The Best GNOME AlternativesTop Desktop Environments & Window Managers like GNOME

GNOME is described as 'An easy and elegant way to use your computer, GNOME is designed to help you have the best possible computing experience' and is a leading desktop environment in the os & utilities category. There are more than 25 alternatives to GNOME for a variety of platforms, including Linux, BSD, Windows, Mac and Linux Mobile apps. The best GNOME alternative is KDE Plasma, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like GNOME are Xfce, Cinnamon, Hyprland and MATE.

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Alternatives list

  1. KDE Plasma icon

    KDE Plasma

     468 likes
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    Plasma is a cross-device work environment by the KDE Community where trust is put on the user's capacity to best define their own workflow and preferences.

    30 KDE Plasma alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • postmarketOS
    A typical Plasma desktop looks like this
     
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    48
    Comments about KDE Plasma as an Alternative to GNOME
    Top Positive Comment
    John Fastman
    7

    KDE make two desktops that are GNOME alternatives: KDE 4 and its successor Plasma 5. Both are popular, extensible and compatible with Qt much more than with GTK. KDE is known for having a huge, huge amount of options built right in (rather than accessed via extensions, like in GNOME). It's also a more "classic" desktop experience - people coming from Windows will find it more familiar than they will find GNOME.

    Guest
    Positive
    0

    It actually cares about it's users

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Paul
    Positive
    1

    As stable and lightweight as GNOME, but way more customizable, which is why I prefer KDE over GNOME.

    Show more comments
    3 of 9 comments
    GNOME Icon
    KDE Plasma icon

    • Almost everyone thinks KDE Plasma is a great GNOME alternative.

    • KDE Plasma is the most popular Linux alternative to GNOME.

    • KDE Plasma is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to GNOME.

    • KDE Plasma is Free and Open SourceGNOME is also Free and Open Source
    • KDE Plasma is CustomizableGNOME is not according to our users
  2. Xfce icon

    Xfce

     378 likes
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    Xfce (pronounced as four individual letters) is a free software desktop environment for Unix and other Unix-like platforms, such as Linux, Solaris and BSD. It aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use.

    29 Xfce alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    Xfce 4.14
     
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    39
    Comments about Xfce as an Alternative to GNOME
    Daltro Auguso Campanher de Souza
    2

    Good library-agnostic (Gtk/Qt) environment, specially for those who didn't want fancy UI or a too much refined UX. It's just classic desktop, and works good.

    Guest
    Positive
    2

    Lightweight, nice and fast

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Roman Rokon
    Positive
    3

    Low resource usage & very stable

    GNOME Icon
    Xfce icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Xfce is a great GNOME alternative.

    • Xfce is Free and Open SourceGNOME is also Free and Open Source
    • Xfce is CustomizableGNOME is not according to our users
  4. Cinnamon icon

    Cinnamon

     197 likes
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    Cinnamon is a Linux desktop which provides advanced innovative features and a traditional user experience. The desktop layout is similar to GNOME 2. The underlying technology is forked from GNOME Shell.

    26 Cinnamon alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    Cinnamon 4.2
     
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    15
    Comments about Cinnamon as an Alternative to GNOME
    Guest
    Positive
    1

    Very handy, working well, great applets and themes. Little too high on resources though. This is my personal favourite.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Positive
    -2

    Very customizable. Resource friendly. Very responsive.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    GNOME Icon
    Cinnamon icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Cinnamon is a great GNOME alternative.

    • Cinnamon is Free and Open SourceGNOME is also Free and Open Source
    • Cinnamon is CustomizableGNOME is not according to our users
  5. Hyprland icon

    Hyprland

     38 likes
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    An independent tiling Wayland compositor written in C++. Noteworthy features of Hyprland include dynamic tiling, tabbed windows, a clean and readable C++ code-base, and a custom renderer that provides window animations, rounded corners, and Dual-Kawase Blur on transparent windows.

    26 Hyprland alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • openSUSE
    • Arch Linux
    • Gentoo
    • Fedora
    • Ubuntu
    • Debian
    • FreeBSD
    • Alpine Linux
    • Slackware
    • Wayland
    Screenshot of a preconfigured setup
     
  6. MATE icon

    MATE

     144 likes
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    Many users of GNOME 2 dislike GNOME 3. MATE is a fork of the good old GNOME 2. It provides an intuitive and attractive desktop environment using traditional metaphors for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.

    24 MATE alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • FreeBSD
    • OpenIndiana
    • GhostBSD
    MATE screenshot 1
     
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    13
    Comments about MATE as an Alternative to GNOME
    John Fastman
    Positive
    -1

    Mate is an open source desktop environment forked from GNOME 2. That happened because GNOME 3 was not to some people's liking; it drastically changed how the desktop experience is organized. Mate is highly customizable, relatively light on resources, a tiny bit dated now, but very usable and gives XFCE a run for its money.

    GNOME Icon
    MATE icon

    • Almost everyone thinks MATE is a great GNOME alternative.

    • MATE is Free and Open SourceGNOME is also Free and Open Source
  7. Budgie icon

    Budgie

     46 likes
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    The Budgie Desktop is a feature-rich, modern desktop designed to keep out the way of the user. It consists of a number of components to provide a more complete desktop experience.

    29 Budgie alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    A screenshot of the Budgie desktop running on Solus Linux. The Budgie settings manager is on the right, made specifically to customize the desktop. The rest of the settings are handled by the Gnome settings manager.
     
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    17
    Comments about Budgie as an Alternative to GNOME
    Guest
    Positive
    2

    Good looking, easy to use, feature rich, low resource usage, low RAM usage,

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Snow Code
    Positive
    0

    Budgie has a great look and can be customized very easily. Also Budgie is a great choice for low-end devices that cannot support GNOME while still having a kind of GNOME feel.

    Aaron C.
    Positive
    0

    Budgie is amazing, it's like a lighter weight, more customizable version of Gnome, with the same utilities and everything. I loved using it with Manjaro, but I switched to Fedora for unrelated reasons, and it's not in the official repositories yet (it is coming soon in Fedora 37 though) If you use a Debian (Ubuntu, Mint, etc.) or Arch (Manjaro, etc.) based distro, I highly recommend Budgie right now!

    GNOME Icon
    Budgie icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Budgie is a great GNOME alternative.

    • Budgie is Free and Open SourceGNOME is also Free and Open Source
  9. COSMIC icon

    COSMIC

     21 likes
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    COSMIC is the name for the main shell components in Pop_Shell.

    34 COSMIC alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    COSMIC screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Comments about COSMIC as an Alternative to GNOME
    omni453
    Positive
    0

    Gnome(GTK4/libadwaita) is a desktop environment same as COSMIC. Gnomes apps library is can be only be compared to KDE(Qt/KDE). However, COSMIC(Rust/Iced/Slint) Developers (mostly) from System76 have taken a challenge "to create an alternative new desktop environment to liberate the computer with powerful enough to build custom OS experiences — for users, developers, and makers of any device with a screen."

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    GNOME Icon
    COSMIC icon
    • COSMIC is Free and Open SourceGNOME is also Free and Open Source
    • COSMIC is CustomizableGNOME is not according to our users
  10. LXQt icon

    LXQt

     54 likes
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    LXQt is the Qt port and the upcoming version of LXDE, the Lightweight Desktop Environment. It is the product of the merge between the LXDE-Qt and the .

    27 LXQt alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    LXQt screenshot 1
     
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    8
  11. LXDE icon

    LXDE

     122 likes
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    The "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment" is an extremely fast-performing and energy-saving desktop environment.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    Screenshot of the LXDE desktop. It's simple, lightweight, fast, modern, internationalized, and standard-compliant.
     
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    6
  12. i3 icon

    i3

     71 likes
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    i3 is a dynamic tiling window manager with clean, readable and documented code, featuring extended Xinerama support, usage of libxcb instead of xlib and several improvements over wmii.

    79 i3 alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    i3 with VIM, git, MPlayer, i3bar
     
  13. Enlightenment icon

    Enlightenment

     52 likes
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    Enlightenment is a Window Manager, Compositor and Minimal Desktop for Linux (the primary platform), BSD and any other compatible UNIX system.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    Enlightenment screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Comments about Enlightenment as an Alternative to GNOME
    groundjet
    Positive
    0

    Lightweight, stable where it is, buggy at other places

    GNOME Icon
    Enlightenment icon

    • Enlightenment is the most popular Mac alternative to GNOME.

    • Enlightenment is Free and Open SourceGNOME is also Free and Open Source
  14. Maui Shell icon

    Maui Shell

     5 likes
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    Maui Shell is a convergent shell for desktops, tablets, and phones.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Maui Shell screenshot 1
     
12 of 31 GNOME alternatives