A Guide to Desktop Environments
Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes Last updated on 25th August 2025
The world of open source software offers an unprecedented level of choice when it comes to desktop environments, each designed to serve different user needs, hardware capabilities, and aesthetic preferences. Unlike proprietary operating systems that lock users into a single interface, there is a rich ecosystem of desktop environments ranging from minimalist, keyboard-driven window managers to feature-rich, highly customisable desktop suites.
This guide explores the diverse landscape of desktop environments, from the widely adopted GNOME and KDE Plasma that power major distributions, to specialised options like Enlightenment and Ratpoison that cater to specific workflows. Whether you're seeking a familiar Windows-like experience with Cinnamon, a lightweight solution for older hardware with LXQt, or maximum customisation with KDE Plasma, understanding these options will help you find the perfect desktop environment for your computing needs.
Each environment represents a different philosophy of desktop computing, with some prioritising simplicity and consistency while others embrace extensive customisation and more again focussing on minimal resource usage or unique interaction paradigms. By examining their strengths, target audiences, and design principles, you will gain the knowledge needed to make an informed choice about which desktop environment best matches your workflow and preferences.
This lightweight and modern desktop environment was primarily developed by the Solus Project but has since been adopted by various Linux distributions including Ubuntu Budgie, Arch Linux, Fedora and Manjaro. Built using the GNOME technologies stack including GTK, Mutter and GNOME components, it offers a distinct look and workflow compared to GNOME Shell whilst maintaining a clean and minimalistic design with smooth animations and intuitive menus. The interface features a customisable single panel that can be moved and extended with lightweight applets such as system tray, clock or workspace switcher, alongside its signature Raven sidebar that provides quick access to system notifications, calendar and media playback controls. Designed to be responsive and suitable for both modern and modest hardware, it appeals to users seeking a modern yet traditional desktop that balances ease of use with customisation options without the complexity of KDE Plasma or the rigidity of GNOME Shell, making it particularly attractive to those who prefer a more conventional desktop layout whilst still benefiting from contemporary design principles.
Originally developed by the Linux Mint team as a fork of GNOME 3, this desktop environment was created in response to user dissatisfaction with GNOME's radical redesign, maintaining a traditional desktop metaphor similar to Windows while incorporating modern features. The environment uses a bottom panel with menu, taskbar and system tray by default, making it particularly approachable for users migrating from Windows systems. Key features include menu-driven application launching, customisable panel applets and desktop desklets and the Nemo file manager which provides full functionality with tight desktop integration.
Whilst more resource-intensive than lightweight alternatives like XFCE, it offers better performance than GNOME and strikes a balance between usability and features. The environment is most polished and stable on Linux Mint, where it serves as the flagship desktop, though it remains available on other distributions such as Fedora and Debian. Its primary strengths lie in providing a familiar workflow for Windows users without requiring significant adjustment, though critics note its focus on familiarity over innovation compared to more experimental environments like GNOME or KDE.
Dating back to the late 1990s, this desktop environment represents one of the oldest graphical interfaces still under active development and stands apart from mainstream options like GNOME, KDE and Cinnamon through its distinctive approach. Built on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries, it prioritises speed and minimal resource consumption whilst offering extensive customisation options for windows, menus, panels and visual effects. The environment pioneered advanced compositing features such as transparency and animations long before they became standard elsewhere, maintaining its unique visual identity throughout its evolution.
Rather than functioning as a comprehensive desktop suite, it operates as a modular window manager that allows users to construct their preferred computing environment around its core functionality. This design philosophy enables deployment across diverse hardware configurations, from traditional desktop computers to mobile devices and embedded systems. However, its unconventional configuration system presents a steeper learning curve compared to more mainstream alternatives, and its smaller user base means fewer dedicated applications and less widespread distribution support. Despite occasional rough edges, the environment attracts users seeking lightweight performance, extensive personalisation options and an alternative to conventional desktop paradigms, with specialised distributions like Bodhi Linux adopting it as their primary interface.
F Virtual Window Manager is a lightweight Linux and Unix window manager that has been maintained since 1993, making it one of the oldest such tools still in active development. Unlike full desktop environments such as GNOME or KDE, FVWM provides only the basic framework for managing windows and menus without including file managers, control centres or application suites.
This minimalist approach makes it extremely resource-efficient and suitable for older or limited hardware, though users must combine it with other tools to create a complete desktop experience. The system offers extensive customisation through plain configuration files, allowing power users to control virtually every aspect of window behaviour, menus and desktop layouts, and it can be extended with scripts and modules for highly personalised setups. While FVWM excels in performance and stability, it presents a steep learning curve due to its reliance on manual configuration rather than graphical settings tools, making it less suitable for beginners compared to modern desktop environments but ideal for enthusiasts who prioritise maximum control and efficiency over out-of-the-box polish.
One of the most widely used and influential Linux desktop interfaces, this environment is developed by the GNOME Project and serves as the default for major distributions including Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu. It follows a philosophy of simplicity and consistency with a modern, minimal design that emphasises productivity over heavy customisation. The core interface centres around the Activities Overview through GNOME Shell, which combines application launching, window management and workspace navigation in a single view, whilst dynamic workspaces are created and removed automatically to encourage multitasking. Functionality can be expanded through extensions, though this is less straightforward than in other environments, and it includes an integrated suite of applications designed following Human Interface Guidelines for consistency.
As a driving force behind Wayland display server adoption and built on the GTK toolkit, it offers a polished user experience with strong accessibility support and long-term backing from organisations like Red Hat. However, it uses more resources than lighter alternatives and deliberately restricts customisation options to maintain design consistency, which some users find too restrictive, whilst the Activities Overview and dynamic workspaces represent a departure from traditional desktop metaphors that requires adjustment time for new users.
This distinctive implementation represents an open-source recreation of the NeXTSTEP/OpenStep environment that originated at NeXT in the late 1980s and 1990s before becoming the foundation for Apple's macOS and iOS. Rather than functioning as a complete desktop environment like GNOME or KDE, it operates primarily as a development framework built around the Objective-C language whilst providing basic desktop components including window management, a dock and workspace utilities that replicate the classic NeXTSTEP aesthetic.
The system offers cross-platform compatibility across Linux, BSD and Windows systems, featuring a minimalist interface with distinctive NeXTSTEP-style menus and application launchers that appeal particularly to retro computing enthusiasts and developers interested in OpenStep API compatibility. Although lightweight compared to major desktop environments, it maintains a niche user base due to its incomplete desktop experience, developer-centric focus and aged interface design that feels historical rather than contemporary. The framework is often paired with Window Maker to create a more complete desktop experience and primarily attracts those interested in NeXTSTEP history, vintage Unix environments or Objective-C development rather than everyday desktop users seeking modern functionality.
Officially called KDE Plasma, this desktop environment stands as one of the most powerful and customisable options available on Linux and other Unix-like systems, developed by the KDE Community alongside a comprehensive suite of applications. The environment excels in flexibility, allowing users to modify virtually every aspect including panel layouts, widgets, window behaviour, themes and animations, whilst supporting multiple panels and an extensive collection of widgets for system monitoring, weather updates, notes and media controls.
Despite its feature-rich nature, KDE Plasma has become surprisingly lightweight and performance-optimised since version 5, offering modern aesthetics with smooth effects and polished visuals that can accommodate both power users seeking complete control and casual users preferring default configurations. The system includes unique features like Activities that enable different desktop setups for various workflows, comprehensive system settings covering virtually all aspects of the environment, and native applications built with the Qt toolkit such as Dolphin file manager, Konsole terminal, Okular document viewer and Kdenlive video editor.
However, the extensive customisation options can overwhelm newcomers who prefer simplicity, and mixing KDE applications with GTK or GNOME applications may result in visual inconsistencies, whilst the complexity of available tweaks carries the risk of system instability if improperly configured. The environment serves as the default desktop for distributions including Kubuntu, openSUSE and KDE Neon, attracting users who desire a powerful, customisable desktop experience comparable to proprietary operating systems but with open-source freedom.
This modern, lightweight desktop environment emerged as the successor to LXDE when its developers collaborated with the Razor-qt project to create a Qt-based alternative that combines efficiency with contemporary design. Built using the Qt toolkit rather than GTK, it offers a traditional desktop layout featuring a panel, application menu, taskbar and system tray whilst maintaining exceptionally low resource usage that makes it ideal for older computers or performance-focused users.
The environment consists of modular components including the PCManFM-Qt file manager, allowing users to customise their setup without overwhelming complexity. Although it provides a good balance of essential features for daily use and supports basic theming and panel widgets, it lacks the advanced functionality and extensive application ecosystems found in heavier environments like GNOME or KDE. This makes it particularly suitable for minimalist setups, older hardware or users seeking a reliable, no-frills desktop experience, which explains its adoption as the default environment for distributions like Lubuntu and various lightweight spins of major Linux distributions.
Emerging as a fork of GNOME 2 around 2011 when GNOME transitioned to its controversial third version, this desktop environment preserves the classic interface that many users preferred. It maintains the traditional dual-panel layout with applications menu, taskbar, system tray and clock whilst being more resource-friendly than modern GNOME or KDE, though not as lightweight as XFCE or LXQt.
The environment uses Marco as its window manager and Caja as its file manager, both continuations of GNOME 2 components, and offers reasonable customisation through panel applets, themes and layout changes. Whilst praised for its familiar workflow, stability and beginner-friendly approach, it faces criticism for its conservative design philosophy, less modern appearance and smaller ecosystem compared to other environments. The desktop serves as the default for Ubuntu MATE and appears in many distributions including Debian, Fedora and Linux Mint, positioning itself between Cinnamon's modern traditionalism and the ultra-lightweight approaches of XFCE or LXQt.
This distinctive window manager takes a radically different approach by eliminating mouse dependency entirely in favour of pure keyboard-driven control. As a tiling window manager, it arranges all windows in non-overlapping tiles without any decorations, borders or title bars, maximising screen space through its minimalist design. The control scheme draws inspiration from Emacs, using a prefix key followed by commands to manage windows, split panes and launch applications. Its extremely lightweight nature makes it one of the most resource-efficient window managers available, capable of running on virtually any hardware whilst remaining scriptable for automation purposes.
However, this spartan approach creates a steep learning curve that proves challenging for users accustomed to conventional graphical interfaces, requiring memorisation of key bindings and abandoning typical desktop conveniences like system trays or integrated settings. The manager appeals primarily to power users and keyboard enthusiasts who prioritise efficiency and minimal distraction over user-friendliness, particularly those who favour terminal-focused workflows and minimalist editors, though its niche community means fewer available resources compared to more popular tiling managers.
Released in the late 1990s, this window manager was designed to replicate the look and feel of NeXTSTEP, the operating system interface created at NeXT that later inspired macOS. While it can function as a standalone desktop environment, it is technically a window manager with desktop-like features that includes a dock for applications and a clip for managing app icons. The environment is lightweight and efficient, running well on older hardware whilst providing basic panels, menus and window management without the complexity of modern desktop environments like GNOME or KDE. Though customisable through theming, dock configuration and key bindings, it is often paired with GNUstep to create a more complete NeXT-like desktop experience. Whilst loved by retro-computing enthusiasts for its faithful NeXTSTEP aesthetic and appreciated for its stability and minimal resource consumption, it feels dated compared to modern desktops and lacks many contemporary conveniences such as notifications and system settings integration, requiring add-ons for a full desktop environment experience.
This desktop environment occupies a middle ground between heavyweight options like GNOME and KDE and ultra-minimal setups, offering a lightweight yet complete computing experience built on the GTK toolkit. It provides traditional desktop elements including panels, system tray, settings manager and applications whilst maintaining resource efficiency through components like the Xfwm window manager and Thunar file manager.
The environment emphasises stability through conservative development practices, making it particularly suitable for older hardware and users seeking reliable performance. Customisation options are extensive but not overwhelming, allowing for theming and panel modifications without the complexity found in more feature-heavy alternatives.
Whilst it maintains a reputation for dependability and efficiency, some users find its appearance dated compared to modern alternatives and note that its conservative development pace means new features arrive slowly. The platform serves as the default environment for distributions like Xubuntu and remains popular for reviving older computers, positioning itself as slightly heavier than LXQt but lighter than options like MATE whilst offering more customisation than Budgie or Cinnamon.