Exactly! We have the luxury of being able to configure our desktop experience with whatever DE/WM that appeals to us. People that run proprietary, closed software never get to enjoy the freedom that we have.
Linux is amazing!

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bass, your post is similar to my experience just the inverse. In this poll I prefer Xfce, although I usually use fluxbox or lately icewm.

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Xfce: for me it feels like the 'default' Slackware DE. I just can't get on with KDE, though it looks very nice.

Even my rather beefy desktop runs Xfce. It's fast, stable, customisable and no-nonsense. You can make it can look like you're in 1995 or 2019. All my Slack machines run it apart from my netbook - that runs LXDE.

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AntiX uses IceWM by default. It's lightweight, relatively easy to configure, and there are nice themes available for it.

KDE because it enables me to be productive. It is far and away the most feature complete desktop available.

The small things which some would consider to be "bloat" are the things that enable productivity... well for me, anyway.

If KDE weren't available, I'd use XFCE and add the little bits and pieces I need.

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That they do and well done at that! Now if they could just do something about that Debian base.

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I find KDE applications under the Fluxbox window manager to be my favorite combination. If you do Fluxbox right, it has all the eye candy anyone might want.

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I voted for XFCE, which I not just use, but also which I have made quite a few bug reports for recently.

However, I am planning to write a SlackBuild for CDE when time permits. It would be nice to have a 'True UNIX' flavour of Slackware, and I don't feel that would require that much of work. Essentially setting --posix-me-harder where needed, installing CDE, hacking on the SysV emulation a bit and doing a bit of fs linting should be enough.

Having said that, I still believe that KDE applications are great, and I use Dolphin for heavy file management, Okular for reading pdfs and some other tools when I feel they are good.

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It is my opinion that what we like most and tend to prefer is that which we are used to, especially in the areas we value most. I started with DOS 3 because my first PC (an 8086) I bought Used. Very soon after I upgraded to DOS 5,and the DOS 6.22. I actually can't recall if I was still on 5 or had moved to 6.22 but somewhere around then I got my first GUI which was PCTools and the PCShell File Manager dug it's hooks in me deeply. My next system was OS/2 2.2 and I loved the overall system but hated that it didn't have a proper File Manager. Soon though users and some IBM employees who apparently agreed made some nice File Managers and it was great from then on.

My first Linux WM/DE was actually Enlightenment on OS/2 and I keep trying out new releases of it to see how it progresses and tried to go full time when they developed a quick way to switch from WM/DE to a Tiling Desktop, combining the areas I've worked in most, but a few bugs and the fact that by booting to Slackware Runlevel 3 (MultiUser Console) and launching KDM, switching Desktop types is almost just as fast with far more options. Also I've loved every File Manager KDE has ever offered KFMClient, Krusader, and after a few minor fixes Dolphin which I now dearly love and use almost exclusively. I never liked either Gnome or Xfce File Managers. For me they lack organization, configurable options and features.

I used Xfce nearly exclusively for about 2 years when KDE v4 went through it's unfortunate growing pains but I kept trying as new releases came out, largely because to use Xfce I relied heavily on it's ability to handle KDE apps, like Dolphin. Xfce had a few annoying issues, especially in configuring Taskbars and Menues and sometimes in remembering those very settings that made it somewhat serviceable for me. Once KDE got solid again I was only too glad to go back. I recently installed Trinity on my laptop thinking of how fast and efficient v3 KDE was and soon found there were improvements in v4 that I very much missed. I am somewhat concerned with the problems that seem to be a headache with Plasma 5 but I hope they all finally pan out because I really don't want to stop using KDE.

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Can I vote both? I am a heavy KDE Plasma user, although I am disappointed by some aspects of the latter KDE releases. However, I still think it's the best desktop there is by far.
But Xfce is fantastic. Really. And a great desktop with solid functionality and superb performance, so it's a great choice for Slackware.

Willy also offers Mate and Cinnamon. Both of them are great desktops and you should check them out. I personally prefer Mate over Cinnamon but that's obviously personal.

EDIT: There's also LXQt, a great desktop but I think that its dependence on OpenBox is a minus.

I would choose as follows: Plasma > {Xfce,Mate} > {Cinnamon, LXQt} > IceWM > others.

Personally I don't know why people like Gnome 2 / Mate so much. Full disclosure, I haven't actually tried Mate, but I always felt Gnome 2 was nothing special at all. Xfce is more flexible and otherwise very similar. Personal opinion only, of course.

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sombragris, LXQt does not depend on openbox, you can easily use Kwin, XFWM, or any other WM. To select kwin (or anything else) as window manager, select it from the Preferences > LXQt settings > Session Settings panel menu item.

That's right. I didn't express myself well. It's only that LXQt recommends OpenBox and I cannot think of other WM which is as well suited to LXQt as it. Once I have LXQt running here again (I used AlienBob's packages, which now I think cannot run on the latest -current and await a refresh) I may experiment on several WMs for LXQt.

I've started with KDE distros a long time ago with Mandrake Linux (I think KDE is easier for newbies.. ), but then switched to XFCE when started with Slackware 9.0 and currently enjoying the lightweight i3-gaps!!

KDE sucks... imo
I've always liked Gnome 2 but also switched when Gnome 3 came out, I hate it. So I switched to XFCE.