It’s in the eye of the beholder, of course. But it would be great to see some solid recommendations.

  • Caveman@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    4 months ago

    I think GNOME looks very visually appealing with it’s consistency. The Libadwaita library has a nice aesthetic and looks very clean with nice spacing for elements to “breathe”.

    I still prefer KDE since I can tailor the look to my needs and I prefer to have clutter over extra clicks. (I have top bar with “Opened programs”, Launcher, System tray, Time and a global menu and KWin script for managing Activities)

    I feel like modern era of design has gone a bit overboard with the “clean” direction. It can be contrasted with Windows XP where you click “All programs” and you literally get all programs in the start menu with options of how to run or open them. I prefer to do “Menu” - > “Submenu” - > “Thing I want”.

    Come to think of it I should probably make a launcher for KDE.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    4 months ago

    You’re asking about the desktop environment and its default settings, which may or may not be the same on any given distro.

    But I have a tie between Plasma and Cinnamon (mint’s DE). They both take only minor tweaking to get where I want them, and I can use them both out of the box with zero complaints.

  • Emerald@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    4 months ago

    I don’t think it’s the distros job to look visually appealing. That’s the job of the desktop environment. Seriously I wish distributions would just ship vanilla desktop environments. All of the themed variants always have some issues. Maybe I’m just old and stubborn but that’s my opinion.

    • secret300@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      Fuckin same. It took so long for me to realize a lot of issues I had wasn’t because gnome was shit, it was because every distro fucks with gnome until it’s unusable. I finally tried fedora and now gnome is my favorite DE and I love the workflow.

  • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    4 months ago

    The distribution doesn’t to too much, its mostly the desktop environment. I like the look of KDE Plasma the most. But usually I craft my own look after a while.

        • boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          Absolutely. GNOME often looks better, but it just doesnt work. Basic things everywhere are removed or not added.

            • boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              4 months ago

              So you mean…

              • editing images (in the viewer, screenshot tool)
              • being allowed to customize the UI of any app
              • changing the login screen (gdm) background
              • creating a textfile from the filemanager
              • editing .desktop entries graphically

              ?

              Hahaha, I disagree

              • dallen@programming.dev
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                edit-2
                4 months ago

                Yea, none of those things matter to me.

                Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had plenty of fun customizing DEs but I don’t really need that on my daily driver. I also have more of a terminal based workflow so perhaps shell customization scratches that itch for me.

                To each their own :)

                • boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  4 months ago

                  This is not about customizing. What app do you use for editing images, or dont you do this at all?

                  On GNOME either using Gwenview (KDE) or GIMP, Krita, Kolourpaint, Pinta would work. Which are all very big programs.

          • pukeko@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            4 months ago

            The thing I’ve learned in the many years of watching this fight is that the things Gnome people (of which I am one, though I have immense respect and appreciation for the KDE project) don’t like about KDE tend to be the things KDE people like about KDE and vice versa.

            • GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              4 months ago

              These projects are almost diametrically opposite. GNOME tries to provide a very simple, solid but not very configurable desktop with good accessibility and stability while KDE tries to make a very configurable and powerful environment that can be customized to anyone’s needs. I don’t like KDE because it’s unstable, way too powerful for my personal needs (their “simple by default; powerful when needed” concept doesn’t really work) and I just don’t like the UI. Though KDE’s better performance is an objective advantage.

              • pukeko@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                4 months ago

                I tend to agree. I mean, the gnome workflow is more appealing to me (though I have since moved to a WM), but my dislike of KDE comes down to (a) too many options everywhere and (b) it looks too “sharp”. If KDE had an “I’m done fiddling” mode that hid most of the options and I found a softer theme, I’d probably like it fine.

                Absolutely nothing I just said should take away from others’ preference for KDE. I’m glad we can like what we like.

  • agelord@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Mint with Papirus icons and blue accent colour set to match the folder icons of Papirus theme.

  • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    Linux Mint has a smooth, out-of-your-way look & feel to either MATE or Cinnamon that just makes me feel at home

  • Mars2k21@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    Really depends on the desktop but in terms of default desktops that are shipped with distros I’m picking Fedora’s GNOME (pretty much stock) and MX Linux’s XFCE.

    • EarthShipTechIntern@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 months ago

      Just installed a USB boot for Mint (cinnamon) and MX (xfce).

      Both are so much nicer than I expected.

      Trying to figure out how to put together a sub-distro for friends & family that are considering moving away from windows.

      MX ranks higher out of the box (comes with VLC installed).

  • Drito@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    I like simple default, so it is easier to customize. But If I have to keep the default I would say Garuda.

  • Everett@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    The new COSMIC desktop by System76 and Pop!_OS is very promising. I’ve been running the pre-alpha, and have been very impressed.

  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    Fedora Workstation. Gnome is pretty great on the eyes, and there’s a healthy Libadwaita apps ecosystem that is just *chefs kiss*

    ElementaryOS also looks great for the system and core apps, although there’s not really a third party app ecosystem that fits with the Pantheon theme, unfortunately.