best out of all of them. I like that it's so lightweight and still very familiar to a windows slave- I mean _user_ like myself, and it's still highly customizable so I can finally escape the super flat UI pandemic that's been wreaking havoc on the tech industry for years now without using an ancient OS with more security holes than a block of swiss cheese.

For a laptop, raw GNOME is great if you just succumb to the workflow and don't try to turn it into a traditional floating window DE.

I love XFCE. Even though people think it's ugly, if you're just a normal user like me, have a few programs on it and needs the basics covered, stable and lightweight it's very good :) I also like gnome as well but it confuses me to do basic stuff every now and then and I hate friction when it doesn't give me benefits :(

I usually just stick with KDE because I've used it so long that I know where every little tweak and setting is. I like trying out different ones but everytime I do, I can't figure out how to do something that I already know how to do in KDE and end up going right back to it.

for Gnome, there is an extension manager app that can be used for extension sesrch and installation. it doesn't have to be done through a web browser.

I've always liked Gnome. I even paid for Ximian Desktop! I really like Gnome 40 but I have to agree with you, the developers are very stubborn and having to add features, which are often basic like desktop icons through extensions, realy sucks!

I installed Cinnamon with Debian 12, and it is rock solid and stable. It provides everything I need. In the past I did lots of distro hopping, but I am over that. I just got tired of breaking things and the frustration of having to reboot or reinstall stuff. What I want now is something that just works and that I don't have to be updating every day. Debian 12 with Cinnamon gives me that.

4:37 as of gnome 44, you no longer need the browser to install extensions, as there is now a desktop GUI dedicated to doing so

Forget about everything else and do this. Pick Debian or Arch. Use Gnome or KDE if you want a full DE. (XFCE is okay too) Use i3 or sway if you want a window manager. Don't waste your time with all the other stuff.

For like half the video I was like: where's gnome??? Then you moved it out of the black background 😅 I absolutely love modern Gnome, both the DE and the apps. For me, personally, it is the best UI experience I had on any OS ever. I don't like having tons of options available, my mind can't handle visual clutter, and I like having one very direct path to doing stuff. My problem with most modern apps is that the UI is usually cluttered and full of stuff I don't use, and somehow gnome makes it look cleaner and simpler. Like there's a lot of gnome apps that do one single thing, and nothing else. That's perfect to me.

I think it depends mostly on whether you prefer the Win 7 look (Cinnamon, KDE, Budgie, Mate), or the Mac look (Deepin, Elementary), or the old-school Linux look (Gnome, Unity, XFCE). Personally, I'd have made the video in 3 separate sections and rate Win7-like desktops, Mac-like desktops, and "other" desktops.

I'm switching to Linux from MacOS once I get my Framework laptop in a few months. I use Amethyst on my mac so I'm a little tempted to go straight into a window manager on Linux- would love to see a window manager tier list!

my personal tier list would be: S: KDE, LXQt A: Cinnamon, GNOME, XFCE B: Unity, Mate, Deepin Haven't tried: all the other ones

Personally, Cinnamon is now average for me. The lack of Wayland support is really dragging down the distro. How much longer will Cinnamon users have to wait!?

KDE Plasma is my favorite DE, but I recently set up a home server on a very slow old Dell laptop with Alpine and decide to give SWAY WM a try. Having never used a window manager before, it definitely took a little time digging into config files and such, but I see why a lot of people prefer the aproach of building up a system that way; adding your bar and launcher of choice and adding only the utilities you want as opposed to being stuck with / cleaning up all the default tools that come along with a desktop environment. So far so good 👍🏻

Even if you dislike GNOME it's not "dogwater", it's at least average.

GNOME was one of the main reasons why I made switch from Windows to Linux with my laptop. I just love the workflow, look, and feel of it.

Mate is a really good desktop. My personal favorite to add a plank dock to and modernize it with a couple of Pling themes like I always do.

The newer GNOME 43+ releases have been really good to me personally, I only use a couple if extensions (AppIndicator & Vitals) but yeah I know what you mean when it comes to that. I'd recommend you give it another shot, the simplicity and emphasis on workspaces is really slick. I'm able to multitask really well with it, even on a laptop

In 2008, I enjoyed using KDE and it worked quite well. In 2023, it is easy to break, even with just a theme change, it is unintuitive and down right confusing. GNome, on the other hand, it pretty straight forward and solid, overall, and typically does not break.

12 shades of grey. Why are they all grey? I really miss Aero Glass, it had contours, and depth, and buttons felt like buttons and UI elements would glow, so beautiful. Luckily I do have a soft spot for LXDE/LXQt, because it looks so retro - like Windows 2000. :P

A tierlist about desktop environments while using a window manager, sounds about right :P I'd love to see a tierlist for wms honestly, that'd be pretty fun.

Man I'd love a wm tier list from you. You explain your experiences and knowledge on this software pretty well. If you ever do it I hope you include minimal hyprland compositors like sway and Hyprland. Here's to hoping!

I like gnome, the deepin is kinda borked on Arch, fedora with Gnome is nice but I agree it needs more polish. Maybe when the new version of plasma comes out or the cosmic from popos gets released, you can revisit them and let us know 😊

Gnome is great for laptops, especially 2n1’s plus the pop shell has great tiling

Pretty accurate. KDE is almost GOAT. KDE has come a long way so maybe GOAT is in the future. GNOME has also come along way but by moving down the tier list. :) Budgie is good too and I almost migrated to it when Unity was EOL but I'm happy I went with KDE instead.

KDE is god tier, Titus, there's no perfect DE even windows has its flaws (windows 11 I'm looking at you), but dang it, KDE never let me down, yes it crashed once or twice, but that was because of my stupidity and ignorance of editing system files. Out of the box, it's just perfect

I would still put KDE above the other 3 for the reason that xfce and cinnamon do not have Wayland support, and budgie is undeceive on what they want to do

I love KDE from a technical side, it is the only GUI to fully integrate GTK and QT properly without bullshit. But I hate it's performance. It's pretty slow. Enlightenment is pretty nice tbh. But you sacrifice all compatibility.

I love these actually useful tier lists. Most of the time people make these things for topics and it's just, like, their opinion, man. Because you include new user perspective, what you prefer using and what has good long term use it IS actually helpful to someone jumping in and confronting a flood of options and opinions. Hope to see window mangers at some point. I'm poking at i3 currently.

I feel like Gnome is really a "love it or hate it" DE. I'm personally in the hate it category because it's just not my cup of tea. Probably the most polished of all the DEs, definitely the most cohesive. It's also the "standard" on Linux, if you can call it that. I'll probably run Cinnamon until X11 becomes a chore.

Using core Debian with KDE and I've been really happy with it. Glad I decided simply go core Deb and use something I've always really liked, which was KDE. Just works and is very customizable. Highly recommend!

I used to use KDE for years, but Cinnamon has been my go-to for the last three years.

Just installed Debian Bookworm for the first time, with Cinnamon, following your guide (about "installing a proper way"). Battling my way through a multichannel soundcard, successfully so far. Getting ready for my first lamp stack installation. Have a nice day, bless you! Root login is way more snappier for me though, I wonder why. (Not gonna stick to it, just wonder what do I kill and remove.)

I love the desktop environment on any Linux Server. It has been pretty much the same since I started using UNIX 41 years ago. More size options nowdays than just 80x24, some lucky peole had a 132x24 screen. We invented dark mode! 😆😄 Especially clean look when using vi. No annoying prompts or menus in the way!

You don't install extensions from the browser anymore, that's on Gnome 3. On Gnome 40+ series you use the extensions app.

I am using infact using Gnome without any extensions. I just feel comfortable with it. I have tried KDE but it just has too many features for me to wrap my head around. I get lost using that DE more often than not. Gnome is simple and just easy to use. Though I would say a good tier list overall.

Speaking out of my experience with KDE, it was the most stable, reasonably customizable without getting bricked and you can use it without customizing it and still looks good. It checks all of my requirements for a DE but it's not phenomenal for a specific requirement.

KDE was pretty, but indeed it felt unstable

Gnome does not install extensions through the browser anymore, it uses the extension manager app. (still has the web browser as an option though, I think)

I use Cinnamon on Mint and it serves my simplistic needs well enough. The simplified theme options are more than enough customization for me. Since I have no real experience with other DE's I can not comment on them. In my limited experience, Cinnamon seems great for the casual Linux user who does not care about about all the deep customization more experienced users are so proud of.

I was going back and forth with GNOME and xfce for nearly 10 years and finally tried cinnamon on Debian edition which impressed me with polish and intuitiveness.

Even tho I absolutely love GNOME(switched to it after years of using a window manager) your point is fair. The thing about GNOME is that it is really not meant to be used with a bunch of extensions(except a few, and also now GNOME is sort of moving to installing extensions trough flatpaks but that is way in the future). There is a specific philosophy and a way to use gnome in its purest form. Once you get used to it (for me at least) it is actually good. The problem with GNOME is that people try to use it as any other desktop environment with their past knowledge of Windows or Mac way of doing things. GNOME requires brief learning(honestly 15 minute video is enough) after which it is so easy to be a poweruser in it. Once you switch majority of your apps to be with gnomes philosophy you will start noticing that it all makes sense. But GNOME is not for everyone nor are window managers for everyone.

I went from custom Xfce to custom Kubuntu many years ago and now im solidified. I just need to move to Debian with Kde. That is on the want list not need list.

The problem with Cinnamon is most of what they call "applets" don't work properly. For example their applet CPU frequency always has bug or freezes the computer and such for years now. They still offering it but they don't fix it. Gnome extensions have so many choices that you will find several that are working pretty well. Only problem is when you upgrade your system, sometimes you need to wait that those who are responsible for the extensions update their extension to the new gnome. LXDE is always solid. If you just need a basic DE, go with LXDE. That being said, Gnome with some extensions like dash to panel, arcmenu and a CPU controller is the GOAT. (NB I really dislike KDE. I have never tried Budgie, it looks pretty nice.)

I'm currently running XFCE and I love it, but some things are just a teeny tiny bit visually inconsistent and/or buggy. Hoping to see a WM tier list soon.

10 years ago I would have been 100% Gnome and insulted anyone that used KDE. Those were good times. But have to agree Gnome hasn't improved in all that time and arguably it's gotten worse - whereas KDE you can really make your DE look absolutely sensational. If I want a "pretty" DE I go for KDE If I want barebones but functional then I go for Cinnamon or MATE.

I agree that there is not a perfect DE. I'm glad that there are choices to fit the different things that people like. I currently like how ZorinOS has adapted Gnome.

KDE is actually lighter than Gnome Just to give you an idea, KDE is usable on 2GB of RAM, while Gnome really isn't

XFCE was my first, it’s got a special place in my heart for that and also because Chicago95 is just so good.

kde is not heavy at all. It has actually been shown to be lighter than xfce several times

Could you suggest a desktop env that doesn't attempt to replicate the Windows and macOS interfaces, and is especially lightweight?

Love the customization of KDE... hate the bugs.. specially on nvidia on laptops!!! Made me switch to cinnamon

I always just do XFCE, I love the performance

KDE is incredibly polished. All I can say is avoid the temptation to theme it too heavily. You can get to a point where it's next to impossible to go back to stock, and to unbreak what you broke 😅 Stock and unsullied? It's pretty stunning, and can be surprisingly performant, considering the amount of functionality hiding in there. GNOME 2 is the original goat though. R.i.p that's my homie *pours 40oz of OE 800*

MATE all the way here .. on Debian.. for YEARS. What else does a computer user need? I wouldn't like it if they moved the steering wheel, gear shifter, blinker, brake pedal in my car. I don't like my DE to change much either. But then, I just upgraded to a Haswell box like last year in 2022, so that tells you how I roll. Yes, Haswell.

IMO, I think a lack of focus and a lack of a goal is what made Linux so short.

I'm still a noob; that means, of course, that I haven't tried but two DEs, GNOME and KDE Plasma. I like how much less complicated it is to customize Plasma, but I'm okay with GNOME. I've got it looking and functioning the way I want it to, and what more does a desktop environment have to do than that?

My favourite DEs are KDE, Unity and LXQt. KDE for its huge customizabilty. Unity because of how skeuomorphic its is (and yes its still needs some polishing). LXQt because its good for toasters while also being quite customizable. MATE, Cinnamon and XFCE are fine but not really my interest. I hate GNOME with a burning passion. As for the others, idk i never bothered with them.

Maybe 2024 will be the year of Linux on the desktop.

It's KDE for me and in slower computers Openbox. I also used BSPWM in the past and loved it.

Chris, can we please stop using the "old school" argument once and forever? Not all old things are bad by default. I personally am a MATE user and with some cautious use of Compiz and Emerald it gains some wow factor and it's perfect for my workflow. Years ago I jumped from Windows to Fedora Gnome 2 and was astonished from both Linux and the DE (who would have thought that doing the "Applications", "Places" and "System" separation is a God sent?). Lived through the Gnome 3 catastrophe, then moved to Mint because of MATE (great appreciation to the MATE team for their work). Tried WMs, other DEs and I always prefer the "old school" which still has quite the punch as a workflow organization and in case someone is looking for the WOW factor. I might admit though, Compiz is quite of a mess of settings for a new user. Takes some struggle to achieve smooth experience but once done, export the settings and have them forever as a file.

Customised KDE for me. GNOME is also great, though a bit too limited for my taste. Budgie experience was good too.

For the past couple years using linux I've always used xfce. However I'm moving more towards just having a window manager. As is with my xfce installs, I mainly only use keybinds. I tried KDE, thought I would like it but it does some things funky. Mainly the keybinds interface was strange with it. There was also a bug I encountered with it where moving window to the left bind would actually move it to the right side of the screen.

HI @Chris, Would you be able to recommend which option is the best for learning purposes? I'm using the free oracle tier machine on arm. There are few images > I installed the ubuntu but its not great from speed. I would prefer kde I think from what you showed here. Would you recommended which one would be best on the options in the free tier? There is Oracle / Ubuntu / Red hat / Almal / rocky. thanks

Hi CTT, when are you and DT going to collaborate with LTT? That way, you can have a LTT/CTT/DT collaboration video

I used to like KDE since I come from Windows, however, I have started to love Gnome. There's really not much I do with extensions there except the dash to dock. I don't need any more extensions, and combined with Vanilla OS where everything is containerized, I think it's one of the most secure Linux distros out there, unless you want to dive into Tails or Cubes.

Why would you install gnome extensions via the browser, when you have an awesome extension manager?

I’m a huge fan of Wayland-Hyprland on arch. It feels extremely customizable, amazing workflow, absolutely gorgeous and feels extremely personal. I make it the way I want it, and much of what I do with it requires CLI and is very fulfilling to get it right, even if I accidentally break something and subsequently fix it! Absolutely goat level in my book. Although I did like Wayland-X11 and Unity, Wayland-Hyprland is my new go to and absolute favorite.

Essentially what you're saying is that skinning a desktop-environment upon Linux is like asking a fish to climb a tree - correct? What "swimming pool" might be better for the metaphorical fish? You already mention DWM + Hotkeys + CL - does this fit the bill?

сидел на xfce долгое время и мне очень нравилось его кастомизировать. особенно полюбилась его фишка в том, как у него работает смена обоев и слайдшоу: если на обои поставить png с прозрачными слоями и отключить заливку фона цветом, то при смене обоев изображения будут просто накладываться сверху друг на друга. Если это дело поставить на слайдшоу с случайным переключением раз в 10 секунд и замостить, то получаться буквально живые обои, которые вообще друг на друга не похожи.. а потом я KDE установил и.. привязался к нему.. XFCE до сих пор стоит вместе с кедами и я переключаюсь на него для игр или тестов. Уважаю обе оболочки..

Agree... but KDE is better (for an amateur user) than all others (I used Cinnamon for long time, and Gnome too)... it is lighter and faster than Cinnamon and has more features... I am using Kubuntu btw...

Tried Cinnamon, seems great but it is a memory hog compared to KDE. Tried Budgie, but screen scaling wasn't good on my 16:9 1920 x 1080. XFCE still can't create individual custom folder icons after all these years, and is getting heavier on system resources every version. Running KDE 5.20 in MX Linux now, but screen scaling is still driving me nuts; maybe I need my eyes checked, or someone in the Linux Universe can explain with scaling is such a mess or outright missing in DEs.

One month linux newbie here. Try both Gnome and Cinnamon from long-term win background back to version 3.11, Both are damn easy, easier than even win 7 8 10, 11. Prefer Gnome as you can pin app on top left side and can access it immediately when boosting Linux (Ubuntu style). I think I will stick to that. Very solid Ubuntu 24.03 LTS so far, not a single crash! Don't dual boot win11 with Ubuntu anymore. Get rid of Win 11 yesterday after solid Ubuntu/Gnome desktop. Imagine about 30 years of win experience and very familiar with it inside out, still prefer Ubutu/Gnome right now. If daily computing for one month without a crash, I am sure that my decision to abandon win11 is correct. Cinnamon looks like win but I prefer Gnome due to its ease of use.

Nicely presented Mr. Titus. I do agree in that I like portions of desktops. I tend to hover in Arch with I3WM these days for the daily driver. My Goat would be Arch if I were placing.

Since I began using Linux in 1996, I started with twm and although it's far from complete, it's damn fast. I was a kde fan up to version4, which was feeling very unresponsive. Then gnome before they lost their mind with a touch gui on the pc, then cinnamon. Now the goat is Cinnamon

I like the Windows 95 feel of xfce, but there is functionallity struggles. KDE is great, but too much bloatware. Im looking at trying cinnamon next.

My main problem with GNOME (since 3) has always been how extension-dependent it is even for some really basic things. Like you said, extensions can easily break. Most extensions are also made and maintained for fun and/or personal necessity by individual people.

Cinnamon to start with for people migrating from Windows, KDE for better customization at the cost of more likely encountering bugs and less polish but still decent performance, XFCE for old hardware and that's pretty much all you need to know to get started.

I wonder where Enlightenment would fall in this list - if not at the bottom in the 'haven't tried' bucket? I have always been intrigued by this Windows Manager/Compositor/Minimal Desktop. It can be considered a full DE when paired with either Gnome or KDE apps. The videos I've watched about it lately have shown how feature rich it is when it comes to built-in customization. Maybe it will come up if/when Chris does a WM comparison.

Really content with the gnome setup I use, not sure if it's extensions and what not but the guy who makes my theme is legit. It's definitely a Mac Clone a little more streamlined since it's on Arch. Have used a lot of Linux UIs nothing has come close imo. Once I get it setup I'm not really going to go around exposing myself to more extensions.

Cinnamon is very customizable, you are just not familiar with it. There are tons of addons also, like KDE called spices.

years back, last time when I was messing with Linux distros, Linux Mint Cinnamont and Mate, and Manjaro KDE and Xfce were fine, I see no big changes since then... appreciate you didn't put any among GOAT tier as there really isn't perfection yet

I'm a WM user (i3 for now, sway soon) but I think Gnome deserves a lot more credit. The extensions thing is an issue, sure.

but where are the Tiled Window Managers based desktop environments?

As a Gnome user, I agree with your criticism. Other than that I love it; I like its emphasis on minimalism without sacrificing functionality. I just wish they would listen to and engage with their userbase more in terms of figuring that formula out.

KDE Plasma, personally, has the best out-of-the-box setup. Oftentimes when I boot up to other desktop environments, I feel the need to tinker and sometimes I just want to get on with my life; and KDE lets me do that. It doesn't deviate from the traditional desktop layout and looks stellar at default to the point where I'm content leaving it alone.

My experiencewith the DEs is why I never stick with Linux. I feel like all desktops look like they are made by fisher price or something. Like the off brand windows/Mac. Perhaps I need to sit down and figure out a timing window manager.

Great no-BS comparison for those of us whose choice of Linux installation will come down muuuuch more to the desktop environment / experience, than the underlying distro.

Gnome is also "Dogwater" because you HAVE to install extensions to get an "acceptable" desktop experience. More of the functionality from the "required" Gnome extensions belong in the standard experience.

Here we go again 🤣 Before jumping back to full Linux on bare metal, trying out VMs I tried Gnome to see if I could get into it. The tiling from Pop is actually pretty great. It's a minor thing that gives it like a refreshed taste. However, on "stock gnome" you can totally see that it's very polished and aimed at workflow, but that workflow is like what "they give you" (at least from the get go, surely you could customize it) and it was not my style. I've always been used to "opening programs in this desktop, switching to desktop 2 to open these other programs". And the flow of Gnome in multitasking was kinda shit (subjective opinion!). Also, I didn't know about the exploits and security things yet I still felt it was really odd that they make you install an extension and install things through browser. Also to customize it a bit further you had to mess with themes and a whole list of things. I was like this is too much for just too little and something that doesn't matter much (function wise). So I stuck to my trusty KDE. I need to finish setting it up but oh man... it's like playing end-game mmorpgs with your DE. It's fantastic. And I can adjust every little thing for my personal use, taste and flow. At the end of the day I wouldn't put any DE in "Goat". Unless KDE goes a full cycle without adding things and just bug fixing to make it the most polished and stable, all DEs have cons that really take them down or put them up 1 level because of it.

XFCE is top tier for me, I always come back to it. 🐭

Major Linux Mint stan here. Cinnamon to me is the most comprehensive and versatile DE. XFCE is a very close 2nd with some serious tweaks. I just love how stable and simple both DE's are, and prefer the traditional metaphor over whatever Gnome is trying to put together. Maybe I'm just old. 😆