Choosing a Desktop Environment (Linux for Noobs 3)

Choosing a Desktop Environment (Linux for Noobs 3)

One of the most important decisions you will make during the process of switching to Linux is which desktop environment to use. This will also help you choose a distribution. In this video, I’ll show four popular desktop environments.

Individual sections:
04:22 – GNOME
10:06 – Plasma
14:36 – xfce
17:45 – Cinnamon

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50 Comments

  1. John Arnold on February 11, 2022 at 10:29 pm

    I kind of miss Mint Cinnamon, been using Garuda KDE Plasma Dr46onized for awhile and I’m beginning to mull over going with Arch Plasma.



  2. Neffscape on February 11, 2022 at 10:29 pm

    What about MATE, Budgie, Pantheon and Unity?



  3. Arthas Menethil on February 11, 2022 at 10:30 pm

    Mint + Cinnamon + Papirus icon theme = ♥️



  4. Carl Sixsmith on February 11, 2022 at 10:33 pm

    Re Linode, gave it a look but decided not to use, because they refuse to give you costs before you sign up an account with them. It’s a shame I was hoping to support the channel by using the affiliate link but I refuse to work with companies that behave like they do,



  5. Raymond Delva on February 11, 2022 at 10:35 pm

    It would be a good idea to show how to switch from one desktop to another if some chose many desktop during installation.



  6. Bruno G. Campos on February 11, 2022 at 10:37 pm

    Gnome is the best



  7. M!ke_y M on February 11, 2022 at 10:40 pm

    Lxde + compiz fusion is also great for older computers.
    Also Xfce.



  8. David Jones on February 11, 2022 at 10:42 pm

    I had a 10-ish year old laptop that ran WIN10. Over time, however, the response time began to deteriorate to excruciating levels. I finally ended up installing Linux Mint with the Xfce desktop. What a difference! That same laptop is downright peppy! I am very happy.

    Xfce was my intro to the wonderful world of Linux. With the possibility that my main laptop – which is a WIN10 – may not be able to support WIN11, I may find myself switching that one over to Linux as well.

    In discussing test-driving these various distros, I’m a bit surprised that Virtualization isn’t discussed. I used Virtualbox to try out a few distros before I settled on Xfce.



  9. Hemish on February 11, 2022 at 10:43 pm

    video starts at 4:45



  10. Coffee Pot on February 11, 2022 at 10:43 pm

    I’m getting Linux.
    Microsoft can kiss my hemorroide ass with their hardware specification.



  11. taputechnic on February 11, 2022 at 10:43 pm

    I’ve been using Linux since 2004, and have been using XFCE for 99% of that time. I don’t like the eye candy on the fancier desktops, and I could change almost anything that I wanted to change. I also had an old computer with an even lighter desktop, IceWM.



  12. Linuxgeek3124 on February 11, 2022 at 10:44 pm

    Bit late to the party, but you should put MATE on this if you update it.



  13. James McCarte on February 11, 2022 at 10:45 pm

    "Plasma lets you do whatever you want"………. someone should whisper that in the ear of the bozos at Microsoft!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



  14. iftar1 on February 11, 2022 at 10:46 pm

    thank you for your content.



  15. Mustafa Yolgiden on February 11, 2022 at 10:46 pm

    10:36
    My mind still reads "KDE" if it sees "Plasma" 😃



  16. Associate Minister & Reserve Deacon Mr. Terry Jones on February 11, 2022 at 10:46 pm

    A. Mr. Jay when you install Linux for your friends and family. Do you install more then one desktop environment? I install KDE Plasma and GNOME for maximum application compatibility.

    B. Mr. Jay I found some QT applications don’t work correctly when logged into GNOME.

    C. Mr. Jay I tell my friends and family. If an application starts with a G. It’s built for GNOME. If an application starts with a K. It’s built for KDE Plasma. You can use all applications in each desktop environment.

    D. Mr. Jay please continue to get on life’s stage and let your Godly inner light shine. Please continue to climb life’s ladder and let the world see The Great and Wonderful Gifts, Talents, and Treasures that are inside of you.

    E. Mr. Jay You Go Gentleman!!!
    F. Mr. Jay please stay safe.
    G. Mr. Jay God Bless You!!!



  17. Pyro-Moloch on February 11, 2022 at 10:47 pm

    Plasma might be more customizable than others, but most of its customization options are kinda unnecessary. Whereas some things that I really wanted to customize on it weren’t customizable. I found Cinnamon to be much more convenient and intuitivie in that regard. I was able to make it look and function almost exactly how I wanted. That being said, I did still like Plasma, and will consider it as a second candidate, in case Cinnamon is discontinued or something. My third candidate would probably be MATE.



  18. Xellaz on February 11, 2022 at 10:48 pm

    I tried all these DEs but KDE Plasma just feels at home for me! I luv how much you can customize it! 👍



  19. Fart Zilla on February 11, 2022 at 10:49 pm

    I’ve always had all of my favorite programs on the desktop, which would probably be frowned upon by most of the Linux community. Switching all of my icons to random waifus would probably make most of them jealous though



  20. Paulo Serafim on February 11, 2022 at 10:50 pm

    XFCE is my favorite, sometimes awesome wm works better for me.



  21. nemac23 on February 11, 2022 at 10:51 pm

    4:42 start



  22. NOT an English Person on February 11, 2022 at 10:53 pm

    It feels like all comments are staged



  23. Elisandro De Leon on February 11, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    I find this guys voice so soothing. I need him to read me some technical manuals as I drift off to slumber land.



  24. Rand Althor on February 11, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    Xfce is just too ugly. Looks like Win95 and the font scaling or modern displays make it even worse.



  25. Hemish on February 11, 2022 at 10:55 pm

    i dont know why peope like KDE it doesnt good look even out of the box whereas vanilla gnome looks fine



  26. Capy Farm on February 11, 2022 at 10:57 pm

    So the actual video starts at 4:50.
    5 minutes of commercial talk is really to much



  27. rafal9ck on February 11, 2022 at 10:59 pm

    dwm?



  28. PrancingPenguin on February 11, 2022 at 10:59 pm

    Great Linux video channel. 👍 Being a Linux newbe YouTube has been an absolute god send. I’m using mabox Linux which has openbox desktop. I won’t use anything else now it’s a work of genuis



  29. ChozoSR388 on February 11, 2022 at 11:04 pm

    Just out of curiosty, anyone know if Bluecurve is still kickin’ around? I remember that being the default for redhat 9, but it’s been ages. Edited for a spelling error.



  30. C G on February 11, 2022 at 11:07 pm

    If all you Linux people started calling desktop environments launchers, Android people would be a lot more comfortable with it



  31. xXOverHaulXx on February 11, 2022 at 11:08 pm

    I would prefer to be called a new patron🙄



  32. alan monroy on February 11, 2022 at 11:09 pm

    .



  33. Bhardwaj Avasarala on February 11, 2022 at 11:10 pm

    Too laggy content. It would be great to see videos with less repetitions of the same thing.



  34. Proto Propski - Stream Archives on February 11, 2022 at 11:11 pm

    I chose KDE Plasma, for it’s customization, and cause it was beloved by the broadest communuty, so I’d figure there would be more community support



  35. Patrick B on February 11, 2022 at 11:11 pm

    Another great video! Excellent work, I appreciate your efforts to help educate the rest of the community 👍👍



  36. Associate Minister & Reserve Deacon Mr. Terry Jones on February 11, 2022 at 11:13 pm

    A. Mr. Jay you’re a great and knowledgeable resource. I look to your YouTube channel when I have a tech related question. You give insite on technology beyond Linux.

    B. Mr. Jay you’re a great instructor and teacher. You could teach anything. You give the viewer a chance to absorb the information being presented. You don’t suffer from diarrhea of the mouth.

    C. Mr. Jay I like the professional introduction to each of your videos. You inform the viewer of the subject (s) being covered in each of your videos. A lot of Tech YouTubers don’t do that. They jump directly in what they are presenting. The viewer no idea of what is being presented and becomes confused as to what the video is about. Great Job!!!

    D. Mr. Jay your videos are self contained. The viewer doesn’t have stop a video. Watch separate video and comeback the original video.

    E. Mr. Jay you don’t overload your videos with unrelated information and useless information. You stay on topic. Great Job!!!.

    F. Mr. Jay you’ve wise wisdom and uncommon common sense.

    G. Mr. Jay Thankyou!!! For sharing your wise wisdom and uncommon common.

    H. Mr Jay please continue to get on life’s stage and let your Godly inner light shine. Please continue to climb life’s ladder and let the world see The Great and Wonderful Gifts, Talents, and Treasures that are inside of you.

    I. Mr. Jay You Go Gentleman!!!
    J. Mr.Nay please stay safe.
    K. Mr.Jay God Bless You!!!



  37. Carl 'Cid' Romero on February 11, 2022 at 11:14 pm

    Just want to express my appreciation for your exceptional content- priceless information shared very expertly.



  38. Rob Law on February 11, 2022 at 11:14 pm

    Awesome video – just what I was looking for! You sold me on the Gnome right away (I will keep the other ones in mind). thanks for posting! 😀



  39. Vijay Shakthi on February 11, 2022 at 11:16 pm

    Remove intro



  40. Delkor on February 11, 2022 at 11:18 pm

    … or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, G plus nome.



  41. brogan on February 11, 2022 at 11:18 pm

    this really does feel like TV since it takes him such a long time to get to the point



  42. Metaldude X on February 11, 2022 at 11:19 pm

    Wtf is that annoying ring from the mic



  43. J S on February 11, 2022 at 11:20 pm

    How to customize KDE pager to show overview of all virtual desktops but without any annoying window outlines?



  44. PrancingPenguin on February 11, 2022 at 11:24 pm

    This is a fabulous Linux video channel 👍I started on Linux a couple of months back after the Windows 11 monster was unleashed on the world. I’ve been distro hopping now I’m using mabox Linux with openbox desktop and it’s blown me away. It’s fantastic



  45. Pyro-Moloch on February 11, 2022 at 11:24 pm

    19:47 you can actually change that in Cinnamon. This is something people need to know. When you install Mint it has a simple button to switch to the tradition (XP-style) panel. You can do it yourself by right-clicking onto the panel and going into Applets. Cinnamon is VERY customizable. Maybe not as much as KDE, but more so than many other DEs.



  46. Vittorio Podesta' on February 11, 2022 at 11:25 pm

    I like PopOs that has Gnome but I like a lot Plasma (especially with his file manager Dolphin). Are there problems to use Plasma on PopOs? I tried to istall Dolphin on PopOs but he give me an error when I scan other partitions or disks. Did you ever try?



  47. rajesh mathai on February 11, 2022 at 11:25 pm

    The first linux distro i used was mint. Now I use *arch linux*
    And I am trying to make a operating system
    Like linux.



  48. Enoch Shawn Chen 陳 頌 恩 on February 11, 2022 at 11:26 pm

    Why is it pronounced G-nome? Instead of with a N like “nome”?



  49. AlexLeon .A60 on February 11, 2022 at 11:26 pm

    Thank you sir!!



  50. Rahul Dsouza on February 11, 2022 at 11:27 pm

    Lxqt not mentioned?