Linux

KDE. It's pretty good these days. I used it in 1999 when it was new. I used it in 2009 when it was messy. I didn't use it for about a decade, opting instead for tiling window managers and plain cwm(1) on OpenBSD.

I finally installed it again in 2021 and it's been fine. Solid desktop, does what I need it to, but requires a lot of configuration up front to not be annoying. I want simple and consistent, with double click to open things and single click to highlight, and I don't want a popup dialog box in the corner every time my Konsole bell rings. I want animations and transparency, but I don't want to wait a half a second for my window to minimize. I don't want workspaces, just like I didn't want a cashew in the corner of my screen 15 years ago. If I tell my dock to be floating, it needs to stay floating and not change its shape and size when I maximize my window.

KDE requires some tweaking out of the box so that it stays out of the way. But once set up, it's nice.

3.5.10 was the best KDE ever, but I'm on 5.27 and I don't have any complaints.

SwayFX (Sway with a bit more eye candy effects)

Been a gnome guy for the past ~13 years with a bit of unity thrown in back when it was relevant! I've tried to love KDE repeatedly over the years but it's never quite clicked with me - the customisation is great, but using it just feels kinda wrong personally!

I use Gnome at work and KDE at home. I like the workflow in Gnome and the customization of KDE.

I'm super torn on desktop environments. There simply are too many great choices! I like XFCE, KDE Plasma and the most recent Gnome versions - for different reasons. KDE is the perfect choice when you want the full shiny, modern, bling desktop and if you love to customize it in all kinds of ways that are possible out of the box. When I spend time with KDE, over the course of weeks, I keep constantly changing my wallpapers, themes, cursors, icons, colors, etc. - just for the sake of variety. With KDE, the desktop never gets boring.

BUT... I also love minimalism (to a tasteful, practical extent) and classic retro computing, as well as efficiency. That's why XFCE is very comfy to me. It only has the features you need, but still to the extent of a nice and fully featured desktop environment. Doesn't eat too many system resources, still can look very pretty with themes, does what it's supposed to. Very stable, too. There are times when KDE just feels cluttered and ... too much for me, then I retreat to XFCE.

I'm running Fedora Silverblue for quite a while now and although I always had my gripes about modern Gnome... after using it for a while, it really grew on me. Since version 42, modern Gnome really is going the right direction. It's nicely clean and readable, modern, performant, and once you get used to it, its different approach to the workflow really makes sense. The apps are lovely, they do one thing and do it well, and they're beautifully integrated in the same design language. There's a wonderful collection of apps called Gnome Circle, these are not developed directly by the Gnome team, but endorsed by them, as they're useful and integrate perfectly into the UI design language. There's some amazing tools in there! It all feels very unified, and with the Blur-my-shell extension, you don't need much else for a pretty look. The only downside is that this clean look sometimes is achieved by cutting poweruser features, which can be frustrating when you bump into something you need to do, but the UI doesn't account for. For example, I have multiple bluetooth adapters in this PC and can't select which one to use. Still, great desktop.

Boring old X11 Gnome for me, it looks pretty, it's reliable and it has all the stuff I'd expect out of a desktop environment

Wayland doesn't play nice with my GPU and I've heard it's not great for gaming anyway

@fugepe Gnome

kde

For me it was Enlightenment DR16 (discontinued). you could make themes with shaped borders (transparent regions, buttons and titles anywhere, even overlapping into the window a bit), have it remember window positions, change border style for a window (e.g. drawer, so it can be collapsed sideways) and it would not steal focus. it had really good effects and features. I miss it a lot in Wayland. Check the web for some screenshots, if you want to be inspired.

Um....none.

is anyone used herbsluftwm for low powered CPU here?

@fugepe XFCE is the best in my opinion. It's lightweight, full customizable & easy to set up....

Xfce on work desktop, gnome works well with gestures at home on my laptop. Will be changing to kde when I get a new machine at work!

Debian/KDE

I like Gnome a little more than KDE.

barless dwl, love the simplicity

dwm, I got too much used to "it just works" and never ever breaks afrer an update.

I am on pop is for my home desktop. I like the built in tiling manager. Ubuntu for work. Might give nix or kde a go next.

TDE (for those who haven't encountered it before, the Trinity Desktop Environment forked from KDE3 more than a decade ago). It might not be the flashiest or the newest, but it has a decent selection of features and applications, and presents a traditional desktop environment whose interface doesn't get changed for the sake of change. In other words, it stays out of the way and lets me get things done.

(If I'd liked Gnome 2 better than KDE 3 rather than vice-versa, I probably would have gone for MATE instead.)

A while back I was into KDE Plasma but for whatever reason had this bug that would cause my system to run at 100 percent at all times. When I looked into it, many stated it was a bug that related to how kde searches for stuff on the system. Dont remember much else but that had me look elsewhere.

Been on gnome for awhile now and havent had any issues.

I really like KDE, but I’ve been daily driving Gnome since version 40. Insanely polished and I really like the workflow of everything. I do wish they were faster in implementing stuff like VRR though.

I've been using QTile for probably a year now. It's not perfect, but I like the tiled windowing and I know python.

EXWM (Emacs X windows manager)

all it lacks is a good editor

(j/k, I've settled on Cosmic on Pop for the last few years, and now I'm so lazy, I barely update it)

bspwm + sxhkd, for years. Based on the Manjaro config at first, today it's my own setup. Even convinced may family. The best!

@fugepe I use Ubuntu but, is KDE easy to pick up? Just getting into Linux my self.

Mine is a combination of Sway + i3bar. Stick with it since I downlosded Pop!_OS

I cannot but mention xmonad wm with my own configurations