- Choosing a desktop environment in Linux It directly affects performance, resource consumption, and ease of use.
- GNOME and KDE Plasma stand out for their power and aesthetics, while XFCE, MATE, LXQt, or LXDE are ideal for hardware limited.
- Many distributions allow you to combine them with various desktop environments, adapting the same Linux base to very different needs.
- Testing different environments is the best way to find the balance between lightness, functionality and visual appearance.
If you are wondering Which lightweight desktop environment to choose for LinuxThat's because you've probably already discovered that, in this system, not everything revolves around the distribution. Many users start by asking about the fastest distro, and eventually realize that the key lies in the desktop environment: that's where a large part of resource consumption, fluidity, and how comfortable your daily life will be are determined.
In Linux you are not condemned to a single desktop environment like in Windows or macOS: You can mix almost any distribution with various graphical environments.Switching between them and adjusting the system to your liking is great, but it also complicates the choice, especially if you're coming from other systems and aren't entirely sure what the difference is between GNOME, KDE, XFCE, LXQt, MATE, Cinnamon, and the like.
What exactly is a desktop environment in Linux?
A desktop environment in Linux is the set of programs, libraries and components that make up the graphical interface What you see: panels, menus, windows, icons, notifications, file manager, settings dialogs, etc. It's the layer that sits above the operating system and converts the commands and services in something "clickable".
This layer usually includes a window manager (It handles drawing and moving windows, maximizing, minimizing, and managing virtual desktops), panels or docks to launch applications and view the notification area, a file manager to navigate through folders and devices, and a panel of system settings to modify appearance, keyboard shortcutsenergy and much more.
Unlike other systems, in Linux that layer is neither unique nor fixed. You can install multiple desktop environments on the same machinechoose one when logging in or even opt for a simple ultralight window manager if you only want the bare minimum to move windows.
On Linux servers, a graphical environment is not usually installed because It would consume resources without contributing much to purely server-related tasks.But when we talk about desktop computers, portable or even a VPS that you're going to manage with a mouse, the desktop becomes a key element.
Why are there so many different desktop environments?
The almost overwhelming variety of desktops in Linux has an explanation: Linux is free software developed by numerous communities and companiesAnd each group has its own ideas about what makes a good interface. Over the years, these philosophical and technical differences have resulted in distinct projects.
It also plays a role that Users and devices are very different from each other.It's not the same to design for a modern laptop (or for someone who wants to). convert a laptop into a desktop computer) with plenty of RAM and a decent GPU, rather than a PC over 10 years old, a Raspberry Pi, or a cheap VPS with limited resources. Some prioritize visual effects, others ergonomics, and still others just want the desktop to consume as little as possible so that important applications have more headroom.
Furthermore, there are companies that maintain their own distributions and opt for a specific desktop environment for to offer a highly controlled “brand” experience (as happens with some corporate or productivity- or education-focused distributions). This leads to forks of existing desktops, such as MATE or Cinnamon, which are created to preserve a classic style or introduce changes that the main branch did not want.
All of this ends up generating a vast ecosystem of desktops, forks, and combinations with distributionsThe good news is that there's almost certainly an option that fits your hardware and your preferences; the hard part is deciding which one to choose without driving yourself crazy.
How to choose the desktop environment according to your needs
Before you rush into installing desktops "haphazardly", it's good to have some basic criteria clear. Performance, ease of use, customization, community, and hardware type These are the points that weigh most heavily in the decision.
On computers with limited RAM or a weak processor, it makes sense to prioritize a lightweight environment such as XFCE, LXQt, MATE or even LXDEThey consume much less memory than GNOME or KDE Plasma, start up quickly, and don't overload the CPU with unnecessary effects, which makes a noticeable difference on older laptops, netbooks, or Virtual machines adjusted.
If you have a modern PC with decent specs and aesthetics and integration are important to you, GNOME and KDE Plasma are the top contenders.They offer smooth animations, advanced features, highly polished application ecosystems, and good accessibility, at the cost of slightly higher power consumption (although Plasma has improved tremendously in efficiency in recent years).
The learning curve also matters. Cinnamon, Budgie, or classic desktops with a bottom panel and application menu They feel very familiar to users coming from Windows: bottom panel, menu in the corner, system tray… GNOME opts for a different flow (activity view, central search, fewer buttons in view), which may be jarring at first but becomes very fluid once you get used to it.
Finally, it's worth taking a look at the community and support. GNOME and KDE have extensive documentation, active forums, extensions, themes, and constant updates.XFCE, MATE or LXQt, although smaller, also have very loyal and caring communities, which translates into stability and prevents them from being abandoned overnight.
The "big" desktops: GNOME, KDE Plasma and Cinnamon
In the Linux ecosystem there are a few desktop environments that are considered "big leagues" due to their popularity and maturity. GNOME, KDE Plasma and Cinnamon These are three of the most used, especially in distros designed for desktop users.
GNOME It's currently one of the kings of the Linux desktop and comes pre-installed on well-known distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and CentOS. It features a very minimalist design, with few distractions and an organization based on the view of activities and virtual desktopsIt uses many GTK libraries and a wide range of integrated applications.
Although its memory consumption is higher than that of lightweight environments, GNOME is reasonably optimized and It works wonderfully on modern hardware.In addition, it has an extensions system that allows you to add extra panels, classic menus, extra indicators and a lot of improvements, although it is not the most deeply customizable environment without using those extensions.
KDE Plasma It's the other big heavyweight. It's characterized by offering virtually unlimited customizationYou can change themes, icons, window behavior, panels, shortcuts, widgets, and almost any visual or functional aspect you can think of. It has a very powerful control center and its own tools for everything: Dolphin as a file manager, KWin as a compositor, utilities for networking, multimedia, office applications, and much more.
For years he had a reputation for being "annoying," but that label is very outdated: Plasma today is surprisingly lightweight for everything it offersand runs smoothly on mid-range systems. Many distributions geared towards both home and professional users (Kubuntu, openSUSE with Plasma, KDE neon, some editions of Manjaro, Kali with Plasma) include it as a primary option.
CinnamonOriginally developed by the Linux Mint team as a fork of GNOME, it was born with a clear idea: to offer a modern desktop but with a classic “Windows-style” layoutIt has a bottom panel, a full application menu, a system tray, and a behavior that feels very natural if you're coming from Microsoft systems.
It doesn't reach the level of crazy customization of KDE, but it allows for quite a bit of fine-tuning of panels, applets, themes, and extensions. In terms of resource consumption, it falls somewhere in the middle.Slightly larger than XFCE, but less demanding than GNOME in many configurations. It's a great option. for starters who want something beautiful, coherent, and that doesn't complicate their lives.
Lightweight but complete desktops: XFCE, MATE and LXQt
If your priority is for the computer to run smoothly even with limited RAM, the best strategy isn't to change distros, but opt for a lightweight desktop environmentAmong the most recommended are XFCE, MATE and LXQt.
XFCE It is probably the quintessential classic among lightweight desktop environments. It has been around for many years, is written in C, and its goal has always been... to offer a traditional desktop experience that is fast and very stableYou'll find it as standard in Xubuntu and in many lightweight versions of other distributions.
Its Thunar file manager, Xfwm window manager, and simple panels can be customized with themes and icons, maintaining a sober but pleasant appearance. It consumes very little RAM and CPUThis makes it ideal for older computers, modest laptops, or VPSs where you want a graphical interface without hogging all the resources.
MATE It emerged as a continuation of GNOME 2, when GNOME 3 radically changed its design and many users missed the classic interface. It's a fork that maintains that traditional menu and panel layout, but Updated and optimized for current and limited hardware at once.
It includes its own suite of applications (such as the Pluma editor or the Caja file manager) and has very low resource consumption, making it A perfect candidate for resource-constrained teams and users who value stabilityIt is very popular in distributions such as Ubuntu MATE, Linux Mint MATE, or some variants of Debian and Fedora.
LXQt It's the modern evolution of the old LXDE. It combines the ultralight philosophy of that project with Qt libraries (the same ones used by KDE)This allows for the integration of certain modern technologies without significantly increasing system requirements. It's modular and very memory-efficient, with minimal requirements that make it useful even on very old PCs or Raspberry Pis with limited RAM.
You'll see it especially in distributions focused on lightness, such as Lubuntu or some minimalist editions of Mageia and Arch. The interface is simple, straightforward, and unpretentious.It's a panel, menu, basic desktop, and little else. If you prefer a minimal desktop that leaves the entire machine free for your applications, this is a great option.
Other interesting desktop environments: Budgie, Pantheon, LXDE, Enlightenment, Deepin, Sugar, and Pixel
Besides the most well-known names, the Linux world has a collection of less widespread but very valid environments, each with its own particular approach. Some prioritize design, others education, or minimizing their footprint on the system.
Budgie It originated in the Solus project, but today it can also be installed on Ubuntu (Ubuntu Budgie) and other distributions. It is based on GNOME technologies, but with a more compact and elegant design, top or bottom panel and a side area for notifications and quick accessIt seeks a balance between simplicity, modern appearance, and reasonable performance.
Pantheon It's the desktop environment that popularized elementary OS. It's heavily inspired by macOS, with Top bar, bottom dock, and a minimalist approach with large, clean iconsIt also relies on GNOME, but its developers have strived to take care of the aesthetics as much as possible and offer a very polished experience for those coming from the Apple world.
LXDEAlthough it has lost ground to LXQt, it is still used on systems that really need to be pushed to their resource limits. It's an ultralight GTK desktop environment, with ridiculously low memory consumption compared to GNOME or KDEand it adapts well to older hardware. Many "revive-PC" distributions still offer it as an option.
Enlightenment (E) It starts as a very powerful and aesthetically pleasing window manager, and with There It evolves into something closer to a complete desktop environment using its EFL libraries. It is extremely lightweight and can perform surprisingly well even on very modest ARM processors, like those of certain Raspberry Pi models. In return, their configuration is somewhat more unusual than that of more conventional desktops.
Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) It originated in the Deepin distribution and focuses on providing a A visually polished interface, with translucent panels, a side control center, and smooth animationsThe curious thing is that, despite its polished appearance, its performance is quite balanced and it can run well on mid-range computers, even netbooks, if you don't overuse effects.
Sugar It is a special case: it was designed for the One Laptop per Child educational project, with the idea of offer an extremely simple desktop, focused on learning activities for children. It is written in PythonIt is cross-platform and has minimal requirements, but it is not intended for conventional multitasking use, but rather for very specific educational contexts.
pixel It emerged as the reference desktop environment for Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi. Like XFCE or LXQt, It requires very few resources and performs really well even on motherboards with only 512 MB of RAM.Today it can also be installed on regular PCs and is a good option if you want a lightweight environment with a slightly more polished feel than a bare-bones LXDE.
How to find out which desktop environment you're using right now
If you already have a Linux distro installed and you're not sure which desktop environment you're using, the terminal It can clear up your doubts right away. There is an environment variable that stores that information. and you can check it with a single command.
Open a terminal and run:
echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
The exit will indicate something like GNOME, KDE, XFCE, MATE, Cinnamon or a similar name. It's the fastest and most direct method, without navigating through menus.
Another option is to list the session binaries installed on your system with:
ls /usr/bin/*-session
There you will see different types of files gnome-session, startkde, xfce4-sessionetc., which indicate which graphic sessions are available. And if you prefer something more visual, tools like neofetch and fastfetch They display the current desktop environment along with other system data.
Relationship between distro and desktop: common combinations
A fairly common question is whether to choose the distribution or the desktop environment first. The reality is that It depends on each distro and what you prioritize.Some give you many ready-to-install combinations, others only one or two.
Ubuntu It's a good example of flexibility: the standard edition comes with GNOME, but you have official flavors like Kubuntu (KDE Plasma), Xubuntu (XFCE), Lubuntu (LXQt), Ubuntu Budgie And even Ubuntu Studio, geared towards multimedia with KDE and XFCE variants. If you want Ubuntu, the most practical thing is to directly choose the flavor with the desktop environment you're interested in.
openSUSE It offers desktop environments like KDE Plasma, GNOME, and XFCE during installation, both in its Leap version (more conservative, ideal for users who prefer stability) and in Tumbleweed (a rolling release model for enthusiasts and gamers). Many users recommend it. openSUSE Leap with KDE Plasma for its combination of robustness and good visual experience.
DebianThe base of many other distributions, it also lets you choose your desktop environment during installation. In addition to GNOME, KDE, XFCE, It includes MATE, Cinnamon, LXDE and LXQtIt's incredibly stable, but a bit more challenging for beginners, so if you're just starting out you might find it easier to use Ubuntu or Linux Mint before making the leap to pure Debian.
Kali Linux, famous in the world of security and the hacking Ethical, it offers images with GNOME, KDE, and XFCE. Since it comes loaded with penetration testing tools, It is common to combine it with KDE Plasma Dolphin is popular for its power and the ease of use it provides as a file manager, although XFCE is also very common when maximum lightness is desired.
Arch Linux It takes a different approach: it is installed practically "raw" and then you choose which desktop environment to mount from the console (MATE, Cinnamon, Enlightenment, GNOME, KDE, LXQt, XFCE, Budgie, or even just a window manager). It's not the most recommended option to start with.But if you fancy building the system piece by piece, it's hard to beat its flexibility.
Other popular distros are already highly oriented towards a specific desktop environment. Linux Mint It offers editions with XFCE, MATE and Cinnamon (all based on Ubuntu), with MATE and Cinnamon being the most recommended for their balance between ease of use and performance. Zorin OS It opts for GNOME and a Lite edition with XFCE, with a very similar appearance to Windows 11 to facilitate the transition.
Lightweight desktops to revive old PCs
When the hardware is barely adequate, there's no point in trying to run GNOME with all the effects enabled. Lightweight desktops make the difference between a usable system and one that drags on.There are several options specifically designed for veteran teams.
In addition to the aforementioned XFCE, MATE, and LXQt, it is worth remembering LXDEIt's still widely used in environments where every megabyte of RAM counts. Its minimum requirements are very low, and its design is quite reminiscent of classic Windows, which helps many users who are new to Linux with older machines.
EnlightenmentAlthough somewhat more unusual to use, it is also highly optimized. It runs smoothly with just a few tens of megabytes of RAM, and its flexibility allows for the automation of scripts when the computer starts up or shuts down, which can reduce waiting times and simplify workflows.
On the other hand, environments such as Pixel or certain LXQt profiles They are very common in low-power devices like the Raspberry Pi. Specific distributions for these boards, such as Raspbian (now Raspberry Pi OS), Ubuntu MATE for Raspberry Pi, or Kali ARM images, usually combine lightweight kernels with modest desktops to achieve a smooth experience connected to the living room TV.
In short, if what you want is Give a second life to an old PC or laptopSafe bets include XFCE, MATE, LXQt, LXDE, Pixel or Enlightenment, while GNOME, KDE and Cinnamon are better suited to relatively modern hardware.
Ultimately, choosing a lightweight desktop environment in Linux comes down to deciding how you want to allocate your machine's resources between the "visual layer" and the actual applications you use daily. With the vast array of options available today, you can opt for GNOME or KDE if you're looking for visual power and advanced features, or for XFCE, MATE, or LXQt if you prioritize... speed and low consumptionOr you can opt for alternatives like Cinnamon, Budgie, Pantheon, or Deepin if you like to pamper the aesthetics without sacrificing too much performance; the good thing is that, in Linux, you can always try several desktops until you find the one that best suits your way of working and the computer you have at hand.
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