this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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The DEs listed for a distro will be ones you can get out of the box, i.e. you install the distro and it already has the DE. However, you can then install pretty much any DE/WM on pretty much any distro. Most of the time, you'll also get a login screen where you can choose between different DEs, so you can try multiple on the same distro to see how you like them.
Most of the 'random desktops' will be window managers, there are just a few main DEs, which each have a window manager bundled in. If you take one of the separate window managers (which can be tiling, stacking, or a mix) you'll just have a bit more work to do to make it like you want, but they can have more customisation than full DEs. You can make most window managers look like pretty much any DE, but not necessarily the other way around. If you look at !unixporn@lemmy.ml, most of those are window managers. Saying they're confusing to understand and you don't want to have to customise them to make them look nice and add any separate programs you need for a full system is fair, but saying they're ugly is kinda nonsensical, since you can make them look however you like.
As for why some distros' Plasmas look different, that's just because it is itself quite customisable (from what I hear, the most customisable of the mainstream DEs). So if you install XeroLinux, you could customise it to look like stock Plasma, and vice versa.
Long story short, don't choose a distro based on their default DE or vice versa, don't disregard window managers out of hand (but do if you just want a full out-of-the-box environment), and look at different distros' customisations, as well as !unixporn@lemmy.ml and similar, to see what DEs can look like you want, but again you don't have to decide distro based on that.
Wow lots of info here, thanks! See, I know nothing about window or tiling managers and not necessarily know if I need to go that deep, but maybe! So the two more random desktops I'm interested in are probably cutefish and deepin oh and paperde, but I cannot find that on any distro so it must not be maintained. Sorta the same deal with cutefish, though I know it actually IS available. DDE is one I'm on the fence about. Just the bad security issues I've always read has kept me from deepin, but figure the environment is safer? Lol and again, it looks vastly different on each distro.
Sooo basically two things I dont understand. You said you can get any DE on any distro,but thats not true ime. I've searched numerous distros repos or packages and some distros had DEs that others did not. Also, why does it seem like so many desktops vary so much in appearance. How do I know what each looks like on each distro? Because I've found a lot of variance and I dont know enough about the inner workings of DEs lol thanks man