Think of a desktop environment (DE) as the look and feel of your computer. It’s like a theme pack that bundles together a bunch of programs, all with a consistent style.
This style includes things like icons, toolbars, backgrounds, and those cool little gadgets you can put on your screen. Most DEs also come with their own set of apps and utilities to get you started.
The key player here is the window manager, which controls how your windows open and behave. But don’t worry, you can usually swap it out for something else if you want.
The best part? You can totally customize your DE. It’s like building your own dream computer setup – choose the colors, fonts, and even the way windows behave. You’re not limited to just one DE either. Want to use the web browser from another DE? Go for it!
However, there are a few things to keep in mind. Some apps in a DE rely heavily on that specific DE’s software. This means installing apps from different DEs can sometimes lead to a bunch of extra files, taking up more space on your drive.
Also, mixing and matching DEs can sometimes lead to a bit of an awkward look – imagine a mix of different icon styles and colors. It might also feel a bit inconsistent, like some apps behaving differently from others.
But hey, if you’re up for the challenge and want a truly unique setup, go for it!
List of desktop environments you can install on Gnoppix
Officially supported
- Budgie — Budgie is a desktop environment designed with the modern user in mind, it focuses on simplicity and elegance.
https://blog.buddiesofbudgie.org || budgie
- Cinnamon — Cinnamon strives to provide a traditional user experience. Cinnamon is a fork of GNOME 3.
https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon || cinnamon
- COSMIC — COSMIC is a Rust based desktop environment created by System76 for Pop! OS, inspired by highly customized GNOME. Still in alpha.
https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-epoch || cosmic
- Cutefish — Cutefish is a new and modern desktop environment.
https://cutefish-ubuntu.github.io || cutefish
- Deepin Desktop Environment — Deepin desktop interface and applications feature an intuitive and elegant design. Moving around, sharing and searching etc. has become simply a joyful experience.
https://www.deepin.org/ || deepin
- Enlightenment — The Enlightenment desktop shell provides an efficient window manager based on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries along with other essential desktop components like a file manager, desktop icons and widgets. It supports themes, while still being capable of performing on older hardware or embedded devices.
https://www.enlightenment.org/ || enlightenment
- GNOME — The GNOME desktop environment is an attractive and intuitive desktop with both a modern (GNOME) and a classic (GNOME Classic) session.
https://www.gnome.org/ || gnome
- GNOME Flashback — GNOME Flashback is a shell for GNOME 3 which was initially called GNOME fallback mode. The desktop layout and the underlying technology is similar to GNOME 2.
https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeFlashback || gnome-flashback
- KDE Plasma — The KDE Plasma desktop environment is a familiar working environment. Plasma offers all the tools required for a modern desktop computing experience so you can be productive right from the start.
https://www.kde.org/plasma-desktop || plasma
- LXDE — The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment is a fast and energy-saving desktop environment. It comes with a modern interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard short cuts and additional features like tabbed file browsing. Fundamentally designed to be lightweight, LXDE strives to be less CPU and RAM intensive than other environments.
https://lxde.org/ || GTK 2: lxde, GTK 3: lxde-gtk3
- LXQt — LXQt is the Qt port and the upcoming version of LXDE, the Lightweight Desktop Environment. It is the product of the merge between the LXDE-Qt and the Razor-qt projects: A lightweight, modular, blazing-fast and user-friendly desktop environment.
https://lxqt.github.io/ || lxqt
- MATE — Mate provides an intuitive and attractive desktop to Linux users using traditional metaphors. MATE started as a fork of GNOME 2, but now uses GTK 3.
https://mate-desktop.org/ || mate
- Pantheon — Pantheon is the default desktop environment originally created for the elementary OS distribution. It is written from scratch using Vala and the GTK3 toolkit. With regards to usability and appearance, the desktop has some similarities with GNOME Shell and macOS.
https://elementary.io/ || pantheon
- Phosh — Phosh is a Wayland shell user interface based on GNOME, useful on mobile devices.
https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Phosh/phosh || phosh
- Sugar — The Sugar Learning Platform is a computer environment composed of Activities designed to help children from 5 to 12 years of age learn together through rich-media expression. Sugar is the core component of a worldwide effort to provide every child with the opportunity for a quality education — it is currently used by nearly one-million children worldwide speaking 25 languages in over 40 countries. Sugar provides the means to help people lead fulfilling lives through access to a quality education that is currently missed by so many.
https://sugarlabs.org/ || sugar + sugar-fructose
- UKUI — UKUI is a lightweight Linux desktop environment, developed based on GTK and Qt. UKUI is the default desktop environment for Ubuntu kylin.
- Xfce — Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. It consists of a number of components that provide the full functionality one can expect of a modern desktop environment, while remaining relatively light. They are packaged separately and you can pick among the available packages to create the optimal personal working environment.
