My favourite desktop is Mate. It is small on resources and very intuitive to handle.
XFCE would be my second choice. Very similar to Mate.
XFCE. The ability to log into it remotely using the x2go-server and x2go-client is valuable to me.
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Xfce4, currently on the latest v4.14.1
ItĀ“s been my āgo toā DE since I loaded up Xubuntu 5.10 for the first time, back in the day.
For me, itĀ“s very lightweight, versatile, modular and very stable
The only thing I miss at this point is proper color management.
Yeah I know it has gotten better since 4.14 but it still has some ways to go.
Atm IĀ“ m using DIspacal e.t.c for colormanagement.
If xfce for what ever reason would go away some day IĀ“d load up plasma.
But to be honest, I will make due with just about any DE, IĀ“ll just customize them to look the way I want.
Is it, Derek? is it? 
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In the deep voice of Stargates Tealāk āINDEEDā 
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Hi all! I bounce around but always have a running copy of XFCE available. Right now Iāve got LXQT (to try on Fedora, which Iām never lucky with) and the MX Linux 19 Beta 2 to play with. I also want to try KDE again but I run an eight-year-old laptop that I hope will handle this new release from KDE. All are installed on an SSD, no Virtual Box so I can get the best enjoyment.
In the 6 months or so Iāve been using Linux in a serious capacity, Iāve been through Budgie (liked it), Cinnamon (again, very nice), KDE (meh tbh), Gnome 3 ( eurgh what the hell, usability is terrible), but Iāve currently landed on using XFCE.
A few niggly issues with it though, like panels displaying over fullscreen apps like YouTube or games if I click on anything on my 2nd monitor, but I really like how configurable it is, as well as how light it is, even though Iāve got a pretty decent machine running it (Iām a gamer).
Plasma.
However, I have delved in many of them and they all have something to offer. I do tend to gravitate back to Plasma every time.
Itās XFCE for me. While Iāve played with others, XFCE was my first love and the one that I spent time learning to configure. I canāt begin to imagine how long it would take me to learn as much about Plasma as I know about XFCE. But, I do know one thingā¦any machine that will run Plasma, will run XFCE faster. Thatās enough for me.
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XFCE for me too.
Back when I started using Linux I used WindowMaker. Sometimes Iām tempted to use FluxBox again.
Perhaps I should try i3 and launch straight into a fullscreen terminal with tmux, that might be fun.
Anything minimal, clean, fast, low resource use.
The memories! That was my first favorite Window Manager as well.
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Since Debian 10 was released my main DE has been Gnome (with minor tweaks) though if I need to log-on to an old machine and do a quick task I will still prefer XFCE which was main main DE for about six years. From time to time I do dip into Plasma, mainly for variety 
Iāve also tried Cinnamon, Mate and others though never really settled on any of them.
My desktop of choice would be Pantheonā¦ But only on elementary OS. I tend to separate it from others as itās all part of a complete experience. If I was to choose a desktop, I suppose it would be GNOME!
My choice is Plasma. I enjoy its customization and flexibility, to the point that I virtually mimicked Unity as my layout. Switched to it after Canonical dropped Unity.
I still have love for Unity, which is why Iām using it on a backup laptop running on development version of Ubuntu (19.10). And my dadās using it, too so I kinda have to make sure that I keep track of it. If maintenance for Unity stops, Iām gonna switch him to my next desktop of choice which is MATE (or Plasma).
I like XFCE 4.14. Itās great! Iāve used Plasma a bit. I just canāt quit coming back /home to GNOME, though.
KDE Plasma is my go-to choice, but I am really interested in Deepin and have been following the project, trying each new release. They do some cool theming around the terminal and other things that I really think is cool.
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Iām running Fedora 30 with Gnome this from a newbie.
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I use Xfce and used it for the most part of my Linux. Mate is second and that is what I install for my wife. Thatās it for the most part though I could use Plasma but always come back to Xfce.
Iāve been using Xfce since I got into linux, that was around when Ubuntu 9.04 was the latest release.
And I still think itās the best GTK Desktop, and should I ever need to, Iāll switch back to it, cause itās that good, itās almost just as great as Plasma (which is what Iām using, and currently prefer) both are highly customizable and can easily replicate any other DE, which I personally still find fascinating.
However, Iāve been using Plasma full-time since last year, and Iām quite happy in it.
So my answer is, Plasma if not Xfce.
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Gnome on this machine. I have always gravitated toward Gnome and Unity. Deepin DE on a laptop, XFCE on my office rig, and Plasma on another laptop. I can see the benefits of most DEās, honestly, and get a bit schizo when installing ā kinda like a kid in a candy shop.
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