Linux is very different from other operating systems because of its openness and flexibility. Linux One of the most flexible part of the Linux is its graphical user environment or in the Linux desktop environment. Desktop environments provide user-friendly and generally shiny interfaces for the user. In this article, we will look at different types of desktop environments with different tastes.
Gnome Desktop
Gnome is the most used desktop environment. It is installed default by most of the Linux distributions. Gnome is complete desktop environments which have a lot of tools developed in this project. Also, other desktop environments also use Gnome’s tools and packages. Gnome provides little details and more ease of use. Gnome resource consumption is moderate according to other desktop environments.
KDE – Plasma Desktop
KDE or with its new name Plasma is the king of the Linux desktop environments. KDE provides ultimate user experience with its shiny interfaces. KDE gives the user the ability to edit all details about it. In the old times, KDE resource consumption was high but currently it is affordable but the highest in the Linux desktop environments. I am currently using KDE with pleasure. We can call KDE as main desktop environment which has its tools.
Cinnamon Desktop
The cinnamon desktop is started in 2011. It is a fork of Gnome Desktop. It has the same code base but through time it differentiated with Gnome. The cinnamon desktop is less resource exhaustion than Gnome. It is a project mainly supported by Linux distribution Linux Mint.
Mate Desktop
Mate Desktop is the continuation of Gnome 2 which is an older release of Gnome. Mate resource usage is lower than Gnome and Cinnamon. Mate provides standard Gnome 2 tools. Mate desktop can be used for low-end systems.
Unity Desktop
Unity Desktop environment is mainly developed by Canonical or Ubuntu. It is mainly aimed for usage in netbooks. Unity working mechanisms are similar to MacOS. Unity is not a lightweight desktop environment.
Xfce Desktop
Xfce or Xfce4 is strong alternative for desktops for low resource usage. Xfce provides tools for whole desktop environments but resource requirements are lower than another desktop environment. It has own tools developed for Xfce project like Xfce-terminal. Ubuntu has spin named Xubuntu which is tightly integrated with Xfce Desktop.
LXQt Desktop
LXQt is a lightweight Qt desktop environment. Qt is a library specifically designed for graphics operations. LXQt uses similar code base with Lxde. It is proposed to replace Lxde Desktop in someday.
Lxde Desktop
Lxde is another alternative for lightweight desktop environments. Lxde is fewer resource needs. Lxde provides a component-based design which means only some part of Lxde can be used and another part is committed. Lxde has an active community for development and support.
Pantheon Desktop
Pantheon is the default desktop environment originally created for Elementary OS distribution. It is written by using Vala and GTK3. It provides similarities with Gnome Shell and MacOS. Support for Pantheon OS is not so wide. Pantheon OS provides eye-candy view.
Deepin Desktop
Deepin Desktop Environment is a default desktop environment created for Linux Deepin distribution. Deeping Desktop also supported by distributions like Arch Linux, Ubuntu, Manjaro. It is easy to use and provides sleek user interfaces for absolute productivity.
Enlightenment Desktop
Enlightenment Desktop environment also is known as E a compositing and stacking windows manager. It is called “the original eye-candy window manager”. This desktop has low resource requirements and provides original desktop experience. There are some interesting work mechanisms different from other desktop environments. Enlightenment provides its own terminal emulator, video player, and image viewer.
Sugar Desktop
Sugar Desktop environment is specifically designed for education. Sugar Desktop developed as a part of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. Suger Desktop is designed, inexperienced users. Sugar Desktop is generally used for children related distributions or applications.
Hawaii Desktop
Hawaii Desktop is Wayland and Qt Quick based desktop environment designed for Hawaii OS a Linux distribution. Some Linux distributions like RebeccaBlackOS uses Hawaii Desktop.