It is a default desktop in Deepin Linux distribution by the same company.īesides its elegance, it also provides animations and a layout that increases its looks and feel. Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) is the most beautiful desktop developed by Deepin Technology Co., Ltd. If you’re looking for a visually attractive desktop, Deepin is the best Linux desktop environment that also looks like macOS. Lacks any sorts of animations which makes it feel very plain to use. There is also an official Ubuntu flavor, Xubuntu, that features Xfce desktop. You can compile it for Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems such as NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Cygwin, and macOS X. Additionally, Xfce also provides numerous applications and plugins that you can use to extend your desktop the way you like.įor example, a terminal emulator, text editor, sound mixer, application finder, image viewer, iCal based calendar, and a CD and DVD burning application.Īnother important feature of Xfce is support for several UNIX platforms. Though it consumes fewer system resources, you still get a visually appealing and user-friendly graphical interface. But it doesn’t fail to include all the necessary components and features one would expect from a popular lightweight desktop environment. Adhering to its purpose, Xfce lacks animations and special effects. This lightweight desktop environment is designed according to the standards proposed by. Xfce is another desktop environment that especially aims for machines with limited hardware resources. Moreover, other Linux distributions such as Linux Mint, Fedora, Debian, and Manjaro Linux also come with MATE desktop editions. The most popular and official Ubuntu flavor, Ubuntu MATE, features the MATE desktop environment. Unlike GNOME, you can run it on your budget machines having a scarcity of hardware like Raspberry Pi. MATE Linux desktop environment’s biggest feature is that it doesn’t eat your hardware resources. The forked packages have been renamed to avoid conflict with GNOME 3. MATE Linux desktop also comes with many forked versions of GNOME Core Applications and many developed-from-scratch applications.
It follows the recursive acronym tradition and stands for MATE Advanced Traditional Environment. MATE is a very lightweight desktop environment with an intuitive and attractive interface.
Like Cinnamon, MATE is also forked out from GNOME 2 to deliver features that GNOME 3 lacked at that time. MATE and Cinnamon desktop environments have many similarities in terms of their histories and origins. The UI leaves much more to be desired and is not that modern-looking and intuitive.This includes unofficial Ubuntu variant Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix, Fedora (as a spin), EndeavourOS, and Manjaro Linux. Besides Linux Mint, other Linux distros have also adopted Cinnamon to give users slick and full control of a desktop. This is one reason Linux Mint shipping Cinnamon (by default) tops our list of best Linux distributions for beginners alongside Ubuntu. Cinnamon is one such desktop that gives an easier and more familiar experience to people transitioning from Windows. It is all about user experience, full of animations and effects. But MGSE didn’t meet the expectations of the Linux Mint team, and they started the Cinnamon project to create a forked graphical shell.Ĭinnamon has matured into a complete desktop environment over time, but some people still believe it’s a graphical shell. That’s when an improved version of the GNOME shell was created and was called Mint GNOME Shell Extensions (MGSE). The Linux mint team couldn’t go for the GNOME shell as it didn’t fit their goals, but there was no alternative. In addition to opening and closing apps, you can also execute shell commands using the launcher. KRunner is the launcher on this top Linux desktop, which acts as a mini command line. Jump Lists are another addition to the task manager allowing you to access the main options for a program by performing a right-click on its launcher icon. It offers users the freedom to add multiple panels on the desktop. This feature-rich and powerful desktop environment is home to many desktop widgets. With the latest Plasma 5.19, you can preview the image file directly from the default KDE Konsole terminal. It contains several notable software such as default and most advanced file manager Dolphin and Okular document viewer. KDE Plasma also ships tools and utilities that are collectively known as KDE Applications. It’s available for the Linux family of operating systems. Compared to other desktops, it has the most modern look and feels. The Plasma Linux desktop environment by the KDE software community is one of the most customizable graphical desktop environments.