Your favorite lightweight desktop environment?
 

For a while I have been searching for a new desktop environment to use on my netbook, since gnome 3 is too heavy for it. Currently it is running ubuntu because unity is lighter than gnome 3, but I am planning to go back to fedora at some point in time. So far I found LXDE to be my favorite, after trying XFCE and Enlightenment.

I'm not looking for a solution here, just opinions, what is your favorite lightweight desktop environment (and with which WM if you wish) and why?

I've used most of them, and I tend to stick with XFCE personally. I like FluxBox on very low end hardware (under 500 MHz, say), but for a halfway modern system it is probably unnecessary to run something so stripped down (unless you like the more utilitarian feel).

I like openbox or fluxbox for use as a lightweight system. But if your looking for a full desktop environment, I guess I prefer lxde

My favourite since I started using it has always been wmii; it's a different type of WM (tiling rather than compositing/stacking), but I find it intuitive to use and it helps organise your windows no end... But some people don't get along with it, so YMMV :)

I would have to second on LXDE followed closely by custom openbox with tint2 , and finally followed by ratpoison.. I really like not using a mouse makes me feel geekier for some reason.

For my needs i3 wm is second to none.

Openbox for the window manager.
Tint2 at the bottom of the screen.
Feh setting the wallpaper.
gmrun hotkeyed to either ALT-F2 or Window-R.

I used WindowMaker for many, many years. About a month back I started trying some of the tiling window-managers and eventually settled on dwm + dmenu.
It's a no distractions, just get on with what you're doing setup. I love it.. You do need to customise it though. The default colours and keyboard shortcuts are useless.

I really like Openbox, with tint2.

Openbox + tint2 (CrunchBang) is my all-time favorite. Currently experimenting with Ratpoison. :)

I loves me the simple elegance of Fluxbox. I use it with Slackware, Debian, and Ubuntu.

Xfce…because it's lightweight and portable (i.e. I can run it on all my machines, including the FreeBSD "frankencomputer" :D), and I can make it look/feel like classic Windows (pre-7), and that's what I'm used to. :p I don't think I could ever really get used to using just a bare WM; I'm stuck in my old habits, LOL.

I'm sure there's more to it than that, but I don't feel like trying to recall all my motivations right now…

XFCE, though only on a specialized virtual machine.

LXDE is my favorite so far too, closely followed by XFCE.

e17 or xfce

DE -- LXDE

WM -- IceWM

For low end machines I prefer LXDE which uses Openbox as the WM by default. Personally for me, I only use Openbox with tint2, but for family members they can use LXDE.

Xfce isn't really lightweight these days: in Mint and Fedora, there's little to choose between it and Gnome. I think it's becoming the replacement for Gnome for those who don't like Gnome 3.

For a lightweight environment, I'd go for Fluxbox with fbpanel. But I also have a liking for Icewm, which was the first GUI I ever used.

And I'm back with this setup now, only with Nitrogen instead of Feh to set the wallpaper.

Fantastic keybindings and works with everything out of the box (unlike, say, XMonad, which takes tweaking).

Not as great as Xmonad+DMenu+Xmobar when that setup works, but this works all the time.

I used GNOME 3 for a while and now I am at XFCE and I don't think I am going anywhere (all on Fedora).

I've taken to using mostly LXDE these days, with occasional forays into xfce. I still have a soft spot for good ol' Gnome 2, though.

I've been using XFCE on my desktop and netbook because I do find it a little less intensive than Gnome or KDE. I know what you mean, DavidMcCann, but I still feel gnome and KDE use more resouces, especially video.
For the netbook though I'm reading this thread and taking notes as I would rather something lighter but can't, yet, quite come to terms with no task bar or "system tray" (yes, I know that's Windows talk, sorry it works). I'd be interested in something like ratpoison using opacity though as opacity in XFCE [using the built in compositing] is remarkably tolerable in speed and allows more information on this little screen.

Fluxbox and rox filer and there is nothing negatively utilitarian about it. In fact, if you can write simple scripts its easy to customize and add what ever functionality you want to it.

Enlightenment by far :)

Though it is considered a Desktop Shell not a full blown Desktop Environment

LXDE

DE: Xfce
WM: Openbox

I've been using Openbox with either xfce4-panel or fbpanel lately. I like Fluxbox and IceWM, too.

xmonad at all!!

I'm using entirely Xfce now, but considering Openbox with a tint2 panel. My only issue with Xfce is Thunar. I just can't seem to like it no matter what I do, so I may swap it out for PCManFM.