I’ve dabbled with Linux over the years, first with Ubuntu in the early 2010s, then Elementary OS when that dropped, and a few years ago I really enjoyed how customizable the gui was with Xubuntu. I was able to make it look just like WIndows 2000 which was really cool.
Which current distro has the best GUI, in your opinion? I find modern Ubuntu to feel a little basic and cheap. I guess I don’t really like modern Gnome. I’m currently using Windows 10 LTSC which is probably the best possible version of Windows, but I’d jump to linux if I could find a distro with a gui that feels at least as polished and feature rich as Windows 10 LTSC.
Distro is irrelevant. DE/WM choice is all that matters as far as GUI goes. Also, if you want a GUI that looks or feels like windows then KDE probably has you covered in that you could probably customise it to mimic windows.
I quite like the Desktop Environment in elementaryOS. I think it’s called Pantheon Desktop? It’s very polished. Or InstantWM from InstantOS is also interesting and has some nice animations and effects.
Personally, I use simple and minimal Openbox
Yes, exactly. haha, the distro has nothing to do with the GUI. That’s your Desktop Environment. On almost every single popular distro you can get teh same DE’s either through official offerings or community versions.
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I couldn’t agree more. I think that tying yourself to a specific distribution is a good way to keep yourself in a box. I think the better question here is “What DE do you prefer?” and then choose your distro based on your preferences for desktop environments while keeping other things in mind (i.e. frozen packages or rolling base).
I, like yourself, pretty much require KDE to be functional on my desktop. A great distro for me is one that ships new KDE releases without much delay (or at least, one that’s not completely unreasonable) without having to wait for the next LTS release to get all the goodies. This narrows down the choices pretty substantially as there aren’t a lot of distros that meet this spec:
- Arch
- Tumbleweed
- Fedora
- NixOS (debatable on the keeping KDE up-to-date iirc)
- KDE Neon
- Ubuntu with PPAs (least favourite way to stay up to date though)
I prefer to have a rolling (or close to rolling base) so that really only leaves me with the top 3 options.
I’m not really here to shill for KDE, but just encourage folks to find the DE that feels most comfortable to them and then work on your requirements from there.
Linux Mint Cinnamon. Stable, yet tons of customizations possible and makes the jump from Windows a whole lot easier (I jumped 1.5 years ago and will never look back).
+1 for Linux Mint Cinnamon. It just works
This is what’s currently doing it for me. I’m a ‘very’ heavy Windows user looking to make the jump out of privacy and telemetry considerations. Mint is what I’ve settled on for precisely this reason.
Agreed. Linux Mint Cinnamon is also my favorite. I’ve been using it ever since I stopped using Windows and switched to Linux from Windows XP.
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You can use most desktop environments on most distros.
If a distro has its own GUI and it doesn’t exist on other distros, usually that means either it isn’t free software or it’s not good enough that anyone has bothered to package it for other distros.
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I also enjoy Mint. Simple and easy to use. I wouldn’t consider myself old, so I think you shouldn’t either!
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Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Speaking of which I’m starting to feel comfortable enough suggesting Linux as an OS for folks looking for a PC. It’s nice, because it really brings old PCs to life. If say my older parent wanted a computer I could buy a decent used one and just slap Mint on there and it would suit their needs.
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Same, tho I don’t think I qualify as “old” quite yet
I’m using GNOME on Fedora rn and it’s bussin
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Same. Pretty much the perfect setup for laptop usage. I just use a couple of extensions like Just Perfection to tailor it a bit more, like removing the top bar which I personally don’t find useful when I have trackpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts.
@WingedSeven Fedora is pretty much the go-to distro for vanilla GNOME. There’s something really enjoyable about distros that just give the DE as-is instead of trying to turn it into something different.
I’m using Fedora with GNOME now and enjoying it. If you want a more Windows-like experience, go with Fedora KDE spin.
I use Garuda dragonized with kde plasma as my set up, works for me!
Although KDE is windows like out of the box, it is really customizable without the need of addons, which I like. The Gnome addons can be really cool, but in my experience they can make the desktop less stable and often get abandoned.
This can’t be understated, when I started using linux it was on gnome and everything worked great, I installed plugins and it still worked fine at first but then everything started breaking
I’ve heard people complain about KDE stability but as far as I can tell they are old complaints that aren’t relevant anymore, becouse while for me things kept breaking after I used plugins on gnome, on KDE I customized the hell out of it and then almost a year later, and several major updates, and still no issues
Personally I’m a KDE Plasma person, it’s easily customizable and very windows like (though I’m pretty sure in some ways Microsoft has been taking design ideas from KDE)
Im honestly a GNOME person. Part of that is due to me needing magnification and a screen reader to use a computer for sure, but its also very keyboard driven and that is how i use computers
Distro? Probably Debian, because it has all the desktop environments. If you want, you can have Plasma, Gnome, Xfce, Cinnamon, and MATE all installed at the same time and switch between them at will. Most distros seem focused on one specific DE, which if I’m not mistaken means switching to another involves reinstalling the whole operating system.
The big downside of Debian is that the software in it tends to be very out of date. You’ll get security updates and the occasional bug fix between Debian releases, but that’s about all you’ll get.
You can get a rolling-release experience by running the “unstable” version, but as the name implies, upgrades will sometimes fail or break something, and you need to know your way around the system in order to recover from that. Not a problem if you want to learn to be a Linux sysadmin anyway, but if you want your system to Just Work™, then unstable Debian is unfortunately not for you. It’s a trade-off, as with most things in life.
Don’t most distros have access all desktop environments? I’m assuming OP is asking about the default DE.
They should specify that then. Because right now I’d also answer the question with “all distros”.
I’m assuming the OP just wants know what GUI we like best, and the distro is irrelevant.
They do but I wouldn’t really install two DEs in say Ubuntu because it leaves you with a bunch of confusing shit. Debian does it a nice way where they don’t interfere with each other.
I don’t see why distros should be married to a specific GUIs. Any distro can support any number of GUIs. It just seems like a huge waste of effort to make a distro just to support one GUI.
I would encourage people who want to implement their unique vision for a GUI to make their effort easily packagable by any distro and to work with an existing community distro to make their work available widely.
i really like gnome, especially with extensions like dash to dock, transparent top bar, etc. really nice, simple, and clean ui imo.
Yup, I tend to recommend fedora to my newbie friends because Gnome is simple to switch to and works really well.
Gnome with pop’s cosmic extensions is great. Excited to try their rust based replacement once it’s ready
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This is subjective. For me, anything with Mate as desktop environment. Currently using Ubuntu with it.
I’m a conservative user. I don’t really care about whistles and bells, nor appeal to novelty. I want something that works and that I’m used to.
Is mate being ported to Wayland? I will die on the hill that gnome 2 was peak gnome.
Initial Wayland support started around 2021. I’m not sure on its current state as I’m still using X, but it’s worth trying.
That is great. After some unpleasantness with Ubuntu, I ended up switching my dad to Mint + KDE because of multimonitor support in wayland. Unfortunately, KDE + mint has been a bit janky. Now that mate has been ported, I’ll ask him to try that.
MATE is my pick. It’s got all the modern features with a relatively simple baseline that is easy to customize, that also come with several presets.
Two or more start menus? You got it. A Plank dock plus taskbars filled with shortcuts and info covering every other edge of the desktop? Hell yeah! A simple Windows, macOS, or old Ubuntu like interface. Yep. Hide it all away leaving a minimalist and clean space to work? Sure can do!
Plus it feels to me more feature rich than even GNOME 3.x (where x≤14; I stopped bothering with its releases later on, so I’m not sure on its current state). And it’s easier to get it pretty than Xfce IMO.
Ubuntu Budgie
- I like the aesthetics
- I’m just to used to windows start menu/taskbar.
- decently sized community and support
Note: a lot of people seem to use the Mac inspired app dock and that seems to be the default. It’s customizable though so you can get a taskbar if you prefer that.
I think the whole point of Budgie is to make the interface a little more welcoming if you are coming from Windows or Mac.
I’ve really like Budgie the few times I tried it. If they can get Wayland working at some point in the future I’ll definitely try it again.
