Even after settling on a Linux distribution to use, you still have to decide on a desktop environment. There are tons to choose from, and last week we asked you for your favorites. Then we looked at the five best Linux desktop environments. Now we're back to highlight your favorite, 11,000 votes later.



Voting was tight all weekend, and no one DE took enough of the vote to really be a free and clear winner. Even so, GNOME Shell took the top spot with just over 27% of the vote, thanks to its customization options, included applications, and huge enthusiast and developer community.

Hot on its heels, Cinnamon, the DE originally built for Linux Mint but now in use everywhere, brought in second place thanks to its good looks, user-friendly interface, and ease of installation. It picked up over 20% of the votes cast. Third place went to Ubuntu's Unity, the most controversial in the roundup, with close to 20% of the vote. Fourth place went to the stalwart KDE, well-polished and with tons of great apps to work alongside it, with close to 17% of the vote. Rounding out the top five was one that we honestly expected to do better in the roundup, Xfce, a super-lightweight DE that works just about anywhere. It earned just shy of 16% of the votes cast.

For more on each of these, and the honorable mentions not listed here, make sure to head back to the full Hive Five feature to read more.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com !

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