Desktop Environment of the Year

jeremy · 12-28-2016, 12:42 PM

If you're looking for Fluxbox, Window Maker or similar options - they are in the Window Manager of the Year poll.

--jeremy

Timothy Miller · 12-28-2016, 12:49 PM

I'm divided on this category. I use plasma most, but think for most of the year the latest version of it was pre-alpha quality. The problem to me is that it was still more feature-complete for what I want than anything else, and so I wasn't willing to move away from it.

hydrurga · 12-28-2016, 01:02 PM

It was interesting for me looking at my vote from a year ago. I was using KDE4 then, but strongly suspected that both the looks and buggyness of Plasma would drive me to Cinammon or Xfce rather than move on to Plasma. In the end, neither won out and MATE is now my desktop environment of choice.

273 · 12-28-2016, 01:14 PM

Boringly, still XFCE. I don't hate GNOME on Wayland as much as I thought I would (I'm stuck with it on my laptop) but the "more modern" desktops just end up getting in my way.

rokytnji · 12-28-2016, 02:42 PM

Voted XFCE.

stanvan · 12-28-2016, 04:12 PM

Voted for XFCE (nicely customized by Linux Lite), but also partial to MATE and LXDE (which didn't make the list).

cowlitzron · 12-29-2016, 12:37 AM

MATE has been working well for me. More lightweight than KDE and Unity. I like the default file manager well, too. JULinux leader, Justin Breithaupt made a good decision to base JULinux 12 on Ubuntu MATE.

wagscat123 · 12-29-2016, 06:34 PM

I never thought I would see myself vote for the GNOME Shell...

But with my first touch-screen PC, GNOME feels more natural than my traditional Mint and KDE favorites. In fact, GNOME 3 feels more natural than Unity or sometimes even Windows 8/10.

My vote this year is a shoutout to the beauty of GNOME on a touchscreen, even though I'm a steadfast KDEphile. Perhaps I'm back to my swingvote status of the pre-GNOME 3 era.

fatmac · 12-31-2016, 08:28 AM

I don't often use a DE, but if I were to install one it would be XFCE.

IndyGunFreak · 01-02-2017, 08:29 AM

After the Gnome 3 debacle, when I'd been happy with Gnome 2 and MATE gave me stability issues, I happily switched to LXDE. Then about 4yrs ago, I bought a new laptop and honestly, I accidentally downloaded the XFCE version of Debian instead of the LXDE version. I'd used XFCE plenty before, so it's not like I wasn't familiar with it. I honestly can't explain why I didn't just go back and download the LXDE version and put it on the flash drive I had, as I'd always been happy with LXDE. I figured at some point I'd add LXDE and probably remove XFCE from my install, but for whatever reason, I stuck w/ XFCE and have been using it very happily ever since. LXDE would be an easy second place for me.. but I honestly don't foresee myself not using XFCE unless they do something crazy like the Gnome team did.

sowell · 01-03-2017, 11:16 AM

Enlightenment all the way.

FredGSanford · 01-03-2017, 11:38 AM

I use Mate...

MrRtd · 01-03-2017, 06:17 PM

I'm still a fan and user of KDE and the Plasma desktop.

stevethefiddle · 01-04-2017, 04:31 PM

Hard to pick just one with so many excellent DEs, but settled on Xfce for now.
They're ALL better than the Microsoft / Apple offerings.

aguador · 01-05-2017, 04:07 PM

I was torn having seen the advances in Mate, but it is E all the way for me. It is not perfect, but it gives a nice balance between fully blown DE and WM . . . while retaining the lightness of a WM. It gives me some nice eye-candy, but stays out of my way so I can work!