What DE do you recommend?

Lounge
1

Hi,

I’m looking for a lightweight and stable DE for my laptop (Dell with i3 CPU, Intel HD620 Video Card, and 4GB RAM). I tried KDE (OpenSuse version) but found it heavy, buggy and slow. After KDE I tried XFCE, and loved it. XFCE is super fast, clean, minimalistic but has problem with power management: display turns off but laptop won’t sleep. I get error msg:

None of the screen lock tools ran successfully, the screen will not be locked.
Do you still want to suspend the system?

Because of this, to save battery power I need to shut down the system every time I’m leaving my laptop. Also, XFCE locks screen while I’m watching videos…

So i decided to change DE. What DE can you recommend, guys?

2

Try Budgie.

3

Definitely not if they want lighter than KDE. . . Budgie is definitely on the heavy side of DE’s.

Plasma is the lightest of the big 3 - It’s KDE, XFCE and then GNOME in that order.

If you need lighter than KDE - MATE or LXQT would be the next likely choices. If you need really lightweight LXDE can be run with only a few hundred MB of a RAM total.

Also, this thread is on here probably a dozen or more times now. @uwasan - if you do some searching - this question can be answered pretty easily here for you. This topic is extremely well covered not only here, but around the internet. I see you joined an hour ago - welcome. There’s a LOT you can read through here to help your decision - OR do what most of us do - DE hop and try everything!!

2 Likes
4

Try them all.

Only you can answer this subjective question.

Don’t let us pollute your process.

Doesn’t sound like a DE specific problem.

Changing DE is probably not the fix-all panacea you would like it to be.

If you like XFCE then research & resolve this specific issue and keep using XFCE.

Linux and laptops are generally not a neat fit. Most require some tweaking to get working correctly.

1 Like
5

Wayfire’s time will finally come for me.

7

First, welcome to the forum!

As others have pointed out, the question of “Which DE should I use” is entirely up to your personal preferences.

Further, if you like the DE you are currently using you should open a new topic on how to solve the problem you are having instead of switching DEs. If you switch DEs every time you have an issue you will be endlessly chasing DEs around in circles.

Lastly, if you really want opinions on DEs there is a poll with a large volume of opinions here:

3 Likes