Linux

I'm using Fedora with GNOME now and enjoying it. If you want a more Windows-like experience, go with Fedora KDE spin.

I probably switch what I'm using every few months. The thing I cannot live without though is tiling support, whether just inherent to the window manager I'm using or an extension, I find it painful to use a computer for anything serious without one now.

Currently using KDE with the Bismuth extension (Fedora Kinoite) which isn't perfect but not bad. I'm eyeing Hyprland up from afar but as an Nvidia user I have too many issues on Wayland at the moment.

You can use most desktop environments on most distros.

If a distro has its own GUI and it doesn't exist on other distros, usually that means either it isn't free software or it's not good enough that anyone has bothered to package it for other distros.

Any distro where I can easily replace the default with sway.

Fedora or OpenSUSE with Gnome. Stable, GUI friendly, and simple.

i really like gnome, especially with extensions like dash to dock, transparent top bar, etc. really nice, simple, and clean ui imo.

This is subjective. For me, anything with Mate as desktop environment. Currently using Ubuntu with it.

I'm a conservative user. I don't really care about whistles and bells, nor appeal to novelty. I want something that works and that I'm used to.

I've been preferring KDE lately tbh. Very flexible and familiar. Still don't know what that activity thing is for though lol

Pop OS on my main laptop. Fedora 38 on the second. I like gnome

Ubuntu Budgie

• I like the aesthetics
• I'm just to used to windows start menu/taskbar.
• decently sized community and support

Note: a lot of people seem to use the Mac inspired app dock and that seems to be the default. It's customizable though so you can get a taskbar if you prefer that.

I think the whole point of Budgie is to make the interface a little more welcoming if you are coming from Windows or Mac.

I love the versatility of KDE and you can make it look amazing but at the end of the day I always end up with a Gnome-based distro for some reason. The simplicity is just so beautiful. Fedora has been my distro of choice for a few years and I don't see that changing any time soon...it just works! With gaming via Steam/Proton I don't see myself ever returning to Windows.

Honestly Opensuse with gnome or kde is really amazing!

I've been using i3 for the past 8 years or so, and can wholeheartedly recommend it (or it's cousin Sway if you're in Wayland-land) if you're into tiling window managers (there are dozens of us!). I find them invaluable for their keyboard-centric operation, and also massively sweet on ultrawide monitors. Light on resources and minimalistic too.

As far as distributions go, I've been on Arch for the past several years. I think there are some (unofficial) spins for most Linux flavours with i3 out-of-the-box.

I used XFCE for a long long time before I went to tiles, which is a decent more traditional Window Manager, with a more lean focus than some of the others. Fairly customizable. I still use some of the system apps from there from old habit.

I wouldn't get too tied up into what window manager is default in any given distribution. At least for me, part of the joy is finding a combination of software (including the desktop environment/Window Manager) that works for you specifically. And there are plenty of live CDs (or usb images now I guess) with various WMs that can be used to take things out for a spin without commiting to installing it. :) Here are various Ubuntu flavors for instance.

Any with MATE or Xfce as an option (which tbh is basically all major distros). I just use a specific theme to give me the glossy, frutiger aero look and I'm happy. Currently on EndeavourOS using MATE as my DE.

Just trying out OpenSuse microOS currently, as an alternative to Fedora Kinoite, and the installer doesnt even load.

I dont like Ubuntus variant of Gnome. I think GNOME can look good but its apps are often horrible. Mint has a better set of simple but powerful tools.

But I would stay with anything rocking KDE. I recommend fedora Kinoite fro ublue.it (better video previews and working RPM firefox basically), its a really great distro.

Garuda is the first distro to really excite me visually since the KDE3 days. I just wished it booted faster.

Probably any distro that ships KDE Plasma 5 as default - I'm stuck with GNOME for now as I need to use Evolution for work (EWS mail accounts), but if I had the choice I'd probably be on Plasma.

I'm happy just sitting on Debian 12 with KDE Plasma. I don't really consider any the "best", but it does what I need and has never bothered me.

I'm an arch kde user, but I gotta say Elementary / pantheon is / was incredibly beautiful. They took a lot of the simplistic design principles from iOS, and made something even prettier.

When I switched over permanently at the release of proton, I went with Cinnamon since it was the most familiar to me. Before that I tried Ubuntu in the past.

After 2 years on Cinnamon I switched over to KDE Plasma since I want more tweakability and customization and Cinnamon and Gnome in general is just severely lacking in that regard.

And it was a good choice as well since KDE has a lot of options to tweak and I can make it look how I want. I also love fluid animations and KDE has that in spades together with early and now very stable Wayland support.

I could not be happier and I don't see any reason to ever switch to another GUI.

@bigbox with ZorinOS you won't feel the difference when coming from spydows. As soon as I made the switch to Linux I tested over 15 distros and I ended up with ZorinOS Core.

Currently I am using Cinnamon with Debian and quite like it. Previouly I enjoyed XFCE, espacially on slower laptops. Never really liked GNOME or KDE Plasma though. GNOME has too many animations and feels slow. At the same time its not very customizable. KDE on the other hand feels slow as well and though it is kind of fancy it seems not to be my taste and I did not like the way you customize either. That is not so important to me anymore. So please don't read from this that Cinnamon or XFCE would be great for customization. I would not know it.