Which DE/WM do you prefer?

Is gnome claiming to be older than kde? 'cause it isn't. Gnome was started because decades ago, the license for the qt library used by kde wasn't quite open enough.
- i interpreted it as the user's first DE was gnome :)
  
  Yeah, that would work.
- CDE (common desktop environment) was proprietary afaik. Crazy times
  
  It was. I think I used CDE very briefly on some Sun workstations back around the kde 1.x times. But lowly undergrads mostly got ttys and not X terminals.

KDE Plasma. It works for me, and it has enough features so that I can adapt it to my workflow as my workflow changes.

Let the chant begin
KDE! KDE! KDE! Death to foot fetish Death to mice Death to everybody who dont rice
KDE! KDE! KDE!
- You have been banned by Red Hat's management
  
  Isn't fedora switching to KDE default?
- Upvoted for the limerick.

As a partaker of anime I know that being older isn't usually an advantage.
Also KDE wins. Fight me.
- It is if it's me
  
  Hello me.

Hyprland

Cinnamon

I ended a 30-years Windows streak BECAUSE of KDE Plasma 6 (among other reasons)

i3wm + xde.
- I'm using herbstluftwm and am happiest with it, but spent years on i3, almost a year in bspwm, and a hot minute on sway. All after years of mostly KDE, some Gnome, and a few years (concurrently w/ Linux) on Macs from work.
  Any tiling WM over any DE. I'd go back to i3 before choosing either Gnome or KDE. The one exception would be a fully feature-complete NeXTSTEP clone. I'd switch to that in a heartbeat. Not OpenSTEP, not Windowmaker; NS was beautiful, functional, fully integrated in all aspects - like MacOS, but without the dumbed-down idiocracy.
  
  Since you shared so much already, what's your opinion on Wayland, specifically Hyprland?

KDE. I don't have to change anything (other than taskbars on all monitors rather than just the main one) for an experience I like. Everything just works. Wayland support is best in class.
I don't like gnome's workflow and it takes COSMIC level customization for me to like it. And technical issues are common for me. Namely windows constantly spawning off screen and delayed reactions.
XFCE's default layout is absolutely horrible and there's no Wayland support. Mint XFCE's implementation is good though.
Cinnamon, in my experience, is buggy and has similar technical problems to gnome.
I've used i3wm and it's okay, but I would never use it on my main desktop. Takes a certain kind of workflow.
I've messed with AwesomeWM and can say it's very ok.
LXDE/LXQT are obsolete. Not old school, obsolete. And in the case of QT, there's absolutely no reason to use it when XFCE has the same ram usage anyway.
--
I haven't used any other desktops other than these.

KDE was first.

Gnome. I'm a Mac refugee from a decade ago. I've been using gnome with dash2dock and dash2panel together to make a sudo Mac os.
- Do you mean pseudo?
  
  Lol yeah I'm dumb and tired

I've ran GNOME for years until this month. Something randomly broke and then on fresh install the dark theme wasn't working correctly. Switched to KDE and everything looks and works perfectly. Think I'll hang out here for the foreseeable future.

Hyprland for now, but I'll probably switch to COSMIC, once it's available on NixOS

Used i3 and then sway almost a decade. When Plasma 6 arrived, I just wanted to try it out and it just kind of stuck to me. Lovely desktop.

XFCE

KDE on steamdeck, because it came preinstalled
Gnome on work-pc, because it came preinstalled
also gnome on notebook, because the multi-workspace thing works very nice OOTB in gnome

FVWM.
I feel like the "desktop environment" is a Faustian bargain. You get a plateload of software that looks consistent, but none of it is best of breed.
I can recall being a bit wowed by the original KDE 1.0 betas on my old 486, when Konqueror was the file manager as much as the browser, but in the end it felt like thry were trying to recreate the experience you got wth the pack-in software of Windows 95.
And **** GNOME for really pushing the client-side decorations model. I configured my window manager to put the title bar and close button where I want it, thank you.

preparing to make the jump to linux soon. Here for recommendations. I haven't been happy with windows since XP.
- Fedora KDE. Just be sure to enable 3rd party repos (very easy and quick job, just a google search away).
- Linux Mint
- Don't wait. Get Linux Mint Cinnamon / LMDE on a USB and install it.
  If you don't like Debian based or Linux Mint for some reason, then check out Nobara or Fedora KDE spin. EndeavourOS is also great.
- Nobara. It's Fedora KDE with everything fixed and unlocked.

Both ☝🏻
- There's three in that picture. XFCE is the one in back.
  
  That's their logo!? I've used XFCE for years and never knew...
  
  Did not see it 😅
  But I don't like XFCE

Wrong. I don't like themes. I turn on dark mode, move the default panel up top and setup papirus icons and breeze white cursor theme. This is about as basic as it gets.

i3, not for any smart reason, just bc it was the first tiling wm that i used, and i dont have a reason to switch
- And for the Waylanders like me, we have sway.

none/none
- Found the TempleOS user

I daily drive Window managers but occasionally I also check out Desktop environments. Here is my personal preference -
DE
XFCE
KDE
Cinnamon
WM
Hyprland
BSPWM
Openbox / Labwc
- I have never known what the difference between DE and WM, well, I still don’t know really…
  
  A DE tries to be a full operating environment, it has panels and configuration tools and (...) all as part of the package
  A WM only does window management, and other things need to be added separately. The line blurs a bit since most people who use WMs end up adding a lot of other stuff to them to the point it might as well be a DE, only it was built piecemeal.

Gnome for me. I used to love kde and still do but fedora made me love gnome

After Plasma 6 released I prefer KDE over Gnome every day, I found that Plasma 5 was too messy, inconsistent and unintuitive even if Gnome was lacking in functionality. Even then I decided to move to i3 "just because" and now I'm transitioning to Sway. So far I think Sway is my favorite.
- MHH interesting. I honestly haven't really given kde a fair shot since KDE4 maybe I need to force myself to use Plasma 6. Gnome has really gotten on my nerves lately. But I also know that on Plasma I will mostly recreate my gnome experience (Super key, hot corner ...) since these are so ingrained in me from over a decade of using gnome.
  
  KDE4 was a mess, and it annoys me when people that haven't used it since 4 shit on KDE as "buggy". Plasma has been fixing so many things since and 6 has done the upgrade to QT6 for future proofing, but it's a bit buggier than late 5.
  Give it a try, but you're going to have to wait in more stable distros like Ubuntu and Fedora since they don't have it out yet. If you wanted to try it in Fedora, the Nobara spin uses the latest 6. Otherwise, Arch and a few other more cutting edge distros are running it, like maybe OpenSuse Tumbleweed.

- If you asked source, it's "God gave me this awkward superpower, what is it for?'
  If you asked sauce, idk

DE: XFCE
WM (Edit: compositor, you know what I mean): Hyprland, Wayfire (close second)
I really like how stable and polished XFCE feels, but I've got into tilling/dynamic window managers over the past few years so I just use Hyprland now. It's not as stable and whenever there's a bad commit and I can't be bothered looking into it I just use Wayfire and praise the spinning cylinder and rotating windows for a few weeks.

GNOME for sure

GNOME. Also, trying to use as many apps as possible that follows its guidelines.

plasma

My DE choices:
KDE Plasma -- It's pretty, it's customizable. Workflow is customizable
XFCE -- Honestly I consider XFCE to be like Plasma's sibling, in that its workflow is also very customizable and there is a lot of space for theming, but is lighter and acts nicer on weaker hardware
I tried Gnome and I just hate it? It needs a lot of fennagling to look and act in a way I find enjoyable. Cinnamon is eeeeeeeeehhhhh.
WM-wise, I played with Hyprland and I3WM, but tiling WMs aren't for me. They just aren't. For what convenience I gained from being able to use Super+something to do basically everything, I don't enjoy the workflow.
I also used Wayfire for a bit -- Writing my own configuration file and customizing everything IS fun, but like.... Nah?

I currently use Plasma 6 on both my laptop and my desktop, but XFCE has a special place in my heart, due to it being right in the middle between being lightweight with resources and still staying usable for a buffoon like me.

Maybe because I used windows first and not Mac, but KDE. Gnome is just opensource Mac DE/WM with the same mentality "we know what's best for you and you'll like it".

Xfce just works, but I wanna switch back to kde someday

Gnome with a few extensions just feels very natural for me, but I've also just been using gnome for a long time

I'll be switching to COSMIC DE as soon as it gets into the beta phase.

xfce with i3
- I really wish DE + auto tiling combo was more of a thing. Like what Pop! has going with gnome currently. The convenience of a DE with an actual WM. Yes I know there are extensions, qtile, etc. Having this out of the box would be fantastic, so much time is wasted moving windows around... tiling then manually.. or having windows overlap, oh the horror.
  
  i wish nvidia would have proper wayland support
  i would love to spend 3 weeks making hyprland look nice just to end up wiping my entire install because i felt like it

sway is the way.

Gnome on my desktop, LXQt on my laptop.

cosmic

I switched to Niri recently, and find it much better than most of the wlroot tiling options.

cinnamon.appimage

I primarily use Plasma, but I have GNOME and Hyprland also installed so that I can switch between them and give 'em a try every now and then, just to get a feel for their workflows.

Xmonad

For out of the box looks, personally like KDE more than any of the others I've seen.

Generally depends on the device. Overall, KDE for desktops, Gnome for laptops. Xfce on older devices.

Gnome, hands now. Before coming to Linux, I was an Apple user. I was a fan of their design philosophy - minimalism, clarity and simplicity. Well, I can't tolerate Apple as an enterprise, and there are also a lot of very weird design desicions which I discovered while using their devives - but the core principle is something I stand by. Gnome in my opinion is exactly that - KISS, and all the options are really polished.
I've tried KDE as well, and have a lot of respect for the developers of it. But after using it for a few days, there are just a lot of inconsistencies in the KDE applications which don't make sense to me.
Gnome for the win!!!!!!!1!1!1!1!1!

XFCE with OpenSuse style is my favorite. Low resource usage, windows-easy ability to put shortcuts all over the desktop (fuck you, Unity), searchbox that just works. I don't need to spend hours or months customizing the setup for it to work as I want.

My personal favorites in order from most to least favorite:
XFCE
KDE
Hyprland
Cinnamon
i3
CDE
LXQt
Deepin

Sometimes i just cant understand why a post gets downvotes... maybe some hate anime?
- #BreastEnvy

MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,MINT 👏,
(mint cinnamon)

From unity to gnome for Wayland support from gnome to KDE because of painful stutterstthough now I use both on wayland, just dep3nding on which syst3m I'm on at th3 time.
Great DEs over all, though in excited to try outt cosmic once I get past some systems projects :)