Poll: Desktop environments

[AllGamer]

Wow! incredible

never expected to see Cinnamon to be so popular, i though it was just myself and very few others that actually like this new DE

[veggen]

Well, to be honest, it's probably not that popular outside of Mint community. But, that might change as well, 'cause Cinnamon is an actually good DE.

[sobrus]

Im using Mate+Compiz, wonderful DE.
But I have Cinnamon installed also and plan to use it in the near future.
Just waiting as it becomes more mature and stable.
Used to have xfce on suse, but it's a bit on the "too simple" side (for example lacks bluetooth support). Mate is better.

[Mintified]

I absolutely loved Cinnamon, but kept getting wierd glitches like themes dropping out or the mint menu freezing while browsing for items. I had openSuse installed dual boot and KDE worked perfectly so I installed Mint KDE 13 when it arrived. I've had a perfectly smooth time with it so far (other than my noob ignorance and tinkering too much) and it is now the only linux OS on my system.

I'll probably try cinnamon again some time in the future but for now KDE is great.

Keep up the good work guys, you have a good loyal following and it can only get better as other distro's ignore their users needs.

[MerelyJim]

I like running Xfce on my Acer Netbook (32-bit, a few years old, only 1GB RAM) because the system resources are so minimal. I got so used to the interface, though, that after playing with Cinnamon and Mate for a few days each, I wiped the hard drive on a new Toshiba 64-bit laptop, and installed Xfce again. Little puppy really moves now!

[joness31]

I will vote for LXDE in view of its convenience in using However I am also looking towards using MATE along with Cinnamon in order to have good screen views and preview exercises.

[mingle]

After a hectic few weeks of setting up each and every version of LM13 on my two desktop systems and giving each version a solid few days workout, I've settled on Xfce.

As far as I'm concerned it's the pick of the bunch - it's the snappiest and simply feels 'just right'.

I'm yet to run into any bugs or game-stopping glitches. It's also quite customisable - something which I didn't really expect.

Cheers,

Mike.

[3fRI]

Before upgrading to Mint 13, I tried all of the Mint 12 DEs on my desktop and laptop. In the end, I preferred Cinnamon on the desktop and LXDE on the laptop. When Clem and his team released Mint 13, I stuck with Cinnamon on the desktop and switched to Xfce on the laptop. The more I played with Xfce, the more I liked it. In fact, I liked it so much that I also switched to Xfce on the desktop. In both cases, it's fast, responsive, and stable with no problems at all.

[bdantas]

MATE forever!

When I was a Ubuntu user, I put in a lot of time to learn Gnome2's ins and outs so that I could customize my desktop to perfection. Now that Gnome2 is gone, customizing any DE other than MATE to my satisfaction would take up so much time that it would put a serious strain on my marriage Except for having to learn some new names for the forked applications (gedit -> pluma, nautilus -> caja, gnome-terminal -> mate-terminal, eye of gnome -> eye of mate, etc.), I can't tell the difference between MATE and Gnome2. There are no stability or speed issues on any of the laptops I have LM13-MATE 64-bit installed on (Dell XPS15, Thinkpad T520, and Sony Vaio so far--I'm working on converting some other relatives to LM13-MATE to make my life easier, so this list will hopefully grow soon).

MATE is the reason I came to Linux Mint. MATE saves me time and keeps the wife happy. MATE allowed me to recreate the look and functionality of my perfect Gnome2 desktop with ease. I'm the IT guy in my family and circle of friends and, as long as Linux Mint supports MATE, Linux Mint will remain our one and only distro.

[caerolle]

Xfce here, too. Pretty much did the same thing as Mike (mingle), with the same outcome.

[Cerule]

Tried many other desktops but for me KDE is the best. I want to be able to configure DE to adjust to my needs and not the other way around. Gets me frustrated when interfaces have irritating elements that I cannot change. I also love the way KDE looks and how much it has features. Haven't got stability or performance issues with it.

[dagrump]

I installed 13 cinnamon on 1 desktop & my laptop. I put the old hard drive w/ 12 back in the laptop. Cinnamon seems to be sluggish on it.
I'd reinstall 12 on this desktop, but I really don't feel like messing with it.
I guess as much as I hate to, I'll have to switch to xfce, never could get used to kde.

[d00med]

I'm conflicted between Cinnamon and Mate. I like both, but Mate is dramatically speedier on my relatively low power hardware, and there are much more themes available, as well as it being more mature and customizable. But Cinnamon is more stable and has the features I'm looking for. After trying both for a while, I'm back to Cinnamon. Really do like it, and the development is moving along at a swift pace.

[SkunkApeMan]

I'm using Mint 13 with Mate. I come from Gnome2 and jumped to Mint because Unity is a joke.
I am extremely thankful to all the folks involved in the developement of Mate, and for how easy they made it to configure it almost exactly like my Ubuntu 10.04/Gnome2 setup!
Here's my config:
Moomex theme with Breathe icon set
Thunar File Manager (I like the icons better than the ones in Caja - other than the icons Caja is great)
Added a top panel with the Menu Bar that has Applications-Places-System just like Gnome2

Please keep up the good work with Mate! Mint13/Mate is the best out there!

- SkunkApeMan

[SkunkApeMan]

I installed 13 cinnamon on 1 desktop & my laptop. I put the old hard drive w/ 12 back in the laptop. Cinnamon seems to be sluggish on it.
I'd reinstall 12 on this desktop, but I really don't feel like messing with it.
I guess as much as I hate to, I'll have to switch to xfce, never could get used to kde.

Did you give Mate a proper chance? It's a lot more configurable than XFCE and not as sluggish as Cinnamon.

[bigbenaugust]

I am probably the only one silly enough to install the XFCE version and then install JWM.

[baptiste]

this sounds interesting, I'll have to try it as a poor man's lxde version .
though, lately lxde has had a system monitor plugin as in gnome 2/Mate, and I guess JWM does not support a feature such as a volume icon.
I've downloaded lxpanel's source, but didn't build it yet, there are annoying dependencies to meet first.

/edit: I had Jwm installed already, just tried it but the session gave me an empry black screen with a white mouse cursor. this is on mate edition. I use lxde to save on memory.

[bigbenaugust]

this sounds interesting, I'll have to try it as a poor man's lxde version .
though, lately lxde has had a system monitor plugin as in gnome 2/Mate, and I guess JWM does not support a feature such as a volume icon.
I've downloaded lxpanel's source, but didn't build it yet, there are annoying dependencies to meet first.

/edit: I had Jwm installed already, just tried it but the session gave me an empry black screen with a white mouse cursor. this is on mate edition. I use lxde to save on memory.

I usually install volumeicon and have it as a StartupCommand in my .jwmrc. It swallows automatically. xfce4-power-manager works the same way.

[bigbenaugust]

In fact, if you want to see the .jwmrc file, I can throw it up somewhere.

[grandtheft_jiujitsu]

Cool to see the poll supports some of my suspicions. I currently use Cinnamon for a "daily driver", but I'm on a laptop so I have XFCE installed for when I'm running on battery. I'm also playing with a few others to run battery tests and just get a feel for other options. After all, what is the point of Linux if you're just going to take everything as it comes out of the box, right?