Linux with the best gui

10 Best and Most Popular Linux Desktop Environments of All Time

One exciting aspect of Linux unlike with Windows and Mac OS X, is its support for numerous number of desktop environments, this has enabled desktop users to choose the appropriate and most suitable desktop environment to best work with, according to their computing needs.

A Desktop Environment is an implementation of the desktop metaphor built as a collection of different user and system programs running on top of an operating system, and share a common GUI (Graphical User Interface), also known as a graphical shell.

In this article, we shall list and walk through some of the best desktop environments for Linux, including a few of their illustrious features and components. However, we should note that this list is not organized in any particular order.

That said, let’s move to listing the desktop environments.

1. GNOME 3 Desktop

GNOME is probably the most popular desktop environment among Linux users, it is free and open source, simple, yet powerful and easy to use. It is designed from ground up to offer Linux desktop users a wonderful and exciting computing experience.

It presents a activities overview for easy access to basic tasks, provides a powerful search tool for users to access their work from any place. However, GNOME 3 latest stable release ships in with the following distinguished components and features:

1. Uses Metacity as default window manager
2. Comes with Nautilus as default file manager
3. Supports desktop notifications using a convenient messaging system
4. Enables on/off switching of desktop notifications and many more

Gnome 3 Desktop Environment for Linux

2. KDE Plasma 5

KDE is a well-known, powerful and highly customizable desktop environment, designed to offer Linux desktop users absolute control over their desktop.

The latest release in the KDE desktop series is the Plasma 5, which has brought in several improvements and new features. It has come with clean and well-polished user interfaces in comparison to previous versions, with improved readability.

Built using Qt 5 and frameworks 5, a number of the notable components and new features in Plasma 5 include:

1. Dolphin file manager
2. Kwin window manager
3. A converged shell
4. Updated graphics stack enabling smoother graphics performance
5. Modernized launchers
6. Workflow improvements in the desktop notification area
7. Improved support for high-density (high-DPI) display plus many other minor features

KDE Plasma System Monitor Window

3. Cinnamon Desktop

Cinnamon is in fact a collection of several minor projects such as Cinnamon, a fork of the GNOME shell, Cinnamon screensaver, Cinnamon desktop, Cinnamon Menus, Cinnamon Settings Daemon coupled with many more.

Cinnamon desktop is a fork of the GNOME desktop environment, it is the default desktop environment on Linux Mint together with MATE.

Other minor projects and components integrated in the Cinnamon desktop comprise of the following:

1. MDM display manager
2. Nemo file manager
3. Muffin window manager
4. Cinnamon session manager
5. Cinnamon translations
6. Blueberry, a bluetooth configuration tool plus many more

Cinnamon Desktop

4. MATE Desktop

MATE is an intuitive and appealing desktop environment, that is an extension of GNOME 2. It works on Linux and many other Unix-like systems. It comes with a handful of default applications such as Caja file manager, Pluma text editor, MATE terminal and more.

Additionally, it is also the default desktop environment for Linux Mint along side Cinnamon desktop.

Mate Desktop in Ubuntu 16.04

5. Unity Desktop

Unity is a graphical desktop shell for GNOME desktop environment. The Unity project was started by Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical, the makers of the well-known Ubuntu Linux distribution. It was started back in 2010, with aims of offering desktop and netbook users a consistent and elegant computing experience.

We must note that, Unity is not a totally new desktop environment, but basically an interface to existing GNOME applications and libraries, with various technologies integrated within it, Unity comes with the following prominent components and features:

1. Compiz windows manager
2. Nautilus file manager
3. A system dashboard
4. Lens, that sends search queries to Scope
5. Scope, a powerful search feature, that searches both locally and online in case the machine is connected to Internet
6. Unity preview, that previews search results in the dashboard
7. Offers an application indicator
8. System indicator that provides information about system settings such as power, sound, current session and many more
9. A simple and sleek notification component combined with other minor features

Unity Desktop

6. Xfce Desktop

If you are looking for a modern, open source, lightweight and easy-to-use, desktop environment for Linux and several other Unix-like systems such as such as Mac OS X, *BSD, Solaris and many others, then you should consider checking out Xfce. It is fast, and importantly user friendly as well, with low system resources utilization.

It offers users a beautiful user interface combined with the following components and features:

1. Xfwm windows manager
2. Thunar file manager
3. User session manger to deal with logins, power management and beyond
4. Desktop manager for setting background image, desktop icons and many more
5. An application manager
6. It’s highly pluggable as well plus several other features

XFCE Desktop

7. LXQt Desktop

LXQt is also free, open source, lightweight, simple and fast desktop environment for Linux and BSD distributions. It is the latest version of LXDE, specifically designed, and a recommended desktop environment for cloud servers and old machines due to its remarkably low system resources usage such as low CPU and RAM consumption.

It’s the default desktop environment on Knoppiz, Lubuntu and a few other less known Linux distributions, some of its notable components and features are listed below:

1. pcmanfm-qt file manager, a Qt port for PCManFM and libfm
2. lxsession session manager
3. lxterminal, a terminal emulator
4. lxqt-runner, a quick application launcher
5. Supports multiple international languages
6. A simple and beautiful user interface
7. Supports an integrated energy-saving component
8. Supports several keyboard shortcuts plus many more

LXQT Desktop

8. Pantheon Desktop

Pantheon is a simple and well-designed desktop environment for Elementary OS, a Windows and MacOS X like Linux distribution. It offers users a clean and organized desktop experience. Due to its simplicity, Pantheon comes with not many visually observable features as compared to other popular desktop environments.

Nevertheless, it works exceptionally well for new Linux users switching from Windows or Mac OS X operating systems.

Elementary Pantheon Desktop

9. Deepin Desktop Environment

Deepin Desktop Environment(DDE) is also a simple, elegant and productive desktop environment for Linux, developed by the makers of Deepin OS.

It works on several other Linux distributions as well including Arch Linux, Ubuntu, Manjaro among others, it ships in with some well designed and sleek user interfaces for absolute productivity.

Furthermore, it is also user friendly with few configurations available. Most configurations are performed from a pop-out side panel, additionally, users can launch applications from a dock at the bottom of the screen similar to that in Pantheon desktop.

Deepin OS

10. Enlightenment Desktop

Enlightenment initially started as a windows manager project for x11 system. However, the project has grown to include a full desktop environment, mobile, wearable and TV user interface platforms as well. Additionally, the developers also wrote some useful libraries in the course of the project advancement.

The libraries created will be used to build several desktop applications as well such an image viewer, video player and a terminal emulator and more, with up coming future works on a complete IDE.

Notably, it is in active evolution from x11 to Wayland as the primary graphical display layer for the Linux ecosystem.

Enlightenment Desktop

Which of the above desktop environments is your favorite? Let us know via the feedback section below by sharing your Linux desktop computing experience with us, you can as well inform us of other less known, yet powerful and exciting desktop environments not mentioned here.

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8 Best Linux Graphical Environment (GUI) to install on Ubuntu 20.04/18.04

Without the Linux desktop environment or GUI, any Linux operating systems including Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04 LTS, or older versions are difficult to operate, especially for beginners. And above that choosing right and the best GUI for the Linux system will not only enhance the experience but also makes it quite friendly to operate with various functions and applications of Linux.

Although Ubuntu has its own easy to use custom Graphical user interface based on Gnome, however, you are not limited to that only. Yes, the Linux is another name for possibilities, we can customize and create our own User interface, of course for that one should have the knowledge of coding. Whereas, we don’t have to take a pain of coding thousand of lines when there are a handful of Linux Desktop environments available to install on Ubuntu with just a few commands. Here we will not only see the list of best Linux Desktop environments for Ubuntu but also the commands to install them quickly…

Best Graphical user interface for Ubuntu Linux

Deepin DDE

If you are just a general user who wants to switch to Ubuntu Linux then Deepin Desktop Environment is one of the best to use. It has both Windows and macOS elements to give a very familiar and strong look with the help of effects. It is developed by the Deepin Linux OS developers but also available under GPL to install on other operating systems. Well, you can set it up on your existing Ubuntu but if you don’t want to have a dual Linux desktop environment or mess with commands then go for pre-built UbuntuDDE based on the official Ubuntu 20.04 LTS focal fossa. It is the unofficial flavor of the OS that comes with DDE as default, thus no fear of breaking your OS.

Xfce desktop environment is trendy because of its light and less resource-consuming features. Yes, that is why low configuration Linux PC or Laptops prefer to install it. But that doesn’t mean it is not good looking, instead it is quite straight forward. Those who are already using Windows can easily understand and use it due to familiar feel.

For example, Linux Mint which is not only available in Mate and Cinnamon but also with Xfce for those who want a GUI that doesn’t need high hardware configuration. Another perfect example is Manjaro with Xfce.

Moreover, the installation of Xfce is not difficult on the Debian-based Linux distributions; we can easily install this Graphical user interface for Linux using the default package manager that is APT and the same is also true for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, and so on.

Here is the command to install Xfce desktop Environment on Ubuntu:

KDE Plasma Desktop Environment

Another popular Linux Desktop GUI is KDE comes with various Linux distros as an option to download. For example, recently MX Linux released its version with KDE Plasma as default LDE. One of the reasons for its popularity is the high ability of customization and other tools comes along with it such as KDE connect to easily connect smartphones with Linux desktop. Users who love Desktop widget, the KDE community doesn’t deprive the Plasma in that.

The traditional look of the plasma-desktop may hide the number of functions that lie dormant in the desktop environment. Users have almost no limits when setting up the Qt-based solution. Here, too, cooperation with the pre-installed programs works flawlessly. In terms of performance and consumption resource KDE is almost equal to XFCE, however if you talk about features and looks KDE for sure beats the XFCE. Well, if you don’t want to install it on your existing Ubuntu system then go for Kubuntu.

To install KDE plasma on Ubuntu 20.04 or 18.04

Pantheon Desktop

Did you think we would miss out, Pantheon? Not at all. Since its launch as a default Desktop environment with Elementary OS, it has been the top choice of various users; especially those want something similar to macOS. Such as the top panel and a dock at the bottom.

This GTK + desktop programmed is not very resources hungry and can be easily used on older devices without any problems. However, the customization is not like KDE but yet a beautiful one out of the box.

If you want to install it on Ubuntu then use the below command:

Budgie desktop

The Solus team has developed Budgie desktop Linux graphical user interface for its independent developed Linux OS called Solus. The GTK + based environment offers a clear design language and does not raise any problem during operation. Compared to KDE Plasma, the range of functions is a bit less, but users receive a neatly preconfigured overall package that can serve as a solid basis for a modern Linux system.

It is an amalgamation of old and modern user interface designs that can be easily used on all kinds of hardware without consuming a lot of RAM. One can easily get it either in the form of Solus or as Ubuntu Budgie available on the official Ubuntu website to download and offers all Ubuntu benefits along with the Budgie desktop environment out of the box. So, you’d be better off using Solus or Ubuntu Budgie for the most part.

Yet, those want to try it on their existing Ubuntu 20.04/18.04 Distro, open command terminal, and use these commands…

Cinnamon

This is already famous because of Linux Mint default GUI and WIndows 7 Like interface. A lot of fine-tuning and a classic setup awaits the user with Cinnamon. Windows users who have switched to Windows will quickly find their way around thanks to the clear start menu including the taskbar. The origins of the Cinnamon desktop go back to the launch of Gnome 3. The Linux Mint developers couldn’t get used to the new operating concept, so a modern alternative with a classic operating pattern was needed.

LXDE / LXQt

The desktop environment LXDE or its successor LXQt is known especially for its lightweight structure and traditional operating pattern. While LXDE is still based on GTK +, LXQt – as the name suggests – relies on the Qt toolkit. Accordingly, the software harmonizes very well with programs from the KDE universe.

The Mate Desktop environment is a fork of Gnome 2, which, like Cinnamon with green and black color tint was initiated in response to the realignment of the Gnome environment. This is why the Mate desktop also relies on a traditional operating structure. The aim of the project is to combine the support of modern technologies with a classic Linux working environment. If you want to experience then the official flavor of Ubuntu Mate is available to download, however, to install Mate on an existing Ubuntu system, here is the command:

So, these were few popular Desktop environments to install on Ubuntu Server with CLI or existing Desktop for the beautiful interface.

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