Best Linux Desktop 2016

Having reviewed 24 Linux desktops I have to say there is not one size fits all, I have chosen five categories and given my opinion of the best Linux desktop for:
0:29 Best Overall - XFCE
2:31 Lightest Desktop - Lumina
4:38 New Users - Zorin
5:25 Best for Children - Sugar
5:47 Most Customisable - Plasma 5

Please donate and help support my work:

[AverageLinuxUser]

KDE Plasma 5 roks. Besides a modern look and endless possibles of customization, it is worth mentioning that the development is being so fast.

[redstar]

I am giving KDE a try. I installed Manjaro KDE this morning and giving it a go. Thanks for all your work on this series. You really re-ignited a passion to give more Linux desktops a try.

[meh]

Currently running the Cinnamon desktop. Being a GTK equivalent of KDE, it makes my desktop customizable without getting lost in a plethora of settings.

[lucholatinoamerikeli]

100% agree.
FYI: my first option is Linux mint xfce 17. my second option would be Linux mint Mate 17.
both desktops/Distros are quite handy out of the box for my old hardware (2006).
thanks for great content.
happy new year.
Cheers

[ChadBremer]

Running Plasma on Arch right now. Love it.

[charlieoscar]

Bloody love the 1950's TV view on this rock's big style but i think its coming to an end. Lubuntu is the most stable user friendly OS that marched through 2016. This system has been a gem to use, never locked up and was so light on resource's my old 1990 machine felt like a time off to the Lubuntu Team and a big boo to you (But not a thumbs down) for not talking about it more in 2016.

[ktheodor]

Another great and excellently considered video quids!

I only had one and only one d/top that I used to like: old gnome2/MATE. That has now changed, thanks to you quids, I might add, and that was when you very recently did a video on Sparky with the LXQT d/top. For me that was that! Not just gnome2/MATE but also LXQT. Really liked a lot LXQT. At a push I could add the Trinity d/top, but somehow I felt it wasn't that functional... could be my wrong impression..

In all MATE & LXQT do it...for me

[CBjoerklund]

I recently switched to Plasma 5 and I'm loving it on Manjaro :-)

[TableWolfMusic]

Yeah XFCE really is good. I went out of my way to want KDE (plasma etc). Of course KDE is great, but, wow, XFCE just kept proving itself. Gotta try more desktops as they progress. I find XFCE is so good that it makes that "difficult" for me to change. Addictive!

[ubuntuandwindows]

This was video recommened for you for me and i found it useful.

[chrystals.]

Lumina and Trinity are supported on Sparky, but you have to download and install one of their other editions in order to access them first.

[garth]

In Arch you can get split screen browsing with Thunar..In fact I think you can add even more..XFCE is nearly as customisable as KDE and it's much faster to do..I've moved to KDE, one PC uses Arch the other Neon, although I've only just installed the Neon system this evening..Great video Quids

[pseudopetrus]

I am happy with Ubuntu Mate 16.04, but have been considering something even lighter for my laptop. For years I was a big Puppy fan and ran Lucid Puppy on an old Pentium 3 laptop with great success. But I would like a little more today for my dual core machine. I might give Lumina a try. I have tried 38 distro's to date and from time to time enjoy trying something new. Thanks for the great video.

[useless]

My favourite desktop is currently KDE Plasma.I style it like Unity but I make it look like your system since it is so beautiful.

[robertlopez]

I love KDE and XFCE Desktops. Second Mate and Cinnamon. Happy New Year 2017.

[Xmetalfanx]

I could be wrong but IIRC Lumina is what TrueOS (formerly PC-BSD) uses

[dvtion]

In terms of desktop faves, I quite like the look and feel of Budgie but the project isn't yet mature to be my daily driver. Cinnamon has it's own quirks like version changes breaking themes and applets. But I feel it strikes a close enough balance between flash/ease of use/resource use without having to cut back just to say how fast my Linux machine is.
The best (as in stable) is probably the one you showed (SolydXK). When I last looked, the theme was matched well between their XFCE and KDE installs. Simple things like the same mouse icon, and colour cues. It is, or was, also possible to find a 'community' built on Debian Testing, rather than Stable.
I found appimages the most useful discovery (for me) because using it removes installing dependencies needed to get kdenlive running. It also means I don't need to think about deb/pacman or file version issues. Given that it's possible to get a .5TB SSD for just over 100 pounds or a 2TB hybrid for less than, worrying about 50-100MB files just seems petty moaning.

[renardmoreau]

[ Smiles ] At the moment, my favourite desktop environment is, the Cinnamon desktop environment.

[raphel]

Thank you for testing!
It's very interesting (... does that rhyme?).
Anyway, my (old time-) favorite is MATE and I use it in Linux Mint 18.

[gizzmoguy.]

No desktop can touch Plasma 5 in my opinion then there Gnome shell. They are my favourite because i cant do without hot corners