They all seem to have pro’s and con’s, not really sure why I have such a hard time choosing

    • ZephrC@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, it’s kinda sad, because I really like Mate, but it does feel like it’s too much of a jack of all trades. It’s like Mate is always good, but there’s always a better option. Plus it seems like every update takes longer than the previous one. I’m starting to worry about it’s future.

    • jelloeater - Ops Mgr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      7 months ago

      I’ve used XFCE for old netbooks, it always felt like it was too bare bones. But TBH it’s prob the lightest thing that doesn’t look like garbage.

      Cinnamon always felt like it was too fancy for me, but I get that it’s great for most folks.

      TBH if your using either Debian or Ubuntu, changing your DM is a much easier thing to flip flop on. Nixos always worries me for gaming.

  • Pope-King Joe@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    I kinda like Cinnamon, and if I only had these three, Cinnamon would win every time.

    That being said, I’m a total simp for KDE.

    • DarkThoughts@kbin.social
      3·
      1 year ago

      Same for me. I liked Cinnamon on Mint, but that’s also a long long time in the past. KDE made big strides over the years. Anything but Gnome though. I can’t state how much I hate it for how gutted it is of basic functionality. I think the only thing I liked were the snappy animations and the black task bar. XFCE is nice for really low powered machines though.

    • RossoErcole@kbin.social
      6·
      1 year ago

      I lack one thing from windows’ alt+tab, the ability to keep the alt+tab view while pressing alt+canc or alt+q to close that window.

      It allowed to much more efficiently clean my window mess

  • BoofStroke@lemm.eeEnglish
    7·
    1 year ago
    • cinnamon for modern desktop that just works with good workflow out of the box
    • mate for wobbly windows
    • xfce if running hardware from 20 years ago.
    • Asifall@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Why did you switch and what do you like about it? I’m using cinnamon now and it seems perfectly fine to me, but idk what I’m missing

      • PrivateOnions@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        You are not missing anything. I switched because I was going to do a fresh luks encrypted install and after trying XFCE, I liked its UI more. It was somewhat nostalgic and gave Windows XP vibes. It also uses slightly less resources which comes in handy since i have to spin up virtual machines once in a while on a very mid range laptop.

    • HubertManne@kbin.social
      31·
      1 year ago

      yeah the thing about window managers is it really depends on the distro and how they use it and extend it.

  • Linuturk@lemmy.onitato.comEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    You need a login manager that picks a random desktop environment at login so you can install all three but never have to choose.

  • MajorHavoc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Prof Oak: Pick a Pokemon to help you on your journey.

    Ash (takes a moment to apt install i3wm): No thanks. I’m good.

    Prof Oak: That dumb kid is gonna get killed by the first Weeedle.

    Edit: Source: Am i3wm user, and never could pick between the fine options presented above.

  • zeroscan@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Try all three. It’s not like it costs anything, and they’re all just a click or one-liner away. Try them all and see what works best for you.

    That said, I’ll go with Mate any day of the week.

  • EmasXP@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Over the years XFCE is the DE I’ve used the most. Kept getting back to it. It simply does a lot of things right. That does not mean it’s my favorite, though. There are plenty of good ones out there. LXqt is one I find to be excellent, but it does not get much attention. Enlightenment too, for that matter. Enlightenment feels like it comes from a different era, but it’s quite charming. That said, I think I’m finished with these “small” environments, and will be on KDE from now on. You get the “batteries included” experience, and things generally work very well together. Sure, maybe it’s a bit more resource heavy, but I can’t say I notice.