The 5 most customizable Linux desktop environments – when you want it your way

In my many years of using Linux, I’ve worked with just about every desktop environment ever created for the open-source platform. Some of those desktops are highly customizable, while others are less feature-rich and locked down.

For some users, too much flexibility could be a bad thing. Imagine someone new to XFCE accidentally deletes their panel and has to figure out how to re-add it. It can be like that.

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For others, that flexibility is all about two things: A) creating the perfect desktop environment, and B) fun. If you’re like me, A and B go hand-in-hand.

But which of the many desktop environments is the most customizable? I’ve narrowed it down to five, each of which I’ve used extensively and consider an outstanding option.

Let’s pull back the curtain and view the list.

1. KDE Plasma

KDE Plasma has always been customizable, and with each new release, those customizations get more and more polished. At this point, KDE Plasma is the most beautiful of the highly configurable desktop environments. 

With KDE Plasma, you can retheme your environment, switch between dark and light mode, set customized wallpapers for both the desktop and lock screen, add/remove/position panels, add widgets to the desktop, customize the window manager (including tiling), enable various visual effects, manage virtual desktops and activities, app styles, boot splash, and much more. 

The second you think you’ve found all the customizations, you find another. You could spend hours tweaking this desktop and still find there’s room for more changes. That doesn’t mean you have to tweak the desktop, as the default is pretty swell on its own. But for those who really like to make their desktops personal and polished, KDE Plasma is a great way to go.

2. Enlightenment

Enlightenment is old-school Linux, which means it might not be suited for everyone. Enlightenment takes a completely different approach to the desktop. Instead of a static desktop menu, you left-click your mouse anywhere on the desktop to reveal the menu. I’ve always loved that feature because it gives you quick access to the menu from anywhere. (There’s no need to drag your mouse to the bottom left corner.)

Another favorite feature of mine is window shading; you can double-click a window title bar, and it will roll up until all that’s left is that title bar. Double-click the title bar again, and the window returns.

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Enlightenment’s flexibility is also impressive. You can also change the theme, the color palette, customize the fonts and icons, add/remove/reposition/customize the Shelves (panels), add gadgets to shelves or the desktop, enable window snapping, focus modes, and effects, and much more. 

Another reason why Enlightenment makes the list is that advanced users can open any number of the desktop configuration files in ~/.config/enlightenment and take very granular control over the customization.

3. XFCE

XFCE is often considered one of the best lightweight Linux desktops on the market. But it’s not the lightweight nature that draws me to XFCE. For me, it’s all about the customization — and XFCE is full of them. 

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You can pretty much do anything to XFCE you want, and it’ll still look at you as if to say, “Is that all you got?” You can tweak the theme, icons, fonts, wallpapers, panels, panel appearance, applets/plugins, the Whisker menu, window decorations, workspace settings, and more. You can also edit the GTK CSS files to make even more changes to the panels, menus, and other UI elements. XFCE also integrates with third-party apps, such as Conky.

4. Budgie

I think Budgie is one of the best Linux desktops available. It’s gorgeous, modern, and highly flexible. Don’t like a panel? Make it a dock. Don’t like where the dock is? Move it. Want more transparency? Change it. Need more than one panel? Add them. There are also applets, the Raven sidebar, animations and effects, and much more. 

And, like Enlightenment and XFCE, if you don’t find every customization you need in the GUI, you can open a GTK CSS file and tweak it to your heart’s content. From my perspective, Budgie strikes the perfect balance between a user-friendly, streamlined experience and well-thought-out customizations.

5. GNOME (with extensions)

The only reason GNOME makes the list is because of GNOME Shell Extensions. Without the extensions, there’s very little customization to be made with GNOME. With the extensions, however, there’s no end to what you can do with the GNOME desktop.

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Need a dock, go with Dash to Dock. Prefer a panel? Go with Dash to Panel. Currently, there are 239 pages of extensions to comb through on the official site, which means you could spend a good amount of time adding extensions to tweak the GNOME desktop. I’ve spent far more time on that site than I care to admit.

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