KDE Plasma Desktop Environment
Posted on 01/23/2019 7:17:26 AM PST by ShadowAce
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, which is the best desktop environment of all?
While diversity is one of the best features of the Linux community, as users can try various options and find out which one suits the best for them, sometimes it can also create confusions. Especially if you’re new to Linux community, you can easily be overwhelmed by the number of choices you have. When it comes to Desktop Environments, there’s no exception. But trying out each and every desktop environments is a very time-consuming and tiring task.
Here, we’ve created a list of the best desktop environments available for Linux distros along with their pros and cons for you.
Just to mention, this is not the list for the best desktop environment for programming or any such specific purposes. Also, the list is not in any specific order.
KDE, rather than being only a desktop environment, is actually a collection of applications, one of which is the desktop environment itself. The latest iteration of KDE is called Plasma, which comes in two variations – Plasma Desktop and Plasma Netbook. KDE is the most customizable and flexible desktop environment available out there.
Where other desktop environments need extra tweak tools for customizing, for KDE it’s all baked into the system settings. You can personalize you desktop environment experience according to your needs without any third-party tools. You can download widgets, wallpapers, themes without even opening the web-browser.
KDE offers a good collection of basic applications and is compatible with all kinds of applications even if they’re not built using KDE Development Platform. The applications KDE comes bundled with offer various essential features, absent in their alternatives.
Whether you want a desktop environment that works just out of the box or you want a fully customized desktop experience, you can definitely choose KDE.
The major Linux distros using KDE as default are openSUSE and Kubuntu.
MATE Desktop Environment is based on the codebase of currently unmaintained GNOME 2. MATE was initially developed for the users who were disappointed with the latest iteration of GNOME shell – GNOME 3. Being a fork of an older desktop environment doesn’t mean that it runs on those obsolete technologies used back then. It just means that MATE took what already works and now continues to improve upon it using modern technologies.
MATE Desktop Environment offers the traditional desktop experience with a hint of modernism. And because it’s built on something that’s been tested and tweaked for years, it works seamlessly. It supports panel system with various menus, applets, indicators, buttons etc. and can be arranged however the user wants.
MATE comes with a collection of basic applications, most of which are forks of GNOME 2 applications. One other thing that makes MATE wonderful is that it consumes only a very small amount of memory for itself and thus is able to function properly on older and less powerful hardware.
Ubuntu MATE uses MATE as its default desktop environment.
GNOME is one of the most popular desktop environment in the world of Linux distros. Many of the popular Linux distros use GNOME as their default desktop environment and it has some popular forks, such as – Cinnamon, Unity etc. GNOME is designed to be easy to use and customizable. The latest iteration, GNOME 3 has a modern and attractive user interface and aims to provide better support for touch-based devices.
GNOME contains almost everything a modern desktop environment should have. Those who are uncomfortable with the modern user interface that comes with GNOME 3 and prefers the good old GNOME 2 experience, it provides a classic mode as well. Dashboard, system-wide search , powerful in-house applications that get the works done, themes, extensions support, window snapping are some of its key features. However, tweaking this desktop environment requires gnome-tweak-tool to be installed. In version 3.18 it has introduced some interesting features like integrated Google Drive in the file manager.
One of the downsides is that GNOME 3 draws a lot of memory because of its graphically heavy interface compared to some of its alternatives.
Some major distros using GNOME are Debian, Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu GNOME.
Suggest read: How to install GNOME Shell in Ubuntu
Cinnamon, a fork of GNOME 3, was initially developed to be and is the default desktop environment for Linux Mint. It is known for its similarities with the Windows user interface which helps the new Linux users from feeling uncomfortable with unfamiliar user interfaces.
Cinnamon contains various customizable components like the panel, themes, applets and extensions. The panel, initially across the bottom edge of the screen, is equipped with a main menu, application launchers, list of open windows and the system tray.
Cinnamon comes with various basic applications including some forks from GNOME 3.
Budgie is the newest in this list of desktop environments. It was created as the flagship desktop of Solus Linux. Though it is still being developed by Solus team, it’s intuitive and elegant interface made it popular among other distribution users. As a result, you can get Budgie in SUSE and Arch based Linux distributions. Ubuntu also has an official Budgie flavor, unsurprisingly called Ubuntu Budgie.
Budgie is based on GNOME. The looks and other Budgie specific changes are managed by Budgie settings while the rest of the settings can be configured by the regular GNOME settings.
As far as the system resources are concerned, Budgie is not that resource hungry but it’s not lightweight desktop environment as well. A moderate system with 2-3 GB RAM is sufficient for Budgie.
LXDE is an extremely fast and energy saving desktop environment. It’s designed to be lightweight and user-friendly while keeping the resource usage low. It embraces modular approach so that each of its components can be used independently and that’s what makes LXDE porting to almost every Linux distros, as well as BSD and Unix, easier.
LXDE comes with various code desktop components, accessories, system & configuration tools. It’s used in Lubuntu as default desktop environment.
The successor of LXDE, combining two open source projects LXDE and Razor-Qt, is LXQt. LXQt’s currently under development and aims to be lightweight, modular, blazing-fast and user-friendly desktop environment. It’s already available on a wide range of Linux distros.
Xfce is one of the most lightweight desktop environment for Linux, BSD & other Unix-like distros. Xfce offers a lite but modern, visually appealing and user-friendly interface. It comes with all the basic features you’ll need along with a decent set of applications.
Manjaro Linux and Xubuntu has Xfce as default desktop environment.
Every desktop environment is distinct in their nature and purpose. Which one’s the best desktop environment for Linux, actually depends on your needs. You have to try a few and decide for yourself which one suits you the best.
So, which desktop environment you use? You can share your desktop screenshots with us in the comment section.
OK... I just went and tried to install the Brave earlier after I posted that. But that file link they give in that instructional was bad and couldn’t find it. Sorry about that. Give it a shot if you like and see if it works for you. In the mean time I will look for a link that is correct for the Brave download file.
It’s just called “Ubuntu Browser”. It came installed on the Linux Mint (Cinnamon) I’m using.
I have Brave installed but it doesn’t have all the addons I like to use. The issue is the addons and the memory hog Fox is. It’s easily fixed by simply closing the Fox browser and reopening it but then I have to sign back in to one of my main addons. I don’t want to get into any further details on an open forum.
It’s really not a big deal. About once a week I have to close Fox and reopen it. Sometimes it will simply crash but will save all the open tabs so even that’s not a big deal.
I’m having a similar problem loading the TOR browser. Can’t seem to get it to work on my system for some reason. Not a big deal because I don’t go to the dark web but I would still like it to be an option. On the other hand the dark web is good place to get hacked so maybe it’s a good thing.
Lol... Really? My Cinnamon 18.3 didn’t come with that I don’t think. Have to look... Thank you!
I just tried to pull brave up in Synaptic and it didn’t see it. I was hoping maybe it would at least pop up an old version that I could go and update.
I read that the Firefox packaged with Linux is their own version aside from the Mozilla update system. I was hesitant to upgrade and hook myself into Mozilla’s system but finally gave in to keep it running smooth.
Tell you what... Just getting into the Darkweb myself. And there is stuff in there you would never find on the normal web. They are scrubbing and hiding so much information it is incredible.
But I set up a VPN server through a static IP service and run TOR through an encrypted Mint clone virtual box. That’s three layers of security if you also count the safeguards in the TOR browser. That way if I get cooties in the VM I can just dump it and clone it again. It isolates and quarantines everything to that VM.
Found the info about the Ubuntu Browser...
https://askubuntu.com/questions/747304/what-is-ubuntu-web-browser
Regarding Android, I am amazed at how fast Google Chrome browser and other apps open on my smartphone.
Yeah, it probably work okay, but it’s just the most basic browser in the world. Might be worth using as a browser with zero protections other than what the Linux OS has.
On my system I’m able to install TOR but when I try to open it; it goes into a download for first time using it then says “Signature Verification Failed”. I keep waiting for Linux to fix this and include the fix in an update but so far nada. I’m not the only one with this issue. It’s actually common.
Oh, I understand how it all works. 40 years in the business. I understand it.
Sometimes you need the commercial application. If a client demands demands the commercial application be used, Linux isn’t going to cut it.
50,000 programs are great... if you want to tinker with Linux.
If you need to get something done easily, outside of Software Development, Desktop Linux isn’t the answer.
There is a Desktop Unix solution that works with commercial applications today... Apple sells it.
If you were sitting here next to me this evening, you’d find MacOS & Fedora sitting in front me. Desktop Linux for the tinkering... MacOS for real-world work.
I may know what the confusion is here. I appears that it may have been awhile since you have tried any of the new Mint versions. They have come a long way and now have a true user friendly GUI environment that works very well. The command line is rarely even needed at all.
All the software is point and click GUI and it really can be compared to the Win 7 environment “normal” users are used to. You should give the new cinnamon a shot before you put it down, I think you will be quite surprised at how far they have finally come with it. And it just plain works.
You are trying to judge something you have not tried.
I installed Mint as a virtual machine yesterday. Instead of creating a pair of additional distributions, I don’t understand why Mint isn’t a group of products that can be installed over the standard Ubuntu releases.
If you have extra disk space & time, you should take a look at deepin.
Fantastic! Now we are on an even keel Sir. Huge respect and kudos for giving it a shot! All criticisms now excepted and respected!
“I don’t understand why Mint isn’t a group of products that can be installed over the standard Ubuntu releases.”
Honestly I don’t know. It is Ubuntu, only thing I can think of is that they eliminated extinct unneeded and redundant stuff and retained only what is actually needed and recompiled it as it’s own complete lighter package. Because it will do anything Ubuntu and Debian and elements can be added back as needed.
Thank you for the reference to the Deepin, Looks like it is geared towards touch screens but definitely sounds like it deserves some more exploration!
Hopefully you got the Cinnamon so that we are on the same page about the average user’s experience and ease of use?
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