The Verdict
Desktop environments
In this Roundup we have shown you a way of choosing the best desktop environment, so now it is your turn to try them out and decide for yourself! When using your computer, you have many different tasks or actions. You may do work, in which case you have a workflow. The way you use the computer affects which desktop environment you want to use, making it a very personal choice. You are probably going to find it best to work on Gnome, KDE or Cinnamon. The most common reason is that these are the default installed ones. They also include all the nice features and extensions, while being easy to get started with. You can see your applications and have symbols that tell you what you can do. The best polished of these is KDE. It is also the most decorative and versatile of the bunch. This comes at a cost, though.
Cinnamon has the best balance between extensions and ease of use, while it is also fast and responsive. At the same time, it is not that heavy on resources. You can also add a wide range of extensions in the shape of widgets that send you ongoing and updated information.
Regolith requires a bit more training, but it does set itself up for you so you can continue as you did with Gnome. Adding extensions and other gadgets is a bit more tricky, however. If you decide to choose a tiling window manager it will probably be for the simplicity of the desktop, as well as the low resource usage it offers.
With Awesome you have to set up and practice to use it! It’s easily the hardest in the group to get started with. When you are up and running, it does deliver the most benefits from a resource point of view. Despite the text-based system of setting up the Awesome WM, it is not that challenging to get into. With many examples available and tutorials aplenty, even a little effort will lead to a strong, fast desktop that is to your liking.
In this Roundup, you can see that deciding on the best desktop environment is not entirely objective. However, on balance, the best choice here is Cinnamon. The core reason being it’s the best-balanced of the five.