 When you switch to Linux or as you continue your journey into using Linux one of the choices that you'll end up having to make is what desktop environment should you choose and While some of us end up you choosing a window manager instead of desktop environment the vast majority of people Still use a desktop environment and when you try to make that choice you have several choices to choose from When you make that choice you have several choices to choose from that's a lot of choice in that sense right there But the point is is that there's a lot of desktop environments out there to choose from and really you can't make a wrong choice But the question is how do you make an informed decision on which one to choose first? So what I thought I'd do today is talk about the 10 things I've come up with that make a good desktop environment Now the 10 things that I've chosen for this list aren't all inclusive Like there are probably other things that I could have put on here So just keep that in mind as we go through the first thing is Easy theming and customization now if you've watched the channel you should not be surprised that I've put this number one on the list and Well, I don't really think it's the most important It definitely is important when you're choosing a desktop environment at least for me and I think for a lot of people too because when you use a desktop environment you want to have some choice over how it looks and Even if you're using something like GNOME you want to have some choice over how it looks and feels and The GNOME foundation has found this out over the last few years when they've tried to take customization options the way the community kind of Goes up in arms and slowly they're bringing in more customization features for that reason So when you choose a desktop environment Having easy access to themes and customizations is very important and it doesn't have to be the all-encompassing customization options of something like KDE it can be something simple like the theming options in Mate or Cinnamon or X FCE Really how the desktop environment does it doesn't really matter as long as there's something there that allows you to make it look How you like and that's really what's important now The next one is one that you wouldn't really think needs to be on the list But after using desktop environments now for five years off and on I know for a fact that it's not a given that you can easily access the settings now the vast majority of Desktop environments have a settings panel of some sort in fact I'd say all of them the problem comes in is that they're all of varying levels of quality So the GNOME desktop settings that usually comes with standard vanilla GNOME is not too bad It's very nicely organized. You can move around it really fast There's not a ton of settings there that's going to confuse everybody and it just works really well KDE on the other hand if you've used KDE plasma, you'll know that the settings panel there is a mess and This is coming from someone who loves KDE and considers KDE the best desktop environment It's still a mess their settings panel is all over the place and because they have so many settings It's hard to find stuff in the KDE settings panel And while they've tried over the last few years to make it better and they have made it better It used to be way worse than it is now It's still not as new user friendly or even user friendly than some of the other settings panels that exist in other desktop environments, so When you're making a choice between what desktop environment to use Keep in mind that your access to settings is going to Have to go through Some barriers depending on what desktop environment you've chosen The next one on the list is intuitive access to applications in search Now again, this is one that you wouldn't think really needs to be on the list But some desktop environments don't do a very good job of having a menu that works really well Most of them do okay, but a lot of them have a tendency to have Their applications Categorized in odd ways so that you see applications in multiple different places that can be a mess A lot of them have it so that their search functionality doesn't work all that well So you either search from the menu or you have to search from another tool However, you have to search it's not really well integrated with the system So it doesn't work all that well and some of them have it where it is too easy for you to actually access search And you accidentally hit search when you're meant to be doing something different So the menu system inside your desktop environment really matters It's oftentimes the one way you access all of your applications All of your document and file and application search and often turn your computer off The that menu is super important and having intuitive and easy and well-designed access To all of those things in one place is super important And again, it's not something that all desktop environments actually do all that well So just keep that in mind the next one on the list is not going to apply to everyone However, I think it is really important So sensible key bindings need to be a thing in every desktop environment and for the most part they are But they're not universal And I don't think that it's wrong that they're not universal But again, it's something that you have to kind of keep in mind So for example in the vast majority of ubuntu based distros control alt and t will bring up a terminal That's usually the Key binding that is most commonly used to bring up a terminal That is a good key binding because that's what I expect it to be and it's been that way for a very long time When you get into a desktop environment that doesn't have that key binding or has no key bindings at all Then you start experiencing some level of pain because if you expect those key bindings to be there And they're not then you have some troubles now Most of the time not having the key bindings isn't that big of a deal as long as the second part of this one Is there so as long as you can go into the settings panel and easily customize your key bindings Then you are pretty much okay, even if the desktop environment or the distro maintainer haven't Actually enabled sensible key bindings for you Now for the most part in every desktop environment you do have the option to go in and change key bindings In fact, I can't think of one where you don't however doing so actually going in and Customizing those key bindings can be some level pain in the ass Especially if you're dealing with a settings panel See previous section that is not all that either well organized or is oftentimes confusing Specifically here. I'm talking about the plasma settings panel. Their key binding section is a bit of a mess They have tried to categorize stuff in a way that makes sense But it doesn't always make sense and again in typical kde fashion They have key bindings for everything and most of them aren't Used like you have a list of everything you can set a key binding for Most of them don't have key binding set for them, which is probably a good thing but it kind of Makes the whole experience a little bit more confusing because you have this entire list of Everything and because there's so many settings and things that you can tweak and stuff with a key binding It kind of makes it hard to do now. I don't like picking on kde, but it's a good example of how Setting key bindings can be a little bit messy The next one is very superfluous doesn't really matter at all But I find that a good selection of wallpapers Is a good thing because when you find a desktop environment or a distro or whatever that doesn't give you at least some Wallpapers to choose from it makes it feel like they haven't put in an effort to At least do that little bit, you know, I mean and i'm surprised at how many Distros don't actually ship desktop environments with a good selection of wallpapers There's quite a few of them. They just select Three or four or they just ship the standard set of wallpapers that usually come with a desktop environment and then just leave it at that and Most people are just going to find their own wallpapers anyways But to me the number of wallpapers and the quality of wallpapers that they give you out of the box Shows how much effort they've put into their desktop environment or their distro And a lot of times like I said, you're just going to be left with just three or four wallpapers and that's not It doesn't really bode well for the rest of the experience at least in my opinion The next one on the list is easy access to Sound and power settings now This is different from the one I talked about earlier. The settings panel itself Is oftentimes something that you don't visit all that often, but when you're talking about sound and power settings That's likely something you're going to be using Multiple times a day. So every time you shut your computer down every time you want to change the volume Whatever it happens to be so the vast majority of desktop environments have this already They have a volume indicator in their taskbar They have a power button in their taskbar and you can use those as well if you want and they're easy to access Again, not all desktop environments do this And that's not that big a deal because usually they have a way to add it But out of the box some of them don't have this And that's kind of a problem because they expect you then to go swulking into the menu to find them Or sometimes you even had to bring up the entire settings panel to change volume or or change audio source Or output, you know, whatever and those things can be kind of a tedious task If you have to do that multiple times a day So say you plug in your headphones and unplug them multiple times a day and you don't have access to some kind of Widget or applet or whatever in your bar to change that output or input, you know, you don't You're gonna end up having to either install like poppy control or pulse mixer or Go in and go into the sound settings inside the app setting applications And that can be kind of a pain in the butt The next one is probably the least important one on the list Mainly because the vast majority of desktop environments don't have a problem with this anyways, but Speed and resources does matter especially when you're running Linux on a low power machine So if you're running on something that is like 10 years old or something like that The vast majority of your system resources is going to be taken up by your desktop environment out of the box Now, obviously once you start running applications that might change but out of the box Your desktop environment and xorg or Wayland or whatever most likely xorg It's going to be the thing that's going to be taking up the most resources So when You are choosing a desktop environment You'll want to make sure you kind of keep that in mind and kind of decide which one to use Based on how much resources you have to get now, like I said at the beginning of this section Most desktop environments don't have a big problem Even katie plasma again picking on plasma Which has all of these settings and features and things that you can do with it Is very low on the resources right out of the box Usually usually around 600 to 700 megabytes out of the box and it runs really well even genom which which is notoriously Heavy on the resources doesn't use as much as it used to also. Sorry for the light. My light just died I don't know what's going on there. So we're going to be doing this a little bit in the dark But anyways moving on the next one on the list is well integrated and customizable file manager Now everyone who's watched the channel for any amount of time, you know that I love file managers And my favorite one is crusader now crusader does not come pre packaged or pre installed on Any desktop environment and probably for good reason because it is overly complicated has tons of settings it is the katie plasma of file managers and I love it that way. I wouldn't change a damn thing But for most people you want a file manager that just does file management really really well in a simple way And the vast majority of desktop environments will do this Really where you're going to be making your choice is on which file manager you want to use And how much customized ability you want to go along with it So things like dolphin are going to have much more in terms of customization than something like nautilus or files And you know, so that's really where you're going to want to make your choice Now there are several good middle grounds between those two. So there's tunar. There's kaha. I don't if I'm no if I'm pronouncing that right There's uh nemo nemo is a really good one for customization And it's also really simple. So you don't have to customize it at all It does its job really well, but it also adds on top of it some customization That you can do to make your experience a little better. So Each of those are not desktop environment specific So if you wanted to use nemo on gnom, you could if you wanted to use nemo on xfce you could but For the most part when you're talking about a desktop environment, you're going to use the file manager that comes with it So with gnom, you're going to be using nautilus with xfce. You'll get tunar with matte mate You'll get kaha with cinnamon. You'll get I'm actually Completely at loss what you get with cinnamon is cinnamon nemo. I think cinnamon is nemo Um, there's just so many of them. I can't keep track But that's you know, that's the idea is that each one of the desktop environments come with their own file manager And they integrate with them in different ways So just kind of pay attention as you use your desktop environment to see if what it does works for you Well, oddly phrased but true Okay, moving on to the next one when we got two more to go easy task switching This is a very important one. So if you're not going to use a tiling window manager The number one best way to move between tasks Is likely going to be a key binding that gets you to a task switcher of some kind So whether that's alt tab control tab whatever it may be Something that comes up at the middle of your screen and allows you to switch between windows is vitally important for a lot of people And even if you don't use that now Once you've tried it, you'll probably get in the habit of using it And the thing is is that not every desktop environment does it the same or does it really well? So you'll definitely want to give that a try and also You might want to keep in mind if you've been using Linux for a while and you've gotten used to doing task switching a certain way If you're switching to a different desktop environment, you will want to make sure that you can customize Their task switching mechanism to your needs not every desktop environment allows you to change that So just keep that again in mind Now the last one is going to be one that I consider very important But some people probably won't care all that much about and that is visual consistency when you Install a desktop environment out of the box. What does it look like across the entire thing? Are there places where it's using a dark mode? But all the rest of it's light or vice versa are the icons Visually appealing are there places where icons are missing? Are there are places where the icons don't really go together? All of these things play a role in how the entire desktop environment feels Out of the box now a lot of desktop environments As we talked about in the first bit of this video allow you to change those things So if you find a place where it's not visually consistent You probably can change it in the vast majority of desktop environments And even ones where they kind of keep you from doing that you can still find ways around those rules But out of the box that first impression that you're going to give a desktop environment is is going to make Visual consistency very very important because that first impression is something that they're never going to get back if you walk into a desktop environment And your first impression is that it's a mess You're probably going to not enjoy your time there at all even if you find a way to make it look better So those are the 10 things I think make a good desktop environment and overall I think the best thing anyone can do when I Say this advice a lot when it comes to using a Linux distro the best thing you can do is try them all Move from one to another Choose the one that works best for your workflow the one that looks the best for you The one that offers you the features that you need and I think that in the end You'll discover the perfect desktop environment for you And if you don't I highly recommend trying a tiling window manager, but I'm biased So that is it for this video if you have thoughts on this topic you can leave those in the comment section below I really like to hear from you. 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