Desktop Reviews
This page contains review of a Desktop Environtment (DE) that I ever use. Unlike Distro reviews where I can just give you my opinion about it and share my experience for some distro(s), DE reviews require me to actually use it before I can make a review of it. So the review does not cover all existing DE's out there, just ones that I've used
Some images in this review aren't mine, copied from Internyet. You can tell which one is mine by the distinct Astolfo obsession
KDE Plasma
KDE Plasma is popular Desktop out there for it being look like Windows, has a lot of option for customization, pretty easy to use, you pretty much almost have the full control of the desktop. KDE Plasma is a to go Desktop, reason being it just works most of the time. KDE Plasma is available in X11/Xorg, and Wayland
IMPORTANT: If you use KDE Plasma, and use Chrome (or Chromium based browsers), please disable KDE Wallet. KDE Wallet is some sort of password manager. Enabling it is fine, but it became a problem the moment you switch to something else that isn't KDE Plasma. Basically your browser can't decrypt your browser data (because you store them in KDE Wallet) and you have 2 options: Delete and create a new profile for your browser, or reconfigure your browser to use KDE Wallet as a password store, and allow your other DE/WM to run KDE Wallet from the start (login)
GNOME
GNOME (the G is silent :3c) is also a popular Desktop, mainly a default Desktop for certain distros (like Ubuntu). GNOME is quite similar to MacOS desktop in term of it's design. However, GNOME for whatever reason requires a lot of unnecessary dependency that it's not even required for it to run, it's just there as an addition. If we compare GNOME with KDE, KDE is mostly the winner since since KDE (again) offers lot more features and quite an option for theme-ing(theming??). GNOME mostly only X11/Xorg, but they have Wayland protocol which is in experimental for now
Cinnamon
Cinnamon, it's a default DE that you get if you use Linux Mint. This is one of Xorg/X11 only DE, and the last time I use it, I don't like it for some things, one of which is the weird screen scaling. IIRC, scaling the screen causes my mouse to move weirdly (mouse acceleration) and I don't really know a way to deal with that other than not applying screen scaling (which makes everything look so small, but at least the mouse behave the way I want it to be). You can't really do much in term of customization afaik
Hyprland
Hyprland is a WM (Window Manager) more than a DE. It's a dynamic tiling Wayland compositor...that's all I can say really. And since it's a WM and not DE, you have to install certain app for certain things like Waybar, otherwise you end up with literally empty looking desktop (or non-functional desktop). Hyprland (and other WM's like Sway) can take some time to set up or get used to, if you're new to it. At least from my past experience, Hyprland still have some quirks with NVIDIA GPU, some apps might still flickering, or some games just straight up hating Hyprland because of the way Hyprland handles the window is very different from your usual DE like KDE Plasma. I can't really recommend using Hyprland, unless you're fine with A LOT of tinkering first
Niri
Niri is a scrolling WM with tiling and floating window feature. If I wanna say it, it's basically Hyprland but without it being Hyprland. Niri is my current WM (as of writing), and so far, I haven't had encounter any issues. To explain the scrolling part, your windows is placed in a single row horizontally, and you basically have to scroll horizontally to switch window focus. Niri of course has workspaces, tiling and floating window, just like Hyprland. And just like any other WM, you have to use certain app for certain things like: Waybar (for system tray), Dunst (for notification) etc, as well as some tinkering needed, although lesser tinkering is required compared to Hyprland
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