Awesome Linux Desktop

This aims to showcase the best desktop environments, configurations, and display managers for Linux. Please leave a ⭐ if you like this project!
⚠️ Currently Under Construction, Contributions Welcome! Thanks!

Contents

• Desktop Environments
  • KDE Plasma
  • GNOME
  • Cinnamon
  • Budgie
  • XFCE
  • LXQt
  • Mate
  • Cosmic
• Window Managers
  • i3
  • Hyperland
  • Wayfire
  • Sway
  • Enlightenment
  • KWin
• Display Managers
  • GNOME Display Manager
  • LightDM
  • SDDM
• Display Servers
  • Wayland
  • X11

Desktop Environments

KDE Plasma

A feature-rich medium weight desktop environment developed by KDE. It is designed to be simple by default but to have many options for customization. It also comes up with KDE's suite of apps, such as Discover, Dolphin and KDE Connect.

• Website
• Source Code
• Themes
• Theming Guide (It's FOSS)
• Customization Guide (It's FOSS)

GNOME

A very popular desktop environment that is used as the default of many linux distributions. It is more of a heavy-weight desktop environemnt, and attempts to be an easy to use and elegant. It is designed to be simple, with many options avaliable through extensions.

• Website
• Source Code
• Themes
• Customization Guide (It's FOSS)

Cinnamon

A medium weight desktop environment developed by the team behind Linux Mint. It is designed to be user-freindly above all else. It is designed with traditional computing in mind. It is a fork of GNOME 3.

• Website
• Source Code
• Themes

Budgie

• Website
• Source Code
• Themes

XFCE

A desktop environment that aims to the lightest possible desktop environment for Linux. A main focus is making the desktop enviornment modular, and giving choice back to the user. Out of the box, it is very basic, to allow the user many customizations.

• Website
• Source Code
• Themes

LXQt

A lightweight Qt desktop environment. It is designed to be out of the user's way and focus on speed over looks. It is focused on being a classic desktop with a modern look and feel.

• Website
• Source Code
• Themes

Mate

A popular continuation of GNOME 2. It provides an intuitive and attractive desktop environment using traditional metaphors for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.

• Website
• Source Code
• Themes

Cosmic

⚠️ Currently in Alpha, may have breaking changes. An innovative Desktop Environment that it is being built by System 76 entirely in Rust. It is designed to be useful for all users, and utilize modularity in order to allow customization that suits all users.

• Website
• Source Code

Window Managers

i3

A tiling window manager that is designed for those who prefer using entirely their keyboard. It is also designed to be highly customizable.

• Website
• Source Code
• Customization Guide (It's FOSS)

Hyperland

A wayland compositor that is designed to be attractive, customizable and feature rich. It has support for tyling, advanced animations and live configuration.

• Website
• Source Code
• Usage Guide (It's FOSS)

Wayfire

A wayland window manager based on wlroots that is designed to be customizable, extensible and lightweight without sacraficing appearance.

• Website
• Source Code

Sway

A tiling wayland compositor that was designed to be a drop in replacement for i3 on X11. It uses the same configuration file, and many of the same design principles.

• Website
• Source Code

Enlightenment

A simple window manager for X11, that aims for being minimal, and well supported.

• Website
• Source Code

KWin

The default compositor for KDE Plasma. It is written for Wayland and is designed to be easy to use but exstensible.

• Source Code

Display Managers

GNOME Display Manager

• Website
• Source Code

LightDM

• Source Code

SDDM

• Website and Wiki
• Source Code

Display Servers

Wayland

• Website
• Source Code

X11

• Website
• Source Code

Contributing

Please see the contributing.md for the contribution guidelines.