A DE contains all sorts of tools which are being installed along with the DE. Screen saver, clipboard manager and many more.
A windows manager requires you to choose what to install to get a screen saver, clipboard manager aso.
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I wouldnāt have thought that the extent of pre-packaging of various ancillary apps and utilities would be the basis of the difference?
Perhaps itās the slimmed down aesthetic of a tiling window manager that calls for a less bloated base installation package. 
Yes, as you are the one to decide what you need it is your decision to create an environment which is bloated or not.
Often such an environment is less bloated as one looks what is really needed and chooses things accordingly.
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you forget ā¦ in process of set up usr learn how thing work. DE basic is install ready to use ( click icon , you are off ) That ok if that all need . no help if / when problem come ā¦
It was excluded from the poll, like sway. Thatās why I didnāt respond - no option.
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No, I did not forget, nor did I criticize choosing a windows manager.
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I suspect Sway was not included because, like i3, Sway is not a desktop environment. Itās a tiling window manager/compositor.
From the Sway website:
Sway is a tiling Wayland compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. It works with your existing i3 configuration and supports most of i3ās features, plus a few extras.
I think he means for the lowest used/valued DE perhaps?
So Mate is the least popular/used on this poll
But for me it probably always will be XFCE, its stable, customizable and just works.
I do like Plasma but it is too full of āfeaturesā i donāt like or want and i got lost in all those settings
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I agree. DE folks can have their own threads, itās ok by me.
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think no understand me ā¦ i no say you criticize choose WM, i agree your point ! i try say " setup wm from scatch usr learn more "
i no wish offend you sir .
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*she (I) was commenting on how no one was marking it as a favorite on the current poll (which is no longer the case! We have one MATE enjoyer 
)
There are dozens of them! Dozens!!!
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All good. I didnāt feel offended and I fully agree with what you say about learning.
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(I love KDE) 
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I like kde for its level of customization, which the others donāt have.
Deepin is beautiful but it kept giving me errors. Cosmic looks interesting.
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Itās too bad the whole gnome extensions system is not better. I would probably still be using it.
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Well lets see, KDE is currently tops, though I remember the rough years prior to KDE 5 in which I was totally disgusted with it.
I am thinking Iām going to like Cosmic, but Iām not 100% sure yet. Deepin is quite beautifully done, but 1) I fear the distro and dislike the communication barrier 2) It only works well on itās parent distro 3) That parent distro is the antiquated Debian.
As to WM, I think Hyprland, though I3/Sway contends too.
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100% agree. Prior to KDE Plasma 5, it was almost unusable. I gave it so many tries in the earlier days. I wanted to like it, but it was just so damn clunky. KDE Plasma has come a long way to near perfection, IMHO.
Yea, I had Plasma 5 set up on my old (now dead) distro tester PC and was impressed with it. Currently playing with Plasma 6. Itās very good these days and, I think, the optimal choice for a user coming from Windows. At this stage, I think they should focus on refinement/bug-squashing and, perhaps, maybe sunset Kontact and embrace interoperability with Thunderbird. I know thatās controversial, but I make the suggestion because the desktop is so well suited for people migrating from Windows and Thunderbird runs on everything so thereās a chance theyāve used it before or are using it now.
As for my overall favorite. I think I have to go with XFCE. Itās been my ājust get a computer set upā go-to desktop for years. Itās very flexible and customization is well laid out without being overwhelming. Itās just comfortable and familiar. That being saidā¦
Gnome, once you adapt to their workflow, is very well laid out for productivity.
Hyprland was a lot of fun to tinker with and you can customize absolutely everything.
Cinnamon is simple, functional, and familiar to anyone coming from Windows.
Plasma is the absolute best at making Windows look bad by comparison.
Mate is nice if you miss Gnome 2
LXQT (or LXDE back in the day) is usually something I installed when I was memory constrained and I havenāt used them much.
ā¦I probably should give some more mature tiling window managers a look, and maybe I will someday. Although, while I can see the benefit of a tiling Window Manager, I do find most apps assume a more traditional desktop environment.
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