Many Linux newcomers often ask what distro should they use? But this question does not matter. You can use any distro you want. What matters is which 'Desktop Environments' (DE) you use.
What are Desktop Environments?
So what are Desktop Environments? Desktop Environments are just what they say - they what gives your desktop the look and feel that it has. There are many Desktop Environments present in the Linux World. What is more amazing is that you can use any Desktop Environment with any distribution. So if you have a favorite Linux distro but do not like the Desktop Environment it has, you can just change the desktop environment to your preferred choice! That is the beauty of Linux. You can customize anything as you like.
Now that we know what Desktop Environments are, let us take a look at some of the popular DEs out there -
GNOME -
GNOME is a desktop environment developed by The GNOME Team. It is one of the most popular and most used Linux DEs in the world. Gnome comes as the default desktop environment in Ubuntu, Fedora, Pop! OS, etc. Many distributions like Manjaro have their official flavors of GNOME too. Some distros just use the GTK theming of Gnome and not the whole Gnome DE. A good example of this is Elementary OS which uses Pantheon DE as its desktop environment along with GTK. GNOME is often criticized for being very resource-demanding than other DEs. The latest version of GNOME, GNOME 41, uses about 1.5 GB of RAM out of the box, while most other DEs remain under the 1GB mark.
KDE Plasma is the next most popular DE after GNOME. It is developed and maintained by the Plasma team. It is more light on the resources as compared to Gnome. KDE Plasma mostly looks a bit like Windows with its left-aligned start menu. But it is nothing like Windows. It is a highly polished distro that is the go-to choice of most Linux users. It uses the Qt framework for its functioning.
One major advantage of KDE Plasma that I found over Gnome and any other DE is its Global Scaling capacity. Usually, most Linux DEs do not play well with my 15.6-inch laptop display. The overall UI and text are too small to read or see on most DEs. There is fractional scaling present in GNOME, but scaling it to 125% (which is the correct scaling for my display), causes massive screen tearing. The problem gets solved with Wayland support in Gnome, but then most of the X11 apps become blurry on Wayland scaled at 125%. It is a mess in short. KDE is the only DE that does it perfectly. Its global scaling feature is just perfect with no screen tearing or application blurring. That is why I always prefer KDE over any other DE.
KDE also has smoother animations than most other DEs. But most of all KDE is known for its customization. You can customize KDE Plasma in any way you want and make it truly your own with all the customization options and different widgets present. It also has a massive online library of themes, icons, widgets, etc to make your experience even better!
Many Linux distributions have official KDE Plasma flavors like Manjaro KDE, Kubuntu, KDE Neon, Garuda Linux, etc.
XFCE -
XFCE is a DE made for low-end systems. It is a very lightweight DE, with the usage of just under 500MB of RAM. It is ideal for people who have systems that are much older compared to today's standards. There are many distros that have official XFCE flavors like Xubuntu, Manjaro XFCE, Linux Mint XFCE, etc. But as XFCE is less resource-demanding, you also get fewer things pre-installed out of the box.
Apart from these three mainstream DEs, there are also many other DEs present -
Cinnamon (used in Linux Mint by default)
Mate
Budgie
Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE)
Pantheon (Used in Elementary OS)
You can also install any DE in any Linux Distro by using the terminal.
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