Ranking Linux Desktop Environments for 2023

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#linux #desktop #tierlist

00:00 Intro
00:33 Sponsor: 100$ Free Credit for your Linux or Gaming server
01:33 GNOME
03:25 KDE
05:07 BUDGIE
06:27 XFCE
07:14 MATE
08:19 CINNAMON
09:50 DEEPIN
10:56 PANTHEON
13:13 UNITY
14:26 CUTEFISH
15:24 Others I didn’t try as much
16:00 Sponsor: Get a device that runs Linux perfectly
16:53 Support the channel

GNOME is the one the most. It’s extendable with extensions, it’s customizable, and it’s also themable. Now GNOME as a desktop, I find really nice to use, but there are things that bug me, like the rigidity and lack of basic options, and that means it will be in Good, not in Great.

KDE has simple defaults, powerful options, plenty of customization and a large ecosystem of applications. I used KDE a TON, I always have a laptop with it installed, and it was my main DE for more than a year of running this youtube channel. It used to have a lot of bugs and stability issues, but in my experience, that’s not the case anymore. I’m going to put KDE in the Great category.

Budgie, I used for a while on Manjaro, as my main desktop environment. At the time, I would have put it in Good. Nowadays? It’s a No, Thanks for me. Budgie is basically GNOME + some interesting addons. You can replicate it in seconds on GNOME and have a better underlying platform.

XFCE, on the surface, looks very old and ugly, it doesn’t really support most of the new Linux stack, like Wayland, it’s not a complete experience, without its own app center for example, and it seems stuck in the past. On the other hand, it’s extremely fast and responsive, it’s customizable with themes, layouts, panel applets, and it can use most other DEs apps to fill in the gaps. I’m going to put it in Decent.

Mate is another hard one. I loved GNOME 2 back in the day, and MATE is exactly that. That layout was wonderful, but nowadays, it suffers from the same problems as XFCE: no real wayland support, no 1:1 touchpad gestures, not a complete experience, without its own app store, or design philosophy or guidelines. MATE is going in the Decent category.

Cinnamon is what Linux Mint uses, and it’s pretty damn complete. It has applications for basically everything out of the box, you can do everything graphically without needing to turn to a third party app, whether it’s managing software sources, installing applications, installing packages, changing every setting, you name it.
So, Cinnamon goes in the GOOD category. It’s a really nice choice, but compared to KDE? I can’t place them on the same level.

Deepin Desktop is one that looks phenomenal on the surface, but that I could never use day to day. Sure, it’s beautiful, and it has a design flair and fluidity that is quite remarkable. But the default apps are way too simple and can do in most cases even less than GNOME’s, which are already pretty barebones, their appstore is completely useless, and even translations are quite hesitant

I just can’t see why you’d pick Deepin. It’s a No Thanks for me.

Pantheon, elementary OS’s desktop had the edge over any other GTK based desktop, 2 or 3 years ago, but it has lost every advantage it had during this time period. The team just doesn’t feel like it’s big enough to tackle a whole distro + desktop + suite of apps anymore, and GNOME has caught up to everything. It’s a No, thanks.

Unity is only Decent for me, because it looks pretty dated. The panel and its applets are straight from the GNOME 2 era, there isn’t much customization to be had either, the dash isn’t as useful as it once was, because using filters at the bottom isn’t super intuitive or ergonomic with a mouse, and while it’s a fun trip down memory lane for me, it doesn’t really appeal to me all that much.

And now there’s Cutefish, the it was dead but apparently it’s not dead, sort of desktop. And it’s another one that looks great on screenshots, but it’s still going to be a No Way.