In the world of Linux users, the distro choice is super important. Everywhere you go on Internet, when you see someone talking about his distro, you’ll feel like they’re talking about their wife or their religion. It is THAT serious. So you need to understand what a distro is, and what each one can offer you.

GUI vs Command Line

For Linux beginners, the command line in the terminal app can be a bit intimidating. When you open the terminal, you might’ve think of something like: “Oh that looks difficult, perhaps this “X” button on the window will close the damn thing.” We are not going to talk about the command line in this article, no not yet. So, relax. In this article, we are going to take a short tour about the Linux GUI or desktop environment.

The Linux GUI and a short story

Do you know that you don’t have to use command line in order be able to use Linux for daily use? You can actually use Linux through a Graphical User Interface (or GUI for short) just as you’d normally use Windows or macOS. There are many versions of GUI, which we will take a look in the next section.
In the early 2000s, most Linux distros might require an understanding of the command line in order to properly install and configure them. But there was a distro called “Mandrake” which being marketed as beginner-friendly and came with a “pretty” GUI. Using the GUI, rather the command line, feels familiar, and familiarity breeds comfort. It spurred my short-lived affair with Linux, away from Windows 98. The GUI made Linux suitable for daily use.
As excited as I was back then, I had even once accidentally formatted the family’s computer hard drive when I tried to reinstall Mandrake for the n-th time, and took a very good beating because of that. It would take me roughly 6 years before I started to try Linux again. No, not because of any kind of trauma. The funny thing is, I think Linux Mandrake’s website still looks the same to this day since day I left it (thank you archive.org!).

So, what is a GUI anyway?

Alright, just so you know that I won’t be talking at length the history of GUI here.

You can think of GUI as a “graphical translator” (or technically, a graphics shell) of all the tasks that can be performed in the command line, from managing folders and files, to installing applications and many others. So yeah, GUI and command line are related. Although some tasks however, are much better performed with GUI, such as watching movies, browsing, editing images or videos.

The GUI is a program that enables you to interact with the operating system (OS) through an assortment of features and functionalities called “desktop environment” that provides you with all of those icons, window functionality, toolbars, folders, wallpapers, desktop widgets, etc. GUI can make your Linux distro appearance looks aesthetically pleasing. And if you are the tinkering type, you can even fully customize your desktop environment, making it your own work of art. From now on, for the sake of simplicity, we will refer GUI as the desktop environment.

The varieties of Linux Desktop Environment

In this section, I will try to list you some of the most popular Linux GUI programs of today (as the time of writing) by listing them one by one. I will also list two or more corresponding Linux distros that made the desktop environment available in their official release package. Therefore, you can save the trouble from the need to manually install different desktop environments, although you could do that.

I should also note that each Linux distro might have several official release versions that utilize different desktop environments. Hopefully the list can help you to choose which distros you like better visually.

Budgie

Budgie is a lightweight desktop environment which was developed based on GNOME. Compared to GNOME or KDE, Budgie has a lower RAM requirement and can runs faster. Budgie might the right fit for you if you like minimalistic desktop appearance and clean interface.

Budgie is available as installer package on the following Linux distro: Ubuntu Budgie, Manjaro Linux.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is an easy to use desktop environment for beginners. However, it might require more resources that some of its lightweight counterparts to use it smoothly.

Cinnamon is available as installer package on the following Linux distro: Linux Mint, Manjaro Linux, Ubuntu Cinnamon.

Deepin Desktop Environment

Deepin interface is elegant and sophisticated. Deepin’s launcher, tries to imitate the macOS launchpad feel.

Deepin is available as installer package on the following Linux distro: UbuntuDDE.

GNOME

GNOME is one of the most widely used desktop environment which available in many Linux distros’ installer packages. GNOME is designed to be simple and easy to use if you are coming from Windows.

GNOME is available as installer package on the following Linux distro: Fedora, Manjaro Linux, Pop!_OS, Ubuntu, Zorin OS.

KDE Plasma

KDE is one of the oldest Linux desktop environment around, first released back in 1996. KDE now positioned itself as the creative and productive desktop environment. It is easy to customize and also great for casual use as well.

KDE Plasma is available as installer package on the following Linux distro: Manjaro Linux,

Mate

Mate is designed to be intuitive for its users. It also sports the classic look and feel, some people might appreciate it. The name come from a South American native plant called yerba maté, which contains caffeine.

Mate is available as installer package on the following Linux distro: Linux Mint, Manjaro Linux.

Moksha

Some of you englightened people might want to check this desktop environment. Moksha is a lightweight desktop that performs well for older hardware. It looks pretty neat as well. If need to freshen up your trusty old laptop or computer, you might consider using Moksha.

Moksha is available as installer package on the following Linux distro: Bodhi Linux.

Pantheon

I think Pantheon is one of the most attractive desktop environment. It is designed as a part of Elementary OS package (a Ubuntu-based Linux). It looks simple yet refined, and it has the macOS feel to it. Pantheon might be a great candidate for you macOS users if you want to switch to Linux.

Pantheon is available as installer package on the following Linux distro: Elementary OS,

Xfce

Xfce is another lightweight desktop environment contender that competes with Budgie and Moksha. These three desktops are beginners friendly and use low computing resources. However, xfce is more popular and available in many distros as their official installer package.

Xfce is available as installer package on the following Linux distro: Linux Lite, Linux Mint, Manjaro Linux, Xubuntu.

Conclusion

There are varieties of desktop environments that you can choose. This article helps you to decide which official release of Linux package installer provides the desktop environment you wanted.