
Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon DesktopĬinnamon uses a very traditional desktop layout, complete with a menu button, system tray, and a panel located at the bottom of the screen. Cinnamon is the default desktop environment of Linux Mint, which we consider to be one of the best distros for beginners right now.
Mac os alternative desktop environment windows#
This design choice was very much intentional as the goal of Cinnamon is to make the transition as easy as possible for users who are thinking about switching from Windows to Linux. In fact, Cinnamon resembles Windows more than it does most other Linux desktops. Not recommended for older systems due to relatively high resource consumptionĬinnamon is a variation of Gnome but the two desktops look very different from each other.Provides a very traditional desktop experience.Designed for users who are switching from Windows.If you don’t mind working with third-party tools, you can use the Gnome Tweak Tool along with various shell extensions to spice things up a bit. The layout is certainly different from something like Windows but you don’t have to stick with the default look if you don’t like it because Gnome 3 is highly customizable. Gnome 3 is fairly minimalistic compared to other desktop environments and borrows quite a few elements from mobile UIs. To make things even easier, the panel also includes a search function. No need to stumble around trying to find the browser or music app because here you have everything in one place. Gnome 3 was built with convenience in mind and comes equipped with an ‘Activities Overview’ panel that contains all the important applications you may want to use. The desktop has a very clean and modern look while also being remarkably simple to use. Gnome 3’s popularity has a lot to do with the fact that is it the default desktop environment of Ubuntu and many other highly acclaimed distributions. When it comes to the latest version, however, Gnome 3 easily one of the best Linux desktop environments on the market, as well as one of the most well-known ones. The Gnome project had a fair number of ups and downs over the years, with some past iterations being hit or miss at times. Highly customizable, though it does require some third-party tools.The default desktop of many distros, including Ubuntu.Keep in mind that this isn’t necessarily a ranked list, however, we do think the average user will enjoy the first few entries more than the bottom ones. But don’t worry about having to test all of them yourself because we already did all the heavy lifting for you.ĭown below you can find what we believe to be the best Linux desktop environments available in 2020.

Functionality, aesthetics, resource consumption, and ease of use, among other things, are all important factors to consider when choosing your desktop environment. Instead, each distro (usually) supports multiple desktops and it’s up to you to decide whether you want to stick to the default one or switch things up.Īs most veteran users will tell you, there isn’t an absolute best Linux desktop environment that you should use regardless of the situation. Unlike Windows or MacOS, Linux doesn’t ship with a standard desktop that comes with every single distribution.



The UI of an operating system is often referred to as a desktop environment, especially when talking about Linux. Even though a good portion of Linux users prefers to interact with the operating system using the command-line terminal, there’s nothing wrong with using a graphical user interface instead.
